章 113: Don't Be Gentle

- VANESSA -

I must have slipped into sleep, because I awake with a start when there is soft knocking on the door. One look at the clock next to the bed tells me it's after midnight, so it has to be Dom. Right? If it's not, then I don't want to answer that door—that's for sure. 

When the knocking comes again, I realize it is only three. Three knocks, just as we discussed— a succession of three. Hopefully it's not just a coincidence. 

I shuffle groggily to the door in the dark. The only light illuminating the room is from the bathroom with its door ajar. 

When I pull the door open to answer, Dom slips in and closes it behind him before taking my face in his hands and looking back and forth between my eyes like there is something there to read. The moment his touch registers, it feels like all the spikes of anxiety under my skin that have been there since he left flatten out into a calm, tranquil sea.