Presque Vu

Chapter 16

Raina was dimly aware of Jared leaving the bed. The warmth of him disappeared from behind her but she felt heavy and too sleepy to question what was happening. After a few minutes, he returned though, snuggling himself around her as tightly as before and kissing her shoulder. She tried to mumble out a question but he just shushed her.

"Just go back to sleep princess," he told her, "I still have a while."

When she woke again later the sun was high and Jared was no longer next to her. She sighed and stretched, thinking about a hot shower for the muscles her anxiety had left aching and in knots. When she got out of bed to start her morning routine however she heard noises coming from the rest of the apartment. Curiously she stuck her head out of the bedroom.

Jared was in the living room, working on his laptop, a mug of tea next to him. He smiled when he spotted her.

"Hey I hope it's okay, I rearranged some things and had my assistant bring my laptop so I could work from here this morning. You were sleeping so well with me there last night I wanted to stay as long as possible. You really needed the sleep."

Raina wasn't sure what to make of all this. She'd definitely had a good hard sleep the night before, and felt better rested than she had in ages. Whether that was due to having Jared pressed against her or having unburdened herself earlier she couldn't say. "Thank you. I did sleep really well. I'm going to go take a shower now okay?"

Jared nodded, took a sip from his mug and returned to whatever he was doing on the laptop. He certainly seems to be making himself at home, Raina thought.

She stopped on her way to the shower for another check in the mirror. At least none of the marks looked any worse this morning. She would have to call her doctor first thing Monday, if for no other reason than to put her mind at rest.

By the time she got back out of the shower Jared had packed up his laptop and looked to be getting ready to leave. "Heading out already?" she asked.

"Sorry, I put things off as long as I could but I do have places to be and a rehearsal that's going to run really late now." He carried his mug into the kitchen to place it in the sink. "But I did leave time for that talk before I go. Would you come sit down with me?"

Raina took a seat on the sofa and waited for him to return. Once he was seated as well he lightly grasped her chin and gave her a soft kiss. All the cockiness seemed to have gone out of him since the night before, but Raina was certain it was just waiting under the surface. At least she hoped it was. Sweet Jared was nice under the circumstances but it wasn't what she had signed up for.

"Before we get into too much," he began, "I suppose I should ask if you're ready to talk. I know last night you weren't sure where your head was at."

Raina sighed. "I'm still not sure. I haven't had a lot of time to think." Sheer exhaustion had claimed her almost as soon as she hit the pillows the night before and she hadn't been up long enough to do any serious contemplating today.

Jared nodded. "That's what I thought. What I propose is this... we had planned to see each other Thursday. Let's keep those plans but be prepared to have a discussion about the dynamics of this relationship then."

It seemed sensible enough. She knew she had a lot of thinking to do. "All right," she agreed.

"Good," Jared said with a smile, patting her leg. Then his expression became more serious. "All right I'm going to put my dominant hat back on here for a minute because there are some things going on that need to be addressed. Don't go getting your stubborn streak up."

Of course telling Raina not to be stubborn was the fastest way to get her back up from the start but she tried to reign herself in. "I'm listening."