May we always meet again

Chapter 23

Clarke's POV

In this bubble we lived together for a brief moment before reality caught up with us. We enjoyed our time together and forgot about how the hours passed us by. Still, it was never enough and so whenever her jobs and my shifts allowed, she slept over.

Today was one of those all too rare days when we lay in my bed in the evening, tired but happy. Lexa had her arm wrapped around my belly and was burying her nose in my hair and neck as she took deep breaths. "You don't know how good you smell."

I linked my arms together, wrapping them around her, and held her close. "Even unshowered and straight from the hospital?"

"You can still go take a shower, but right now you couldn't smell better." She snuggled a little closer to me as her phone vibrated and she immediately stiffened.

"What's wrong babe?" I looked down at her and all I saw was the top of her head. She didn't look up and the only other movement I noticed from her was her pulling me a little closer to her. "Lex?"

She took a deep breath. "When I get a message around this time, it's usually from Jasper and it's about a client's request..."

I returned her pressure. "So?"

She swallowed hard and I could feel her heartbeat quickening. "Does it actually bother you that I'm still working as an escort?"

Astonished, I looked at her. I really hadn't expected that now. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, now that we're together, you might have a problem with it." Lexa still wasn't looking at me and I could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Gently, I touched her cheeks, making her look at me. "You once said that you didn't treat every customer the way you did me."

Now she was the confused one. "Yeah?"

"I was going to ask you then what you meant by that..." It may sound strange and also disjointed, but to me these two questions were inseparable.

She breathed in and out heavily, probably still confused about the supposed change of subject that wasn't really one. "Well, I'll have to elaborate a bit... Hmm... You know, usually there are certain conditions in the contracts I have with my clients. Among other things, it forbids close physical contact. So anything except hugs, holding a hand, or a light kiss on the cheek, is to be prohibited. This is a standard I always insist on. The no sex clause has been around for a while after some customers started acting a little too pushy. It's a protection for me. Still, I had a client like that the day you wrote me."

I could feel the disgust rising in her and I felt the same way. There were so many disgusting people who seemed to know no boundaries and thought they could get away with anything. Inwardly I shook myself and still could not believe what I was hearing. Before Lexa finally continued speaking, she looked at me insistently and the look in her green eyes was inscrutable.

"Your email made me smile and that's why I wanted to meet you and decide if I wanted to get involved in this deal, which after all would involve a lot more than just fleeting touches." Her cheeks took on a slight shade of red and a smile crept onto her face. "And then you're sitting there, so incredibly nervous, and within a few minutes you've blotted yourself out. From that moment at the latest, you had me under your spell, if I hadn't been before, after looking into your blue eyes. So I decided to take you up on your offer. The risk seemed worth it to me because deep down I knew I didn't have to worry about you crossing set boundaries." I listened intently as she reached for my hand and stroked it with her thumb. "The closer we got, the less inhibited I was, and so I had no problem being close. And that's the difference between you and the other customers. No one was ever allowed to get as close to me as you were. Everyone I rejected and even more so, I never looked for that closeness. I got comfortable with you so quickly that it scared me." She looked at me so openly, so tenderly, that it gave me goosebumps.