“You are tired,” he said. “This is nothing that needs to be solved tonight. Tell me what you want.”
“You,” she said, and his eyebrows lifted, as if surprised she would have the energy for that sort of thing. “Not s*x,” she amended. “I just want you here next to me. I want to lay my head against you, and I want you to hold me if I wake up in the middle of the night.”
“Of course. I will be here for you, my dear.”
He leaned in and placed a kiss against her cheek, very gently, then helped her slip under the covers. When he’d brought her back to the hotel, he’d gotten clean things for her — a tank top and capri-style yoga pants — and had fetched a damp washcloth from the bathroom and cleaned the dust and grime from her face. So she was ready enough to get into bed, even if he wasn’t. She wat
