Reaching toward her, he caught her around the waist and brought her to him, settling her in his lap.

“You’re a goddess. That was, well, that was a forty-five on a one-to-ten scale.” He thumbed one of her ni**les, which stood up immediately. “I like you right here like this. Spread out on my lap like a buffet.”

Without speaking, she took his hand and guided it down her belly. His cock, which Adrian had figured would be out for a while after that orgasm, twitched as it reawakened at her boldness.

“You don’t know what it does to me when you’re this way,” he said, unzipping her pants again, sending his hand down into her panties to discover a slick, swollen cunt.

He sucked in a breath when his fingers toured each and every fold, rimming her gate before heading back to her clit.

A simple stroke of his middle finger at first as he played with a nipple with his free hand. She made little sounds in the back of her throat, her eyes closed, face turned, beautiful pale pink flush on her skin.

“I seem to remember you like this.” Ever so gently, he squeezed her clit between thumb and forefinger around the hood, letting the slide of skin against skin give her the friction she needed.

Her breath hitched and she arched up, rocking her hips, riding his hand and taking her pleasure.

She undid him.

Even as she spiraled apart and began to come in a hot rush against his hand, it was he who was reeling.

After a long, sensual stretch, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. His sleepy green eyes were obscured by his hair, just a little. Just enough to make him look sort of mysterious. He’d let his beard go a little scruffy. He looked disreputable and utterly delicious, small gold hoops in each ear.

When he smiled, he teased a little, catching his lip between this teeth.

“You’re a rogue. A cad and a bounder, a dog and a cheat.”

He burst out laughing. “You’re a The Bird and the Bee fan?”

“I love them.”

She watched as he pulled his hand from her pants and traced across her nipple with his fingers still wet from her. Time pulled taut as he bent to lick across it and then drop a kiss on her lips.

“Every new thing I find out about you only makes you more irresistible,” he said right before licking across her bottom lip.

“Oh yes, you seemed right pleased with me earlier.”

He looked a little sad, but she still had her own emotions about it so he’d just have to work it out.

The kettle whistled and she bustled in to take care of the tea. She took a tray into the living room and settled back on the couch, intending to keep some space between them but he pulled her close.

“You asked earlier? About Themis on my back?”

She nodded, leaning her head back on his shoulder.

“I spoke to you about Erin’s daughter, Adele? I got Themis when she was killed. Going through the arrest and sanity hearings and then the trial and sentencing stuff was a nightmare. It really shook my belief in the good in people.”

“I can see that.” She thought of her father and wondered how to tell Adrian. How did one tell their lover that one’s father went down for killing his teenage girlfriend?

“Anyway, it was Brody who suggested it. To do Themis and make her sword bigger. Because justice isn’t always bloodless, you know?”

She entwined her fingers with his.

“I don’t know, it just—it helped me to get it all straight. I don’t believe, not anymore, that justice always happens. But I still believe in people and I still believe in doing the right thing. And doing the right thing is protecting the people I love.”

He turned his head and focused his gaze—which had been focused on something long ago—on her. She felt the echo of the connection down to her toes.

“I just wanted to feel like justice was real.”

She kissed him because if she didn’t she’d have ended up crying, or worse, blurting out the story about her father and this wasn’t the time.

“I don’t know how you do it, but you make everything better, Gillian. You and Miles are the best things to ever happen to me.”

She wanted, desperately to believe it so she let herself, just a little. Struggling with her words, she poured him a cuppa and handed it his way before settling in with her own cup.

“So yes, I was mad earlier. No, not mad really, just frustrated that you didn’t share with me and let me help. But that doesn’t erode the way you make me feel, the way I feel about you. I don’t want to make you cry.”

She laughed then. “I am working on sharing myself with you. But my financial issues and the way I do my job isn’t up for debate. I don’t need to clear seeing a client with you any more than you need to clear meeting with your agent or your manager or what have you. Lastly.” She brushed a fingertip over his brows. “If you can’t make someone cry, they don’t care much about you.”

“Is that your way of telling me you care about me?”

She sighed. “Is there any doubt? Really?” She licked her lips, which still tasted of him. “I don’t do this, you know.”

“Do what? Have tea with bare br**sts? I vote you do it far more often, but only with me.” He took her fingers to his mouth, kissed them.

“It’s only you, Adrian.”

“Oh, English, how you undo me.” He leaned back, keeping an arm around her waist to hold her close. “Tell me something about yourself. Why is it just me? And yes, I’m fishing.”