“Allow me,” he said, untangling himself and pulling on his jeans and shirt. He ducked out of the room and returned with a tray loaded with food.
“Wow.” She sat up as he unloaded a couple of bottles of water from his pockets. “Are you planning on keeping me prisoner here for a while?”
“Yes. Is this a problem?”
“Not at all.”
-
Sophie didn’t bring up what had happened the previous day; it was too raw for her. They’d been under inhuman pressure for far too long, and now they had grabbed a small vacation from reality. Long overdue and desperately needed.
The team had returned. She could hear them drifting through the halls, laughing and talking after the day’s work. Sophie half-expected Anjali to bang on the door, demanding to know what they were doing. But all was quiet as she lay in Michael’s arms, listening to music on her laptop.
“When will you be medically cleared to go home?” She ran her fingers along his arm. After so many months apart, just this gentle contact seemed an unimaginable luxury, and she reveled in it.
“That will be up to Anjali, but within the next seventy-two hours, I imagine. Will you fly home with me? The Rev believes it would be safer for you to leave the country, too.” Twenty-four hours ago, he might have booked her ticket and tied her up to ensure she made the flight. Today, he asked. A start.
“Yes. I’d always planned to leave the mission as soon as I found you. If I found you.”
“Are you sorry to leave?”
She looked at him in surprise. “Sorry to have found you? Sorry to bring you home to your family and our class?” Sophie touched his cheek. “Mikael, how could I be sorry?”
“I am thinking of your career advancement.”
“I achieved a great deal forming the coalition and getting it to work,” she said. “It has been successful beyond my wildest dreams. This is enough for now. Don’t worry about my career. Let’s think instead about getting back to New York.”
“About that.” He played with her hair for a moment. “Will you allow me to buy our tickets home?”
“The coalition will pay for our tickets.”
“Consider it a donation,” he insisted. “I do not think the coalition will buy us first class tickets, but I will.” Sophie found the idea of flying back to the US in a class other than steerage tempting. “Please? I have never given you anything nice. I wish to do this for you.”
“You gave me something nice earlier.” She rolled over in his arms to face him, her pink pointed nipples already growing hard at the thought of making love again.
“As did you.” He kissed her, then his mouth drifted down between her breasts, leaving a line of fire in its wake. “I have much more to give, if you will allow me.”
Which she did. And again in the middle of the night.
Chapter 17
February 23, 2014
Sophie woke up early with Michael's warm body draped over her. He grunted in dissatisfaction when she untangled herself, dressed, and left the room. She returned with coffee and settled down beside him to make a to-do list. She was fifteen items into it when a hand reached over to take her pen away.
“Good morning.” She chuckled and recaptured her pen to continue her list. A moment later, his hand snuck up her shirt. Shortly thereafter, she flung her notebook in the general direction of the bedside table. There was a crash as it skittered off the side, taking a few things down with it.
“That took less time than I expected.” He smiled as Sophie yanked off her t-shirt. “I had planned to work much harder than that.”
“You’re impossible to resist.”