13th February

It's not quite five in the morning when I hear the faintest sound of sniffles coming from Lydia's bedroom.

Gabrielle didn't sleep a whole lot last night. She was up and down checking on her until well after one. Now, she's fast asleep in the crook of my arm and I really don't want her to wake up.

Carefully shuffling to the edge of the bed, I slide my arm out and go still when she stirs. Her halo of waves circle her head as she rolls onto her back.

It hits me again, that she told me she loves me last night.

My heart goes into over drive as I stand up and turn the alarm clock off so it doesn't wake her.

She loves me.

I love her, that was never in question. I've been falling in love with her since I saw her dancing in that bar.

Slipping a t-shirt over my head, I watch her chest rise and fall on shallow breaths and I think about how much I need her waking up beside me for the rest of our lives.

If it weren't for the little girl down the hall, I'd slip back into bed and wrap around her.

Walking out of the bedroom, I close the door and head into Lydia's bedroom. There's enough light from the lamp and the string lights that I can see her sobbing in bed. Her hands are on top of the comforter, bandaged. My heart fucking aches at the tremor in her lip and the pinch in her forehead.

"You hurting, kid?"

She nods, her chin quivering before she sucks in a sharp breath. "It stings."

"Come on, we'll get some pain relief and re do the gel."

Flicking her bedding back, I get another pang of heartbreak at her feet bandaged as well. Poor thing. I scoop her up and carry her down to the living room where the fire is still burning low. The pillows are still propped up from where she'd rested last night, so I get her comfortable before I go and get the first aid.

Lydia watches television on a low volume while I carefully apply some new burn gel and clean bandages. The blistering isn't too bad, it's a good thing her skin is healing like it's supposed to, I just wish it didn't have to hurt her while it does.

Once I'm done, I make her a hot chocolate and then slip my phone out of my pocket and dial Gina, head of department, on her private line. Gabrielle has work at Linn's this morning. She'd made some comment about taking Lydia with her, but I can't stand the thought of dragging the poor kid around with her hands and feet in so much pain.

She's too new to the job to get paid for sick leave. Linn wasn't messing around when she wrote Gabrielle's contract. It's about as legit as the one I signed when I started teaching. It abides by all the standard work place policies. Seems a bit over the fucking top considering it's cleaning.

It's not hard to get the rest of the week off work. We've got relievers and I'll be back for football on Friday.

The team can survive without me for a few days.

                Gabrielle comes out of the hall in a rushed panic at about eight in the morning. Her rapid blinking starts to slow when she sees Lydia and I on the sofa with Encanto on the television. Lydia loves this movie. She sings along, she loves Dolores. Dolores reminds her of her mom apparently. I can see it.

"You're still here?"

I give her a quick nod and stand up. "Yeah, I took the rest of the week off. Figured it might help to have someone here so you can go to work."

Her eyes widen on a subtle inhale and of course, she looks in awe.

One day, when I tell her I want to help, she won't bat a fucking eye because she'll know nothing else but a partnership.

I'm dedicated to being her equal in life. I'm in this and I'm not backing out.

Gabrielle and I move into the kitchen. We're not concealed, but Lydia is focused enough on her movie that she doesn't see me give Gabrielle a quick kiss.

"You didn't have to do that," she mumbles, her fingers pinching the front of my shirt. We're a little too close right now, but I can't find it in me to move.

"It's no problem," I move closer, like a pull I can't control, I gravitate to her. "I know you need to work and your mom works."

"Momma," she gasps, palming her tired face. "I should tell her what happened. She'd want to know."

"Should we invite her over for dinner?"

Gabrielle rests her palm on the bench and pops a hip, watching me with caution. "You want to invite my mom for dinner?" Her voice lowers. "I could barely hide how I felt about you before anything had happened."

Looking over at the sofa, I double check that Lydia isn't watching and then I pinch the hem of Gabrielle's shirt and pull her into me. "I don't care if she knows," I whisper the words against her nape. "She should know that I love her daughter."

"Nathan," her voice is a breathy plead. "She might be. . . rude or mean. She's not the nicest when my actions don't align with her opinions."

