Chapter Thirty-Eight

Sophie's eyes flew open, her chest heaving, gasping for air in the darkness of the bedroom.

She'd dreamt she was trapped in a burning house, unable to breathe, unable to get out, to save herself, instead watching the fire slowly consume everything around her until she couldn't breathe anymore…

"Sophie! Sophie!" Daniel's urgent, panicked voice right beside her make her shriek into the darkness, his hands clutching on her upper arms.

"Daniel!" She barked, startled and still shaking from her dream. "What the HELL are you doing here?"

Daniel sat beside her on the bed, his face embarrassed in the faint light. "I… I felt bad about our fight last night, and then I didn't see you at all today, so I snuck in through the back door to see you. You were already asleep, so I was going to wait until morning for you to wake up, but then you started shifting and crying out, and I assumed you were having a dream, so I tried to wake you, and… are you alright?"

Daniel's confession came out in a rush, his words tumbled and quick, so unlike Daniel himself, Sophie mused, her breath finally normalizing.

"You were just going to…" she waved her hands around. "Sit around all night on the off chance I would have a bad dream and wake up?"

"Well, not the bad dream part…"

"Just sit around and stare at me?"

"Well, I'm guessing I would have eventually fallen asleep myself, but…"

"Daniel," Sophie huffed, pulling the covers up to her chin, pushing his hands off her arms. "You can't just waltz into my house and… sit around staring at me while I sleep. It's creepy."

Daniel rubbed a hand over his face but said nothing.

"How long have you been here?" Sophie asked, giving a bit.

"Not long," Daniel said quietly.

"Just watching me? Isn't it kind of… boring?"

Daniel gave her a small, shy smile. "Not when you enjoy the view. I'm sorry I barged in, Sophie. I just wanted to see you, wanted to apologize for disappearing the other day. That must have been… odd."

Sophie quirked her mouth and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not your master. You can go where you want, when you want. You don't answer to me."

"Sophie…"

"In fact, there's nothing for you to apologize for. You're a grown man, you can do what you want. I'm not your keeper."

"Sophie…"

"Seriously, don't worry about it. Now run along – you've done your manly duty and all."

"Sophie, will you stop?"

At Daniel's growling tone, Sophie bit her lip to keep from speaking again.

"This isn't about duty. I missed you, I wanted to see you, and I wanted to apologize for having to go to Worcester without telling you. But mostly, I just wanted to be with you tonight," Daniel said, his voice commanding, serious.

Sophie watched him carefully, saw his longer fingers tangling with the edges of the duvet she was still clutching.

"I want to be with you all the time," Daniel said softly. "And that scares me a bit, if I'm being honest. This is all rather… new to me."

Sophie nodded, relenting at his pleading tone. "I want to be with you too. And it scares me too."

"Strength in numbers," Daniel said with a small smile, and Sophie linked her hand with his still fidgeting one, giving it a small squeeze.

"It hurt when you just left," Sophie admitted, hating herself for sounding like such a girl. "I can't help it, but it did."

"I left a note."

"Yes, a really long, elaborate one, thank you," Sophie said dryly.

Daniel ducked his head. "I'm sorry about that. I seem to be sorry for a lot of things today…"

"Are you sorry about the tree kissing incident?" Sophie asked, her voice vaguely teasing and Daniel looked up, his eyes locking on hers, and she saw the desire burning behind them.

"No, that's the one thing I'm not sorry for, unless you count the fact it ended too soon."

Sophie gave him a small smile. "Well, now that I've almost forgiven you, are you heading back home?"

Daniel simply looked at her, saying nothing.

"Or, wait… did you want to stay here?" Sophie asked seriously, biting her lip to keep a straight face.

"Well, it's an awfully long walk from here back to the house, and it is quite dark, and you may have another nightmare that I could wake you from…"

"I guess you should stay, then," Sophie finished for him. "Just in case."

Daniel smiled as he began to strip off his clothing, and then looked at her over his shoulder as he chucked his jeans onto the nearby chair. "What was your nightmare about?"

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, and then shook her head. "Doesn't matter. It's gone now. I can breathe again."

Daniel looked at her questioningly, but didn't push for an explanation.

He was back in Sophie's bed, forgiven and forgotten – exactly where he wanted to be.

Sophie sighed as he wrapped his arms around her, spooning her body against his, then giggling as she felt the evidence of his arousal pressing against her.

"Oh my," she whispered in the dark. "I had no idea stalking me and watching me sleep through nightmares were such a turn on for you…"

"Right up there with riding crops and candlelit bathtubs," Daniel said, pressing a kiss to the nape of her neck. "Are you sure I'm forgiven?"

"Yeah," she said, turning in his arms to face him, her hands tugging on a lock of hair. "You're forgiven."

"Prove it," he said huskily, his lips nibbling on her ear, making her giggle anew in the dark.

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