I can't speak, though. My eyes fall shut from pure exhaustion.
Pure, blissful exhaustion.
*
"Warren."
I try to open my eyes, but I can't. Or I just don't want to. I don't think I've ever experienced as deep of a sleep as the one I'm being torn from right now.
Her hand is on my shoulder and she's shaking me. I lift my head and turn to face her, curious if she's ready for another round. I smile at her through sleepy eyes.
"Go to your room," she says, kicking me with her feet. "You're snoring."
My eyes fall shut again but they fly open when her cold feet meet my stomach. She uses the strength of her legs to try and push me out of her bed. "Go," she groans. "I can't sleep."
I somehow push myself into a standing position. I look down at her and she rolls onto her stomach, flips her pillow over, and sprawls out across her mattress.
I shuffle my way across her bedroom, through our bathroom and to my own bed. I fall onto it and close my eyes, taking all of three seconds to fall right back to sleep.
Chapter Six
I'm convinced that I've never slept as well as I did last night. And even though she kicked me out of her bed, I still feel victorious. Like royalty.
After I'm showered and dressed, I join Ridge in the kitchen. He's cleaning up what looks like breakfast, which is odd, because neither of us ever cooks breakfast. But then I understand when Maggie emerges from his room.
"Morning, Maggie," I say to her with a smile.
She eyes me cautiously. "What's with you?"
Right at that moment, Bridgette's bedroom door opens. We all watch her walk into the living room. She pauses when she looks up and sees us all staring at her.
"Morning, Bridgette," I say with a triumphant smile. "Sleep well?"
She sees the look on my face and immediately rolls her eyes. "Screw you, Warren." She walks into the kitchen and begins rummaging through the refrigerator, searching for something to eat. I watch her the entire time, until Ridge taps me on the shoulder.
"You had sex with her?" he signs.
I immediately shake my head in defense. "No," I sign back. "Maybe. I don't know. It was an accident."
Maggie and Ridge both laugh. He grabs Maggie's hand and pulls her toward his bedroom. "Come on," he signs. "I don't want to be in here when Bridgette realizes her mistake."
I watch them retreat back to Ridge's room, and then I turn and face Bridgette. She's glaring at me.
"Did you just tell him we had sex?"
I find myself once again shaking my head. "He already knew. I told him the other day."
Bridgette tilts her head to the side. "We had sex last night. How did you tell him before it happened?"
I grin. "I had a good feeling."
She lets her head drop back in defeat, until she's staring up at the ceiling. "I knew it was a bad idea."
"It was a great idea," I interject.
She looks at me with as much seriousness as she can muster. "It was a onetime thing, Warren."
I hold up two fingers. "It was twice, actually."
She makes a face that lets me know just how much I'm irritating her. "I'm serious, Warren. We're not doing it again."
"Thank God," I say, slowly stepping toward her. "Because it was awful, wasn't it? I could tell you weren't enjoying it." I continue across the kitchen until I'm less than a foot from touching her. "You especially weren't enjoying the part when you were on your back, and my tongue was . . ."
She slaps her hand over my mouth to shut me up. She's looking at me, narrow-eyed. "I'm serious, Warren. This changes nothing. We aren't a couple. In fact, I'll probably bring other guys home and you need to be prepared for that."
She removes her hand from my mouth and I disagree. "You will not."
She looks at me with a competitive gleam in her eyes. "I will. This is why I warned you not to get clingy."
Ha. She thinks this is clingy? If she smiles and laughs like she did last night, she'll find out just how clingy I can be.
"If you don't want me to want you anymore, it's not that hard," I tell her. "Just don't smile at me." I lean forward until my lips are at her ear. "If you don't smile at me, I won't have the urge to do all those bad things to you. Because your smile is incredible, Bridgette."
I pull away slowly and look down at her. She's attempting to control the rise and fall of her chest, but she's not fooling me. I grin, and the faintest of smiles appears on her lips. I reach my hand up and touch the corner of her mouth with my finger. "You're such a tease."
She pulls away from me and calmly pushes against my chest. She grabs her drink and returns to her bedroom without another word.
I press my head against the cabinet door and sigh heavily. What have I done? What in God's name have I done to myself?
*
Bridgette and I both had the day off today, and I was positive that after our interaction this morning, and especially after last night, that she'd be all over me by nightfall. However, she completely ignored me. She stayed in her room most of the day, and she wouldn't even acknowledge me. Now it's after eleven at night. I have to be at work tomorrow morning, and I know she has an early class, so my hope for a round three is swiftly dwindling.
She even locked the door when she took a shower earlier.
I sit on the edge of my bed and contemplate the night before, going over every single move in my head, wondering where I went wrong. The only thing I can conclude is that I did nothing wrong. I did everything right, and this scared her, because she's not used to guys taking control over her. I made her feel weak.
She doesn't like to feel weak. She obviously has serious power issues and I messed with her head. This should probably make me feel guilty, but actually I'm proud. I love that I got to her. I love that I'm slowly figuring her out. And the best part is, I have a feeling that she'll be coming back for a repeat. Maybe not tonight, but she'll be back, because she's human. Every human has a weakness and I think I just discovered what hers is.
Me.
I crawl under the covers and close my eyes, but I can already tell I won't be able to sleep. It's as if last night awakened this hunger inside of me and if I don't feed it every night before I go to bed, I'll never fall asleep. I count sheep
, I count stars, I repeat Bible verses in my head that I learned when I was five. None of it works, because I'm still here an hour later and I'm still wide awake.
I wonder if she's awake.
I wonder if she would open her door if I knocked.
I toss the covers off and begin to walk to my door, but immediately U-turn to the nightstand for a condom. All I have on are boxers, so I slip it beneath the elastic band and open my bedroom door.
Boobs.
Her boobs.
They're right here.
Her hand is in the air, poised to knock on my door. She looks just as shocked that I opened it as I am that she's standing here. She's wearing a black lace bra and the tiniest pair of panties I've ever seen in my life. She lowers her arm and we stare at each other for a solid five seconds before I'm pulling her inside, slamming my door and pushing her up against it. Her tongue is in my mouth faster than I can slip my hand beneath her bra.
"Is this what you sleep in?" I say against her mouth, pulling the straps of her bra down.
"Yes," she says breathlessly. She tilts her head and pushes my face against her neck. "But sometimes I sleep naked."
I groan and press myself against her, ready to sink myself inside of her. "I like it." I spin her around until her chest is pressed against the door and her back is to me. I wrap my arm around her and grab one of her breasts while I slide my other hand down to her ass. She's in a thong. A teeny, tiny, black, lacy, beautiful thong. I rub my hand over her and then slip my fingers beneath the thin veil of fabric, pulling it down to her knees. I watch as her thong falls to her ankles and she kicks it aside.
I position myself directly behind her and run my hands down her back and to her waist. "Put your palms against the door."
She doesn't move them right away. I can feel her hesitation. I'm sure she doesn't want to hand over control again, but she needs to realize she lost control the second she showed up at my bedroom door.
I watch as she slowly presses her palms against my bedroom door. I lean forward and brush her hair away from her neck, dropping it over her shoulder. "Thank you," I whisper against her neck. I pull her hips until she's flush against me, and then I remove my boxers and open the condom.