“Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot,” he invited.

He got another squeeze, this one seeming automatic, before she stated, “No recriminations. I don’t know why I need to know, I just do, and it’ll be okay because you’ve been around for a long time. You had a life. I get that. But have you, um…held another woman in your lap like you did with me yesterday?”

“Absolutely not,” he replied immediately and felt her tense at his back.

“Really?”

Abel wrapped his fingers around one of her forearms and gave it a tug. She got him, let him go, and he shifted her to his front, moving in so she was pressed to the sink.

She tipped her head back, lifted her hands to rest them on his chest, and he caught her eyes.

“I honest to God didn’t even know I was doin’ it with you,” he told her.

He saw relief in her face before she murmured, “I kinda sensed that, but I asked because I, well…had to be sure.”

“It’s only been you, Lilah.”

Her peering into his eyes turned to staring.

She understood what he was saying.

Two hundred years and only one.

Her.

Still, she asked, “What?”

“Never lived with a woman,” he informed her. “Never had a relationship. Never really even dated. Went out with women. Had drinks. Had fun. Did other shit,” he added the last carefully. “Nothin’ else. Especially not the lap thing.”

“That’s important,” she guessed, still staring in his eyes.

“Only realized it when Sonia pointed it out. But yeah. The minute I became aware of where you were and that I put you there, I knew I couldn’t handle you bein’ anywhere but there.” He dipped his face closer to hers. “Not another woman got that from me. Not another woman really got anything from me, save my dick. But I don’t think in all my years I’ve even put one in my lap for any reason, pussycat. Not shittin’ you. Musta sensed it was important so I didn’t do it.”

“That’s cool,” she whispered, the relief still there, but now it was heavier.

“Yeah.”

“So many things about you are cool, Abel,” she kept going and he felt her words deep in his gut. “The more you learn, the more awesome it all is.”

Fuck, he fucking loved that she thought that way. And she was not handing him a line, saying words to make him feel better. It was written clear in her expression.

Awe.

And something else. Something warm and exquisite.

Something he felt in his gut, tightening further in his chest, and hardening his cock in a way he couldn’t fight.

He gave in to the last, moved his hands to her nightshirt, and bunched it at the waist.

Her lips parted, her eyes went hooded, and he smelled the rush between her legs.