I was actually most embarrassed by my reaction to the situation. It was arousing in a way I didn’t anticipate knowing that Gabriel was pleasuring her, but not being able to see them. My body was responding accordingly.
What would it be like to have a bond with Bridget? To feel her desire, instead of just listening to it through the door? Based on how Andrew was fidgeting in his chair, it was inconveniently intense.
Thoughts like that just ramped up my apprehension for Bridget’s heat. How could I possibly stop myself from biting her if I was thinking like that?
Bridget moaned louder than ever, and my cock throbbed in response.
“Gym?” Andrew asked.
“Immediately,” I answered.
Even though we were all stacked on top of each other in an apartment that seemed to be shrinking as Bridget’s heat loomed, there were more and more things no one was mentioning.
The most pressing to me was what would happen after her heat. As I sat on the couch with her feet in my lap, the idea of not living with Bridget was unbearable. Andrew sitting next to me with her head resting on his thigh, and Gabriel telling us all about growing up in Italy to distract from her worsening cramps, seemed equally natural. Rain was pattering on the windows, adding to the sense of coziness.
“I’d love to go to Italy someday,” Bridget sighed after Gabriel finished describing long summer days spent swimming in the Mediterranean when he was a kid. “The only vacations I went on were to a resort upstate so my fathers could ski.”
“Ma certo, we will go, carissima,” Gabriel said with a smile. “I must see you in the Italian sun.”
Bridget’s answering grin turned into a yawn. It was getting late, but anxiety was keeping me wide awake.
“Bedtime,” I said, squeezing the arch of her foot.
She glared at me. “I’m capable of choosing my own bedtime.” But she undermined herself with another yawn.
“He’s right,” Andrew said. “You need to get some rest.”
“Quit ganging up on me,” Bridget said, even as she rolled up to sit.
“Oh.Ow.” She doubled over, hugging her arms around her belly. “Ugh, why are they gettingworse?”
Gabriel jumped to his feet and called over his shoulder as he disappeared into the bedroom, “I will get you more medicine.”
I rubbed her back and Andrew held her hand as she breathed through the pain.
Andrew’s phone buzzed. “About time,” he murmured. “I thought it wouldn’t get here.”
“What?” Bridget asked through gritted teeth, still rubbing her stomach.
Andrew grinned. “It’s a surprise. They were supposed to deliver it earlier today.”
“Amore, make yourself useful,” Gabriel chided as he came back into the room. “This beautiful woman needs a cup of tea and you are sitting like a statue.”
I took the opportunity to pull Bridget back into my arms for a few minutes. I hated seeing her in pain. Instinctively, I settled my hand on her lower belly and started to purr. Her answering sigh was heaven.
“Better?”
“Much,” she said.
The knock on the door made us all jump.
“What is that?” Gabriel asked.
“A delivery,” Andrew called from the hallway before we heard the scrape of the door unlocking.
“Oh wonderful, this is the right apartment,” a voice said, and Bridget stiffened in my arms.
“Cazzo,” Gabriel hissed and darted for the front door. But before he could get down the hallway, Andrew came into view, backing away from a young man holding a gun in his face. It was the same guy who had pointed one at me a week ago. Another man followed behind him, older and distinguished in a black wool peacoat. His hair and shoulders were damp from the rain outside. For one incongruous second, I wondered why it was always raining whenever I was threatened with a firearm.