"She can be as mean as she wants to me," I kiss her throat. "I'll deal with it because I'm sticking around and she might as well get used to it."

"We need to go somewhere private," she steps back from me, looking up with her sensual gaze, the one that speaks straight to my dick. "Right now."

As soon as we slip into the hall, I grip her waist, spin her around and slam her against the wall. She tiptoes to kiss me and I love it, I love how she can't get close enough, her hands hold onto me and her breasts push against my chest.

There's an unspoken agreement that we aren't going to go too far, Lydia can't get off the sofa and we don't want to be out of earshot. So we kiss against the wall like a couple of teenagers, hidden in the shadows.

My mouth moves down her jaw and onto her throat. I suck the skin between my teeth and bite, causing her to clamp down on a moan. Her sounds are an anthem that could be the soundtrack to my undoing and I would play it on repeat over and over again.

"I love you," I whisper, nipping her ear lobe, her entire frame convulses.

"I love you."

"Once more, baby," my fingertips grip her waist so hard I'm worried I'll hurt her. "Tell me once more."

She palms my jaw and brings us eye to eye, her teeth sink into her bottom lip, her gaze travels my face. Of all the women I've ever shared a kiss with, a bed with, myself with, none have ever held me like she does. Her hold is one that makes me feel both gripped and free. Free to love like I never have before.

"I love you," she whispers, her thumb caressing the sharp stubble on my jaw. "I love being in love with you. And I love that you make me feel safe enough to be in love."

"You are safe," I cage her in, hands against the wall beside her head. "You're safe with me. I want it all, Gabrielle."

Our noses touch and I breathe her in. "Me too," she whispers.

                    Camilla has a lot of strong opinions. Ones which include how wrong I was for not taking Lydia straight to the hospital when she was burned. We're sitting at the breakfast bar eating dinner, because I don't have a dining table.

Lydia has been fed and is propped up on the sofa watching a movie. I expect she'll be sick of movies soon. I'm sure she wants to color and draw, she loves coloring and drawing. I sit on a stool on the kitchen side of the breakfast bar and Gabrielle and Camilla sit on the other side.

I wonder if I should feel embarrassed at the arrangement but then I decide, I don't give a fuck.

I'll get a dining table at some point. I just have no idea where I'll put it.

Fuck, I need more space in this house. The three of us need more space.

What if Gabrielle and I have kids of our own?

Well, Gabrielle can come into my room, Lydia can go in hers. Then there's the office, that'd be fine for a nursery. But, what if we have more than one kid together? Plus, more kids means more seats at a dining table, which I don't even fucking have the room for.

"Nathan?"

I snap out of a spiral of thoughts and meet Gabrielle's curious stare. "Right?"

"Right, what?" I look between the two women. Camilla thinks I'm a fucking moron. Or a tool. Or whatever it is, she's not impressed.

Gabrielle lightly laughs. "Uh, I said you knew what you were doing with the burns, so we didn't need to call an ambulance. Right?"

I clear my throat and nod, pushing a piece of chicken around the plate with my fork. "Yeah. I've dealt with burns before. Dallas got herself on the fire a couple of times."

"Yeah and come on, mom. I can't afford to call an ambulance if I don't have to," Gabrielle pushes her hair over one shoulder and gives her mom a side on glare. Just a subtle one.

Sometimes I wonder where Gabrielle got her personality from. Her dad wasn't around and she's nothing like Camilla. She's her own unique person and I love that about her. It does make me sad that the one parent in her life causes her to feel so much resentment though.

There's this undercurrent of frustration whenever her mom butts in and I don't blame her for that but I do wish it was different. For her sake.

Camilla levels me with a flat stare and I meet it, unwavering because I told Gabrielle I would take whatever was thrown at me. I'm not sure what her problem is, but perhaps the fact that I have a penis and live with her daughter is enough of a reason not to trust me.

"My poor girl," Camilla twists, looking over her shoulder.

"She's brave," Gabrielle assures her. "She handled it well. Um, but look, momma, I have something I want to tell you."

