Recovery

Recovery - Ch 22

Recovery - Ch 22

Lesley woke up a few hours later and carefully moved out of Rick's arms so she wouldn't wake him. She grabbed the throw blanket from the foot of the bed, wrapped it around her nude body and curled up in the chair by the window. Lesley wasn't sure what had woken her, it wasn't a dream or a nightmare, of that she was sure.... she had just...woken up and somehow knew that sleep for her was done for the night.

Reaching over, she turned off the small light on the desk, sinking the bedroom into nearly complete darkness so just the glow of the almost full moon shone through the window. It was the perfect amount of dark vs light as Lesley sat looking up at it - enough to keep the shadows out of the corners but illuminate Rick's form as he slept so that she could see his features, relaxed with sleep.

She glanced over at Rick and smiled slowly; it was good to see him sleep. He'd been so angry when she'd told him about what had happened in court the day before. He'd tried to hide it, or tamp it down as much as possible, but the anger was there. Lesley understood why he'd been so upset.... lord knows she had been too...but she hated that Rick had been so affected by Travis' assault, and she also knew that at some point.... that pent up, tamped down anger was going to blow. Rick was running on a very short fuse and had been holding back the frustration and rage because of his insistence that 'this wasn't about him,' which again, Lesley understood but ... she shook her head sadly.... It was about him ...he had every right to be upset and feel whatever he needed or wanted too. That was one of the main things that Lesley hated .... how many people, people she loved, that had been pulled into all the drama and pain that had become her life since that fateful day in the clinic. The far-reaching effects of Travis' incredibly poor decision making, to put it mildly, had wrapped themselves around so many people that were so very important to her.

Lesley shook her head once more then turned to stare out the window again as her thoughts slowly started to sway and bounce off each other. Sometimes they'd coagulate into a ball then separate again to gently move around like they were suspended in a viscous gel solution reminding her of a lava lamp as it heated. They were moving slowly, but Lesley couldn't quite grab a hold of any of them to examine the contents....so she let them glide around each other as her mind wandered from one point to another as she thought about nothing in particular and everything in general.

The sky had just started to change from deep black to a muted gray when she heard Rick start to stir and she turned to watch him slide from deep sleep to almost awake. Lesley watched as Rick's arm automatically reached out to pull her closer, as he did every morning regardless of whether she was already wrapped in his arms, or if they were sleeping spoon fashion, and felt her heart swell with the unbelievable amount of love that she felt for him. It never ceased to amaze her how every day she woke up being more in love with him than she had been the day before. It was an incredible feeling to know, without any doubt, that Rick felt the same way about her. That feeling that absolute certainty, was one thing that she would never change, one of the things that was a huge takeaway from all the trauma of Travis' assault, and one of the things that Lesley would never take for granted.

She watched as Rick came fully awake when his searching arm didn't find her lying next to him, "Les....?" he said softly as he raised his head to look around the room.

"Right here," she answered, just as softly, and stood to move towards him, at the same time dropping the blanket on the foot of the bed to slide back under the warm covers. Lesley had seen the quick flash of banked hunger in Rick's eyes when she'd dropped the blanket and had also seen the appreciative smile as his eyes did a quick peruse of her body before she slid in next to him. 'That's another thing I'd never change,' she thought to herself as she felt the instant flash of desire course through her when she rolled on top of him. 'Another thing I'll never take for granted,' she thought as she felt Rick's hands smooth over her back to gently rub the chill off, 'especially not after being so afraid that I'd never be able to feel like this,' came next as the instant flash turned into a roll of molten lava that moved slowly through her belly as Rick's hands roamed over her.