The Woman in the Woods (Saul Silva x OC)

Epilogue

Four months later

Saul had been awake for some time, too early for him that he tried to get back to sleep. The sun wasn't up yet but then summer was almost ending. It might be a few more minutes. He raised an arm above his head, staring at the ceiling, thinking of the day ahead. It was Saturday so there really was no reason to be up this early but his body was used to it. Five days a week he woke up at this time—why would he alter that the other two days? Besides, Sasha was also a morning person, though her schedule nowadays didn't follow a two-day weekend.

She was still sound asleep next to him, her back bare and smooth, though further down to her lower back were scars from wounds she sustained a decade and a half ago when Rosalind almost killed her. He pulled himself up so he could see her face, expressionless and fully relaxed in sleep, then he looked at the clock on the nightstand. Three minutes before six. Well, might as well wake her up.

He first kissed her shoulder, which made her eyes flutter, then planted a couple more trailing to her neck, up her jaw, her cheek. She moaned as she opened her eyes, as he went the reverse direction and was at her neck again, not stopping until she told him to. But she turned to him instead and kissed him on the lips, which was even better. Only, it was just for a second before she finally did wake up and, in a panic, asked him, "What time is it?"

"Six."

She still checked the clock as though to make sure, and breathed a sigh of relief before she glowered at him.

"Okay," he spoke first, "You told me to wake you up."

"At six-thirty!"

"It's almost six-thirty."

"It's not even six yet."

"Yeah, about that. I have an idea what we can do to pass the time." He gave her a naughty look.

She groaned but he could see her lips quirking. "I'm sleeping until six-thirty."

She shifted again to her side and pulled the blanket higher.

"Oh, really?" he said, kissing her neck again and sliding a hand past her waist, past her hip, her leg and then down the inside of her thigh before going up again, and up, and up.

She didn't go back to sleep.

///

"You're on mid-shift today, right? Why did you have to get up so early again?" Saul asked as they ate breakfast.

"It's not so early. It's only half an hour the usual time I wake up."

"But why again?"

"Because I've gotta start packing and I can't leave that for tonight."

"It's only five days you'll be away."

"Yeah, and I still need to pack."

He shrugged. It would take him an hour to pack for a five-day trip, but that was him. He was still of the mind that he should go with her, but there was school, and she wanted it to be kept a secret. She didn't want to get Bloom's hopes up in case it turned out to be nothing. The information came inadvertently when, on their visit back to her cabin, she found among the many tossed up items around the floor a half-burned picture of her aunt with a group of people, four of whom wore Dominan soldier uniforms. Whether they were Bloom's parents or not, she thought it was worth asking. In the least, they could tell her about her aunt. At the back of the photo was a year and a place. Saul wondered whether Andreas, when he was searching the house, saw this and just assumed it was useless (it was in finding Sasha). Or maybe he did send out a search party all the way there.