and sock him in the nose. “Eight!” she practically yelled.
Abruptly, Tess bent down and pulled up her dress. It was mostly on and she was halfway to the door before he even moved.
“Tess!” Shade sprang after her. He didn’t grab her and pull her back like he wanted to. He touched her bare arm with his fingertips instead.
She turned, one dress strap on and the other drooping down her shoulder. The zipper still gaped, and her coat lay forgotten on the floor.
He curved his hands around her upper arms, hating the hurt and anger he saw in her eyes. Her skin seemed chilled, and the need to warm her rose inside him so quickly and powerfully it overwhelmed. “Don’t go.”
She stayed rigid for a moment while his heart thudded, and he wondered what the hell he was doing. He’d been mostly on track until now.
Her expression softened. “Don’t go?”
Shade shook his head. “Come downstairs.”
She swallowed, and her hands rose to his chest, light and cool and a little tentative.
“Stay with me tonight,” he said.
And that was that. He’d decided, because he couldn’t watch her walk out the door when he could have one more minute with her. Apparently, that was how deeply fucked he was willing to get for Tess Bailey—and he in no way meant the sex she was offering him now.
She hesitated only a second before sliding her hands up and around his neck. “No one’s expecting me back tonight.”
Shade couldn’t help his small huff of laughter as he drew her closer. “I’ll bet Jax loved that.” He’d worked on and off all week with the often grim-faced man, and Shade had gleaned some insight into Jax and Tess’s relationship. He let her live her life without interfering, but he was watchful, always alert, and she was the stitches holding him together, because whatever his wounds were, they were still raw and festering underneath.
“Oh yes.” Her agreement was pure irony. “His side-eye was something else.”
Shade leaned down to nuzzle her neck, and Tess’s head dropped back, inviting more.
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked, brushing his lips along the curve of her jaw. He wanted her to know that she could back out if she wanted to.
“What I’m doing?” She laughed softly, rubbing her leg up his until she had it practically hooked around his hip. His cock started to swell as desire lit up his blood.
“Not really,” she said. “But I know what I want.”
Something about the way she said that made Shade draw back. “Are you a virgin?”
Her eyebrows flew up. “No. Would that make a difference?”
“Yeah, it would,” Shade said. “It would change a lot about how I do this.”
“But it wouldn’t stop you?” she asked.
“Only you can stop me, baby.” He looked at her hard. “Remember that.”
Tess nodded. Her lips parted like she was begging for a kiss, but then she flushed a bit and ducked her head. “Maybe just go slowly at first. It’s been a while.”
A while? Shade took her hand and drew her toward his office. “How long?”
She didn’t answer until they were halfway down the stairs. “Seven years. Plus.”
He stopped, turning, and Tess nearly ran into him. He put a hand out to steady her, but she didn’t need it. She had the balance of a cat when she wasn’t falling over from blood loss.
“That’s a long time,” he said, although what he really wanted to do was ask, Why me?
It was a joke, but he couldn’t laugh. He didn’t think it was funny that something about her life had kept a healthy, beautiful, adult woman completely celibate for years. Or that she’d chosen the worst possible person to trust.
Tess seemed to grow nervous in the pause left by his silence. “I’m fully vaccinated, and I have an ovulation suppression implant.”
Shade stared. He figured he’d had about as many sexual encounters as any thirty-two-year-old man who worked hard and had a lot on his mind, but he’d sure as hell never heard a woman blurt that out before.
“I have protection,” he said.
Tess shrugged. “I’m risk-free. But it’s your choice.”
He was risk-free, too, because he’d never done anything to make it otherwise. The thought of being inside Tess with nothing between them sent lust ripping through him. He practically shook, he wanted her so much.
Shade took her hand again and led her toward his living space. He wanted to devour her in any way he could, but she’d asked to go