Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Chapter 4

The next morning I packed up all my things and checked out of my hotel, hailing a cab to Gabriella's apartment. When I pressed the buzzer to be let in to the building, Nathan was the one to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Nathan, it's Troy. Can I come up?"

"Hey, come on up."

Troy heard the door unlock and grabbed his suitcase, walking in and taking the elevator up to Gabriella's floor. He knocked on the door and once again, Nathan answered.

"Hey, Troy. Come on in. Gabi's not up yet."

I looked at my watch. It was already 8:45. "Okay…where's her room? I'll go see about getting her up. I know she'll want some time with you before you leave today."

Nathan smiled and pointed in the direction of hallway. "First room on the right. She loves her sleep, so beware. She may be a bear if you wake her up."

I laughed and nodded, setting my suitcase inside the door and heading in the direction of Gabriella's room. I slowly opened the door and quietly stepped in the room, shutting the door behind me before walking over to the bed and gently sitting on the edge next to her. I reached out and gently rubbed the back of my hand across her cheek. She was beautiful when she was sleeping. I could watch her all day like this. Her eyelids began to flutter as I kept up my contact with her. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked over at me. A smile slowly appeared on her face and she reached up to wrap her hand around mine that was still rubbing her cheek.

"Good morning, beautiful."

"Mmm…good morning," she said as she stretched in the bed, her blankets slowly uncovering her and allowing me to appreciate her appearance. She was wearing a light blue, satin nightgown with a low-cut neckline. "What time is it?" she asked as she yawned.

I looked over at the clock on her nightstand. "8:50. You said to come over whenever and I couldn't wait to see you."

She smiled. "How long have you been here?"

"I just got here. I came straight in here after Nathan told me you were still asleep. I knew you'd be upset if you slept the entire morning away and didn't get to spend a little more time with him before he left."

"You think of everything, don't you Troy? That's something I love about you…always caring about the needs of others before yourself."

"Mainly just you. I do love you and I didn't want you to be upset all week for not spending more time with him, especially since it's partially my fault in the first place for randomly showing up."

She sat up in bed and wrapped her arms around my neck. "Don't you dare start feeling guilty for surprising me this weekend. I wouldn't have it any other way."

In the process of her sitting up, more of her nightgown had become visible and she looked absolutely irresistible.

"Baby, you should probably change and I should probably get out of here before I decide to stay and ravish you."

She blushed, but let out a low moan. "Well since it can't happen now, I'm holding you to that before the week is out." She winked at me as she got up and walked into her bathroom shutting the door.

I let out a groan. The things she did to me….

I got up and left the room to go find Nathan. I found him the kitchen.

"She's up," I told him as I walked in.

He smiled. "How bad was it? Did she bite your head off?"

We both laughed at that as I thought about waking her up. "No, actually she wasn't bad at all."

Nathan looked at me skeptically. "Really? Are we talking about the same girl?" He laughed. "I remember she used to be awful to wake up. There were several times she tried to cause physical harm. I eventually learned my lesson and just started leaving her alone unless she absolutely had to get up." He paused for a moment, just looking at me. "She must really like you, man. But I will say, you hurt her and you'll have me to answer to. She's a special woman."

"I have no plan on ever hurting her…not intentionally anyway." I paused and looked at the ground for a moment before looking back up. "I love her, Nathan, and I know this whole long distance thing is hard, but we plan on making it work somehow. We're going to have to work hard at it, but I'm willing to put all my effort into it as long as she is."

Nathan nodded and smiled. "Good to hear. She's like my little sister and I'm extremely protective of her. I've seen her get hurt numerous times and I just don't want to see it happen anymore. She's been through enough pain already to last her a lifetime. I just want to see her happy for once."

I nodded my head, not saying anything. I was a little confused by what he had said about Gabriella having gone through enough pain already. What was he referring to? I knew there were still things I needed to learn about Gabriella's past, but those were areas she hadn't opened up to me about yet. But I wanted to get to know her better and find out about the things that had made her into the woman she was today.

I heard Gabriella enter the room behind me.

"Hey, guys," she said, coming in and giving Nathan a quick hug before walking over to me and wrapping her arms around me, looking back and forth between us. "What are you talking about?"

"You," Nathan said, a cheeky smile on his face.

"Oh great…" she said, letting out a giggle.

"Nothing bad, I promise, baby," I said, placing a light kiss to the side of her head.

After that, Gabriella threw a few things together for breakfast while I continued to talk with Nathan and got to know him. He actually seemed like a nice guy. He left Gabriella's apartment a little before 11 to head to the airport.

Gabriella and I had the rest of the day to ourselves. I couldn't have been happier to be able to hold her in my arms and not have a time limit and worry about watching the clock for when she needed to leave. We ventured out into the city and she took me to a few places near her apartment. We also visited Times Square and walked around for a while before finally heading back to her apartment.

We ordered Chinese for dinner before settling down to watch a movie together. Later when we had decided to head to bed, I got settled in the bed in just my boxers while Gabriella was in the bathroom changing. A few minutes later, she came out dressed in a red satin and black lace-trimmed nightgown that hit her about mid-thigh. I thought she was sexy before, but seeing her in that made me absolutely speechless. She slowly walked over to the bed, crawling in next to me as I kept my eyes on her.

"Troy? You're drooling."

I snapped out of my trance and wiped my chin where I had in fact been drooling on myself. "God, baby, you look absolutely irresistible in that. How many of those nightgowns am I going to get to see this week?"

She giggled. "As many as you'd like," she whispered as she leaned over and placed a lingering kiss against my lips. She started to pull away but I reached up and pulled her closer, initiating another kiss. I slowly leaned into her, pushing her to lay back on the bed with me hovering over her. I eventually broke the kiss for air, but continued my kisses down her jaw and neck, stopping just behind her ear. I could tell her breathing was becoming labored.

Later as we lay in bed, clothes having been shed in the time that had passed, we tried to steady our breaths. We laid in silence as I thought back to what Nathan had told me that morning.

"Gabriella?" I asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace that had come over the room.

"Hmm?" she mumbled, her eyes closed as she laid her head against my chest.

"Can we maybe talk about something?" My voice was shaky as I asked her. I was nervous to ask her. I wanted to know what Nathan was talking about, but I was afraid to pry, afraid Gabriella wasn't ready to talk about it.

She must have sensed my nervousness or the seriousness of the matter because she sat up a little and looked at me. "Yeah. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, or at least I hope it's nothing. It's just…Nathan made a comment this morning that made me curious…"

She frowned at me. "What did he say?"

"He just said that you've been through a lot of pain in your lifetime. What did he mean by that? What's happened in the past?" I felt Gabriella tense up as she moved out of my embrace and sat up on the edge of the bed. "Gabriella?" I asked quietly. I sat up and reached to rub her shoulders, moving closer to her. I looked around and noticed she had tears coursing down her cheeks. "Baby, I'm so sorry. I'm not trying to pry. If you're not comfortable talking about it, I understand. I was just confused, that's all."

She shook her head, her voice shaky as she finally spoke up. "No, you have every right to ask. You deserve to know. It's not that I don't trust you to tell you…I've just never told anyone. Nathan only knows about my past because he was there."

I nodded my head. "Just know that when you want to talk, I'm here. I'll listen. I love you, Baby."

She turned around and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I love you, too, Troy…so much. And I want to talk to you about it."

Nothing could have prepared me for all that Gabriella was about to confide in me.

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