“Yes.”
He peeled off her T-shirt, slid his fingers under the elastic of her underwear, and dragged them down her legs. Starting at her neck, his fingers moved softly over her collarbone to the slope of her breast, his hands lingering as if he was learning the contours of her body for the first time again. When he closed his mouth around her nipple, she moaned.
His hand drifted lower, skimming over her belly and coming to rest between her legs. She took off his underwear, and he opened her legs enough to enter her. As soon as he did, Kate closed hers around him, holding him tight. They moved together, their movements frantic, desperate, and she cried out his name because it felt so good.
Maybe she shouldn’t have wanted to do this. Maybe she should have told him no. There were decisions to be made, and Kate still had some long, hard thinking to do. But she had missed him desperately, and right then he was what she needed.
He groaned, and Kate knew this wasn’t going to take long for either one of them. Already she could feel the sensations building, and she moved faster, chasing them. She caught up to them and found her much-needed release a minute or two later, and he must have been right there with her because he groaned again, longer and louder this time, and then shuddered and shook inside her as he came.
After, he held her tight, and their heated skin warmed Kate from the outside in, reaching a place that had not been warm since she lost him.
“I love you,” he said.
“You hurt me,” she whispered.
“I didn’t want to.”
They slept facing each other that night, Kate’s head nestled under Ian’s chin, arms around each other, a tangle of legs. Shortly before sunrise, she got up to go to the bathroom, and when she climbed back into bed, he stirred and pulled her back into his arms, holding her as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Breakfast was marginally less awkward than dinner had been the night before. Kate attributed this to Susan and Phillip’s easygoing nature and the ten hours of solid, restorative sleep she’d had. They’d gone to bed so early that Kate had awakened feeling, if not back to normal, at least well rested and a bit calmer.
When they were done eating, Susan declined Kate’s offer to help clear the table. “Relax. Have some more coffee,” she said, placing a carafe halfway between her and Phillip. “I’ll get the rest when I return. Ian is going to drive me to the garden center. Now that it’s getting warmer, I’m looking forward to getting my plants organized.”
“I’ll grab my keys,” Ian said. He bent down and kissed Kate’s forehead. “Back in a little bit.”
“The pilot can take you home later this morning,” Phillip said. “We’ll need to leave in about an hour.”
“That’ll be fine. Thank you.”
Phillip poured Kate some more coffee.
“Did Ian ask you to talk to me?” His departure had seemed a bit too convenient.
“Yes,” Phillip said, looking sheepish. “I’m not here to argue on his behalf. That’s between you and him. But maybe I can help you understand where he’s coming from.”
“How long have you known Ian?”
“Since he was twenty.”
“How did you meet him?”
“I arrested him.”
Kate choked on her sip of coffee. “You arrested him?”
“I had to. He’d hacked the Pentagon, and he hadn’t tried to hide it all that well. I knocked on the door of his dorm room, flashed my badge, and led him away in handcuffs.”
“I don’t know why I’m surprised. That sounds exactly like him.”
Phillip chuckled. “I could tell right away he wasn’t a bad kid. He’s brilliant, but he didn’t have a lot of impulse control back then.”