His self-confidence hadn’t flagged when he woke up the following morning. He tossed back the covers and for a second, intended to swing his legs over the edge of the bed and do some exercises as he had done every morning of his adult life until his accident.

With the return of awareness there usually came a depression too. This morning, however, he smiled and willed away that depression.

He was invincible. He could do anything. He had successfully made love to a woman. The return of his ual facility was only the beginning. He would soon be able to walk. Then to run. And it was all because of the woman lying beside him. A woman that challenged him in every way and made him feel like a man again.

With a fond smile, he turned his head and was disappointed to see that Sky was no longer there. All night they had remained coiled together on the narrow hospital bed. The pillow bore the imprint of her head, the sheets the scent of her body but sometime in the wee hours of the morning, after he’d finally fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion, she had evidently sneaked back to her own room.

Jiyong laughed to himself. If she had done that for Daesung’s benefit, she was wasting her time. Weeks ago, Daesung had dispensed some unsolicited advice, telling him that he should ‘Keep Skyler in bed. Make love all day. Then she would be so wired up.”

Jiyong laughed again, this time out loud, thinking about all the times last night when Skyler had opened to speak only to have it stoppered by one of his kisses. Frequentl he had kissed her into silence. Or near silence.

She made that little catchy sound in that never failed to around him. Just thinking about it made the blood in his little dragon grow thick and warm. As for being wild, she was a tigress of a lover. When , she purred. When excited, she snarled. God forbid that she ever be tamed.

Skyler a , he thought, chuckling and shaking his head in patent disbelief.

He worked his shorts up his legs. Wearing nothing more, he hoisted himself into his chair. He didn’t even have to think about the movements anymore. They had gone from seemingly impossible to second nature under Skyler’s incessant instructions. Often he had wanted to banish her from the planet when she nagged him to do one more despised exercise. Now he was grateful for her dictatorship. Look at all she’d done for him.

When he entered the hall, he glanced at her door and saw that it was closed. He aimed his chair in the opposite direction, towards the elevator and rode it down to the first floor. Daesung wasn’t in the kitchen.

“Crafty little Daesung,” Jiyong muttered with a smile. Daesung was giving them plenty of time alone together. Jiyong wouldn’t be surprised if Skyler had arranged that too.

He made coffee and put it on a tray with two cups and two Danish. Breakfast in bed. Once they’d disposed of the coffee and Danish, he’d have his dessert. Skyler.

He was roused from his fantasy by his own groan of desire. His thoughts had turned deliciously dirty. It felt so damn good to plan a seduction that he knew he could consummate.

After a hasty trip outside to the terrace to pick a giant red hibiscus bloom that would look great in Skyler’s hair, among other places on her body, he placed the tray on his lap and returned upstairs. He didn’t knock on her bedroom door but backed his chair against it and turned the knob.

When he wheeled around, wearing the idiotic grin of the drastically smitten, he was met with a disappointment equivalent to a deathblow.

No Skyler. No evidence of Skyler. No evidence that Skyler had ever existed.

The room was as spotlessly sterile as the day she had moved in. The bedspread had nary a wrinkle. There wasn’t an assortment of sandals scattered across the carpet; no lacy lingerie dripping out of open drawer. The air bore the odor of desertion, not the scent of perfume. There was no array of cosmetics and loose pieces of jewelry littering on the dresser top smooth, polished surface. Jiyong knew without looking that the closet would be empty too. The room was absent life, absent of Skyler.

His roar of outrage had origins in his gut. It rumbled inside his chest, gaining impetus and echoed through the empty house like a night cry in the jungle. It was punctuated by the crash of hot coffee striking the far wall.

A/n: Okay. I shall be cruel and end the story here. Or not! But that will be update for today. ^^ Hope you enjoyed the journey so far!