AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I blinked and opened and closed my mouth before I finally said, “I love the way you see me, Michael. I don’t know if it’s true, but the version of me that you see is a nice one.”
The eggs came out fluffy and light. Scrambling was so easy, and I turned off the flame, but he took the pot from me. “Go sit down. I’ll serve them.”
If he wanted to. I took my place at the counter, bemused at how much it felt like a date. We never officially sat at the table together, since we usually grabbed quick meals at the counter. I guessed neither of us were up for a whole sit-down meal yet. He put the eggs on one plate and had just one fork with him when he sat next to me. I sipped my coffee and arched my brows, but I didn’t say anything. I’d made enough eggs to feed both of us, so was he not eating or was I skipping breakfast?
Michael put some eggs on his fork and held it out to me like he wanted me to eat from it. Was he going to feed me? I leaned forward and he did just that. Then he used the same fork to feed himself. He repeated the action. I watched, sort of transfixed. It shouldn’t have been sexy but it so fucking was. He must have thought it was too, because we both leaned forward like we wanted to be closer when he did it.
His gaze held mine. Oh, yes, I really wanted him and then I didn’t want any more eggs. I pushed them aside and climbed on his lap, straddling him on the chair. He moaned and kissed me before he bunched my hair in his hands. I couldn’t get close enough to him. He was hard against me, and I ground into him just to make a point. Why were we dressed? Could we have sex right there? Please?
His phone dinged loudly, and he wrenched his head back with a gasp. “Fuck. No, it’s too early. Not time yet.” He kissed my neck. “Sorry. PT isn’t for hours. He shouldn’t be here yet.” I panted while I tried to make sense of his words. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but whatever it was, it stopped what I wanted, which was us naked.
Right the fuck now.
“He’s not due for three hours.” That’s how he answered the phone. “What? Roy, are you fucking serious?”
The mood had changed. I didn’t even know what Roy said, but sex had fled from his body. He squeezed my waist, and I got off him, understanding what he was asking me without words. He needed to get up.
I grabbed the plate and the fork we’d been eating from and placed them in the sink, running the water over them before I put them in the dishwasher. We hadn’t run it the night before, so I tossed in a pod and started the machine, just as Michael hung up with Roy.
“We have a guest arriving any second.”
Okay.“You look really unenthused about our guest.” Sounded that way, too.
“She’s a colleague. A competitor, actually. If your father had more money when he decided he needed security, you ladies would have had her and not me, in fact. She’s been around about five years longer than me, but she got out of the business overseas faster than I did. She’s smart and ruthless.”
I nodded, although I really didn’t understand. “So why is she coming here now?”
“I don’t know. Roy stopped her, but she’s insisting on coming, and she will whether I give her permission to or not. Roy’s not going to shoot her unless she becomes a threat to us, and since she’s not going to do that, he’s not scary enough to her for that to make any kind of a difference.”
To most people, Roy would be plenty scary. I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you dreading seeing her?”
“See the thing is—” The doorbell rang. “Okay.”
I didn’t know that I’d ever seen Michael as befuddled as he looked right then.He really doesn’t want to see her.
He walked to the door and opened it. “Sylvie, what are you doing here?”
He’d been friendlier to his mother and father, that was for sure. I could see her in the front door entrance with Roy right behind her. He raised his hand to wave at me just as Michael shut the door, letting Sylvie in and keeping Roy outside.Looks like Roy is in the proverbial doghouse.
The woman was stunning. Like, she could have been in those blogs and on magazine covers in New York instead of me kind of gorgeous. Long black hair fell in an ebony wave down her tall, statuesque body. Her shirt, with its spaghetti strap sleeves, showed she didn’t need a bra. They made clothes to dress someone like Sylvie. Her skirt—they’d call it a pencil type I was pretty sure—went with the shirt, and she wore heels to match the whole outfit. Surprisingly, when she looked at me, I noticed her eyes weren’t as dark as her hair and her outfit. Instead, they were a bright, glassy green.
“Michael.” She smiled and held his gaze a second too long for me to be comfortable. “I had to see you. I heard you got shot.” She walked further into the room. “And that you fled home to heal and to babysit Bridget Radford.” Sylvie sauntered over to me. “Oh look, here you are! Bridget, aren’t you adorable? All you Radford girls are, honestly. I’ve been in the same room with Layla and Hope many times.”
Why did people think that would be interesting to me? I put out my hand. “Nice to meet you.”
She shook my hand very fast and then dropped it. “Michael, I was so worried, but here you are, looking fit as a fiddle. I should have known you’d be okay and wouldn’t need nursing from me. I even brought over my stethoscope, although I guess I left it in my other skirt.”
He sighed. “What do you want?”
“Oh, ignore him, Bridget. He’s so grumpy when he’s injured. Remember that time in Barcelona? You were a bear for weeks.”
Michael rocked back on his feet. “I don’t actually particularly remember that time.”
“And look at poor Bridget! Why, she looks almost like she’s been through awar. Do you not have a brush for her here? Or some real clothes, at least?” I glanced down, because I couldn’t even remember what I wore.Oh, the yoga pants and a pink t-shirt.I wasn’t wearing a bra, either, but my breasts weren’t as impressive as Sylvie’s. I never desired a brassiere so much as I did in that moment. “Please give her something to put herself together. I left a hairdryer the last time I was here, so surely she could use that. It’s under the sink in his bathroom.”
Message received. She’d been Michael’s lover. Her stuff was here in his bathroom. Maybe she still was and that was why he looked so off about her visit. We’d discussed STDs, but I forgot to ask about relationship status. His phone constantly blew up with offers, or it had when I’d been checking it in Germany.
“Why would you leave something here, Sylvie? It’s funny, because I distinctly remember telling you not to do so.”
