I Left My Husband Bleeding, and the Mob Boss Said Good novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Face to Face

Warda kept the drawing, and by Friday evening nobody in the house was listening for a car.

The last of the light came in low through the front-room window, orange on the carpet and gold on the glass.

The curtains were open.

For the first time since November, I had not drawn them.

Marwan sat in the leather armchair by the window with his sleeves rolled and a tumbler of tea going cold on the sill.

I stood in front of him in a thin white nightgown, with the housekeeper's cardigan off and my hair loose to my waist.

Upstairs, Yara slept in her own bed.

The other half of the monitor sat on the sill beside his tea, with its green light on.

"Come here," Marwan said.

"No."

"No?"

"I'm looking," I said.

He sat still and let me.

I looked at his hands, scarred across the knuckles, resting on the arms of the chair.

I looked at the burn that showed at the open collar of his shirt, and at the short black beard.

I looked at the face of a man who ate standing, who had walked into a hall of strangers with his hands open and eaten salt.

Nobody had ever let me look at them for so long.

"You're blushing," I said.

"I am not."

"Your ears."

"It's the heater," he said, and I laughed.

I stepped between his knees and put my hands on his shoulders.

I bent and kissed him.

It was slow, and it went on, and I did not hurry it.

His hands came up and rested lightly at my waist.

I stroked my thumbs along his jaw, through the beard, and his eyes closed.

"I've never had time," I said against his mouth. "I've never had a night with no one at the door."

"You have it now."

"Then undress me," I said. "Slowly. Take your time."

He gathered the hem of the nightgown in both hands and drew it up my body.

He did it slowly, an inch at a time, over my hips, over my ribs, with the backs of his fingers grazing my skin.

I lifted my arms, and it went over my head, and he dropped it on the floor.

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