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He blinked and announced gruffly, “Good, then I’ll just be a fewroo it behind him

She realized she’d been holding her breath Releasing it in one hard gust, she let her head droop and stared down at her bare feet on the gorgeous old Aubusson carpet Would he actually come back? He’d said that he would But there was that other bedroo area Great lords and ladies, after all, shouldn’t have to actually share a bed if they didn’t wish to Should she follow him, make sure that he?

No Tih for that later if he failed to return She drew her shoulders back, spun on her heel and turned off the lights, all but the one at his side of the bed Then she cliot in under the covers and sat up against the pillows to wait for him

She pressed her hand to her chest Her poor heart pounded away in there with a sick sort of dread She feared that he wouldn’t coo after him—or know herself for the coward she was

But then the door opened and there he was, huge and muscular andelse He strode right for her Her heart pounded hard, but with excitement now rather than dread

He turned off that last light before cliainst the pillows, acutely aware of his presence beside her, of his size, his heat And his silence

About then, it became too ridiculous The unreality of it all was too h bubbled up in her chest She tried to s it down

But it wouldn’t be sed It burst out of her, a breathless, absurd, trilling sort of sound She slapped her hand over her mouth, but it wouldn’t stop

“You think it’s funny, do you?” he asked from the darkness beside her

She laughed some more “I Oh, God, I”

And then she heard it, a low, rusty rumble It took her afro, too

They laughed together, there in the dark, and she remembered

How they used to laugh together often, over the sis—the antics of Moe and Mable when they were pups, or the way he would pop up out of nowhere, bringing a shriek of surprise fro, really She’d always felt so proud that he would laugh with her He never did with anyone else With her, he didn’t feel the need to be constantly on his guard, to hold himself in check

In recent years, though, he’d become more distant, more careful with her And she’d missed the playful times they used to share

The laughter faded The rooinally better about everything

And then he shifted beside her,arainst him