[h2]Esme[/h2]
As Esme lay on the bed, with her arms still over her face, she listened to Duke come into the room and shut the door behind him. When he didn’t immediately come over to the bed, she grew a bit worried but still couldn’t bring herself to look over at him. When she heard his boots hit the floor and his hat land on the dresser, she figured he was getting dressed and would maybe walk back out giving her space when he was done. She wouldn’t have thought anything of it if that was what he would have done, but he didn’t. He stood at the end of the bed, she could feel his presence there and heard his deep breath to calm his nerves. She had made him nervous to come near her after everything that happened outside. Concentrating, to push past the shield Sarah caused, she could feel his nervousness, and it made her sick to her stomach. She didn’t want him to ever be nervous to approach her after one of her little episodes, which she hadn’t had in some time. She wanted to hide away from him more than ever now.

She then felt the mattress dip as Duke crawled onto the mattress, then all the way up until he was next to her. It was strange witnessing him be so careful as if he was afraid she would go off on him again. She didn’t have it in her to go off on him again, and she was still kicking herself for going about it the way she did. When he took hold of her wrist, her heart sped up. The gentleness of his touch started to break her out of her makeshift walls. She didn’t fight against him when he pulled her hand to his lips to kiss her knuckles after he spoke. Duke’s light teasing and making sure she could feel his smile, caused an ever-so-slight smile to tug at the corners of her mouth. With him acting like this, she was finding it difficult to keep up her shield. Plus, it wasn’t him that needed to apologize, it was her. She was the one that needed to apologize to him for her actions outside. Calling her Sweet Pea was what did her in, she could no longer lay there without looking at him, especially with how sweet and gentle he was being. 

Esme slowly pulled her arm from her face to see he was reaching for her other hand. Without thinking, she placed her hand within his, then looked up at him. She then forced herself to sit up and looked into his blue eyes, so she could talk to him, her eyes shifting between his as she looked at him. “Duke, I’m s….” she dropped her head and looked at their hands. “I’m sorry for the way I acted out there.” She then lifted her head to look at him, then looked over at his hat on the dresser. “In less than an hour, I became a completely different person. I blew on you over the bounty hunter idea. Then when I went and talked to Cason, I used blackmail to get him to help us find Anna.” She then dropped her head and shook it with a heavy sigh. “That’s not me. I don’t blackmail those that have helped me or are a part of the group I’m in.” she rambled to him. “I’m honestly surprised you’re even here next to me after I bit your head off. I’ve been a real bitch this morning.”