“I don’t know about that, Mr. Donovan.” What an odd compliment. She felt anything but perfect in that moment, dressed in jeans, a Golden Girls T-shirt Reggi got for all of them, and sneakers. She’d slowly let herself wear comfortable clothes around John since he was taking this library work seriously. Perfect was a word boyfriends used. And John was anything but that. Still, she was a little curious about his declaration. “How so?”

John’s smirk widened into a wolfish grin. “You’re an intelligent, beautiful woman with a dirty little secret,” he said, brushing against her lips. He kissed the corner of her mouth, sending an involuntary tremor of arousal to the pit of her belly.

Victoria’s eyelids fell shut as she weaved in her sneakers. “I am? I do?”

“You’re a sex kitten with OCD.”

Her eyes flew open to see John pull away from her and cross his arms over his chest. “What?”

“You’re a perfect mess,” he said with a shrug.

Laughter bubbled up in her chest and escaped in the same raspy chuckle John had described just a couple days ago. “Shut up,” she said, playfully pushing his shoulder and then immediately straightening the pile of Eloise books.

“See!” John exclaimed through his laughter.

“There’s nothing wrong with a little order,” she giggled as she blocked his advances. “No, stop ruining them, John!”

He began mixing up her stacks on purpose, putting The Stinky Cheese Man on the Fancy Nancy pile, and shuffling the paperback Berenstain Bears. “There, now it’s perfect.”

Victoria threw up her hands. “Fine, you win. They’re all out of order and now it’s going to be a chore to shelve them. I was trying to get them ready for the next person and you’ve just made it harder for them.”

“The next person to shelve them is me. And I don’t care,” John said, pulling her to him with his powerful arms. Trapped in his hug, she had no choice but to leave the mess and stand still. Even though she was irritated, the warmth of his embrace was so male, so comforting. “Don’t pout, Dr. Reese. It’s cute as hell, but I want to talk to you.”

“I’m not pouting,” she said, avoiding his laughing eyes.

“You are. So much so, that I want to suck on that bottom lip that’s stuck out.”

This made her laugh again. Victoria still couldn’t keep up with him. Between his flirty quips and his stolen kisses, she was always in a state of heightened arousal. “What do you want to discuss, Mr. Donovan?” she asked in a mock-serious tone.

He hugged her closer to his unyielding body, her softness pressed tight against his hardness. Speaking of hardness... The unmistakable poke of something below the waist caught her attention and warmed her face. “I want to discuss that,” he said in a low voice.