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“How long are we going to dance around the obvious?”
Cameron took off his coat and threw it on the bed beside hers. “Since you’re under my roof, I know I’m not waiting five more years. I’m going to throw a log on the fire and settle Ghost. The door to my bedroom is open. I want you. I will always want you. But it’s going to be your call. I take nothing that isn’t given.”
Then he turned and walked out of the room, leaving the decision up to her. As far as Rusty was concerned, that decision had been made when they met. Now was about catching up.
She walked up the hall, made a quick left into the room with the open door, saw the king-size bed. Her hands were shaking as she began taking off her clothes. He made her ache.
When she pulled back the covers of his bed and slid between the sheets, she caught the faint scent of his aftershave and shivered. The sound of his footsteps as he walked up the hall matched the drumbeat of her heart.
Cameron came through the doorway with his boots in one hand and his shirt in the other and saw her lying in his bed.
“Dream come true,” he said softly, then closed the door and turned out the lights. Within moments he was lying naked beside her. “Are you still—”
“Protected? Yes.”
He raised up on one elbow and cupped her cheek, then threaded his fingers through her wild, unruly curls.
“Magic, just like you. Fire that doesn’t burn,” he whispered, and then centered his mouth on her lips and set a fire of their own.
It was just like before. Every move instinctive and familiar, mapping the curves of her body with his hands and then his mouth, feeling the hammer of her heartbeat beneath his palm. Hearing her sighs, and then the moans.
Rusty’s arms slid around his neck as he moved between her legs and then he was inside of her. So big. So hard. She wrapped her legs around his waist and rose to meet the thrusts and lost her mind.
They made love again, and then again before she fell asleep. Exhausted. Satiated. Held like the precious treasure she was to him, safe within his embrace. He was lying on his side, thinking of the task ahead of them when he closed his eyes. And slept.
***
Cameron woke before dawn. The door to his room was open. The covers were thrown back on Rusty’s side of the bed and she was gone. He bailed out of bed, pulled on a pair of sweats, and walked out into the hall.
The scent of fresh coffee drew him toward the front of the house where he found Rusty sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the fireplace with a mug of coffee at her knee. A fresh log had been laid upon last night’s embers and was already burning. She was checking messages on her phone with one hand and scratching Ghost’s head with the other.
He had to grin. Her hair was a tangle of curls. He’d done that. And she had a very satisfied expression on her face. He was responsible for that, as well. God, how he loved her.
“I see you have tamed the other male in this house.”
Rusty looked up, beaming. “Good morning, sweetheart! I didn’t mean to abandon you. I’m just used to being up early and wanted to let Agent Howard know the transfer of residence had happened.”
“And Ghost and I are usually up by now, too. Before he hurt his paw, we ran every morning.”
Rusty nodded, but she just kept staring at him, and then blurted out a statement he wasn’t expecting. “You are such a stunning man,” she said.
“Uh… Thank you, baby.”
“I just wanted you to know. You make me feel wanted. You make me feel beautiful.”
Cameron knelt beside her and cupped the back of her neck. “Because you are wanted. Because you are beautiful. Five years ago you gave me everything. We were strangers, and yet I held onto that memory, because even then you mattered that much.”
Ghost whined.
Cameron sighed. “I better get some shoes on and take him out. You can fill me in on developments at breakfast.”
“Okay,” she said, and when Cameron stood, she lifted her hand for a boost.
With one tug, she was on her feet and in his arms. The kiss was hard and quick. His hug was enveloping, and then he left to get a shirt and some shoes, then came back on the run.
Ghost was waiting at the door.
Cameron frowned. “Usually he wants to go out the back. I guess we’d better see what’s interesting out front first this morning,” he said, and opened the door.
