I cradled her face in my hands and frowned at her. "What's wrong?" I repeated a little firmly this time. She grew tearful and buried her face in my chest in that sweet, trusting way of hers.
"I love you," she whispered and my heart thundered in response. It was the first time she had uttered those words to me. I smiled then because I could not help the pleasure from spreading across my body at her confession.
"Skye. I love you too. It's a good thing, you know," I told her, rocking us both gently as we stood there hugging. "You don't have to sound so miserable."
She laughed, the muffled sound vibrating against my chest. "I'm sorry," she sniffed. "I just didn't get a chance to see you in the morning and I had a restless night. Then I was late to work and one of my clients got mad and yelled at me."
"What?" Scowling, I pulled away from her and stared into her watery eyes. "Who do I need to beat up?"
She shook her head dismissively. "Can you just hold me?" she asked sadly. "Just hold me and let me sleep for a while. Please."
Without hesitation, I lifted her up in my arms and carried her into the living room, placing her gently on the couch. Knowing her, there was probably a huge pile of clothes strewn on her bed from her hurry to get to work today and sure enough, that was the case when I walked into her space to get her a blanket. Smiling in amusement, I returned to the couch with the blanket, turned on the TV and then settled down with her leaning on me and the blanket draped over us.
"You want to eat or drink something?" I murmured, running my fingers through her long, blond locks.
Sighing, she snuggled closer. "No. I just want you. And sleep."
Again I smiled. "Took the words right out of my mouth," I whispered, the white noise from the TV sending us both into dreamland in no time.
~~~
Chapter 13
Jasper
The small, pale yellow apartment coming into my line of vision as I pulled up in our driveway brought a contented smile to my face. It had been such a busy day today. I had had two photo shoots, both taking place out of the city and a meeting with the big dogs at Vogue Italia. They wanted to hire me as a photographer for some controversial piece about aging models and I was thrilled at the prospect.
Cole was the first person I had texted as soon as I closed the deal but he had not replied for so long and I was pretty sure he was sleeping. I quietly made my way inside, careful not to disturb him because of his long hours today and headed into the kitchen. There had not been time for a proper lunch and I was wondering what to make for dinner when I spotted the plates in the sink, the opened bottle of wine and half empty jug of lemon juice. Cole didn't drink wine so it must have been for...
The door to Skye's bedroom opened and Cole emerged from inside with an armload of laundry. We stared at each other for a moment, my jaw hanging half open at the fact that he was doing Skye's chores. What the fuck? The girl had perfectly working hands and feet. Why did my boyfriend feel the need to coddle her so damn much?
He did not smile at me or throw me one of his affectionate greetings. Instead he jerked his head towards the counter and said, "Adalina made us dinner. Don't worry about the mess, I'll get around to it tomorrow. It's been a long day."
Tell me about it. I opened my mouth to ask him what Skye was doing and why she was not helping him after he had been working so much but he stalked off in the direction of the laundry room before I could say anything.
Angrily, I went over to her open bedroom door and marvelled at the organisation and lack of clutter for the first time since she had moved in. She was lying sideways on the bed with her eyes closed so I could not berate her for her laziness but just then, her eyes opened and she looked right at me.
A strange expression came over her face. Something like...fear and it threw me off so much, I remained silent before retreating to my own room. Why was she giving me that kind of look instead of lording it over me that Cole was acting like her personal slave boy?
Fuck. I did not have time for all this drama. I just wanted my partner here with me so I could ask him how his day went and tell him about mine while we watched movies and shared drinks or something. I missed that so badly. When it was just the two of us and we had all the time in the world. Cole did his best to make sure I did not feel left out so I could not use that as an excuse to argue with him. I did not want to argue with him. I just needed him with me. Right now.
When he walked into the room a minute later, wearing nothing but jeans and looking all sweaty and sexy, my first instinct was to grab him and kiss him but he appeared so grim, unlike his usual self and just threw a folder beside me on the bed causing some pictures to spill out.
I froze in the act of removing my shoes and looked up at Cole with dread curling around my heart.
"Explain this," my boyfriend simply said to me and stood there with his arms folded and a blank expression.
My throat closed up. I did not know what to
