Her body rested heavy against mine before she stepped back and out of my hold. Based on the alarming expression creasing her face, I believe our connection scared her. I didn’t protest when she turned and headed for the bathroom, casting a quick glance back in my direction before closing the door softly behind her.
The spray of the shower sounded, and I remained in place for a long time. My sexual urge, and I suspected hers as well, had faded into the background. How was that even possible? All I wanted each time she allowed me to see her vulnerability was to make her feel safe and to know that I cared about her feelings. All else, even my sexual urges, became secondary to my desire to comfort and protect her.
***
A while later, I returned to our bedroom and found her in our bed. The sight of her in my too-big clothes was a pleasant one. The fact that she hadn’t asked to use them was an unspoken statement I didn’t know how to decipher yet.
She sat with the covers pulled up to the bottom of her knees. My shorts were so long on her that I only peeked a small brown glimpse of what I knew were sexy legs. I’d washed up in one of the spare bathrooms and thrown on a pair of black basketball shorts and a plain white T-shirt while she was getting her bathroom therapy.
“Feel better?”
“Yes,” she said, scanning my every move as I approached and climbed into bed.
“Tell me it’s going to get better, Primo.”
She came into my embrace willingly when I lifted my arm to her.
“It’s going to get better. I promise. We just happened to meet at a difficult time while the DeLuca family is in a state of mourning and transition. Therefore, wolves are going to descend, and we are going to defend and protect this family even if the wolf we need to put down is a part of it.”
She nodded against my chest while cuddling closer against me. There was something about this woman that put a spark of therapeutic excitement in me, a new smooth flow to the jagged one I owned. When her body rested heavily against mine, indicating she’d fallen asleep, I moved us down into the covers and relaxed into the state of perpetual peace surrounding us.