"I know you're awake."
His voice, low and completely unbothered, lands in the quiet of the room like he has all the time in the world and finds this mildly entertaining.
I don't move.
"Gia."
I am asleep. I am practically in a coma. I am?—
The footsteps resume. Closer. And then I hear it, the sound of him beginning to undress. The quiet slide of his jacket. The soft sound of fabric.
My eyes fly open.
"Stop." I sit up so fast the room tilts. "Stop that right now."
He's standing at the foot of the bed with his jacket half off his shoulders, and he looks at me with an expression of complete composure that is somehow the most infuriating thing I have ever seen on a human face.
"There she is," he says.
"I said stop undressing."
"It's my bedroom."
"It is also currently my bedroom, and I am in it, and I am telling you to stop."
He tilts his head. The jacket comes off anyway, unhurried, like I said nothing at all, and he drapes it over the chair by the window and I watch his shoulders move under his shirt and I am furious about it.
Do not look at his shoulders. Do not look at anything. Look at the wall. Look at the ceiling. Look at literally any other surface in this room.
"Keep your distance," I say. "I'm serious. I want at least three feet of space between us at all times."
"We're married."
"Congratulations, you've identified the problem."
He looks at me. The corner of his mouth moves.
"Three feet," I say. "I mean it."
He starts on his shirt buttons.
I grab the nearest object, which turns out to be a slipper, because whoever unpacked for me apparently has a sense of humor, and I throw it at him.
He catches it.
Without looking.
One hand, out of his peripheral vision, smooth as breathing, and then he's just standing there holding my slipper with his shirt half unbuttoned and looking at me with an expression that has moved from mildly entertained to genuinely delighted.
"Did you just throw a shoe at me," he says.
"I throw what I have available."
"I'll keep that in mind." He sets it down on the chair. "Are you finished?"
"That depends on whether you're planning to respect the three feet."
He moves.
