The Spare (18+ Only) - Noblesse Oblige #1

Chapter Eight

Hello again, lovely readers,

This chapter was hard to write, and I'm not pleased with it. The next one will be better, I promise.

With that being said, don't forget to vote if you like it, comment or follow.

Thanks for reading thus far! :)

S.S.

Chapter Eight

Isis woke up in slow degrees, languidly stretching as she did. Her eyes opened and found Leo leaning on an elbow, still as naked as she was and watching her intently.

"Good morning, wife", he said with one of his those breathtaking smiles that caused her heart to stutter briefly. She reached out impulsively to touch the ghost of a dimple in his left cheek that she hadn't noticed before. He leaned into her palm, watching her.

"Morning", she said in reply. Her hand dropped and she shifted onto her back, staring up at the gray sky of dawn revealed by the still-open dome above them.

"My mom liked to look at the stars", Leo began suddenly. She glanced at him and realized he was also looking up at the sky, though his gaze seemed distant. "She could pick out a few constellations from her reading and named us after her favorites, but she'd never been able to properly use a telescope. She died when I was fifteen from cancer."

"I'm sorry", Isis said, uncertain what else to say.

"Don't be", he replied. "I was glad when she died. I loved her, but she wasn't the best mother, and hard to love. Caelum had always been angry and bitter because she had obviously loved me more than she ever loved him, but it wasn't easy to be the one she loved best. She had always demanded much from me.

"She made me sit by her side throughout her sickness. I didn't want to watch her waste away and die, but I felt guilty when I didn't go to sit by her side, and she wouldn't let me leave for very long when she could help it when I did visit her. Day after day I sat in that hospital room, watching her suffer, and then when I finally returned home at the end of the day; it was to face Caelum's resentment and Father's sadness. We were all suffering in our own ways.

"I forced myself to be steady in those dark times – one of us had to be, and who better for the task than me? When she died I'd felt relieved. I'd helped plan the funeral and vowed I would not step foot inside a hospital again – or at least for a very long time.

"I'm not even sure if I ever mourned her properly. Maybe I did all my grieving in that hospital room." Leo shifted to face her again. "She never got to see this house."

They lay there in contemplative silence.

"My mother was wonderful", Isis said suddenly.

"Was?" he asked, curious.

"Yeah", she replied. "One day I'll tell you all about her." She slipped one of her hands in his and squeezed it briefly. He opened his mouth to say something more, but she pressed her lips against his, effectively cutting him off. She pressed him back into the soft mattress. Straddling his hips, she proceeded to make them both lose their train of thought in the best way she knew how.

Later that morning, Isis was reclining on the terrace's sectional reading a novel while Leo was still soundly asleep when she heard footsteps approaching her. She looked up and sat up immediately after spotting the two strangers headed her way.