She cut him off with a laugh. “You don’t need to flatter me.”

“I wasn’t.”

She leaned over and kissed him for that. And that led to a need she didn’t even try to deny, to run her hands over him, feeling the taut muscle, the lean lines of him. She was suddenly swamped with the need to give him a kind of pleasure she thought he’d probably had little of in his life lately, a pleasure where he was the focus and the reason. And so she followed the paths she’d traced with her hands with her lips, her mouth, kissing, licking, tasting. And when she paused near that part of him that had responded most visibly, she felt him go very still. He would never push her, probably never even ask her, so she knew it was up to her. She delayed just a bit longer, so that when she finally moved to take him in her mouth a harsh groan of her name ripped out of his throat.

And she knew how deeply she’d come to feel about him when giving him pleasure gave her a joy that went down to the bone.

When this was over, they would... She wasn’t sure what they would do, only that she didn’t want to be without him. She’d wasted enough time already in her blindness. And who knew better than she that tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed? And she wanted tomorrow. She wanted a whole string of tomorrows.

With Adam.

Chapter 34

It was much later when, lying in her bed in the fading light of day, that he brought up what they’d been talking about again. Mandy was snuggled against him, more determined than ever that no matter what happened, they would not lose what they’d found together.

Of course, she had no idea—yet—if he felt the same.

“The councilwoman,” he said slowly, “did she say why she offered you a position on her staff?”

“I assumed she was trying to be kind after Dad’s death, uncharacteristic as that seemed.”

“Very uncharacteristic. I remember her, and she’s never been particularly helpful to law enforcement. The opposite, in fact.”

“I know. That’s why I was so surprised I didn’t know what to say, at first. Dad used to have some choice words about her.”

“But she still offered you a job.”

“Which I turned down, obviously. I was never even tempted, although the salary was rather astounding. I had no idea a staff position paid that much. Made me wonder if people had any idea.”

“It would take more than money, for you.”

She was pleased by his words. “And it would have been a betrayal of my father to go to work for the opposition, as it were.”

“Yes.”