Page 111 of Late Harvest

“Number Two…heh heh…fitting”—he winked—“you’re most welcome, my queen. Which leads me to three…no apologies.” He ran a finger along her shin, leaving chills in its wake. “It’s what we do for the people we love.”

Intense brown eyes bore into hers, and Remy fought the urge to squirm.

He’d said it again. The L word.

Remy cast around for the right response, completely out of her emotional element. “Well, thank you again,” she managed awkwardly, adding, “For the tender…loving care.”

She exhaled shakily. The room was painfully quiet, the only sound Chicane digging happily in his box.

So,” Sebastian added casually, throwing her a conversational and emotional lifeline, “where are you in the book?”

Remy didn’t even get a chance to be relieved, her cheeks burning at the memory of the scene. A frisson of worry lanced down her spine. Could Sebastian smell her arousal from the evocative scene he’d interrupted?

Never could she ever have imagined being turned on by a book.

She was wet. And horny. From the product of someone’s imagination.

“The alpha had just—he just—” Why couldn’t she say it? It was fiction, for crying out loud.

Sebastian gave her a knowing, slightly lascivious look, and her ladyparts gave a standing ovation in response. “He just knotted her for the first time.”

“Yes,” she managed, horrified that her voice cracked on the simple word.

He nodded and grinned. “Told you knotting was hot. Welcome to the spicy romance jungle, Angel, where the stories are amazing and the sex is steamy. Now you’ll be sneaking chapters between cases.”

“I hardly think so.” Remy tried to summon her imperious attending doctor tone. And probably undermined it by the loud gulp that followed.

“Sure, my angel. But, transitive property, you know?” He tugged one of her toes playfully. “Hmmm…I’m a big fan of sex toys…” he led. “And I’m a big fan of you. So, by the transitive property—look at me using my new vocabulary word in a sentence—you should be a big fan of said toys.”

“Sebastian!” She gently smacked his leg. He was wearing a pair of low-slung athletic shorts, teasing her with that damn Adonis belt, and his new T-shirt hugged his biceps. Sebastian wiggled a foot under her bottom and she reflexively placed a hand on one ridiculously enticing quad. Who knew a man’s leg could be such a turn on?

“So that’s a no?”

“That’s a,” she paused, blushing furiously, “that’s a definite maybe.”

“Boom!” Sebastian cheered and she giggled. Add another laugh to the Sebastian joy tally.

Chapter Sixty

You will crush today, just like you always do.

—From Remy’s Affirmations for a Badass

Remy

Knots. Remy’s stomach was in knots. She was quite certain if someone called for an X-ray, they’d see her innards twisted in a coil of nerves.

She didn’t get nervous.

But, to be fair, she’d also never been about to step on a red carpet before.

Sebastian squeezed the hand he’d been holding since they’d settled into the limo. “You doing alright?”

“Outstanding,” she lied, annoyed by the waver in her voice.

Gentle brown eyes assessed her. “You can back out, Arabella. If it’s too much⁠—”

“No!” she blurted, then took a deep breath. “No,” she repeated, this time calmer. “I want to. I want to experience this part of your world.”