Page 52 of Even If the Sky is Falling
Shea wanted to agree with him, but she was too preoccupied with his heavy frame pressing her into the mattress. She hesitated to ask him to move because he felt like the greatest weighted blanket.
Shefelt lucky.
Nick shifted against her, pulling out and lifting his body away from her. She immediately felt his absence and it was kind of awful, but she didn’t protest. She lay in his bed wondering about what came next. After the drinks, after the games, what would be next for all of them?
Nick
Cuban spy.
College professor.
Vera Perez.
Shea Anderson.
It didn’t matter which version of the beautiful shy woman who special ordered his books was in his bed...she was there. And she contained multitudes. Nick wasn’t sure if she’d heard him when he said he was a lucky man, but he meant each word.
Even now, as he watched her lie beside him with one arm tossed over her head. Strategically shrouded in his sheets like a Black Venus, Shea rested serene and devastatingly gorgeous beside him. “You’re staring.”
It was true. He was. Unabashedly watching her through the viewfinder of his mind. Clicking away at her different positions. Her bare thigh, the top of her chest. All of her exposed walnut-brown skin contrasting against his crisp white sheets. Shea was a work of art he wanted to frame...or fuck. Nightly.
“How can I not?” he asked, running his fingertips along the curve of her breast. When he hit the peak of her stiff brown nipple, he rolled it around in a circle just to hear her moan. He took it between his finger and thumb and pinched to see her squirm beneath him and felt like he was finally in control of this night. “You’re so fucking beautiful, you know that?”
Her dark brown eyes connected to his and she smiled. “You’re not just saying that because the world is ending?”
Nick shook his head. “The world isn’t ending. I would have felt something by now.”
Shea frowned. “What do you feel now?”
“Hope.”
From the moment she descended into his bunker, he felt that hope. Knowing that he wouldn’t be alone at the end made a difference. But after making love to Shea, Nick knew there was more. There were weeks, months and years of being by her side. He held her loosely because he knew there was time.
Shea shifted to her side and faced him. “You think everything outside is okay?”
“I know it is,” Nick said confidently. “In the morning, we’re going to go upstairs where we’ll call our parents and I’ll make you pancakes. Do you like pancakes?”
Shea nodded. “I do.”
“I want to make love to you aboveground, in the sunlight. I want to play more games with you.”
“I can’t believe you’re real,” she murmured with a strange expression on her face. Her lips tightened into a straight line as her eyes narrowed. Nick watched her burrow half her face into her pillow and close her eyes with a sigh. “I can’t believe we’re here.”
Nor could he.
As he stared at her, he felt he’d hit the jackpot with Shea.
Shea
Sharp pings of technology stirred Shea from sleeping in an awkward position. She winced as she lifted her head, a sharp pain stabbed the side of her neck. Following the chirping sound to her left, Shea found her phone. Blue light signaled a message fromoutside.
The phones worked?
As she extricated herself from Nick’s firm hold on her thigh, she carefully twisted around to grab her phone. It was around 7:00 a.m. and dozens of missed text messages flooded her locked screen. Most of them from her parents, some from her girlfriends, a couple from university colleagues. What she gathered from the messages was that the danger had passed. Everyone she knew was safe. The United States was in the clear. Shea sank against the pillows with a sigh, relieved that her world could go back to normal.
But after last night, she wasn’t sure she wanted to return to a world without Nick. Oh jeez...that felt a bit dramatic. Shea turned to face him, to watch his profile in the dark. His smooth forehead, strong nose and full lips came together to form a beautiful picture, one that she didn’t mind kissing again. Of course, she’d wait until he woke up. And when he did, would the magic disappear? In the safety of the bunker, with the threat of nihilism looming over them, he gave her the fantasy she’d been pining for.
Nick shifted in his sleep, reaching toward her body. A hand landed on her thigh and pulled her against him. She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her. He grumbled deep and shifted closer. “What are you laughing at, Ms. Perez?”
