Page 121 of Deathmarch

“Maybe.”

“Okay.” He kissed her. “I’ll take yourmaybe.”

And then he took the rest of her. Carefully, but most thoroughly.

A loud moan escaped her. She bit her lip. “God, they probably heard that two streets over.”

“I hope so. People will be buying me beers tomorrow.” He grinned. “You okay?”

“Better than okay,” she said between gasps. “You have excellent attention to detail.”

“Comes from my cop training.”

“What else?”

He pulled her hands above her head and held them together at the wrist, trapping her even while being as gentle as if he was holding a fistful of feathers, putting no pressure on her bruises.

“I’m very good at restraints.”

A thrill shot through her. “Oh.”

“I also excel at problem solving.”

“No problem here,” she said, on the edge of tumbling into bliss.

He shifted and pushed her right over that rugged edge. “Exactly.”

She loved the way he made love to her, the way he looked at her, the way he smiled, sated and happy. She loved him.

The image of a future with Harper formed in her mind. A true partner—in every sense of the word. Nights like this. As many as she could manage. If, instead of struggling to fill in the blanks that school budget cuts had left in her schedule, she did take that substitute job in Broslin, the number of those nights in Harper’s arms could be considerable.

Not the life she’d envisioned for herself even just a week ago.

Better.So she told him. “You’re better than even a conversion van.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I’ll take it for a compliment. You can explain later.” He kissed her.

The cold, dark night Harper had found her alone, half-frozen and stuck in snow, seemed a million years away.

“Okay. All right,” she told him. “I’m going to hope for the best and fight for it like hell. I’m through running.”

“What if I want to chase you around the house naked?”

“Maybe.”

“With handcuffs.”

“Definitely.”

“And if I want you to wear your Calamity Jane outfit? I bet your ass looks damn fine in chaps.”

“But not out of chaps?”

“Let me check.”

As she squealed, he flipped her over, then kissed his way down her spine. When he reached the end, he broke out in song, “Paris Makes Me Horny” fromVictor/Victoria, except he substitutedPariswithyour ass.

Which made her laugh so hard, the bed shook under them. “How on earth do you even know that?”

“It’s on the list of musicals my mother watches every New Year’s Eve. Those of us who want to have her midnight chocolate rum cake must suffer through the experience. I tell her every year that I’m looking into child abuse charges, but she’s damn difficult to intimidate.”

“You know, I think your mother and I will get along just fine,” Allie said before she kissed him.

As Calamity Jane would have said,happier than a hog in a pond of plum pudding.

THE END