“What’s happening?” he said in a rough voice, sounding like he’d been chasing down a freight train. “Are you having an episode?”
My quiet room filled with the sound of our heaving breath. I waited to be sure, then shook my head. “I’m okay,” I assured him.
“Sure?”
“False alarm. You made my knees turn to jelly.”
“Yeah?”
My gaze lit on his bottom lip and the dot of blood there. I wiped it away. He held my hand there and kissed my fingers. Then he said, “Wanna take a nap?”
“Not tired,” I said.
“Me either.”
We both laughed as joy rushed through my chest.
“Just a nap,” he said, letting go of me to take off his socks.
I did the same. “Sure. Just a nap.”
We took off our shirts. Jeans. His eyes all over me and mine on him.
He tentatively took my hands and pulled me toward my canopy bed, where we crawled on top of the covers together. “This is a small bed, Birdie.”
“Big enough.”
He snorted. “Better than the back seat of my car.”
“And no creepy forest mural.”
“Just this weird old bum staring out from this pillow. Is this Columbo? You have a Columbo pillow?”
I did. Beneath a screen-printed photo of the famous detective was his catchphrase,JUST ONE MORE THING. I yanked it from beneath Daniel’s head and threw it on the floor. “Better?”
“Much. God, you feel good,” he murmured, hands roaming over my hips.
“So do you.”
“If you ignore it, it will go away. Maybe. Eventually. Jesus, that’s... not helping.”
“Should I not...?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“I forget?” He half smiled at me, eyelids heavy and blinking like his lashes were trapped in honey, until I stopped touching him. “Oh, that was mean.” He shifted, half on top of me, pinning a leg to the bed with his. “Okay, listen, Birdie.”
“Listening,” I said, squirming against him.
“I propose a new plan. It’s called the Nick and Nora Go Wild plan, and it involves us solving mysteries, eating pie for breakfast,andputting our hands all over each other.”
“Sounds risky.”
“It’s completely risky, and I can’t promise it won’t fail. But before you say yes or no, I want to try something. You tell me to stop if you hate it.”
What was not to like? He was kissing my neck again and then lower, moving down the bed to my stomach. His long hair was a curtain around his face, tickling my skin as he slid down my body, and then—
