I smiled back. “Everything okay down there?”
“It’ll be fine. Mr. D bitch much behind my back?”
“Only a little. I think that might be the first time anyone’s ever told Finch no and had it stick,” I told Teo. “But he sees the wisdom in what you suggested, about him and Luca leaving.”
“They’re going tonight—now. The Boss agreed it was for the best. All of them except us.” He came close to the bed and sat down on my side, put his hand on my knee over the blanket. “And you? I wanna make sure you’re okay with it all, too.”
“You’ve saved my life three times now,” I said, shocked that he’d even ask. “Of course I trust you.”
He sucked in a breath between clenched teeth. “You gotta understand something, A. I need to use lethal force to do my job right. I held back in the woods for you, but I can’t do that no more. Shouldn’t have done it then, because it only put you in more danger. So you need to hear me: going forward, it’s kill or be killed.”
I swallowed. I didn’t like it, but what was I going to do? Refuse protection, get myself killed, maybe others around me too? Make Teo’s job more difficult, puthimin greater danger just because he was trying to work around my sensibilities? “I understand.”
His hand left my knee and he traced the knuckle of his finger down my cheek. “I’m glad to hear that.” Then he stood up and started to unbutton his shirt. “I’mma shower and then I’ll be back. You stay right there.” He grinned at me, but before he went into the bathroom he went out to the other bedroom, and I heard him turning the key in the door to the hall. He came back through, locked the connecting door, and finally the door to the hallway. “Just in case,” he assured me. “But from what the Boss says, we really can trust the Irish.Theseones, anyway.”
Teo was in and out of the bathroom very quickly, wearing only a towel when he came back. He looked around for, I assumed, his underwear.
“You can just get in, uh, as you are,” I said, and cleared my throat. “If…if you want.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” I pulled the bedclothes up to my nose, hoping it might hide my hot cheeks. I tried to look anywhere but directly at him as he came over to the bed, pulled off the towel, and threw it on the nearby chair, before sliding into the bed.
Teo’s confidence extended to his bed manner. There were no tentative suggestions; this time, he slid right over to me and wound his arms around me. “You tired?”
“No.” I turned into him, lifted up my mouth right away and offered it for a kiss. Teo didn’t hesitate. He cupped the back of my head in his hand and kissed me hard, rolling us over so I was under him immediately.
He stopped mid-kiss and said, “You’re naked.”
“Mm.”
“Is that an invitation?”
“Um. Yes.” I was already aching for him, arching up as much as I could under his weight to get the feel of him. My skin was on fire, tingling everywhere we were pressed up together. “A full invitation,” I added.
Teo, who had been working his way down my neck with his mouth, rose up over me again. “You mean—”
“Yeah. I want to…”
He leaned close to rub his nose against mine. “You tell me what you want, I’ll give it to you. But you gotta tell me, A. You have toask.”
I drew in a deep breath. “I want you inside me. I want you to—to show me what it feels like.”
He took in a shuddering breath and then leaned in again to drop kisses all over my face. “I’ll make it good for you,” he promised in between them. “I’ll make it feel so good, baby.”
I didn’t doubt him. Everything we’d done so far had been amazing, and his promises only wound me tighter. “Can we, uh. I mean, will it be okay without…” I took a deep breath and said it fast. “Finch tried to show me this video once about prepping for anal sex with enemas—”
“What thefuck?”
“I think he was just trying to make me blush.” He’d succeeded, too, but I didn’t add that.
“That man needs a muzzle sometimes.”
“He sent me a video about that, once, too.”
“Oh myGod.” But Teo was chuckling, a hand over his eyes. “No,” he said, dragging his hand down his face. “No. We don’t need to, uh, go that far with the prep, unless you want to?”
“Not really,” I said, dying a little inside from embarrassment.
