Arms are wrapped around my midsection and black hair is strewn everywhere. Pepper’s breaths blow out of her mouth in short, soft bursts. She looks like a completely different person when she sleeps. Soft, innocent, sweet. I like it. It’s almost as if I’m seeing the real her. I want to touch her scars. Kiss them. I want to know where they came from. They highlight the beauty she already possesses. She stirs and I realize it’s only a moment before she wakes and the mask comes back on. “Morning, love,” I mumble groggily as she stretches her limbs next to me. She glances at the clock. Surprise etches in her features. “I haven’t slept well, let alone late, in more than a year,” she says into the early morning light as she stares at the clock. I stay quiet and hold her gently to me. “I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Sawyer but...it’s working,” she mumbles, it seems, to herself. I lean over her and brush my lips to hers.
