Page 118 of Deathmarch

When she hesitated, he said, “I’ve seen you naked already.”

“I was a lot skinnier.” But she stood up.

“Had smaller boobs too.”

“Harper!” She grabbed the robe away from him and wrapped it around herself.

He moved aside, but when she stepped out of the tub, she didn’t go past him. She stepped right into his arms and looked up at him, looked into the face of the man she loved. “Harper…”

“I don’t want to rush you.”

“We spent a decade apart. I think we’ve done our waiting.”

He swept her up into his arms.

“I could get used to this,” she told him.

“Go ahead.”

She laughed. “You can’t keep carrying me everywhere.”

“I’m not carrying you everywhere. I’m carrying you to bed.Mybed.” He brushed a kiss over her lips. “I could get used to saying that.”

“I’ve been sleeping in your bed for days. Technically, youownthe guest bed. It’s yours.”

“Allie Bianchi, my love, you’re about to learn the difference.”

He carried her into his bedroom, a clean masculine place with a large wood-frame bed and a gas fireplace. An antique hooked rug covered the wide-plank floor. The beams of the roof were left bare, with skylights installed for light, showing off the moon and the stars.

He swung by to turn on the fire. “My apartment used to be a hayloft. Insulation is not the best, and this room is on the north wall.”

Something told her heat was not going to be a problem that night, but she appreciated the ambiance the blue flames brought as they flickered to life. “I don’t want to talk about insulation right now.”

He laid her down on the middle of the mattress, wrapped her in his comforter, then lay down next to her, on his side. “Well, that’s disappointing, because I have a great story about fiberglass, but all right. What would you like to talk about?”

When he looked at her with that wicked gleam in his eyes, she couldn’t think. But then she did come up with a question. “I didn’t know you were investigating Dicky Poole. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Didn’t want to get your hopes up. But lecherous assholes rarely have only one target. I figured if he tried you, he tried others. Turns out he did. So now he can convalesce in jail. Sometimes the law is slow, like watching two turtles mate, but eventually, we get there.”

“You should make that the slogan for the PD. Have a sign made for the entrance.”

“I’ll put that in the suggestions box,” Harper deadpanned. Then he grew serious. “Tell me what happened with Dusty.”

“Tomorrow. Let’s do something different with the rest of tonight.”

“Don’t rush me,” he teased. “I’m savoring the fact that I finally have you where I want you.”

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes at him. And then she told Harper everything that happened, how Dusty had shown up at the B and B, everything he’d said to her.

“Are you sure you’re all right? How all right are you?” Harper asked once she’d fallen silent.

“On what scale?”

“Do you feel like you’ve been through a meat grinder or just tumbled around in a cement mixer?”

“Wow. That’s a very manly scale. How about I’m all right at the level where an orgasm wouldn’t kill me.” She shifted closer to him and watched with interest as heat flared in his Irish Sea-blue eyes. “In fact, I think it would be beneficial.”

“You don’t need to rest?” The heat intensified to coal-furnace level.