Chapter 21: After

The hotel room was on the eleventh floor, with a view of the river and a bed the size of a small country.

Cass had booked it, and left a key at the front desk, and a note that said, DON'T THANK ME. DRINK WATER.

It was past one in the morning.

Priya stood at the window in her blue dress with her shoes in her hand, and she did not turn around when I came in.

"My mother talked to me for two hours," she said. "My father made tea. I think he's happier than he has ever been, and I don't understand."

"He's proud of you."

"I know." Her shoulders began to shake. "That's why I can't stop."

I put down the bag and crossed the carpet.

I stood behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, and she sagged back against me and cried.

She cried, in great helpless sobs, with her whole chest, and I held on and said nothing.

I kissed her hair.

I kissed her temple, and her wet cheek, and the corner of her eye.

When it slowed, I turned her around and pulled the pins from her hair, one at a time, and set them on the sill.

"Let me take care of you," I said.

"I don't want to be taken care of. I've been taken care of my whole life."

"Then let me take care of you the way you like it."

She looked at me, red-eyed.

"Slowly?"

"Very slowly."

I undressed her.

It took a long time, because I would not hurry.

I unzipped the blue dress and let it fall, and I folded it over the chair.

I kissed her shoulder where the strap had been.

I took off her slip, and her bra, and her glasses, and I held the glasses a moment before I set them down.

I drew back the sheets, and she lay down on the huge white bed.

I took off my own clothes in the lamplight with her watching.

She watched my hands, and my forearms with the swallows, and my body.

When I got in beside her, she turned toward me and slid her arm under my neck.

We kissed for a long time.

There was no hurry in it at all, no rule, no counting.

I stroked her side from ribs to hip, and I felt her sigh against my mouth.

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