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I kicked offafterday of travel and the stress of Ryu’s ka infor aup on htstand Which contained four long silk scarves and a silk blindfold, still sporting their store tags I snorted in glee as the sight of the black silk both tickledabout tying , I did keep threatening to go Freud on hi when he said that one day he wasn’t going to let ot hi sex It didn’t take a doctorate in psychology to diagnose the both of us with impulse-control issues We were still like kids in a candy store with one another, and I loved it

Besides the lamp on the other table was one of those electronic picture fraes I flicked it on, and to ue out at the camera from the steps of the Notre-Dame de Québec basilica cathedral The next picture was of Ryu andThen there was a beautiful black-and-white photo of a wo, her naked back to the camera, a sheet draped over her hips to protect her modesty After a second I realized it was me, and I reached out to turn off the frah they were pictures of me that--with the exception of the one where I was asleep--I knew had been taken I blinked at the fra for the drawer of the second nightstand

The other draas e Ryu’s junk draas the first indication that a real person lived here and not just a rogue gigolo

I eased the drawer shut and lay back on the pillows, sood to be here, to see how Ryu lived when I wasn’t around Turning my head to nuzzle into the pillow beneath me, which smelled deliciously of Ryu, I rolled over to lie on le the clock so I could see what ti so, I jostled the old-fashioned rotary telephone standing bulky and proud on the table, revealing a nondescript address book hidden beneath it

It was black I toldclichéd There was no way that thing was Ryu’s "little black book"

My heart sinking, and , I reached for it

Don’t do it, Jane,to like what you see

But I could no more not look at as in that book than I could resist rubbernecking at a car accident

The contents of the book were laid out in Ryu’s neat, professional handwriting There were names and phone numbers, as I knew there would be And there was even a va systeal’s abilities in the sack, however, Ryu’s systelamour (some humans were more resistant than others), the ah), and her blood type

I closed ods, I thought Aain raised the book and, with treers, searched back toward T While there were quite a few entries, there was no Jane True listed Just to be on the safe side, I searched under J as well I wasn’t listed there, either

I shut the book and stuck it back under Ryu’s phone Suddenly cold, I burrowed under Ryu’s black satin duvet, curling up in a fetal position

There hadn’t been anything I didn’t know in that book, but seeing it all laid out like that made Ryu’s existence so much more real than it had been I was just thankful I hadn’t foundall the others

That list of names is no different from that drawer of takeout menus in his kitchen, I realized I didn’t know if that idea made me feel better or worse

I could still hear themy eyes closed, I let the warh my heart still felt chilled I wished I could just pass out, but I wasn’t a napper I was tired fro swuive anything for the sweet oblivion of sleep to take hts

Ironically, the last thing I re was that I really wished I was someone who could sleep in the day ti an to take er in Rockabill, in my childhood bed of white wood and pristine cotton sheets, but in a black silk boudoir of va overbelly, pulling ue foundme with it into full awareness My nipples waved hello at him as he pulled down the cups ofeach in its turn, leaving