Love Through The Ages

Nine

"There are rare people who will show up at the right time,
help you through the hard times and stay into your best times...Those are the keepers."

--Nausicaa Twila

I stir awake as I feel a warm touch brush my cheek and blink my eyes open to see Lachlan there covering my legs with a blanket.

"Hey...you fell asleep." He says in the gentle tone he would use with our children or if he was in a particular good mood and it makes me smile reaching to take his hand.

"I guessed that." I mutter and press a kiss to his knuckles tugging him closer to me.

"Ophelia is on her way to look at your leg." He says as he sits on the edge of the chaise half of the L-shaped dark grey couch I'm lying on—instead of in the bed upstairs, where I was for the past two days—and presses a kiss to my forehead. "And Michael keeps calling you."

"He's just worried about me." I say and stroke his cheek looking up at him as he carefully leans over me.

"He wants to bring work stuff over." He mutters and I notice his arms are on either side of me but his weight is off me. "And lunch."

"Let him, mon cher." I say leaning up slightly to kiss his cheek and let one hand slide to rest on his side under the leather jacket he put on to walk Izzy. "I told you that I trust him and that he's a very good friend."

"Hmph..." He grunts out and I grip the muscle under my hand using my left leg to knee him in the other side, makes him laugh. "I always thought you liked that noise, leannan."

"Not when you are trying to be indifferent." I say nudging him again and his hand drops to my thigh making my thoughts momentarily freeze as my eyes meet his.

"And what am I being now?" He asks with a smirk I know all too well and leans down closer to me his fingers running over the flesh of my inner thigh.

"A tease." I say with a shiver and reach to cup his cheek my lips just barely touching but a flash a fur comes between us laying on my lap. "Hi, there."

"Izzy, no! Get down." Lachlan says sternly and stands up to grab her collar but I push his hand away.

"She's fine. She isn't on my leg or hurting anything." I tell him and rub the dog's ears looking at my constant companion over the past two days. "She's a good girl."

"She adores you more than me now." He mumbles and pets the dog shaking his head with a chuckle as I hear my phone ring from the other room. "Michael...what do you want me to tell him?"

"Tell him to bring me the files from work and what can lunch hurt?" I ask quirking a brow at him and he rolls his eyes as he answers the phone on the kitchen counter.

I lean my head back on the couch and lazily rub Izzy's ears as I look around the main room of the first level of the house my husband apparently owns. I was quite surprised not only by the house itself but by the more modern touches he has put into it and yet there's still the classic elements of an old school Parisian house. I love the crown molding around the room, the iron work on the outside windows and along the stair railings but I also love the airy colors he chose for the main floor of the house not to mention a kitchen I wish could fit in my apartment. I love the bottom cabinets being a dusty medium blue instead of white like the few that are up top and open shelves that make it all look like something from a magazine.

"Hey, what do you want to eat?" Lachlan asks jarring me out of my thoughts and I look at him leaning on the counter as he takes off his jacket.

"Pizza." I answer after a moment and he raises a brow nodding as he walks through the open doorway with his jacket to hang it up before signaling to me he's going upstairs.