first few moments of consciousness, our sweat sealed our bodies together. He collapsed against me and I basked the afterglow thinking I would love many more mornings waking up just like this.
And so we had that before us…
His hand caressed my stomach, my hip as he nibbled on my ear and I turned my head toward him. “Mmm good morning to you, too, husband.”
“I think that’s my favorite way to wake you up, wife.”
“It’s also your favorite way to put me to bed at night, too. And to express your enthusiasm during the afternoon, I’m sure you’ll find that’s your other ways to do other things around the house as well.”
“Looks like I’m going to have to get even more creative to add to that list.”
I threaded my leg between his, my hand traveled down his stomach to rest on his thigh. “How about you show me your second favorite way to get me out of bed in the morning?”
“Mmm.” He rolled to face me, his mouth swooping down toward my ear when—
Suddenly his phone rang with a weird sound. I recognized it instantly. A video conference call.
What the fuck?
I looked at the clock on the bedside. It wasn’t even six a.m. Who was calling at this time?
Then I remembered the time difference. It was late afternoon at home.
Lucas was scrambling to pull on a t-shirt. “Fuck, it’s Adam.”
“Yeah, definitely don’t answer it naked. He won’t appreciate that.”
“I can be naked from the waist down.” He turned to me, asking me to straighten his hair, which I did. Then I flipped on the lamp and got the hell out of eye-shot of the camera. Because my best friend’s husband seeing my boobs would be more than awkward.
Lucas clicked to answer the phone. “Uh, hello?”
“Hey, Lucas. Did I get you at a bad time?”
“Hi Lucas, I’m here too. It’s a 3-way, but not the fun kind.” Jordan said. Figured.
“Hi Adam, Jordan.” Over the phone, Lucas shot me a slightly terrified look.
“Listen, before I get to the reason I’m calling, I’m on strict orders from the wife to make sure Katya’s okay. She was very worried when she heard that Kat had to leave the country for urgent family business.”
“She’s fine. She’s here with me. We’ve had a crazy past two days.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “In fact, uh, I was just catching a cat nap which is why I probably look like crap.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything but…” Jordan said.
“I’m glad to hear she’s okay. I’ll pass the message along to Mia,” Adam said.
“I’ll let Kat know to touch base with Mia, too.”
“So, as to why I’m calling. You left us in a bit of a bind on Thursday. The board was looking forward to hearing your presentation. Jeremy gave his, and they liked it and I had to present your slides and designs with only my own explanations. I really was half-assing it but without you or Jordan there…”
“Yeah, Jordan was kind enough to drive me to the airport. I appreciate that, man.”
“Glad we got you there on time,” Jordan replied.
Adam cleared his throat, presumably to get the conversation back on track. “Anyway, the board was really thrown that you weren’t there and let’s just say I wasn’t in the best mood either. And Jeremy did a really good job on his presentation.”
Stone-faced and pale, Lucas met my gaze over the top of his phone. I held my breath and crossed both my fingers. Crap. Crap. Crap. As much as I’d wanted him to be with me when I faced my family, I still didn’t want it to be the reason he lost his dream job. Would he resent me for it? Would it turn into a problem further down the line?
“I offered Jeremy the job as head developer and he’s excited to accept. And if you’re still up for the Director of the VR division, the board has approved that. I guess I didn’t fuck up your presentation that badly.” Yes. Yes. Yes! I jumped up and down, both thumbs up. I could tell that Lucas was paying close attention because he didn’t even glance my way to watch my boobs bounce.
“Uh, I, oh, yes, yes of course. I’m sorry you had to be the one to do it but thank you so much. Thank you.”
“Glad to hear it. You’ll be back from Vancouver on…?”
I had to slap my hand over my mouth not to bust out laughing. That’s right. They still thought we