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I wrapped my legs around him and drew him tighter inside of me. I wouldn’t lose him.The universe can’tbe that cruel to us. He pressed in and out of me several times in rapid succession, and quickly I was coming. It was fast—stunningly quick for both of us—but I’d never stopped being wound up from earlier. It felt somehow different than the other times, like he looked for a connection with me. Needed it. We trembled with wanting to hold onto each other.
I kissed him when he came, reveling in the stark vulnerability on his strong face.
“Don’t lock doors on me, Bridget. Please don’t.”
Michael rolled me over and soon we were back under his covers, wound up in each other.This might be my favorite place on earth. Right there, in Michael’s dark room, under his covers, like they willcocoon both of us forever.
13
Morning always came, whether I wanted it to or not. Although we fell asleep around midnight, I didn’t stay that way. By one in the morning, I stared at the ceiling. Despite his proclamation that all would be fine, he had a nightmare about an hour after I woke up. He cried out just a little bit, softly, like he was scared. I wasn’t sure if he even realized that he made the noise.
I rubbed his hair out of his face and kissed his cheek gently, which roused him just enough to stop the nightmare. He pulled me closer and fell back asleep immediately. Did I need to consider his bad dream as a confession he carried more stress than he admitted? Or were the two things completely unrelated, because he regularly had those dreams, and I’d just slept through them so far? I didn’t know.
Those questions would wait for another day because I wasn’t reminding him of nightmares when he woke up. His alarm went off at six, and he rolled over fast, turning it off. He sat right up and then placed a comforting hand on my back.
“I tried to get it off before you woke. Sorry.”
I shook my head. “I’ve been up for five hours.”
He pulled me into his arms. “You should have woken me. We could have been up together, made love. I bet I could have gotten you back to sleep.”
I smoothed my finger down his nose. “That’s not your job. You needed sleep for what you have to do today. I don’t need to sleep to sit here and obsess.” I got out of bed. “I’m going to make you some coffee.”
He grabbed my arm. “Bridget, it will be okay today. I know you don’t have faith in my plans, especially since you’ve seen both me and Hope get shot. But believe it or not, I actually have a long history of these things going really well.”
I took his hand and brought it to my mouth, kissing his palm. “You had to rush in to save me. Hope’s plan was always going to be a problem, and she forced your hand to do it. Also, I saw you save Layla. I have no doubt you can get this done. I’m just nervous. I get to be nervous. You can’t talk me out of this one.”
He stared at me for a long moment and then nodded. “Okay.”
“You might want to reconsider being in love with me, Michael.” I called over my shoulder as I exited the room. “I might not be cut out to have a long-term relationship with a man who has a dangerous job. I might be like this every time you leave the house.”
Michael laughed, shouting after me. “Most of my job involves watching people do very boring things like I did the other night. I’m not reconsidering anything, Ms. Radford.”
I made his coffee and started on breakfast. I decided on French toast. Why not give him some sugar to take with him? Start his morning off sweet…
He came in, dressed like an ordinary day, but he passed by me to unlock a large armoire in the corner of the living room. I hadn’t really noted it before, but as he flipped open the doors, I blinked in surprise.Wow, that’s a lot of guns.
“You’d be a good person to have around in a zombie apocalypse.”
He looked over his shoulder. “No, actually. Bullets run out. I don’t have the real survival stuff here, like machetes and things like that.”
I shrugged. “I maintain you’d still be great to have around in a zombie apocalypse. I, by contrast, would have a real problem. What do I know about survival skills?”
He tossed me a smile as he closed the armoire. “You know how to fire a gun, Bridge. You learned when you were eighteen. You can survive some things, and you already have survived more than most. I have no doubt you would figure out how to get around the zombies. In fact, you’d probably have a map pinpointing zombie locations and predicting their movements for the next year. The government would pay you.”
I kind of loved him playing silly hypotheticals with me. “Come, sit down and eat,” I ordered.
“Sure.” He came over, kissing me on the cheek before he sat. “You don’t have to make breakfast every morning. I can do it sometimes for you. Tomorrow, I’ll make something.”
I wrapped my arms around his midsection, avoiding his shoulder as best I could. “I like to make you breakfast. I didn’t think that I was the kind of girl who would ever want to do that for a man, but I like feeding you, okay? So let me make breakfast, and you just keep liking it.”
He leaned his head against my arm. “Okay.”
“I’ll clean up after the poker game, too, since that was my idea.” Before he could argue with me, I poured him coffee. The morning routine felt so normal. I’d hang onto normal until he returned.Then we can have more normal.That was what I wanted with Michael Li. Lots and lots of normal mornings.
He wanted to make plans. Would he want that with me?
Michael cupped my chin. “We’re going out on my motorcycle tonight.”
