Page 55 of Captain's Companion

“I thought I was losing you,” she said. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“I don’t want to lose you either,” he said. “What did you want to tell me?”

She kissed him. Her lips brushed across his. “Let me show you,” she said. She went to her bag and pulled out her sketch pad.

Ulrik recognized it as one of the ones he bought her. She always covered up her drawings when he came in the room. Now she handed it to him.

“Open it,” she said.

He flipped open to see him sleeping. He turned the pages. Each picture she drew was of him. “You’re very talented,” he said. “You make me look handsome.”

“You are handsome,” she said. “I’m obsessive. It’s why I’m good at details. My art is usually focused on what I’m most enthralled with.”

He turned a page and choked when he saw himself sprawled on the bed completely naked with his hands restrained and his cock fully erect. “Am I...”

“Yes,” she said. “Remember the first night we played Rage of Dragons? This is how I remember you.”

“It’s incredibly well done,” Ulrik said. “How does this relate to what you wanted to tell me?”

“I told you, I’m obsessive,” she said. “Until I work out things, I draw what I need to, in order to figure out what’s bothering me. Turn the page.”

He flipped from the beginning and realized each picture was a progression of their relationship. In the beginning, he appeared domineering. But as he turned the pages, he softened in each picture. He turned the pages noting the one with him kneeling next to Eldrich and then he turned to the last picture. “Oh,” he said. He lay in bed his arms reaching up. He realized it was her view of their love making the previous night.

“I realized when I drew this, I loved you,” she whispered. “You put me first. No one’s ever put me first. Not even my mother. It was always about her client. I kept thinking about how she always said men weren’t reliable and I shouldn’t trust them. With the way she died, it drove her point home. But then last night when I was upset because I thought you were going to include someone else in our intimate time, you should have been angry with me. You’ve said the same thing over and over from the beginning, but I jumped to the worst case. But you weren’t. You understood. You were so tender and loving. I realized... I love you.”

Her green eyes sparkled with emotion. “I love you,” he said holding her hands.

“Can you tell me every day,” she asked leaning close to him.

“I’ll tell you every hour if it helps,” he said.

She smiled and kissed him again and again. He held her tight to him, rubbed up and down her back. “How did your mother die,” he asked.

“Her client killed her,” she said. “He liked autoerotic asphyxiation. He took it too far and...”

“Shit,” he said. “I’m sorry. That’s... horrible.”

She hugged him, felt his arms tighten around her. “Being choked was a no in her profile, but he talked her into it. He threatened to discard her and swap her out for someone younger.”

“Let me guess, you got the typical compensation, and nothing was done to him,” Ulrik said.

“Yes,” she said.

“Why are you a companion,” he asked.

“If I weren’t, we wouldn’t have met,” she said. “Art doesn’t really pay.”

“What brought about this revelation,” he asked.

“Your message thanking me,” she said. “You never take me for granted. You appreciate when I do things for you. You never treat me like I should have done it better.”

“You do a great job at the things I don’t like to do,” Ulrik said. “You heard Mina and Plav, the doc, even some of my lieutenants commented on my lack of hospitality.”

“But you’re a good host,” Gwyn said. “You’re good with all of them. Look what you did for Eldrich. It’s the arranging of stuff you don’t like.”

“Now I have you to do that for me,” he said. “Forever?”

“Yes,” she said. “But Little Ulrik is going to have to work really hard to keep me satisfied.”

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