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I paused to think about it “I don’t know So, show me your bedroom And I mean that in a perfectly respectable home-tour kind of way”

Gabriel’s bedroo lavish and baroque Sort of Henry VIII meets Rudolph Valentino But the walls were bare, a pale blue edging toward purple, the color of the sky just after dawn The bed ide and soft but plain, soret A thick navy tapestry curtain was pulled back, revealing a broad cushionedseat, the only seating in the rooh for six He specifically mentioned that, which, frankly, worried me

I ducked my head into his closet Black as far as the eye could see Black T-shirts, black sweaters, black button-down shirts, black slacks, broken up only by occasional splashes of slate gray

“You ever thought about wearing a print?” I asked “Maybe even a jewel tone? One of the less intense colors Blue Green How about red? We know you like that one Wait, are you color-blind?”

“I don’t wear jewel tones,” Gabrielme back out into the bedroom “Or prints”

There were no pictures, noon the walls save for a print of Edvard Munch’s Vauous portrait of a seminude redheaded woman with her arms around and head bent over a dark-haired e with a tilted head Is he the va comfort at his redhead’s breast? Or are they two hu behind them?

“What do you think of it?” he asked

“It’s beautiful and sad and vague,” I said

“You know, the original title of the painting was Love and Pain,” he said “An art critic picked up on the underlying vampiric theme, and the name stuck Munch experts were and are horrified, but you can’t deny the subconscious iery”

“You know, his ears are sort of shaped like yours,” I cohtly pointed painted ovals to Gabriel’s own lobes

Gabriel grinned “The artist found the back of ”

“So, this is an altar to your vanity?” I asked, teasing

“I enjoy the irony Atold it’s i to my front door if it wasn’t bad news?” he asked as I pulled hiht for him He offered more than a little resistance as I pulled him farther and farther from the bedroom

“I thought we ured we’ve covered the couch date You are ht lead to soree of difficulty It’s time to leave the coo out to see a movie”

He arched his eyebrows at me as I pulled him to the foyer