“I don’t know.”
With that, she picks up the books and stands, preparing to put them back on the shelves. I stand too and place my hands on them.
“Allow me.”
She looks up at me, then allows me to slip the books out of her grasp.
“I need to go. Shift starts in a few.”
I want to tell her to forget work, to instead march right up to my bed and let me do to her all the things I’ve been fantasizing about for the last few days. Hell, even longer than that.
But I don’t.
“Of course.”
She smiles weakly, then turns and leaves.
Once she’s gone, I’m left there, alone and more confused than I’ve ever been in my goddamn life.
CHAPTER 21
GABRIEL
Iwake to emptiness—cold sheets, no warm body pressed against my side. No soft breathing in the dark.
She’s gone.
I sit up, immediately alert, my hand reaching for the nightstand drawer where I keep a gun. It all happens by instinct.
Someone took her.
Reason catches up a few moments later.
She wasn’t kidnapped.
I take a deep, slow breath, letting my eyes focus on the silver beams of moonlight pouring into the room.
The solitude is normal for me. But after having Thea in my bed, being alone in this vast room suddenly feels intolerable. We haven’t discussed the matter of her sharing my bed; she just comes in most nights without a word, sleeping next to me and waking up in my arms.
But not tonight.
I throw off the sheets and place my bare feet on the cool tile floor. I check the time—it’s 3:17 a.m.
I pull on some sleeping pants and move quietly into the hallway, then downstairs to the second floor.
I approach her closed door on silent steps.
I pause outside, listening.
Nothing.
I should go back to bed, let her have her space. She’s entitled to sleep wherever she wants.
But I don’t.
Tonight, I need her in a way I can hardly wrap my mind around, in a way that almost scares me.
I ease the door open.