“Really? You expected me not to come after this?” I pull the necklace out of my pocket and wave it in front of her face.

“All I have to do is raise one finger, and those two will be on you before you can—”

I wrap one arm around her waist so it looks to the guards like I’m hugging her and move her back into the house, then close the door.

“Jesus!” She pushes me off, and we both look down at her nightie, an emerald-green silk gown that is soaked at her chest. Water drips off my head, my clothes sticking to me. I didn’t put on a jacket in my haste. “What the hell, Judge?”

“This was a gift,” I say, backing her into the wall when she tries to get around me.

“I don’t want your gift. Just like I don’t want you stalking me every night. Take a fucking hint.” She pivots around me, but I grab her arm and pull her back.

“You will wear it. Every fucking day.”

“News flash,” she says, tugging free. “I don’t belong to you!”

I block her with my body as I secure the necklace around her neck.

“What are you doing? Are you drunk? Jesus? I can smell the liquor!”

Again, she tries to slip past me, but this time, I take hold of her jaw, fingers digging into soft skin. I make her look at me, and in this dim light at this insane hour, I search her face, memorize her dark eyes, the scattering of gold specks. I smell her smell, that familiar mix of amber, citrus, and warm spices that I’ve missed too much. And I kiss her. I hold her in place, and I kiss her even as her hands come to my chest to push me away, even as she doesn’t kiss me back and groans her protest against my lips instead.

I don’t care. I can’t. I need this too much. I need her.

“Mercedes.” I kiss her jaw, her throat, the curve of her neck as I undo my belt, unzip my slacks, the need too great to wait. When I straighten to look at her, her eyes have gone impossibly dark. They glisten as her hands curl around my shoulders, and I reach under the nightie to tug her panties aside. Lifting her, I brace her against the wall, her belly firm and foreign between us.

She wraps her legs around my middle as I take myself out, and she gasps when I thrust into her, making a sound that comes from my gut through my chest, my heart, and out of my mouth.