Luckily for Charlie, no one in rebel headquarters seemed to have noticed that she had come back early the night before. Or if they did, they at least didn't mention it to her which was a relief within itself.
Unfortunately, when it came time for her nightly visit to Connor, Charlie was still exhausted and sleep-deprived from the night before.
Once again, Charlie found herself alone in Connor's room as she waited for him to get back.
This time she decided to lie down as she waited, figuring that she may as well make herself comfortable as she waited.
Connor was later than usual and after an hour of waiting for him, Charlie drifted off to sleep.
By the time that Connor finally headed back to his room, he was beyond exhausted from the long day he'd had. As he walked through the hallways, he wondered to himself whether Charlie would be back again or not.
She had disappeared in the middle of the night before and he had woken up to find her missing for the first time since he had met her. He wasn't sure of why she had snuck out or what it had meant, but he did know that he had been surprisingly disappointed to find that she was gone.
As Connor walked through the doorway of his room, he smiled to himself at what he found.
There she was, lying curled up on top of the covers and fast asleep. He must really be back late then.
Connor approached the bed slowly, trying to remain as quiet as possible, before stopping next to Charlie, who had goose bumps standing out on the flesh of her arms.
He brushed a loose strand of hair that had fallen over her face out of the way before he carefully bent down to lift her up, being careful not to wake her as he did so.
Once she was in his arms, he shifted so that he held her against his chest with one arm as his other pulled the covers back. He then gently placed her back down on the bed, setting her head down on the pillow, before pulling the covers back up to tuck her in.
He walked around the bed and sat down on the other side, then kicked his shoes off before reaching to unfasten the buttons on his shirt.
Once he had stripped off enough clothes to be suitably dressed for sleeping, Connor pressed his lips to Charlie's forehead before crawling into bed to get some much needed sleep himself.
When Charlie woke up the next morning, she was first surprised to find that she had fallen asleep while waiting. Next, she was surprised when she realized that it was already light out. That meant that it was morning and Connor must have already come back.
Charlie blinked a few times to try and wake up a little more before she moved to sit up, only to find a whole new set of surprises.
Connor was nowhere to be seen, but she now realized that she was under the covers which she was certain she had been waiting lying on top of.
Charlie looked down at the bed in confusion and that's when she spotted it out of the corner of her eye.
There, sitting on top of Connor's pillow, was a folded up piece of paper that was being held down by two pouches of diamonds.
Charlie understood that one of them was for the night that she had left while he was asleep without having been paid yet. What she didn't understand was why she seemed to be getting paid for falling asleep. She also didn't particularly understand why Connor hadn't just woke her up when he had gotten back.
She slowly moved the pouches out of the way before hesitantly picking up the piece of paper. She was dreading finding out what was written on it.
You were asleep when I got here and looked like you could use the rest. I didn't want to wake you. See you tonight.
Charlie felt a surge of anger as she balled her hand into a fist, crumpling the note within it.
This was not how things were supposed to go... Charlie was supposed to be just a whore to Connor, nothing more⦠He wasn't supposed to be letting her sleep or tucking her in or leaving her notes on his pillow when she was still sleeping as he left.
Why did he have to make everything so much more complicated for her? She already had enough to worry about without this.
"Here's the pay for the last couple of nights," Charlie commented as she handed the pouches of diamonds over to Nora.
Nora could sense that there was something off with the other woman, but she couldn't put her finger on what exactly that something was.
"You alright, Charlie?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Charlie told her.
"Are you sure?" Nora checked.
"Positive," Charlie lied.
Charlie felt an ever-growing pit of dread in her gut as she waited in Connor's room.
This time, she didn't have to wait long, since he arrived at the door mere minutes after she had.
She definitely was not in any mood for talking, so she decided to try and prevent any attempts on his behalf by sliding her dress off of her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor.
It wasn't anything that Connor hadn't seen before, yet a huge grin still formed on his lips as she did so.
Charlie closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his neck as she brought her lips to his, mostly just so that she wouldn't have to see him looking at her like that anymore. Charlie's guilt was at an all-time high, but she had a job to do and she couldn't let that show.
Connor grabbed her by the legs to lift her up and Charlie's legs instinctively wrapped around his waist. She forced herself to smile against his lips at that as she tightened her arms around him even further, pulling herself as close to him as possible.
"Where are you going?" Connor questioned as Charlie got out of bed.
Charlie forced herself to smile over at him as she teased, "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"You should stay over tonight," he commented as he watched her grab her clothes up off of the floor. "I missed you the other night."
"You were asleep when I left," Charlie pointed out as she got began to get dressed. "You didn't even notice that I was gone until morning."
"I like waking up with you here," he admitted with a gut-wrenching smile.
"I'm not your girlfriend, Connor," Charlie insisted while keeping her tone as playful as possible. She knew she was walking a very thin line here. "And I don't do the girlfriend experience. My job here's done for the night."
She saw his face fall and quickly turned away. That was something she couldn't stand to watch right then, so instead she just headed for the door without waiting for his response.
A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out micha, bbp23, Loveforthestory, rita, and Procrastinatinggenius for leaving reviews on last chapter! :)
