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Selfishly, I stay perfectly still, holding her for hours until sunlight begins to spill through the windows. Her face is so perfect and serene in sleep. Her beauty makes my chest ache.
I feel her begin to stir and know it’s time to depart, but still, I don’t. If I’m to have stolen these moments with her, I won’t flee without her knowing about it. Unlike my brother, I’m no liar.
So I stay there as her eyes blink awake, sleep-encrusted and bleary in the morning light. She starts a little, a slight gasp at her lips when she sees my face hovering above hers.
“You,” she whispers.
But she doesn’t immediately yank away, and it gives my foolish heart hope.
“Me,” I say, my voice coming out more gruff than I mean it to.
She blinks and then swallows, her arms and legs still entangled with mine. “How long have you. . . been awake?”
I’m tempted to say I just awoke, but I remind myself, no. No lies.
“Many hours.”
She blinks rapidly, looking confused.
“You were sleeping so peacefully. It seemed wrong to wake you.”
Her eyes search mine as if waiting for me to say more. When I don’t, she reaches for the sheet, disentangling from me as she covers herself and rolls away. “Oh.”
Heart-hammering, I rush to say, “And it felt so good to hold you. Selfishly, I didn’t want to wake you.”
I hear her sharp inhale as she turns around to look at me, her bare back exposed as the rest of the sheet is drawn tight around her front. Her eyes are full of questions. “But I thought you hated me and wanted rid of me.”
“I never said that,” I say heatedly and dare to reach out and place a hand on her sheet-covered thigh. It feels cruel to have the fabric between us after hours of holding onto her soft, bared flesh. “I’ve only been afraid my brother was using you for some purpose that would harm you.”
“Remus wouldn’t.” She pulls away.
“Perhaps not,” I say, only to humor her. I have no faith in my brother, but the tactician in me knows that playing along may get me further toward my goal, considering where Remus has positioned me.
“I’ve been thinking about a lot of things during the night while I had the privilege of holding you as you slept.”
She blushes and looks away.
“I was wondering if maybe there’s a way we could all work together. You want my brother, and”—I want you, I leave unspoken, no need to put all of my cards so blatantly on the table—“and I don’t want to stay in the way of your happiness. But there remains a reality I hope you won’t find too inconvenient.”
She looks back at me as I reach for her hand.
“I share this body with my brother.”
She blinks again in confusion. “What are you proposing?”
Again, I keep my cards close to my chest. “Just that if we communicate, maybe it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable, you falling asleep with him and waking up to me. It’s an unusual situation, but we could all find some happiness and comfort here.”
“Really? You’d be open to something like that?” she breathes out, and I can’t help but rub her palm with my thumb. I don’t miss the hitch of her breath.
She blinks, looking excited. “Remus and I could finally have a chance.”
I try to ignore the stab of pain and her eyes suddenly search mine. “But wait, is that fair. . . to you?”
I smile. Oh, my precious one. Give a tactician an inch, and he will take a mile. “I will be more than content.” Continuing to rub her hand with mine in low, massaging circles, I say, “Because even a moment of intimacy with you in my arms makes up for a lifetime of not having anything. I’m not a greedy man.”
All right, so perhaps I have told one lie after all. While no, I have not been a greedy man in the past, I have a feeling I might become very, very greedy when it comes to Lo-Ren.
She smiles at me then and throws her arms around my neck, filling my chest with happiness like light bursting through after the darkest storm.
