* * *

Tonight had been perfect, but through it all, a quiet, steady urgency had hummed just behind Eve’s breastbone. She’d caught herself, a few times, rubbing the place where her heart was because it physically ached. Now she was with Jacob, and the ache was replaced by a melting warmth that flooded the air between them.

She was making the right decision, for once. Of this, she was absolutely sure. Eve was meant to be here with him, and her confidence in that fact was a liberation all its own.

Then he stood and walked around the desk toward her, and conscious thoughts faded away in favor of more basic impulses. Little electric flashes spread from low in her belly, and they felt like want, hunger, need.

She exhaled, hard, and watched him come.

“Is it terrible,” he asked conversationally, “that I’m going to fuck you on this desk?”

Her thighs tensed, her nipples tightened, her teeth sank into her lip. But her voice remained light as she replied, “Not in my opinion.”

“You know the traffic light system, don’t you?”

“As in red means stop?”

“Yes.”

“I know it.” She reached beneath the neckline of her dress, and snagged the condom nestled between her breasts. Waving it in the air, she said, “Green.”

Jacob faltered less than a foot away, looming over her like some sort of horny god. Behind his glasses, his eyes were dark and stormy, and his razor-sharp cheekbones were softened by that raspberry flush. “Where,” he asked tightly, “did you get that?”

“There’s a dispenser in the ladies’ at Mont’s pub.”

“And you—” Jacob dragged a hand through his hair, his expression almost pained. “You really spent this whole night planning to come home and sleep with me, didn’t you?”

It was all Eve could do not to purr at the dizzy satisfaction in his voice. “I thought you’d like that.”

“I like you,” he said roughly, taking that last step toward her. “I—Eve—”

“Mmm?” He sounded as if he was gearing up to say something, but Eve found her attention ensnared by his rather prominent erection. She’d taken her legs off the desk, so he was standing between her spread thighs, his waist at eye level. She only had to look down a tiny little bit, and her field of vision was dominated by the thickness in his jeans.

And gosh. Gosh. What, was he smuggling a butternut squash down there? The thing was obscene. Eve was absolutely thrilled.

“Eve . . .” he said. “Are you staring at my dick?”

“Of course I’m staring at your dick, darling. What did you think I was proposing we do, here?”

“I was hoping for more than staring, actually. I just—I think I forgot about the way you look at me.”

She tilted her head back, meeting his eyes, seeing a world of dark desires within that familiar frost. “And how do I look at you?” she whispered.

He wrapped a hand around her upper arm and pulled her gently to her feet. Then he said, “Like this,” and kissed her.