Page 63 of Love, Always and Forever
Chapter 19
This was the second night she’d spent in Misha’s arms, but this time was different. For one thing, they’d done so much more than accidently doze off on the couch. Not really knowing what the etiquette was for the morning after the night before, Amy kept her eyes closed and tried her best to fake being asleep. It wasn’t that she didn’t like waking up naked with Misha’s powerful body wrapped around hers, his arm holding her tight against his chest, and his erection pressed against her bottom.
Evidently he wasn’t buying her act. He gave her a quick squeeze as his deep voice rumbled “Good morning” right by her ear, his breath tickling her neck.
“Good morning right back at you.”
She twisted her head to blink sleepily at her lover. Wow, what an amazing concept that was. The man looked delicious with his hair all rumpled and his jaw shadowed with a sexy hint of whiskers while she suspected she had a bad case of bed head. When he kissed the top of her shoulder, she shivered as he nibbled his way across the pulse point at her throat.
But then he abruptly stopped and murmured, “Hold that thought.”
He rolled over to sit up on the edge of the bed, leaving her alone and chilled without the heat of his skin to keep her toasty warm. “Where are you going?”
“The dogs need to go out. Give me a minute to take care of them, and I’ll be right back to pick up where we left off.”
Okay, then. She admired the view as he padded out of her room without bothering to put on a stitch of clothing. From his broad shoulders to his well-defined hips and legs, the man was gorgeous. And, miracle of miracles, he’d picked her to be his lover. Even after everything that had happened, everything they’d done, she still had trouble getting her head around that notion.
“I’ll wait right here.”
Well, sort of, anyway. She made a quick trip to the bathroom and then brushed her teeth. It took her a full minute to work up enough courage to study her image in the mirror. Yep, just as she’d suspected, her hair was a mess, and she was sporting a love bite on her shoulder, proof of the night’s activities. Had she left her mark on Misha as well?
She could hear him moving around in the kitchen, once again talking to the dogs as if they could understand every word he said. Who knows? Maybe they did. After all, they’d made themselves scarce like he’d asked them to.
After running a brush through her hair, she returned to the bed. Unlike Misha, she was too self-conscious to lie there fully exposed. Instead, she snuggled back down in the covers and waited for him to return.
When he finally appeared in the doorway, he held out her cellphone. “This was ringing when I walked into the kitchen. Figured you wouldn’t want me to answer it since it was your mother calling. I thought you might need to call her back.”
He’d no sooner said that before it started ringing again. Well, damn, that sure put a damper on the moment. She could always let it go to voicemail, but that would only lead to more questions about why she hadn’t answered in the first place. Her mother knew she was normally up and about by this hour. Resigning herself to the inevitable, she held out her hand.
Before surrendering it, Misha gave her a quick kiss. “Okay if I go make us some breakfast?”
“That would be great.”
While he pulled on his flannel pajama bottoms, she forced herself to swipe her finger across the screen. “Hi, Mom, sorry I missed you the first time. What’s up?”
When Misha disappeared down the hall, Amy settled back against the headboard of her bed and listened to the usual litany of how much they missed her and why couldn’t she come home for a while. After all, since Amy could work anywhere she could access the Internet, there wasn’t any reason she couldn’t move back into her old room for an extended visit.
While she struggled to come up with a polite response to that outrageous suggestion, her mom went on to catch her up on all the family gossip as Amy waited for her to get around to the real purpose behind the call. Sure enough, she finally asked if Amy had ever made that doctor’s appointment. Her mother had faith that Amy would have taken care of it by now, but her brothers had been asking.
Yeah, right.
It was tempting to ignore the question or, better yet, tell her mom not to bother calling back if all she was going to do was nag. She fought for control, knowing her temper was edgier than normal because the call had interrupted what had promised to be a really special start to her day. Come to think of it, Misha had spent two nights at Amy’s house and on both occasions her mother had called. Did the woman have some special spidey sense that her daughter had a man in her life?
“I promise I’ll try to get down to see you soon, Mom. Tell Dad and the family hi for me. And as far as the doctor thing goes, tell the guys I’ll keep them posted on my doctor visits when they start updating me on theirs. God knows I can’t wait to hear how their prostate exams went. Now, I’ve got to go. I’ve got plans for the day.”
She hung up before her mother could do more than sputter. When the phone rang again, Amy solved the problem by turning it off. If her mother wanted to leave a message, fine. But she wasn’t going to listen to it now—or maybe ever.
Instead, she was going to go in search of Misha and see what he’d found to fix for their breakfast. Rather than put on her own pajamas, she picked up the T-shirt he’d been wearing the night before and slipped it on. It smelled like his skin, which went a long way to soothing her frazzled nerves.
He was just flipping over two pieces of French toast in her cast-iron skillet. There was a second skillet filled with at least half a pound of sizzling bacon. Yum! Her mouth was watering from the combined scents of cinnamon and bacon. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was.
“Can I do anything?”
“This is all about ready to go. If you’ll pour the coffee, I’ll dish it up.”
She waited until Misha joined her at the table before speaking. “Thanks for doing this. It looks delicious.”
“No problem.” He picked up a piece of the bacon and took a bite. “Want to tell me what your mother said that upset you?”
