their eyes up again so she was forced to look at him.
“What?”
“Well, just that you were getting acquainted with your new life . . . that . . .”
“That I didn’t want to see you?”
She blushed. “Yes.” She shook her head, grimacing. “No, I understood.” She let out a small uncomfortable laugh. “I mean, you should take all the time you need to get acquainted with your new life.”
A crease formed between his eyes. “It feels like I have more time now. I don’t have to hunt for food, and before . . . I lived by the sun’s rising and setting, so I’ve been very . . . tired here.” His brows dropped as though he wasn’t satisfied with the word he’d chosen. “The days feel . . . strange. But, Harper, I want you to be part of my days. All of my days. Do you want me to be part of yours?”
“Yes,” she answered, a catch in her voice as she nodded.
He smiled and she guessed that was that. He leaned forward again, rubbing his lips on her throat, inhaling her scent. She leaned her head back, offering him as much access as he needed. “I need to ask who to get my messages from,” he murmured. “So I don’t miss one of yours again.”
“Mm,” she hummed. “I’m glad I got up the nerve to stop by.”
“Me too,” he whispered back, licking slowly up her neck, causing her to gasp, a surge of moisture accompanying a deep throb between her legs. She clawed lightly at his back, and he emitted a low growl in his throat. Thrill and fear coursed through her as it seemed to do when he did something decidedly . . . animalistic. Another throb made her moan.
“Jak,” she sighed.
“You make me feel exultant,” he breathed against her neck.
She let out a small laugh that was part whimper as he nipped at her skin. “Exultant?”
“Mm,” he hummed, bringing his head up and meeting her eyes, a smile teasing his lips. “It means happy but more. I feel exultant when I’m with you.”
Oh, God, he was sweet. And sexy. And . . . yes, she felt exultant too.
He brought his mouth to hers, kissing her deeply, thoroughly, the world fading away around her. He tasted like cinnamon and smelled like something new . . . a soap or an aftershave, a product he hadn’t had before. It was subtle, and it smelled good, but she remembered the heavenly night they’d spent in her bed, the way his masculine scent had still been on her skin the next morning—clean male, sex . . . him. She knew a person could hardly go through life not smelling like something other than themselves—soap, laundry detergent—but she’d miss the way he smelled before a million products got hold of him.
“I missed kissing you,” he said, trailing his lips down her throat again. “I missed being inside you, making love. I want to be inside you now.” He took her hand and led it to his erection, hard, straining the material of his pants.
A flush of heat blossomed under her skin. Oh, yes. She wanted him too. “We can’t, Jak,” she moaned. “Not here.”
“Why not? No one will come in here.”
She laughed, and it ended in a moan as he moved his hips, rubbing his erection between her open legs. Her hardened nipples grazed his chest and lightning arced downward to the place that was aching for him to fill. “Because, it’s your grandfather’s library. It’s just . . . it’s not . . .”
He pulled back slightly, looking at her. “People only make love in beds?” he asked, looking truly interested, perhaps a little outraged. It made her want to giggle.
“Well . . . no, not only, but . . . usually. Normally. I mean, people can do it wherever they want except in public. Even then . . . some people do, just discreetly. They, er, enjoy the thrill of, oh, being caught.”
He was staring at her with great interest now. His cheeks were flushed the way they got when he was aroused. “The thrill?”
“Well, some people find thrill in that.”
“Do you find . . . thrill in that?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, not generally. Although, you know, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it and all that.”
“Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it,” he repeated, his brow wrinkling. God, he was so adorably sexy. “I’ll try anything with you, Harper.”
She groaned, taking his face in