Here we go. I'm not afraid of this news getting out there, I'm not afraid of it being known that I'm committed to one woman. In fact, I'd go as far as to make a fucking status about it online. Share it on social media, post about it. Whatever. I don't even use social media all that often but fucking write me up a headline because this woman is mine and I'm not letting her go.

Camilla looks between the two of us, her gaze narrowing and then her shoulders drop as if she knows what Gabrielle is about to say next.

Gabrielle lowers her voice and leans in closer. "Nathan and I are dating."

My brows shoot up and I stare at her. "Dating? Babe, we're in love. Keep it real."

Gabrielle giggles, her cheeks going that beautiful warm shade of crimson. "Yeah, we're in love."

Camilla doesn't look surprised in the least. She pushes her plate from her and folds her arms on the bench top. "Saw that happening. I'm guessing bub doesn't know?"

Gabrielle looks at me, we tilt our heads back and forth, coming to some sort of unspoken agreement on the answer. "We're being careful with how we handle telling Lydia," Gabrielle says, still keeping her voice low.

"Good," Camilla's voice is stern. "She's been through enough life altering change in the last few months."

Gabrielle deflates, stricken, like she's just been told she's failed her little girl. Sitting back, her gaze down casts on her lap and I have the urge to reach out and comfort her, save her from self deprecating thoughts she has no business thinking.

Frustration starts to creep in at Camilla for letting her daughter think she should feel guilt but before I can get a word in, Camilla pats her daughter's hand in her lap.

"But she'll survive," Camilla says. "She'll be fine because she's got a lot of love around her."

And then she looks at me and this time there's warmth and even a hint of appreciation that I wasn't expecting.

It's quiet between the three of us, aside from the hum of Monster's Inc in the background. Gabrielle huffs and rolls her eyes. "That's momma's way of admitting she approves of the relationship and she should ease up a little bit."

Camilla hums in agreement but I imagine that's as far as she'll go with her verbal affirmations. It's hard to relate to someone who has so little to say. Words are a fucking gift, I can tell people what I think, how I feel. Even if it's hard, at least I have the option of putting thoughts to words.

The reminder makes me look at Gabrielle and I can't contain the grin that reaches cheek to cheek. "You're a beautiful woman, mother, friend and I'm so damn glad I dragged your ass out of that bar back in December."

She rests her chin on her fist and puckers her lips in a kiss. "I love you."

Camilla grumbles. "I need to get on the Tinder."

"Eww, mom."

I'm in the shower later that night, face tipped up into the stream when a cold rush of air hits me and then arms slide around my waist. Palming the water out of my eyes, I turn around and find Gabrielle, naked, her hair down and her grin sensual.

"Hello," I put my arms around her waist and turn us so she's the one under the water.

"Hi."

"Nice of you to join me here."

She giggles, clasping her hands behind my head. Water cascades down her strands of hair, flattening them to her shoulders and breasts.

"Thanks for tonight," she says.

"Baby, you don't have to thank me for having your mom over for dinner."

She lowers her gaze, focusing it on my chest while she shrugs. "I know. But I appreciate the effort. It means a lot to me."

I'm not sure if thanking me for the bare minimum is another side effect of Josh and what a low grade shit head he was, but it kills me whenever I hear her praising me for something so small.

"I'm sorry she was a bit of a bitch over the whole hospital thing."

My skin is starting to feel the cold at not being under the hot water, but I deal with it. In high school, I used to take cold showers after training, I can handle a bit of chill. "You don't have to apologise. Like I said, I'll deal with whatever she wants to throw at me."

For a while she just stares at me, her gaze a little glossed over, as if she's in a trance. Which isn't new, because she often stares at me like she's not quite believing of what she's seeing.

"What's going on in there," I touch her forehead with my lips and then lean back, raising a brow. "You look at me like you're so far off sometimes."

"I am," she lightly laughs. "Sometimes I think back to high school and our interactions and I wonder if there was ever a hint of this man you are now, hiding in there."

