Tessa stretched across the sheets, her hand reaching out for...not Will. For years it had been Will she had looked for upon waking, but no, this morning there was another man absent from her bed.
Strains of a violin echoed from the balcony. How had he found one so soon? Wrapping herself in the sheet, Tessa padded quietly across the plushly carpeted hotel room floor.
On the balcony, Jem stood framed by the early morning light, Tessa's iPhone in hand. The sounds of a rapid bow sprang from it, scratchy at it's highest volume on the inefficient phone speakers. But it rose above the sounds of London, already honking taxis and lorries, shouting workers returning home from the night shift. Jem looked up as she stepped onto the cold stone tile of the balcony.
"This David Garret fellow's got some talent," he said. He shifted in front of the sun, making it easier to see to see his face. Looking at her wrapped on the sheet, a blush rose under the dark marks carved into his cheek bones. Tessa felt her own skin answer in the same manner under his shy gaze. Jem's long violinist fingers flickered over the screen of the phone, pausing the song mid-chorus.
"Mastering technology already I see," Tessa said.
"It's almost like magic," Jem said, one side of his mouth quirking up in a smile. "Almost."
"Don't let Magnus catch you saying that."
Jem turned to the balcony rail, spreading his arms over it and leaning out over the city. "Yes, I've heard his opinions on it. And people accuse me of being old-fashioned."
Jem's sweater sagged between his raised shoulder blades. His body was still as thin as ever, but had lost its sickly look in favor of wiry beauty. Last night she had been shocked to see the muscles that had survived the transition to Silent Brother and back again, stronger than they had been at seventeen. Strong enough to hold her down, make her twist wildly under his modest weight...
One hand gathering the sheet to her body still, Tessa stepped forward. When she reached Jem, she wrapped her free arm around his chest and pressed her face into the valley between his shoulders where the sweater sagged. His muscles tensed her touch and his pulse pounded beneath her ear. She lightly stroked up and down his breastbone then allowed her hand to slide lower, over clenching stomach muscles to the waist band of his jeans. She had forgotten what it was like to be loved by someone, but now that she had felt it again she wanted to repeat the experience.
But Jem gently slid out of her arms. His hand gripped her phone and he looked away over the rooftops. The steeple of the Institute was just visible through the smog, jutting above all else, and his eyes locked on it.
"Did I...did I do something wrong?" Tessa asked, feeling suddenly conscious of her nakedness, both literally and figuratively.
"No, nothing," Jem said, his voice low and tight.
"Was last night...not good?"
Jem scoffed and met her eyes. "You can not seriously be asking me that."
Insecurity rose up in Tessa, something she had so rarely felt around Jem that she had no idea what to do with it. "It's been a long time for me...I'm sorry...If it wasn't...it's been since..."
"Since Will." Jem's voice was hollow, not bitter.
"Actually, no," said Tessa.
Jem raised an eyebrow.
"Don't look at me like that. It's the twenty-first century. I've evolved."
A grin crooked across Jem's face as he again looked toward the Institute. "Of that I have no doubt, Tess."
"Then what's the problem?"
"You have evolved and I...have not." Jem looked shy again, not unlike the way her sons and grandsons had looked when caught in mischief. And suddenly she realized.
"You were perfect, James."
He shook his head. "Don't lie, Tess. I was dreadful."
"It wasn't!" Tessa said, fighting the ugre to stamp her foot. If only there was a way to make him feel what she had felt, looking at his face abover her, feeling his hands running over her body.
Jem turned back to the look at the Institute. He clicked play on the iPhone again and harsh strains of violin staticked out of the speakers. "Could we discuss later?"
Her brown furrowed in concern, Tessa stared again at his shoulders. But seeing that they were not relaxing, she backed away and went inside to dress.