Page 275 of Valentino

I smile. “That works.”

ANNA

The sound of the plane is a drone in the background and Valentino’s head drops forward as he fights sleep. He catches himself and sits up to rearrange in his seat, before squeezing my hand in his.

He’s exhausted, and I’m not surprised, how could he not be?

He doesn’t sleep at all. I noticed it when we were together years ago and I clocked it up to be because he was on high alert about Carlo closing in. Then I noticed it when we were in Portugal…. Strange, but I put it down to us breaking up again soon.

But when he turned up on Friday and we finally got together and made up for real, the poor man was so relieved that he slept for twenty hours straight.

Which tells me his quality of sleep is directly linked with his mental state.

He gets a maximum of three to four hours sleep a night. It’s not normal and I know he keeps telling me that the nightmares have nothing to do with it, but I call bullshit.

His eyes close again.

“Sleep, Val,” I whisper, I lean over and kiss his cheek. “I’m here, babe. I’ll watch over you.”

“I’m fine.” He puts his head back against the seat. “I don’t need you to watch over me.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about this sleep situation of yours.”

“And what have you concluded?” he murmurs, eyes still closed.

“I think you might have a sleeping disorder.” I try to remember the name of it. “Sleep apnea.” I continue to think out loud. “It’s very common and causes a number of side effects.”

A frown flashes across his face as he looks over to me. “I do not have a sleep apnea situationship.”

“I think you need to address it.”

“Trust me.” He sighs. “I do not need to address it.”

I think for a bit.

“Stop worrying about me, Anna.” He closes his eyes as he rests his head back onto the headrest. “I’m fine.”

“Okay.” I shrug. “Keep having nightmares for the rest of your life then, I don’t care.”

“Good, I will.”

“What happens when we have a baby and the baby sleeps better than you?” I ask him. “What happens then, huh? How are you going to help me if you’re more tired than I am?”

He opens one eye and then purposely shuts it to block me out. “We’ve been together four days,” he mutters dryly. “You can’t possibly be talking about babies.”

I smirk. “Maybe I am, what are you going to do about it?”

“We are not having a baby until we are married, Anna.”

I bite my lip to hold my smile, this is the first time he’s mentioned this detail.

“When will that be?” I act serious. “Do you have an estimated timeframe of those events so I can clear my schedule?”

Eyes closed, arms folded. “Let’s just…. Fucking relax, shall we?”

I giggle, he’s so fun to tease.

“Ugh.” I fake huff. “Everything is just taking so long.”