The caretaker had needed more care himself than anyone had realized. It wasn’t an excuse for the crimes he’d committed against the clinic staff and the abused dogs, but at least it was helping Cami make sense of it.
“I am ready,” she assured me. “But don’t stay away too long. Bella will miss you.”
I leaned against the kitchen island and pulled her against me. “And what about you, gorgeous, will you miss me?”
“I might. I might even miss staying here while you’regone. It’s a pretty nice place, now that it’s no longer a wreck of a construction zone.”
“Hey, it was nearly finished the first time I brought you here.”
“Sure.” She traced a hand down my chest and over my belly.
My body jumped to full attention.
“But then you got a little distracted,” she said. She unbutttoned my jeans, distracting me a hell of a lot more. “If we hadn’t brought in reinforcements this week, the place wouldn’t have been ready for the party.”
I gave her a long, slow kiss, then whispered in her ear. “You know, we were working such long hours, we never got time to try out our stunt beds.”
She laughed. “My best friend is incorrigible.”
“But she’s not wrong about the ways we could use those extra rooms when we don’t have guests. And that got me to thinking, there are ten rooms in this house, counting the three bathrooms. We’ve made love in seven of them. Almost all the rooms that were finished when you got here. Then we tested the dining room rug, which is now one of my favorite spots in the house.”
“As I recall, it gave you carpet burns on your butt.”
“Worth every scratch.” I grinned as I ran my hands down her back and moved them up under her skirt to grip her luscious round ass. “And then we took a spin in the new guest bathroom tub last Monday night.”
“Oh, yeah,” she breathed against my mouth. Her pupils were blown and her eyes were half closed. “I’ve never been so dirty in a tub before.”
I picked her up and did a 180, sitting her on the island with me standing between her legs. “But we still have bothguest rooms.” I nibbled side of her neck and she shivered. “And the kitchen.”
“Sounds like we still have work to do.” She eased the zipper down on my jeans and slid her hand in under the waistband of my boxer briefs, moving lower until she had me in her firm, warm grip.
I sucked in my breath. “Agent Rogers, reporting for duty, ma’am.”
She let go of my cock and I nearly groaned with disappointment. Until she pulled her sundress up over her head and dropped it onto the counter, leaving her sitting in front of me in my favorites, her pink lace panties.
I palmed her full breasts and kissed my way down the side of her neck. “Should I take this to mean you don’t need a bed this time?”
“Not this time,” she nibbled my lower lip. “But the night is young.”
“First,” I moved my hands up to her shoulders and took a few seconds to catch my breath, “there’s something I’d been meaning to ask you for days, but I do seem to get distracted.”
She looked disappointed. “Right now?”
“One question.”
“Okay.” She rested one hand at the top of my waistband. “Just leaving this right here to remind you to make it quick.”
“You and your new love of quickies,” I couldn’t help teasing. I pulled away from her and opened a drawer behind us. I took out an instruction manual and handed it to her.
She furrowed her brow. “Is this the pocket version of the Kama Sutra?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “See for yourself.”
She paged through the manual. “Instructions for the cipher lock?”
“Yes, the model that’s on the front and back doors. If you were to, say, move in here, you might want to be able to access the house without me being here. Page three explains how to position your palm, and page four?—“
“Stop right there, Rogers. Did you just ask me to move in with you?”
