Chapter 563: A Premonition
The ’Frostie girls’ came in a flurry and left in one as well. All Autumn and Arabelle had done all day was sit and chat with the women but they were already exhausted. In the time that Gabe had gone to see them off, Arabelle had already slumped on the couch, asleep. Those women were powerhouses of energy.
Even she felt as if she’d run a marathon. She looked at Arabelle’s sideways lolling face and sighed. In a minute. In a minute, she would get up and put the girl to bed and then go to her room...The thought was left incomplete as she too fell asleep.
When Gabe returned, he saw the two of them fast asleep in their respective places and sighed. Exactly what he had expected. Those girls really were something. Quietly, he approached and gently picked up Arabelle, careful not to wake her. The little girl stirred but didn’t wake as he carried her to her room, tucking her in with care. He smiled when she curled up under the blanket and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
As he returned to the drawing room, he looked down at Autumn’s sleeping form and hesitated. She, too was asleep. But carrying her to her room would be wrong. At least she was lying comfortably so she may not have any cricks in her neck if she slept here.
Returning to his room, he fetched a blanket and carefully draped it over her. As he would have moved back, her eyes snapped open and stared at him with fear. He frowned over seeing that in her but was assured when she relaxed immediately and smiled at him softly. "Thank you for this."
He nodded but couldn’t tear his eyes away as she sat up and stretched slowly. It was something so unexpectedly and innocently seductive that he was stumped. The way she moved and her dress slipped down...
She looked up at him when he made no sound and Gabe had to immediately look away, not wanting her to feel scared of him. Little strands of her hair had come out of her hair-band, and he was reminded of what he had done the other day, gathered her hair and pulled it into the scrunchie... Maybe he should do that again...
He involuntarily moved but before he could do anything about it, she was already moving towards the stairs, slowly sliding up. His eyes traced the perfect contours of her body, lighting up with a small spark of desire before he caught himself and looked away, striding out of the house. He needed to go on a long walk or maybe boxing...
***
Upstairs, Autumn suddenly felt energized. The small nap had energized her while the walk from there to her room had gotten rid of the remnants of sleep. She looked up at the ceiling of her room, her thoughts in a whirl.
Now that she was not sleepy anymore, Nora’s words seemed to be echoing in her ear... One thing that seemed to be jumping around her head was that she had said that Gabe would not be hurt again.