He sounded not loving morning fresh but irritated.
“What?” she breathed, still not over his kiss.
“Wake me before you get out of bed,” he repeated.
“But,” she whispered idiotically, “that’s rude.”
His face got close. “It isn’t rude if I ask you to do it.”
“But,” she went on, still idiotically, “what if you need your sleep?”
His other arm circled her. “After last night, Belle, I need my sleep. I still want you to wake me up.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter why,” he returned and his hand came up, tangling in her hair then he went on to command. “Just wake me, kiss me, tell me good f**king morning and then you can get out of bed.”
“Oh… kay,” she replied hesitantly but not happily.
Most of his demands were bossy, definitely, but also somehow sweet.
This one was just weird and very concerning.
She dropped her eyes to his shoulder and felt her stomach clench.
His hand tugged gently at her hair, her gaze went back to his and she saw his face had gone soft.
“I’ll get used to it, having you,” he explained and his voice had gone soft too. “Right now, I’m not used to it.”
It dawned on her that she’d run away from him the first morning after they’d been together. Since then she had been either avoiding him or escaping him on a regular basis, including crawling out of bed in the mornings before he woke.
Therefore this particular beast was a beast of her own making.
She pressed closer and wrapped her arms loosely around his waist.
“I’ll wake you,” she promised.
He gave her a squeeze and warned, “You should probably know, even when I’m used to it I’ll still want a kiss before you leave our bed.”
“That won’t be hard to do,” she assured him.
That’s when he grinned.
That was it then. He was done. No yelling, threatening, throwing things or hitting her.
She felt secret relief.
Then she grinned back.
“Do you want eggs?” she asked.
He looked to the counter saying, “I’m starved.”
She gave him a squeeze and when his eyes came back to her, she smiled at him with genuine, unabashed excitement and cried, “Great!”
She exuberantly tried to pull away but got about an inch before he hauled her back against his body.
When she looked at him, he called, “Belle?”