Maybe one or two more chapters after this. PLEASE REVIEW!!! Much love, Cat.

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Anya got into bed, the overlarge gray nightshirt sliding abrasively, but oddly comfortingly against her skin. It offered her protection, both from the cold and from the concerns that had been gnawing at her ever since she agreed to share a bed with him. She shifted in the bed and pulled the covers up around her until she was safely ensconced in a cocoon of blankets, a mound of which lay between her and Dimitri's makeshift bed.

The door opened and the very man who had been plaguing her thoughts all evening walked in. And proceeded to take off his shirt.

Previously she had averted her eyes when he was changing as she ordered him to do for her, but tonight she found herself fascinated by the movement of his lean body, the muscles contracting and relaxing as he lifted the shirt over his head and tossed it in the receptacle they used for clothes that needed to be washed. She waited but he didn't don the soft cotton undershirt he usually wore with his trousers to bed.

Seeing her gaze on him and guessing the direction of her thoughts he shrugged. "I don't have anything clean since you've taken to wearing my nightshirts to bed," he said simply.

Anya's eyes widened. Suddenly the comforting woodsy, fresh scent of the nightshirt she wore seemed to become overwhelming masculine and raw wrapping around her and clinging to her skin like a lover's caress in a way that was far from comforting.

"Oh," she replied. "Just...be sure to stay on your side," she commanded.

He frowned then rolled his eyes and settled himself on the chest, pulling the blankets over himself. "As if I would want to...," he mumbled to himself, his voice trailing off as he turned his back to her so she couldn't catch the end of his sentence.

Nevertheless she chose to be offended and turned her back to him, determined not to care what he thought. Her rebellious mind unhelpfully supplied an image of his surprisingly broad shoulders and she felt oddly incomplete and for a moment, wished those strong arms were wrapped around her as they had been last night when he held her as she cried and made her feel more protected and loved that she could ever remember being. Obviously lack of companionship was beginning to fill her mind with sentimental rubbish. Obviously...