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“Baby,” he whispered, “honey, I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry. I never meant to—”

She jerked back. Clasped his face between her hands. Her eyes were the color of blue flame.

“I thought I was going to die,” she said breathlessly. A look he knew he would never forget lit her entire face. “And oh, Chayton, what a glorious death it would have been.”

He stared at her. He wanted to say something, to tell her that he—that he—

He kissed her instead. Cradled her in his arms. And faced the slowly dawning truth.

No matter how many times he made love with his Tigress, it was never going to be enough to drive her from his head.

Or from his heart.

• • •

They showered.

Dried each other off and fooled around doing it, and then Chay wrapped Bianca in an oversized bath towel, swept her into his arms and whirled her around in a tight circle. A very tight circle, because of the size of her bathroom.

“Stop,” she pleaded. “You’re making my head spin.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, Ms. Wilde.”

“There’s that ego of yours again, Lieutenant.”

He grinned and she giggled, and the sound of that giggle shot through him. Who would have imagined his I-Am-in-Complete-Control queen of the universe giggling? Who would have imagined all the fire inside her?

He kissed her, and she sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder.

“I should be doing Saturday chores,” she said after a couple of minutes.

He pressed a kiss to her temple. “For instance?”

“Mmm. Grocery shopping. Straightening up.”

He drew back and looped his hands at the base of her spine.

“Huh. Standing up, you look pretty straight to me.”

She punched him lightly in the biceps. “Cleaning up. You know what I mean.”

He smiled and dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Tell you what. We’ll go out. Have breakfast.”

“We already had breakfast.”

“Hey, what can I tell you? Exercise builds a man’s appetite.” She blushed

. God, he loved that blush. “You’ve worn me out,” he said, pressing his lips to her throat. “And if you want to wear me out again, I’ll require fuel.”

Her smile was the smile of a very contented tigress. “That’s exactly what I want,” she said softly, touching her finger to his lips.

“See?” He caught her hand and kissed the palm. “So, breakfast first. Then we’ll take care of those other things.”

“Groceries? Straightening up? You?”

“Me. I have a secret plan.”

She tilted her head and smiled. “You do, huh?”