Sinclair
I wake, a few hours later, jumping up straight the moment I realize that Elle n’t next to me
She had drifted off to sleep hours ago after a simple dinner and a movie marathon. While she dozed next to me, I’d spent most of the late hours of the night answered the stack of emails piling up in my inbox and watching her sleep from the corner of my eye. But now, when my eyes peeked open for just a moment after maybe two hours of sleep?
Gone
I hurl the sheets off of me, getting to my feet in a flash, my head whipping around as I search the empty room for her with all of my senses. But my eyes tell me that she’s not here, and my nose
Her scent is dull, but not stale She hasn’t been gone long
A growl starts in my chest as I stalk from the room, looking through the empty hallways for my mate, desperate to find her. She was on bed rest, damn it – where the hell else would she be except bed? Unless
Unless, something had happened – but she’d have woken me –
Or she’d been kidnapped – but there’s no way I’d have slept through that.
I follow her scent quickly, my anger intensifying as I realize that it leads me down stairs. God damn it, the doctor expressly forbid her from stairs. I pound down the staircase hurrying through the hall and slamming open the kitchen door –
But then, she’s suddenly there. Seated alone at the kitchen table in the dark, surrounded by a pile of food, her eyes wide.
been caught and lowering the piece of cold fried chicken back down to its plate. “Do you want
washing through me like a wave. “What are you doing down here?” She
obvious.
hook.
didn’t go far!”
to go
holds up a corrective finger at me. “He told me not to go up stairs. And I slid down on my butt to be
shut. “Ella,” I whisper between my
was hungry!” she
glaring. “I could have gotten you food! Anything you
1/2
up,” she scolds, her voice worried. “When you’d just fallen asleep, Dominic She shakes her gently at me. “You can’t be at my beck and call like this-
smiling innocently up at me like a little kid who knows they can get out of trouble if they’re cute enough. Damn it, but it works. Just a little.
and raising a hand to play with the ends of her lovely rose–gold hair. I’m starting to calm now,
and reaching for an Oreo,
– not yet but…well, I can’t really resist the sight of my
over the place – fried chicken, pasta salad, cakes, wasabi–dipped peanuts, even
out, I wanted it all.” I grimace as she takes a bite of the licorice, ripping it off with her teeth as she turns a curious gaze
have a better selection upstairs. Maybe we can hire someone…” I drift off into my thoughts, trying to think through solutions as she continues
I sigh, running a hand down my face and rubbing my eyes with my thumb and my forefinger, thinking longingly of my pillow and our
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