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Breathing heavily, I gently stroked her back and noticed the trembling of her delicate body.

"Are you okay?" I whispered softly in her ear and she immediately nodded before snuggling her body even closer to me.

"It was wonderful," she mumbled breathlessly against the skin of my neck, sending pleasant goosebumps down my arms.

How I would have loved to just sit there with her for hours. Tightly hugged and completely familiar, but I was beginning to worry more and more about how little she had eaten and drunk in the past few days.

"Butterfly?" I breathed softly and pulled away from her slightly, but she immediately looked at me pleadingly, causing my heart to contract painfully. Her pleading expression made me weak and it was almost impossible for me to detach myself from her any further.

But I did it for her love.

"Come on. You have to eat something and a shower would do us good too. What do you think of that?"

I stroked her warm cheek gently and savored it as she nuzzled her face in my hand for comfort while her eyes locked on mine.

"Do you cook?" she asked, and I raised an eyebrow, fascinated by her thoughts.

"Would you like me to cook us something?"

She nodded smiling and gave me a gentle kiss on my cheek while wrapping her arms tightly around my neck.

"We should cook together and shower together."

A satisfied smile lay over her words on my lips and very carefully I lifted her off my legs to stand up myself.

"Together sounds good," I told her with a smile and quickly ran to my pants to find my cell phone. "Tell me what you want to eat. I'll write to Hector. He'll bring us everything we need to cook."

She immediately stood up and came close to my back, laying her face on the side of it and wrapping her arms around me.

I never realized how good closeness could feel. Seen from the outside, it was definitely just a hug, but it triggered so many things in me that my thoughts completely drifted away and for a moment I forgot everything around me.

It was so familiar, so intimate, so intense...

"What do you think of pancakes?" Her soft voice broke through the room and immediately I turned around in her arms and looked down at her confused.

"Pancakes?"

"Yeah," she smiled, and it hurt me to see the sudden wistfulness in her eyes. "When I was little, my mother used to make me pancakes when I was scared of something. We talked about it and somehow everything was fine quickly. She used it to drive away the bad thoughts."

Her mind drifted off and she just stared past me, and I immediately single-handedly wrote Hector a note to bring all the ingredients for the pancakes, as well as some fruit.

When I got an ok back from him, I threw my phone on the couch behind me and gently cupped her face in my hands, causing her to immediately look up at me questioningly.

"You never have to be afraid of anything again. I promise you. I'll be there," I said more honestly than ever and then kissed her still slightly sweaty forehead.

"It's not that I'm scared of something that's going to happen," she retorted and, taking a deep breath, pulled away from me to walk naked as God made her to the bathroom door, where she stopped in the doorway. "I'm scared of what I've done and what I'm capable of, Emilio."

She only glanced over at me and then quickly disappeared into the bathroom as if she was ashamed of what she had said, but she didn't need to be ashamed. In fact, I think she should be proud of what she had done.

Who knows how many women Carlos would have gotten too close to. She had taken the life of a man who didn't deserve it any other way and I hoped she would understand and accept that as soon as possible.

"Are you coming?" she suddenly called and I also heard the water running in the shower at the same time, which of course made me grin dirty.

But it was only supposed to be a shower, because my body was also slowly needing something to eat and rest, which we both really deserved.

"Have you always lived like this?" she asked bluntly as I stepped into the bathroom and could barely take my eyes off her body, but I pulled myself together and just looked at her face as I leaned in close to her cabin and enjoyed the warm water on my body.

"Depends on what you mean by that," I replied, looking down at her while her eyes rested on my torso and she bit her lip with relish.

She was really good at provoking!

"Well, storming into strangers' apartments at night. Women bring their handbags back and take a shower and bake pancakes with them."

I had to laugh at how sweetly she said it all, which probably irritated her a little...

"No, definitely not. This is all new to me," I said honestly and then reached for the hair shampoo to put something on my hand.

"I'm glad," she whispered and I grinned and rolled her around on her shoulder so that her back was to me and I could soap her hair.

"And what exactly makes you happy, butterfly?"

"Well," she breathed, shrugging, and I could tell from the sound of her voice alone how she seemed to enjoy my light massage of her head. "You gave me my first time and I'm glad that I gave you some first times as well."

She glanced back at me over her shoulder and smiled so sweetly that I really had to be careful not to lose all of my manhood. With her, I was kind of like a teenager drooling and staring at the hottest girl in school. But I liked it. I didn't have to be the bad guy with her. I didn't have to make it hard with her and I didn't want to either. I enjoyed finally being able to live out my gentle, calm side, which I thought my father had completely destroyed for so long...

"Then I'm sure you'll be happy that I'm washing the hair of a beautiful girl for the first time," I whispered into her ear and immediately marveled at the goosebumps that covered her neck from my words...

Was it really love at first sight? If so, then I had found her and she felt so much better than the stories about it would have you believe.