It's A Lot

Kristo

When I woke the next morning, it took me a moment to remember who was in bed next to me. Not that I thought she was someone else. No, just that her presence felt so natural and so obvious that I couldn’t bring to mind a time when things hadn’t been this way.

I slid my arms around her and planted a kiss on the top of her head, and she snuggled into me and let out a little moan. I couldn’t help but smile, still half-asleep. She felt so good next to me, so obvious and sweet and good. I loved having her here. I loved—

I stopped myself dead in my tracks before I went a single word further. Nope. I didn’t love anything. Certainly not this and certainly not the woman lying next to me in bed. This was just a little fun, that was all, an agreement the two of us had made to work off her debt and get my family off my back. Remember?

But as I watched her sleep, the slow, peaceful rise and fall of her breath soothed me, and I knew there was something more going on here. I was just getting s