Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

13 - Rest with me - Part 2

Rose (continued)

Snickering and whispers between Jane and Ellie woke me up.

Jane was in bed with me ... and someone else, a larger and warmer body, over the covers. It was still nighttime.

I raised my head. Gabriel was curled away from me so I could only see the back of his head and the hunch of his shoulder.

There's a man in my bed.

"You don't remember? You had a nightmare. Gabriel was the only one who heard you whimpering. He was in another room but he was awake, he hadn't fallen asleep yet. He came and calmed you down." Jane hugged him, her body overlapping the sheets.

Gabriel slept on his side. Like he'd fallen asleep in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to stay in the bed.

I craned my neck to see the other two beds. They were both occupied.

"They're dead to the world," Jane said.

"Alexander took another room. I think he's got insomnia," Ellie said from elsewhere in the darkness. "He opened the window so it would be cold there, and he put in earbuds and a cover on his eyes."

I nodded and lay my head on the pillow again.

"What was I saying? Right –" Jane started, presumably to Ellie.

I can hear you.

"Sorry," Ellie said.

Giggling, they drifted out, just two shivers in the dark.

The rise and fall of Gabriel's shoulder lulled me back to sleep.

* * *

A man was hissing obscenities under his breath.

I opened bleary eyes. It took me a moment to remember that we were in the hotel suite. Strong light glared in through the cracks in the heavy pooling curtains, and Lukas stood above me.

He looked so damn angelic, his hair falling soft after he'd washed it last night, that I almost missed the murderous look in his eye.

An irritated huff beside me. "Just relax."

"Lukas?" I croaked.

"Oh, did I wake you?"

"That's okay." A broad smile stretched across my mouth, unstoppable. "I slept a lot."

Lukas stared at me.

"What's wrong?"

Gabriel shifted to lie on his back, raising an arm over his eyes. "She had bad dreams, Lukas." His voice was extra gravelly.

"Aw, Rosie." Lukas stole my attention when he eased over me on hands and knees. His pretty hair tumbled down around his face. "What happened in them?"

"I don't remember," I said honestly.

"That's very good. Never forgive, but always forget," Lukas said, which was ridiculous, because he was kind of telling me not to forgive him.

"Always do the opposite of whatever life advice you get from Lukas," Gabriel muttered.

I giggled.

Michael pushed himself up in his bed. He held his face like he had the world's worst headache.