“No.” The word was barely a whisper, but she couldn’t have held it back.

“Is your door locked?”

“Yes, why?”

Dipping his head, he kissed the hollow of her throat, then made his way to her ear, which he nibbled. “Because I’m about to thank you for watching over me,” he whispered, his voice and stubble both giving gave her a full body shiver. “And I’m going to be very thorough in giving thanks.”

“Cam.” Her hands slid into his hair as he kissed his way south. “You should really rest—” She broke off with a low moan when he pushed her shirt up out of his way to capture a breast with his mouth. “Um—”

“You don’t understand . . .” Apparently her shirt had to go because he tugged it off. “No one’s ever taken care of me before, not like you did.”

She tried to think about what he was saying, tried to grasp the meaning behind it, but suddenly she was naked and he was sliding down her body, his hands on her thighs as he looked his fill. Then he locked eyes with her again. “Pretty,” he breathed, and used his mouth to tour her body, mapping it. Every inch.

“Piper.”

The full-body Cam experience was incredibly distracting. “Hmm?”

“You with me?”

“Are you kidding me? When I’m with you like this, I can’t think of anything else, even if I wanted to.”

“Good.” He bent his head to her again, his mission clear. When his mouth touched her, heat exploded deep inside, melting everything else away as he performed his special brand of fire and magic. She already knew he liked to touch and taste, and especially liked to linger.

She had zero complaints.

By the time she could once again drag air into her taxed lungs, she was sprawled out, boneless and sated, making contented, purring happy kitten noises.

They dozed, until Piper jerked awake from the realization that she was feeling things she’d never let herself feel before. Terrifying, because this wasn’t real, it was temporary—

A pair of arms closed around her and she startled. Cam turned her around to face him and kissed her forehead. “You okay?”

Burying her face in the crook of his neck, she just breathed him in for a long moment, willing herself to let go of the worry and angst about what was to come, and just live in the here and now. The future would be what it would be. No use spoiling the present, since it happened to be pretty damn awesome at the moment.

“Very okay,” she whispered, brushing a kiss to his throat.

He took a deep breath and his arms tightened a little, his hand tracing circles over her back, reassuring. Comforting. And she wondered how it was that he always knew what she needed before even she did.