C: Of course, my hands are better than anything the spa has to offer. Don’t think about me and just enjoy your day out. I’ll be waiting patiently when you are done. Miss you.

She giggled as she pushed off the table. As she walked to the next room, clutching her robe to her chest, she looked back at the masseuse and thought that even if it was a man massaging her, she wouldn’t care for it. Cage was all she wanted.

– – –

It was nearly five in the evening by the time they were done with their spa day. They had come home and decided to sleep. It was a good plan… until Katherine woke up at one-thirty in the morning. She gaped at her phone screen, seeing that she had received missed calls from not only Cage but also her parents.

Her parents went to sleep at ten sharp, so calling them wouldn’t amount to anything. Cage had a higher possibility of being awake. But if he were asleep, she would be disturbing him and he would just play along like it was nothing. He had been shooting non stop for two months and his body must have been so tired that he didn’t need her bull**.

She put the whole calling thing off until later in the morning.

She recorded more videos and edited until her eyes felt as dry as the Sahara dessert. She pulled out an eye drop from her drawer and dropped some in her eye to lubricate them. Since she started looking at the computer screen eighteen hours a day, her eyes had been protesting. She had bought protective glasses for the purpose.

But she couldn’t wear them while she was shooting. It nullified all the work the thing did in the long run. At this rate, she was going to go blind from overuse.

Finally, it was five thirty in the morning. This was the usual time Cage would get up and start his day. Katherine was hoping that he wouldn’t be irritated to start his day with her voice. In theory, he would love that. Waking up to your nagging girlfriend in real life was another thing altogether.

“You’re up early.” His was rumpled from sleep, enticing her to cuddle with him and not leave the bed. She also wanted to bite his cheek and gobble him up like a dumpling. The psychopathic tendencies needed to be toned down, that was for sure. She also wanted to do dirty things to him but he probably didn’t have the time to put up with her whims this early in the morning.

“Too early? You said you wake up around this time, so I called…” Her voice was barely over a whisper but he heard her loud and clear. She sounded apologetic and he would have none of that.

“There is nothing better than waking up to you,” he said fondly. “I do get up earlier but I set the alarm for a little later today.” He laughed, the boyish kind that made her heart tingle. He sounded a bit more awake, so she didn’t stall from the next part of the conversation.

“I slept through the evening. Sorry.” She sounded like a petulant child who had been caught doing something bad. But she hadn’t done anything bad. His warm laugh filled her ear once again.

“I got a bit worried that you ended up staying with the masseuse, so I called Lily and she told me you were in your room sound asleep. Ah, she also sent me a picture of you pouting in your sleep.” Katherine sniffed, indignant. Give it up to her friend for taking a picture when she was least attractive.

“Forget you ever saw it,” she commanded immediately.

“I think it looks wonderful.” He sighed. “Every morning when I wake up, I can look at that picture and imagine you sleeping beside me, unknown to the world and without care…” he trailed off, imagining the situation. He pressed his fingers to his lip, feeling a smile spread across them in reaction.

“Are you sure you want to see that first thing in the morning?” she asked apprehensively. “What about a nude photo of me… or me in one of your shirts again.”

“Tempting, but I want my mind clear for the rest of the day. Walking around with a raging hardon is uncomfortable to say the least,” he grumbled. “Isn’t watching you sleep considered romantic?” He scrunched in nose in confusion. He had read this in romance novels and wondered if women actually liked that.

“I feel that it is creepy. I’m already afraid to turn off the light and run to the bed, thinking that a demon will grab my foot. I don’t need someone standing at the foot of my bed and staring at me while I sleep.” She was indignant about this. Teenage romances aside, this sounded like a horror story in the making. “Now, if you were beside me on the bed and woke up before me, I would give you a pass.” That was the loophole she would allow him to have. Also, she could always set an alarm so that she woke up before him and washed up before going back to sleep. He could wake up any time and see that she was presentable.

But then she remembered how he had seen her drooling and commented that she snored. And no, she did not.

“Thank god for that. I was going to question your sanity if you thought that was romantic. We would have to re-evaluate our whole relationship,” Cage joked.

Katherine sucked in a breath, letting out an audible gasp. “What else do you not want in a girlfriend? Let me know fast. We can break it off without bad feelings,” she murmured. It was a joke but his reaction was aggravated.

“Nothing! I only want you. Don’t even think of evaluating our relationship.” There was pain in his voice. He might not have been through a tragic break up but the fear of it was enough to keep me awake at night. If it were up to him, he would never let that happen with Katherine and him.