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“I noticed.”

“So did every nerve ending I possess.” I catch her wrist before she can torment me any further and pull her in close.

Her hands are everywhere. My chest. My shoulders. My back.

I slide mine beneath her shirt and she makes that fucking sound again.

I catch the hem and start to lift it, and she raises her arms without hesitation, letting me pull it over her head before I toss it onto the floor beside mine.

“You’re staring at me like you’ve just discovered a previously undocumented species.”

I grin down at her. “That’s not remotely what I’m thinking.”

“What are you thinking?”

That I have never wanted another person with this particular combination of desperation and awe.

That I could spend the rest of the night touching her and still feel cheated by morning.

That the past few years suddenly seem less like celibacy and more like an extremely long waiting period for something I didn’t know was coming.

All of which seems a little intense for a woman I've barely known for two weeks.

So I settle for, “I’m thinking you’re fucking beautiful.”

“Don’t get sappy.”

I feign shock. “I would never. I’m famously emotionally unavailable.”

She snorts.

I kiss her before she can accuse me of anything else.

Her hands go to my waistband again.

Mine find the button of her pants.

There is a brief, graceless period involving shoes, denim, one sock that refuses to cooperate, and Serena nearly losing her balance.

Then she is standing in front of me completely bare, and I feel my jaw unhinge itself before I can correct the movement.

I step toward her, settle my hands at her hips.

I have one brief moment to appreciate the view before Serena snatches my hand and pulls me toward the bed. “Are you finished assessing the situation?”

“Do you want me to be finished?” I respond.

She shrugs. “Not particularly.”

“Excellent. Because I have several observations.”

“I don’t know that I want to hear your observations.”

“They’re overwhelmingly positive.”

She pushes me backward, steps between my knees.

And every filthy compliment I was about to give her disappears when she threads her fingers into my hair.