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The fact that he’d moved to a place with a temperate climate wasn’t by chance He liked to be warm Didn’t like to remember what it was like to sleep on cold cement or dirt, covered in cardboard

It was the sary The same reason he didn’t deal with relationships

He didn’t like reminders Reminders of hoorn down he’d been when Claudia had found hi for work And she’d offered

Do you want a bed to sleep in tonight, sweetheart?

He still remembered her first words to him The way her perfuing to hi with his shainity She’d found it exciting to train him And it had provided hiht of sex, a week of comfort

And when his ain

I need you again, sweetheart And when I’lected by their husbands I’et to play with you If you say yes, forget staying in a little hotel You can buy your own place How does that sound? Independence? Heat?

Impossible to turn down But every dollar earned cost so damn much

“All checked in!”

He looked at Julia, at her figure, the way her clothes, even her down-lined trench coat, conformed to her body She would be warm He didn’t doubt that Her skin was soft, he knew that already And she would be warm

He flexed his fingers, curled his hand into a fist, trying to get the phantom impression of her flesh off him

A strange sort of heat fired its way through hiht of her war fro to pay attention to

He followed her, wordlessly, to the elevator and let her push the buttons, taking theh floor A room with a view, no doubt

The doors opened and he followed Julia down the hall, her shoes clicking on the wood floor She liked to take long, hard steps He’d noticed that about her early on All a part of her arh To seem impenetrable