“I did.” She patted the quilt, and her voice had turned husky. Excited. “Are you planning what they call goodbye sex?”

Yeah, she was feeling what he was. “Only if you don’t come back.” She’d damned well better come back.

Her smile appeared even as tears filled her eyes.

Without saying more, he stripped her—T-shirt, bra, socks, jeans, and practical boy-cut briefs. Nice.

He straightened. “It’s your turn to undress me, lazy one.”

“Oh. Okay.” As she slid off the bed and started on his clothing, her breasts wobbled in a compelling fashion.

While she removed his shirt, he played with her breasts, cupping, fondling, teasing, then teased her nipples to rigid peaks.

Her breathing changed. Deepened.

Pushing him back a step, she fumbled with his jeans buttons. Released, his erection sprang out, and she wrapped her hands around it.

All right—that would be a good diversion for them both. So he simply enjoyed the moment as she knelt in front of him.

She was adorably awkward, enough that he could tell she hadn’t often given blowjobs. But her tongue was hot and wet, and she was careful with her teeth, something a man could appreciate. When she closed her mouth around him and started bobbing her head, heat swept through him, and his dick swelled with the urge to get off right then.

A wise man didn’t let his cock rule the roost.

Gabe tangled his fingers in her hair, firmly slowing her, and letting himself savor the slow slide of her mouth, the flickers of her slick tongue, the sheer heat. Yeah, he loved how she threw herself into pleasing him.

Before he reached the point of no return, he gently pulled back, scooped her up, and laid her on his bed.

He hadn’t closed the wooden pocket doors, and light streamed in from the lakeside windows. As he looked down at her, her cheeks flushed. She instinctively started to cover herself.

“Uh-uh, sweetheart.” He caught her hands and curled her fingers around the thick vertical headboard pieces.

She blushed darker. Fuck, he liked that color in her cheeks. So, knowing it would fluster her, he said softly, “Open your legs for me.”

Her protest died under his stern look. His cop look. In the academy, no one had mentioned all the potential uses.

He sat beside her, cupping a pretty breast to fondle as her legs slid apart…slowly. A snail would have moved faster, but he was in no hurry. Under his touch, her nipples were bunching tighter.

Bending, he kissed her, teasing her breasts as he did. Then he moved his palm down her stomach, enjoying the feel of the silken skin. A glance showed him that she’d stopped opening her legs way too soon. So he stroked over her mound, never lower, feeling the quivers as her need grew.

“Gabe…”

She put her arms around his shoulders as he kissed her.