that he was doing what had to be done. No. That part of her almost refused. Those knuckles saved me.
Then he ran his fingers over her scalp and sleep reached out, curling around her like a sun-warmed cat, and she found herself surrendering with a fuzzy, “Sure,” into the new, tender space between them.
She’d miss the reminder of what she’d overcome.
But she preferred where she was going.
11
The next morning, she woke to Kris whispering her name. Gentle, like the stroke of his calloused hand down her back; disorientating, like waking up in her best friend’s bed and not needing to freak out about it. Her lungs filled on a large breath, and with her eyes still closed, she stretched out on her stomach in the cool linen sheets. One leg straightened sideways, aiming to stick over the far side, but her toes moved through nothing but deliciously soft bedding.
Frowning, she pulled her head out from under the pillow and blinked at Kris. “You on the edge?”
He was propped up on an elbow facing her, watching her, his hair a mess. Shirtless, with the sheets pushed low over his hips, he was a sight of muscles and radiant sexual potency.
She shivered as he continued stroking her back.
“The edge of something,” he said, with a slow half-smile. “Not the bed.”
“Huh.” She looked around. The mattress was endless. “Bigger than a king.”
“Palatial?”
“Huh.” She settled down again with a groan. The drapes were still closed, but a pale predawn light was seeping around the edges. “What’s time?”
“Five-thirty.” His fingertips reached the small of her back and started tracing circles, casual and tender. “I didn’t know what time you had to be up.”
“Usually briefing six o’clock.” She wasn’t awake enough for full sentences. “Don’t today because last night.”
“So, what you’re saying is,” he said, his low voice seeming to caress between her thighs. “We have time.”
Insides twisting, she nestled deeper onto her front. “Maybe.”
Those lashes dipped to her body, then back up. He looked surprised. “Are you hiding from me?”
“Maybe,” she said again, tucking her chin down to rest on her shoulder. She hadn’t exactly concealed her modesty the night before, but that had been a heated moment. “It’s just . . . this is new.”
“Then let’s make it familiar.” He raked his hair off his forehead, elbow at the perfect angle to show off his rounded bicep. “Would you rather go back to sleep before breakfast,” he said, “or work up an appetite together?”
Biting her lip, her gaze drifted down.
He was hard, straining against the sheet. A significant early-morning proposition.
“Yours if you want it,” he murmured, and her body melted like the thick wax of a candle.
She hummed, pretending to consider.
“Last night.” The sheets rustled as he shifted. “I’ll never forget.”
She let her gaze continue drifting over him. “You mean the part where I was raised as a con artist, the part where you got rid of my father, the part where anarchists probably want you dead, or the part against the wall in my office?”
“As far as memories go, the office wall has the most staying power.”
Her lips quirked.
“You can go back to sleep, if you want,” he said, and despite being rock hard and ready down there, he sounded like he meant it.
“You’re not fussed either way?”
His voice dropped. “That’s not what I said.”
She pretended not to hear. “You could take me or leave me?”
“Take you.” The words were rough. “Ask me to take you.”
Lust ran a finger over her abdomen and she shivered. “Kris?”
He inched closer and practically growled, “Yes?”
“Will you take me,” she said, and as desire curved like an arched spine across his lips, she finished, “to breakfast?”
He made a noise of pain, but his eyes were sparkling. “Not yet.”
Her muscles loosened, aroused, as something flitted from her chest to her belly and back again. Light, an airborne sensation that darted and tumbled, wingtips grazing her sides and gliding up her sternum. No barriers in its flight path this morning, nothing to knock it out of her skies, and it swooped low in her tummy when Kris held her stare and arrowed up to nest in her heart when he smiled just for her.
So, this was happiness.
“Not yet?” She grinned at him. “What are we waiting for?”
“This game to end, so I can make you come ten times harder than last night.”
Her breath caught. Last night had been the best sex of her life. What did he plan on doing, growing a third hand? Curious, she stopped teasing him