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"Do you have any idea what you do to me?" His voice was low.

"Show me."

He reached for me. I caught his hands and put them back on the mattress.

"Not yet."

I stepped out of my jeans. Then my underwear. I climbed onto him and pushed him flat on his back. His hands came up to my waist and I let them stay, but I set the terms. I kissed him long and slow, then pulled back before he could deepen it.

I kissed down his neck. His jaw. The hollow of his throat. I worked my way down his chest, taking my time with every part of him. His stomach tensed under my mouth. His hand moved to my hair and his fingers tightened when I hit a spot that made his breathing go ragged. When I reached his hips he was hard against me and I could feel him straining to stay still.

"Janine." His voice was wrecked. "Please."

I reached for the nightstand. Opened the drawer. He watched me tear the wrapper and roll the condom on, and the look on his face when I touched him made me feel more powerful than I'd felt all day.

I straddled him and sank down slowly. His head pressed back into the pillow and his hands gripped my hips. I took him all the way in and held still for a second, both of us adjusting, the fullness of him making it hard to think.

Then I moved.

I set the pace. Slow, deliberate. My hands flat on his chest. His eyes on me. Every time I rose and came back down, his grip tightened on my hips and his breathing got rougher. I leaned forward and kissed him while I moved, and he groaned against my mouth.

"I could stay right here forever," I said against his lips.

His hands slid up my sides, over my breasts, and I arched into his palms. He sat up underneath me, pulling me flush against him, his mouth on my neck, and the angle changed and I gasped.

"Right there," I whispered. "Stay right there."

I kept moving. He kissed my collarbone, my shoulder, the spot below my ear. His hand slid between us and found me and I started to come apart.

"Alex." I was losing the rhythm. "I want you to take me."

He flipped us. My back hit the mattress and he was over me, inside me, and the pace he set was everything I'd been holding back from. His hands pinned mine above my head and I wrapped my legs around him and let go.

"Don't stop," I said. "Don't stop."

He didn't. His forehead pressed against mine, his breathing ragged, my name coming out of him in pieces. I felt the heat building and he reached between us again and I came with his hand on me and his mouth on mine.

He followed seconds later, his whole body tightening, his face pressed into my neck. I held onto him through it.

We stayed like that. His weight on me. My arms around him. Both of us breathing hard in the dark.

"I regret not coming to Erin's dinners sooner."

He rolled off me and pulled me against his chest. I lay there listening to his heart slow down. His breathing deepened within minutes. He'd been on since yesterday morning. He'd held it together for twenty-four hours, for his crew, for me, for Hazel. And now, in the dark, with my head on his chest, he finally let himself stop.

I closed my eyes. I fell asleep feeling held.

CHAPTER 16

Old Friends

ALEX

The drug test results from the twenty-third were in my inbox when I sat down at shift change. Nothing flagged for my crew. I closed the email and started on the morning's paperwork.

"Do you have a minute, Cap?"

Tanner was standing there in street clothes, bag over his shoulder. His shift had ended twenty minutes ago.