Page 63

“Hell, my heart’s hammering in my chest.” He pulled her palm against his chest. “I want you.”

“I want you too.” Telling him was a different kind of risk, one she hadn’t taken in a long time. Maybe ever.

“Make love with me.”

Bea should have anticipated a mutual lovemaking, rather than an exercise in power or ego. No other lover had prepared her for those words, and they took her over a precipice, into the unknown. “I’d love that.”

“I will too. There’s only one problem.”

“Only one?” She stroked a hand over his pants. “You feel very ready.”

His hand covered hers. “When I said I planned to seduce you, I meant I’ve fantasised. Often. But I don’t want you to take a step you’ll regret.”

“Can you see regrets?”

“No, and I’m an idiot. I decided the best protection was no protection. No rubbers.”

“Oh dear.” She put a hand across her mouth, then laughed up at him. “There’s a vending machine in the lobby bathroom.”

“Right.”

“I noticed on the way in.”

“Thank you, Jaddatee.”

“Thank you, Grandma. That’s an unusual blessing.”

“I credit her with bequeathing me all the good things in life. The lobby’s better than the nearest market. I’ll be right back.” He made to get off the bed.

“I picked up a few strips while you were out getting the bags,” she admitted, gesturing to the handbag she’d dropped beside the bed.

“Did you now?” He resumed his crouch above her, his hand trailing down her midriff, over her jeans and cupping her mons.

“I thought you might bring some. Why didn’t you, Cas?”

“I didn’t want to presume.”

With that, she fell all the way in love.

He didn’t want to presume. He didn’t want to hurt her. He’d armed her to fight Jackson. He prioritised her wants and needs. He’d given her this weekend, and she refused to waste it.

His cupped hand pressing gently between her upper legs was electrifying, sensations zipping along synapses at the speed of light making her body hum.

“Presume all you want.” She was finding it hard to form coherent sentences with his knee nudging her knees apart. She whimpered. “Because then I can presume too. And either one of us can call a halt.”

“I won’t be calling a halt,” he murmured. “I’ve waited too long for this.”

“Neither will I.”

Not tonight. Bea would struggle to call a halt at the end of the month when she had to give him up. She wasn’t strong enough to call a halt now, when it might make a difference.