Upon hearing his words, her expression softened and warmed once more. For a brief moment, she blinked rapidly and averted her gaze before looking back at his face. She tilted her head slightly, and a radiant smile flickered across her dark, glossy lips.
"I still find it hard to adjust to the new Damien Morreti - so much has changed in the last three or four years."
She paused briefly as she observed more recorded images of her daughter Ciara on his PDA. In silence, they both watched the young Ciara, her tiny pink hands attempting to grasp Fiorella's long, slender fingers, all the while wearing an expression of pure curiosity in her blue eyes - a trait inherited from both of her parents. Fiorella closed her eyes and rested her head against his shoulder.
He could feel the foreign, alien presence in his mind once again. As in previous instances, it was an indescribable and elusive sensation, as if his brain were attempting to process a perception for which it had no proper centres. He felt countless fine, black, and glossy fibers painlessly infiltrating his being, permeating him.
His head and mind grew heavy as he was forced to process more sensations than he was accustomed to. How much of the world, how many 'realities' might be hidden from him? How might his lover see, perceive him? Was she observing something about him that he himself was not aware of?
The thread of his thoughts was broken by a gentle, cautious tickling around his left middle finger. It was the touch of something infinitely soft and pleasantly warm. Five delicate touches in succession, tentatively coiling around his finger.
