“Amanda,” he began and then stopped abruptly, because to his ears his voice sounded as if he’d said everything he’d just been thinking. Rough. Tight. Aching.

And then, suddenly, Amanda let out a sharp sound of surprise. Before Adam could even react she was falling forward. Onto him. He knew it wasn’t intentional by the way she grabbed for something, anything, to stop the fall. What she got was his arm, as he tried to turn her so she wouldn’t hit the arm of the chair he was in, or worse, crash to the floor.

She ended up on his lap. And the first thing he saw when he caught his breath was Cutter, standing right there, and looking immensely pleased with himself.

“He bumped me,” Amanda said, a little breathlessly. “I didn’t mean to...fall on you, but he came up right behind me and—”

“Pushed?” Adam suggested.

She looked at him quizzically. “Yes. How—”

“I’ve been told he...herds people where he wants them to go.”

She laughed. He was afraid to say any more, to explain any further, because he thought she would get up. And he didn’t want her to. Holding her like this, on his lap, felt better than anything had in...at least five years.

“I’d buy that,” she said, as if she didn’t even realize where she was sitting. Or on what, he added silently as he finally had to admit to his body’s fierce and instant response to her position. “I’ve seen him do it. But why...”

Her voice died away, and he had the feeling that only when she had wondered why Cutter would want her on his lap did she realize that’s where she was.

“I...” she began, but it trailed off as she stared down at him.

He could feel himself breathing hard, felt his lips dry as his breath rushed over them. But he couldn’t stop staring back at her. And because of that he saw the moment when something changed, shifted, when her eyes widened as if in surprise, then, impossibly warmed.

She kissed him.

In all his imaginings, and he couldn’t deny he’d had them, he’d never imagined this. Oh, not her kissing him, because sometimes on a sleepless night long ago he’d imagined exactly that. He’d just never known how it would feel.

Because he’d never in his life felt anything like it.