“Sonia –”
She cut him off and her voice was still flat, so flat it sounded almost dead.
“Listen, Callum, I’m really tired, okay?”
“Baby doll –”
He stopped speaking when her body visibly tensed at his words and then he watched in grim fascination as she forced it to relax.
She rolled to look at him and Callum caught himself before he flinched.
Her eyes were as flat and dead as her voice.
What the f**k?
“I’ve been trying to get to sleep for a while and I can’t do it. I nearly drifted off before you came in so, would you mind…?”
Worry was added to those snaking thoughts tormenting him.
He cupped her jaw with his hand. Her jaw tensed under his touch but her eyes never left his.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she answered immediately. “Like I said, I’m just really tired.”
She was lying.
He pulled her from under the hides into his arms and sat in the bed, back to the headboard, Sonia in his lap.
This felt better, tremendously better. Sonia in his lap, her body against his, her scent all around.
“Right,” he said when his mind had finally settled. “Now, the truth this time. Tell me what’s the matter.”
She was looking at him but her eyes stayed flat, emotionless. Not blank, like they were when he told her she had to take her injection but lifeless.
“Sonia –” he started, that fear edging back in but she interrupted him.
“Do you really want to know?” she asked as if she doubted that he really would.
“Of course I f**king want to know,” he replied, beginning to lose patience.
“All right, Callum, I’ll tell you,” she stated. “I miss them all the time but sometimes, I miss them more and tonight, I miss them loads. That’s what’s the matter. That’s why I can’t sleep.”
She was talking about her parents and he wasn’t surprised her manner was listless. It was a defense mechanism, like her eyes going blank before getting the injection.
Missing her parents had to be worse, even than that f**king injection.
He slid a hand in her hair and pressed her cheek to his chest saying, “Honey.”
“You should know, this happens a lot,” she told his chest matter-of-factly.
“That’s okay.”
“If I have trouble sleeping, I’ll find another room so I won’t disturb you.”
His fingers gripped her head and he said, “That’s not okay.”
“I like this room but really I don’t mind.”