“Only once. With you.” Short words were the only ones she could handle at the moment.
“Keeping it brief, Ms. Harwood?”
“Force of habit.”
“We could make forever our new habit.”
“Damn. You don’t mess around, do you, Your Excellency?”
“Nope. Scared yet?”
“Nope. Never with you.”
“Huh. I am, a little,” he confessed.
“Don’t worry, Gabe. I’ll be brave for you.”
They didn’t know it, but with every word their bodies were moving closer, and closer, and then her arms, magically, looped around his neck, and his arms wrapped around her waist, and just the way, say, even a sudden little fire started in a crowded room would inevitably command your attention, pretty soon they were surrounded by wide eyes and dropped-open mouths and motionless people.
The only person who wasn’t surprised was Greta. She just smiled knowingly and used that distraction to help herself to the last Rice Krispies treat.
The music played on but conversation stopped.
“Best sex you ever had?” he murmured into her ear.
“Just you wait.”
He kissed her, right there in the middle of the Chamber of Commerce mixer, a fog-up-the-windows kind of kiss, and a romance didn’t really get much more official than that in Hellcat Canyon.
Epilogue
Six months later, eight something (but who cares about the time?) on a Sunday morning...
Eden was still sleeping, her eyelashes shivering against her cheeks, her mouth parted and smushed against her pillow, her hair swirled every which way above her head, as if some guy with a camera shouting “Now sexy! Now pouty!” and an actual wind machine had styled her. One creamy shoulder and just a crescent moon of pink nipple peeked saucily from the sheet.
She was a side sleeper.
So was he.
It made spooning so much easier.
Not that it would have been a chore.
Still.
They were both still conscious of the preciousness of the milliseconds of time they saved getting into snuggle position, which would add up to minutes or even hours over the years, or so they decided, during one meandering, urgency-free conversation, of which they in fact had several over the past few months. Meandering with Eden was as fun as cutting to the chase with her.
For a second, he wallowed in the still-novel luxury of admiring her flushed and only a little drooling pink and white loveliness, striped in shadow and light from the slightly parted blinds.
What a shame it would be to wake her up.
Gabe leaned over and licked her nipple.
And very quickly lay flat again and closed his eyes.
There was a rustle from the next pillow over.
He cracked an eye.