A Shade Darker ✔️

{Chapter Sixty Seven}

Love You

April 6th, 2018

Mike

I leaned my elbow on the small mattress and listened to the bar open downstairs. I felt dreamy, warm in the enclosed bed. I held up my head and watched Ashley as she slept.

Her lips were slightly parted, pink, still swollen from last night. And oh, last night. I nearly sighed at the thought of it. Being between her legs was like a dream, was like the best high I'd ever had. It was powerful.

She clutched the sheet to her chest, but the sheet was thin and slipped off her hip. Her curves were all the eye could see, and my eyes ever wanted to see. The sharpness of her hip, the small curve of her bottom and slender dip to her legs.

I watched her until she woke slowly a little while later, her eyes fluttering open as she sighed.

"Good morning" I greet her, watching her eyes find me and a smile break out on her face.

She yawned and pulled the sheet over her, snuggling up to the pillow. She closed her eyes and smiled into the sheet, pink rising up her neck and cheeks.

I nuzzle my nose into her cheek, listening to her light giggles.

"I greeted you Good morning" I whisper, hearing her giggle more.

She turns her head to kiss my cheek.

"I heard you the first time" Watching her close her eyes again, I grabbed the edge of the sheet and scooted under it with her.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close to my chest, warming both of us.

"I love you...I love you very much. So much, even...so much it almost hurts" She giggles again and taps my arm at an attempted slap.

"You're just telling me what I want to hear"

"In all truth, I love telling you what you want to hear. But I was serious. Tell me something you want" She ran her fingers along my chest and sighed, her face turning serious.

"I want to go home...I want to see Snow"

I smiled at the mention of her.

"Ah, yes. Little Snowflake. I imagine she's doing well with my brother...I can only hope she is"

Billie

Instead of being chilled as Lenore had asked, I could only feel heat seep into my blood at her question, and the way it decided as it went through my brain.

Ugh, I was doomed.

Why did things already have to be so complicated? One look at Lenore at her questioning pink lips, and the only thing I could think about was how good mine would over hers.

I sighed to myself, then cleared my throat and patted my chest as if it had been a small cough.

I watched a line crease between her brows as she looked at me with concern.

"Are you ill? The spring air can be a bit deceiving, can't it?" She asked with a small chuckle as she moved to the rocking chair and came back to drape a thin blanket over my shoulders.

She motioned towards the couch.

"I'll make you some tea..." Her voice was quiet and soft, inviting, confident, but shy. There were already so many words I could use to describe her.

It's as if I had been a devil, and now changed, been rewarded with an angel for my good behavior.

She kept her eyes on the floor as she moved to the small strip of a kitchen and put a kettle on the stove.

I watched her plain brown dress swish with each step, and then imagined what she'd look like in silk...like a queen.

I looked down at Snow in my arms and wiggled my fingers next to her nose to make her smile. She latched onto my fingers and slowly began nibbling on one of them.

"So...you've no children of your own, then?" A hearty laugh surprised me, so big and full, something I hadn't expected to come out of a woman so petite.

"Oh, no. Children can be a hassle when you're not certain if the father will stick around...." She moved to the fridge to grab the carton of milk. She glanced in at me. "Besides, I'm no good to even be chosen for the elite, and not many men notice you when you work as a house maid. I can assure you that I've had no affairs for the man I've worked with, either. No. I believe in marriage first..." That line between her eyebrows settled again, as if she were concentrating on the stove under her. "A good husband comes first, always, and then if it proves to be true...maybe the blessing of a little one"

She broke out of her oblivion then and shot me a smile.

"But I'm still young, and I see a promising life here for me in the colony. Even if no men have come to court me" She smiled at me and I smiled back.

I wanted to tell her straight to her beautiful face that I'd oblige in the matter, happily give her everything she wanted. But even that in itself was such a promise to be made, and I'd only just met the woman.

I sighed deeply to myself and ran a hand over my knee. Life was getting to complicated already. It would've been smart to excuse myself, leave, and never see her again, but I only found myself nestling farther down into the couch cushions.

"You have your life all planned out then. Me...me, I...well, I just go wherever the current takes me" She smiled warmly, then looked back to the whistling kettle.

The shy look was back in her, I could see it plain as day.

"That's a good quality in a man, it leaves room for surprise in his life..." She poured the boiling water into two mugs and added a tea bag for each.

She came over to me and stood, handing me the steaming cup. I thanked her.

She narrowed her eyes at me, fingers unsteady on the steaming cup.

"So, Billie. What do you want in your life?" I stayed silent.

Looking up at her, her body held my whole vision. It was clear then that everything I wanted out of life was standing right in front of me.

I smiled at her and took a sip of the tea.

"Something great, someone like you"