“Soon,” she promised. Difficult enough to concentrate on what she was doing as it was. The mere memory of those hands on her … “Tell me how this feels. For science.”
His body twitched as he laughed. “Like the very best sort of torture. I—” He arched into her hand as she made a strategic change of location. “Oh my God, Daggett,please keep doing that.”
She did, slowly, her blood singing in her veins as he moaned.
“Talk to me,” she whispered.
He let out a shaky breath. “Because turnabout is fair play?”
“Because you have the very best voice.”
He laughed again, this time more of a disbelievinghah.
“Youdo.I’ve always liked to hear you talk, even when I was annoyed by the actual words coming out of your mouth.”
His half-smile twisted his lips. What would it take to make him completely and unreservedly happy?
“I feel exactly the same way about you,” he murmured, reaching up to brush his fingers against her cheek.
His touch was literally magic. But in that moment it was his words that made her breath catch.
“OhScheiße,I forgot,” he said, pulling his hand back. “What do you do to the wretched miscreants who”—he gasped as her thumb rubbed over just the right spot—“fail to follow your rules?”
“Depends on the rule.” She grinned at him. Hartgrave bossing her around in bed was completely predictable. Hartgrave just as happily letting her boss him around was … surprisingly heartwarming. “Why don’t you wait here while I get a condom from my—”
Something slapped into his suddenly outstretched hand, a fleet bit of magic. “Allow me,” he said, ripping the packaging open.
She laughed. He laughed. This was already the best time she’d had in bed with anyone—by far.
“Well, Professor,” he said, arching an eyebrow, “may I have permission to touch you now?”
“Please,” she said, trying to get her giggles under control.
He went up on one elbow, put out his other hand and pulled her in for a slow kiss. Her body sparked with anticipatory pleasure—all the places he wasn’t touching but would. Soon. Almost.
Now.
They gasped in unison. Her heart swooped in just the way it had when he’d broken the law of gravity for her.
“All right?” he murmured, his lips against her neck. Waiting, not moving.
“Ohyes,” she said, and those were the last coherent words she managed. His pace was slow, so slow—he was patient and she was not. His hands on her hips boxed her in and his tongue in her mouth felt unbelievably goodand each time he pressed into her was like a burst of fireworks in her brain, the answer to a vital question, the opposite of the disconnected way she’d been living for so long.
Over the edge she went a second time, taking him with her.
Afterward, they lay in a tangle of limbs, his heart thudding under her ear, his skin making hers tingle everywhere they touched.
“That,” she said, still catching her breath, “was amazing. Why did we wait this long?”
He trailed his fingers up and down her back. “I thought it would be better to let you broach the subject, but honestly, I was about to crack.”
She smiled against his chest, a warm feeling in her own that was spreading to the rest of her body.
“Every night,” he said, “new items for my To Do To Daggett list would pop into my head as I tried to sleep.”
“How long is this list?”
He pulled back to look at her. She thought she caught a hint of something bleak in his eyes, but he flashed a wicked grin and it was gone.“Very.”
