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“I know you would.”

He kisses me, pulling me in with a hand on the small of my back. The water runs warm around us, while the steam fills the small space, and just for a moment I stop thinking about everything else to focus on the man in front of me. Noa gives everything he has to the people he loves, and that is what I love most about him.

He spins me so my back is to his front, then his lips find my neck, and he kisses along my jaw to below my ear. I tip my head, resting it back against his shoulder as his hand splays across my stomach.

“You smell so good.”

I chuckle. “We’re in the shower.”

“So? You still smell good.”

His hands move slowly across my skin, tracing lines down my sides and over my hips. I twist my body as I reach up to hold his shoulders, and he walks me backward until my skin meets the cool tiles.

“I need you to know something.”

“Noa . . .”

“I realize it’s terrible timing, but I have to get it out. You know me—I have to say what I’m thinking when I think it. You are the most remarkable person I have ever met in my life, and I have met so many people. I needed you to know that.”

Then he kisses me again before I can respond, his hands trailing down my hips to my inner thighs, and I inhale sharply as my fingers tighten on his shoulders. Then he inches them up slowly, agonizingly so, and I tremble under his touch, needing more.

“Please,” I beg.

His hands move back up to my hips, and when he lifts me, I wrap my legs around him.

“Look at me.” He pushes forward slightly as my eyes meet his, and his cock slides inside me, filling me. “Fuck, Valli.”

He moves slowly, his forehead against mine, our eyes locked, while he whispers things between thrusts, like “I’ve got you,” and “You feel incredible.”

I pull him closer, and he groans as his pace shifts deeper and faster, pressing my back harder against the tiles, his fingers digging further into my skin.

“You’re incredible,” he murmurs against my neck. I lose the ability to form coherent words, so I moan. “You don’t have to say anything back.”

Tension builds with the exquisite way he feels inside me, how our bodies move together, and from the sound of his voice every time he says my name. My orgasm hits me fast, with Noa following quickly behind, his eyes closing as he comes.

He pulls back after we ride out the waves of pleasure, a smile on his lips. “Now that is the best way to start a day.”

“I agree.”

Noa turns the water off, and we get out and dry ourselves. He steals the good towel, and I let him. We get dressed and come out of the room to find Cipher at his workbench, bent over the music box with a small tool.

“Good shower?” he says without looking up.

“Best shower ever,” Noa says, and Cipher smirks.

“I bet. There is coffee if you want it.”

Noa beelines for the coffeepot, and I look around the shed, but don’t see Leni. Noa and Cipher cleared out the storage room and converted it into a guest room. It’s not huge, but it really looks good.

“Is Leni still asleep?”

Cipher looks up and glances at Leni’s door, then back to me. “No,” he says. “Khodi came by around seven, I think.”

“And she went with him?”

Cipher nods. “She did. He asked her to breakfast.”

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” I reply honestly, and Noa laughs.