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“At night. Ten-thirty at night.”
“Okaaaaaaaaaay.” She rolled over and faced him. “And you? Did you sleep, too?”
“Out like a light. I don’t know what was in that IV. Knockout drops, I guess.”
As they stared at each other, she had the strangest sense of returning from a trip, sure as if she’d been traveling. Or perhaps it was he who had left and returned. Maybe it was both of them, separately departing.
In the back of her mind, she thought of what she’d talked to Gus about.
“Kiss me again, Daniel,” she whispered. “I don’t care where it goes. I just want to be with you.”
He brushed her hair back. “I want that, too.”
They leaned in together, and as he pressed his lips to hers, he tasted of mint, which was a surprise. Except then she remembered the Burt’s Bees he always used to keep his lips moist when he was dehydrated from the drugs—
For a split second, her mind got sucked into dark thoughts, but she reined the chaos in with a hard jolt of gratitude. How stupid would she feel, a month from now, two months from now, that she’d had this moment when he was with her, when he was alive, and she’d wasted it dwelling on everything she couldn’t change.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the caress, the warmth, the softness. And as she kissed him back, it got easier to feel him—and she realized that somewhere along the way, she’d decided that this part of their relationship was gone forever.
It was the kind of conclusion that she hadn’t been aware of making.
It was the kind of conclusion that was wrong.
Daniel had always been a dominating lover, and he took control of things now, rolling her onto her back and shifting over onto her. Deeper now with the kissing, his tongue entering her, his hand stroking down the side of her rib cage as his leg moved up on top of both of her thighs.
“Daniel…” she sighed.
“Is this okay?”
“God, yes.”
Her body came alive again, just as it had back in the garage, her heart beating faster, her lungs burning, her core anticipating his touch, his penetration. That old familiar melting overtook her from the inside out, until her bones were flowing with the pulsing heat. When he slipped under her turtleneck and his hand rode up to her breast, she arched into him—
The top really had to go.
“Here, let me just—” With a wriggle, she disappeared the barrier on an up-and-over and threw it on the carpet. “Better.”
“Much,” he murmured.
Her bra was simple, white and cotton, and with her nipples peaked as they were, things were almost as visible as they would have been without the thing—and Daniel seemed captivated. Backing off a little, he teased her with his fingertips, the shaking in his hands much improved—and hey, if he needed occupational therapy like this? She’d be his PT any day.
The bra was a front clasp, and he paused as he went to the juncture between the cups. “Take this off for me?”
She knew why he asked, and instead of dwelling on the struggle he would have had, she turned it intoa show. As he eased away, she freed the clasp, but left the cups in place. The reveal came as she arched her back, and the twin strokes as the bra’s halves slowly parted off to the sides made her bite her lip.
Daniel’s eyes burned as he looked at her, as if he were seeing her for the first time—and that expression of hunger in his face fed her on some level that had been starved for so long.
“You’re just beautiful.”
With that, he brushed a hand down her sternum and up one side. As he got to her nipple, he drew a circle around where she wanted his mouth, lingering, taking his time. Then he leaned in and kissed the underside of the breast he was stroking, nuzzling his way up to the tip that was aching for him. Everything he did was without hurry, as if they had all the time in the world—and she wondered whether he was giving her a chance to say no.
She wasn’t going to, even though she was nervous in ways she’d never been before. How could he be satisfied if he couldn’t orgasm himself? Wasn’t this selfish of her to—
“Hey,” he whispered as he stilled. “Where did you go?”
“I’m sorry.” As she heard the sadness in her voice, she tried to snap out of it. “I mean, I’m back now.”
His fingertips toyed with her nipple, giving it a tug. As a lance of pleasure shot through her core, she jacked back into the pillow with a hiss. Whenshe recovered from the shock of the heat, she wanted to tell him it wasn’t fair.
