After it was over, Nathan left quietly.
Julia remained behind, wrapped in the heavy warmth of the bed, left alone with the slow, inevitable moment when sleep would claim her and reality would follow when she woke. He did not wake her, did not offer farewell words. After all she wasn't someone really bold to begin with.
Truthfully, Nathan hadn't expected Julia to be so bold.
He knew he had earned her affection—he wasn't blind to the way she looked at him, the way her presence subtly shifted whenever he entered the room—but he had never imagined she would go so far as to bare herself so completely, to offer herself without hesitation, without fear. Her resolve had surprised him, and perhaps, in a way, impressed him.
Still, when the moment came, Nathan accepted her.
He always did.
After all, he had never been the type to reject a woman he genuinely liked.
