"Well," she said.
"I was thinking the same thing."
I reached behind her, unhooked her bra, slid it off, sent it after the shirt. Firelight moved over her skin, and something in my chest did a complicated warm thing I'd deal with later, because I had more pressing work in front of me.
I filled my hands with her breasts and felt the sharp catch of her breath. I dragged my thumbs over her nipples until they drew up tight and she made a low sound in her throat that went straight down my spine and lower.
"Bed," I said.
She sat on the edge of it. I crouched, hooked her trousers and everything under them, and stripped them off in one pull. Then I knelt between her feet. Her chest was heaving. She had her lower lip caught in her teeth. The most beautiful thing I'd ever had in front of me, and I'd had a while to think about it.
"Lie back," I said.
She lay back.
I kissed the inside of her knee and felt the shiver go through her. Kissed up the inside of her thigh and felt her breath stutter. I took my time. She deserved time taken, and I'd been thinking about this since the night I found her, an ocean ago. I wasn't about to rush it now.
By the time I reached her she was already wet, already wanting. My breath hit her and she made a sound that pulled a groan out of me against her thigh.
"Tiernan," she said. Warning and want in one word.
"I know. I've got you, pretty girl."
I put my mouth on her.
Her hips came off the bed. I pinned them with my hands and dragged my tongue slow through her heat, learning her, keeping track of every sound and what earned it. I found her clit and circled it and felt her thighs begin to shake. Did it again, slower, until she squirmed under my hands.
"More," she breathed. "Tiernan, please."
"Please what?" I said against her.
"More. Harder. Please."
I gave her more. I worked her with my mouth and slid two fingers into her and felt her clench around them on the first stroke. I curled them forward and she cried out, sharp, her hand slamming into my hair.
"Oh God. Right there. Don't stop."
I didn't. I fucked her slow on my fingers and worked her clit with my tongue until she came apart, thighs locked around my head, hips rolling against my face despite my hands holding them down, my name and God and please spilling out of her in a broken loop I'd be hearing in my sleep the rest of my life.
"That's it," I told her. "Give it to me. Good girl. Let me have it."
She came with a choked cry, her whole body bowing off the bed, clamping down on my fingers in long hard pulses, her fist tight enough in my hair to sting. I worked her through every second of it, kept the pressure steady until she was twitching and oversensitive and pushing weakly at my head.
I kissed my way up. Her stomach. Her ribs. The soft underside of her breast. I closed my teeth lightly on her nipple and she gasped and bucked up into me.
"Tiernan." Breathless, wrecked, nowhere near done. "If you don't get up here right now, I swear to God."
"I'm here." I kissed up her throat. "Right here."
I got the rest of my clothes off. She reached down, wrapped her hand around my cock, and stroked once, and I hissed through my teeth.
"Fair's fair," she said, something satisfied in her voice.
"Christ."
She guided me to her entrance. I notched there and held, one beat, because I wanted to keep this exact thing. Her hair spread across the pillow. Her cheeks flushed. Her mouth swollen.
"Now," she said. Low and certain.
