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She looked at the space I had put between us, then held both hands out to me. “Come back and hold my wrists.”

I closed the distance before she finished the sentence. One hand gathered both wrists between us, firm without squeezing, and her fingers curled loosely against my palm.

“Still yes?”

“Very.”

I kissed her, and she pulled once against my hold before pushing her wrists more firmly into my hand. Her breath broke softly against my mouth.

I kept the pressure steady while my free hand moved down her spine. When I loosened my grip, she stayed close enough that her breasts pressed against my chest.

“Come to bed with me,” she whispered.

I let her lead me down the hall.

Her bedroom looked exactly as it had during the security sweep and completely different now. The bedside lamp cast warm amber light across the knitted blanket folded at the foot of the bed. A stack of event magazines leaned crookedly on the chair near the window, and a narrow length of unfinished trim rested against the wall.

Her life was everywhere in the room.

Nothing about it had been prepared for me.

I liked that far more than I would have liked candles and clean surfaces.

Sybil turned toward me as soon as I closed the door.

She pushed the flannel from my shoulders, then caught the hem of my thermal and pulled it upward. I finished removing it and tossed both shirts onto the chair.

Her gaze moved slowly over me.

I was used to being looked at because I was large. At six-four with enough muscle to make doorways occasionally inconvenient, I’d learned to ignore it.

The way Sybil looked at me had nothing to do with inconvenience.

She put both hands against my chest and followed the dark hair there downward with her fingertips.

“My imagination was underselling this.”

I smiled and slid my hands beneath the hem of her thermal.

“Arms up.”

She hesitated for less than a second.

Then she raised them.

That tiny act landed differently now.

I pulled the thermal over her head, letting the fabric skim slowly up her body. Her hair tumbled free when it cleared her face. I unclasped her bra and slid the straps down her arms.

The sight of her bare breasts tightened every muscle in my abdomen.

She was beautiful without looking arranged for it—full breasts, hard pink nipples, freckles disappearing beneath the curves.

I cupped one breast and bent to take the nipple into my mouth.

Sybil gasped.

Her hands went into my hair as I sucked her, then softened my mouth and circled the tight peak with my tongue. Her nipple hardened further against it.