Chapter 10

She blinked her eyes open. Suddenly wide awake when she’d been sleeping so deeply.

The room was different, yet the same. Which made no sense but was the truth nonetheless.

Bernadette peered out between the four posts of the bed frame, looked out onto the rocky mountains with sleep-addled eyes, then something moved to her left, and she froze.

Turning her head, she saw Tyson. Realized he was in bed with her, did a quick stock-take of her body and realized that this wasn't a dream, and her heart went and did a damn Irish jig in her chest.

She gulped at the sight of him sleeping beside her.

Em had dared her to do this, and she’d half-heartedly accepted the challenge. Knowing that she wanted him with every part of her being, but that she probably wouldn't have the guts to come on to him. Yet they’d done it.

They’d actually done it.

And mere moments after he’d split up with his ex.

She bit her lip at the bizarreness of the timing but found she couldn’t regret it. Any of it.

Bernadette moaned as she stretched in bed. The move was sumptuous, replete. She felt good. Damn good, in fact.

Her lips curved into a smile of satisfaction, and a low, husky chuckle greeted her.

“You look like the cat who got the cream.”

“That’s because I feel like it,” she informed Tyson smugly, amused that their train of thought was running on parallel lines - as, ironically enough, it still had a habit of doing even after all these years apart.

His chuckle deepened as he propped himself up on a hand from where he’d been lying flat out on his belly, their bodies horizontally aligned to the bed, and he was like a furnace. No wonder she'd woken up from the excess heat in the bed. It was a wonder the sheets hadn't combusted!

He swept a gaze over her, one loaded with masculine interest, and this time, she didn’t cringe in embarrassment.

Earlier on, it had been tough. He’d bared her to him. All of him. She’d been so naked in front of him, her every flaw exposed - of which she had many - but he hadn’t seemed to have seen them.

If anything, the flames in his eyes had brewed hotter at the sight of her.

She shuddered at the memory, a memory that was close to hand once more because they were back. The flames licking at her in those periwinkle eyes. They were almost 3-D in their nature. Bernadette could feel them brushing against her skin, sending her nerve endings alight, and making the tiny hairs at the back of her neck and on her arms stand to attention as that look charged the air with a power she'd never experienced before.

She bit her lip, feeling breathless. “Hey.”

Tyson grinned. “Hey Birdie.”

Well, that was a bucket of cold water dousing her arousal. Wincing, she pouted. “I hate that name.”

“It’s special to me,” he argued totally without remorse. “Get used to it.”

She blinked, then huffed. “Why is it? Why can’t you just call me Bernadette? I’d even accept Bernie.”

He snort-laughed, which made her giggle. “Like Weekend at Bernie’s you mean? Yeah. That’s really so much better than Birdie. Anyway, it’s cute as fuck, just like you.”

Warmth flushed through her. He thought she was cute as fuck?

Gulping, she whispered the first thing that came into her head, “Are you hungry?”

Laughter roared from him, enough so that he flipped over onto his back, then turned his head so he could better look at her. All the while, he chuckled.

“I could use some pancakes,” he confessed after his laughter burned out.

Her grin was sheepish. “Sex makes me hungry.”

“It does, does it?” he asked, roguishly eying her before he leaned on his elbow, and swept down to give her a kiss.

Her eyes fluttered shut at the quick peck, and when she opened them again, she felt the burn in her cheeks. “Wow.”

His grin widened. “Wow.” With his free hand, he cupped her chin, then tracing his thumb over the curve of her bottom lip, whispered, “I never imagined this.”

She gulped. “I imagined it. Plenty of times.”

Tyson’s eyes flared wide in surprise. “Seriously?”

“You mean you didn’t know?” she cried, then slammed her hands over her face to cover her expression. “I thought for sure you knew.”

He peeled one of her hands away from her eyes, so she could see his glower. “When?”

“Since forever,” she admitted miserably. "Well, it feels like that anyway. It was like when you arrived at school, everything changed for me. Jesus, how pathetic does that sound?"

“Seriously? That's how you felt?” His astonishment shouldn't have had the power to make her blush with mortification, but it did.

She let out a huff. “Yeah, because I’m really going to joke about something like that.”

He scoffed, “That’s exactly something you’d joke about. You and Em were cutting sometimes. Worse than machetes. Stilettos look blunt in comparison to you two.”

Her wince had his gaze softening. “I don’t mean to be. But I’m being honest. I thought about this so often, it’s a wonder I didn’t transmit it onto you.”

“What? Like wet dreams via osmosis?”

They shared a look then sniggered.

“Come on,” he teased after a second, but she could tell he was confused. Not wary, just a little mind blown by her revelation.

Jesus, she should have kept her mouth shut.

“Come on, where?” she squeaked.

“We need food. I still want to see you on the bunny run.”

Her mouth curled down in disappointment, which, in turn, made him grin.

He chucked her on the chin. “There’s plenty of time for that. I want to watch you fall flat on your luscious ass.”

She gaped at his ‘luscious ass’ comment, then smacked him in the side as she managed to process the whole statement - not just the best compliment she’d ever received. “That’s mean,” she cried.

“You’re mean,” he teased back, then stunned the heck out of her by leaning down and pressing a kiss to the tip of her nipple.

She shuddered, eyes slamming shut at the intimate touch. When his tongue curled around the tip, she reached up to run her hands through his hair, so she could hold him in place, but he leaped back off the bed with a chuckle.

“You need to feed me, woman.”

She blinked at him, then pouted. “That should be my line.”

Tyson winked. “It will be. Tonight.”