"Na," I kiss her shoulder, the little hand print tattoo. "I wasn't interested in shit back then, not if it meant being committed to another person. Especially not you."

"You never looked at me like that?"

I bark out a laugh, feeling bad when she winces. "Baby, you were seventeen. No. Fuck no. You were my little sister's best friend. I cared about you in that sense but nothing more."

"I'm actually glad to hear that," she slides her fingers into the wet hair on the back of my head. "I thought you were so hot."

"Yeah that checks out."

Her eyes widen in amusement and she pulls my hair, tugging my head back.

"But then," I peck her lips. "You show up looking like a brand new woman, all grown and fuckable."

My hands slide down to her ass and I squeeze, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip when she inhales a sharp breath.

"You thought about me different then?" Her tone is so fucking hot and bothered.

"Yeah, I fucking did. Thought about you all the damn time."

Her gaze sinks into fuck me eyes and I'm on fire. "I thought about you after New Year's Eve," she whispers, kissing my chest. "Thought about that kiss as I orgasmed."

Fuck. Me.

"You thought about me while you touched yourself?" My grip on her turns feral.

She nods, looking up at me through her lashes and I groan. She didn't want a bar of me back then, I pissed her off and I knew it, but she was touching herself over me regardless? I'm in pain.

Ducking down, I bring our mouths together, shower fall sprinkles our lips and gets between our tongues as the kiss deepens. My hands slide up her wet back, under her hair and onto the base of her neck.

Her taut nipples brush up against me, her thighs close over my dick and she shifts them, creating a friction that makes me groan into her mouth. I'm so gone for her. I'm gone for the slickness between her legs that has nothing to do with the shower.

Walking forward, I push her back against the wall, she sucks my tongue into her mouth, closing her lips around it and sucking hard. Slapping my hands around her thighs, I hoist her up and she hooks her ankles at the base of my spine.

She's the perfect fit for this position. We don't waste time, or water, and I reach down with one hand, fisting my cock and lining it up at her centre. I sink inside of her and she tips her head back on a moan, water streaming down her throat and drizzling off her hard nipples.

I am the luckiest man alive, having this woman wrapped around me, her pussy gripping my cock. Her beautiful lips parted on panting moans, her hips rolling in time with mine.

I look down at where I slide in and out of her, burying my cock to the hilt and bringing it back to the tip, over and over. It looks so fucking good. Like she was made for me and I for her.

Her ass hits the wall as I pound, her legs tighten and her nails dig into my shoulders. Ducking down, I suck a nipple between my teeth and flick it with my tongue.

"Yes," her soft pleading whispers are so erotic that it spurs me on to speed up. My mouth gets rougher and as much as I love this position, it won't let me get deep enough.

I drop Gabrielle's legs, flick off the shower and pull her out to stand in front of the vanity, facing the mirror. "Bend over baby," I smack her ass and push her shoulder so she's gripping the counter top.

Sliding back inside of her, we both let out a ragged moan and then I fuck her hard and fast, slipping a hand around to her clit. She's covering her mouth with her hand, behind it I can hear the muffled screams of pleasure.

Flicking her clit, I listen for that hitch in her tone. When she goes from a scream to a breathless, gasping moan that tells me I've found the right spot.

She slams her hand down on the vanity, uncovering her mouth. "Right there, Nathan."

It makes me delirious when she says my name on those pleading gasps. "Like that baby?"

"Uh huh," she gasps, sucking in sharp breaths, backing up onto me. Her fingers curl around the edge of the vanity and then I feel her tighten around my dick, her walls pulsating and her soundless moaning lets me know she's coming.

Pulling out, I pump my cock and finish all over her lower back, the hand that'd just been on her clit slides onto her hip and my thumb caresses the swell of her ass cheek.

"I need another shower, huh?" She tries to peer over her shoulder and look at the mess. I give her ass a little slap and lean over to switch the water back on.

"Yeah and I'm going to need about seven towels to clean the floor," I look at the pool of water we created when we got out of the shower. "Whatever. It can wait. Let me clean you, baby."

I love taking care of this woman after I've fucked her into a mess.