Chapter 16: No Touching

Lorena woke at two in the morning with a sour mouth and her stomach turning over.

She had stayed because it was late, and the drawings needed sorting, and the bed in the east wing was made.

She told herself those were the reasons.

She reached the bathroom just in time.

Afterward she sat on the cold tile with her back against the tub and her forehead on her knees.

A knock came at the door.

"Lorena."

"Go away."

"I heard you."

"It's the baby. It's normal. Go to bed."

The door opened anyway.

Ignacio stood there in a gray undershirt and sleep trousers.

He held a glass of water in one hand and a plate of plain crackers in the other.

"It isn't a gift," he said. "It's crackers."

She laughed, and it turned into a gag, and she put her head down again.

He set the plate on the edge of the tub.

Then he knelt behind her on the tile and gathered her hair in one hand, away from her neck.

His fingers brushed her nape.

It was a new place for him to touch, and she felt it all the way down her back.

"Breathe through your nose," he said quietly.

"I know how to be sick."

"Then I'll just hold this."

He did.

His knuckles rested against her skin, warm and still, long after she had stopped needing them.

Neither of them moved.

When she finally leaned back, her shoulders met his chest.

He was breathing fast.

She could feel his heart through his shirt, hard and quick, and it was not the heart of a man who was only being helpful.

She told herself he was tired.

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