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Sometimes he’ll roll over with an animal snarl, pulling me close to him, his length a solid promise in his boxer shorts.
Other times, I’ll just squeeze my body against his and it will feel as though we’re floating together on the mattress, unified in the moment.
This morning, my hand meets with empty sheets.
Even now – even after everything that’s happened – a part of me sends unfair messages surging through my body.
He’s run out on you, a vicious voice whispers. This has all been a trick from the beginning.
But then my fingers come to rest on a business-sized card on his pillow. I sit up, rubbing sleep from my eyes with my other hand, and pick up the card. The morning is bright, the wide windows letting in swathes of glowing sunlight, Solomon’s marble floors glittering.
When you wake up, my love, the note reads, come to the roof. I have a surprise for you.
I clasp the card to my chest, to my heart, letting out a shivering breath that’s full of hope and possibility. I try to tell myself that this could be anything, that letting my fantasies gallop ahead of my reason isn’t the right thing to do here.
And yet there’s an excitable part of me that can’t fight the smile spreading across my face, so wide it makes my cheeks ache with excitement and love.
Love.
I’m not afraid of that word anymore, even if we haven’t said it to each other yet.
“Love, love, love,” I murmur as I leap to my feet, dancing across the room to the dresser drawers where I’m keeping a lot of my clothes.
Despite such a short time passing, Solomon and I have become so comfortable in each other’s company. I’ve basically moved in, and he’s encouraged it every step of the way.
I choose a flowing spring dress, the sort I know drives Solomon wild. Just last night, he savaged me from behind when I walked into the bedroom in one of these dresses, his hands magnetizing to my hips as he let out a carnal snarl of pure domination.
“Do you really think you can flutter around in that thing and not set my blood boiling?” he growled, claiming me as only my man ever will.
I lay the dress on the bed and then quickly go into the bathroom, walking across the pristine marble to the waterfall shower.
Standing under the water in this luxury shower, I’m stunned by how at home I feel. I thought there would be more of a transition for me to get used to a life of so much luxury, but with my man always hungry to treat me like a princess, I find that I can sink into the role with a fluttering belonging soothing any doubts I might have.
Just because I was born poor, it doesn’t mean I have to be ashamed of being spoiled by the man of my dreams.
I fix my hair and get dressed, and then walk through his large loft apartment to the private elevator. My stomach tingles with a thousand possibilities as the elevator rides up toward the heavens, nerves dancing and gallivanting up and down my body.
But these aren’t the self-doubting nerves that have plagued me my whole life.
These are tinged with starlight, with closeness, with love.
The door opens and for a long moment, I just stare in awe.
We came up to the roof a couple of nights ago to watch the sunset, and it was nothing like this.
It’s been transformed into a rooftop garden, greenery everywhere I look, trellises sporting ivy and large luscious leaves. Roses and dozens of other flowers form a pathway through this secret garden, an archway at the end sporting the words This way, my little dreamer, in love red letters.
I walk through the dancing scents, a hundred of them vying for my attention with each step I take. My heart couldn’t feel lighter, flooding with the importance of this moment until I feel as though I could take off from the roof and float into the sky.
I walk through the archway to be met with more impossible nature. Amidst the flowers and the trees and the colorful, scent-laden bushes, Solomon has placed prints of my artwork on easels, pieces I’ve only ever uploaded to my website.
I’ve never seen them blown up like this.
He’s chosen my nature landscapes as well as some of my portraits.
My eyes sting with tears as I drink in all the effort he’s gone through, and then I move my gaze to the ground, where he’s littered rose petals just like he did on our first date.
The rose petal path leads to another archway.
Keep going, my love, the words read.
I smooth my hands over my belly, certain I can feel my womb swelling and throbbing and singing at the majesty of this moment. If she had arms and legs, she’d be shaking them manically right now, dancing in the magical beauty of what Solomon has done for me.
