“Too late.”

His fingers went away, his hands opened my legs and his mouth went to where his fingers were. The choir had already warmed up and within minutes, his talented mouth and tongue sent me straight to the high note of the aria.

God, it was amazing.

Before I’d finished singing, he was up and over me, sliding inside me and it felt so unbelievably good that even though the first act was pretty spectacular, the second act followed close on its heels and it rocked my world.

* * * * *

“I think I’m hungry,” I told him after.

“Again?” he asked. “By my count, you came twice.”

Grr.

He would be counting.

I did come twice, well, maybe three times or the second was just really long.

We were all tangled up so I detangled and I slid away from him and searched under the pillow. I found that Judy had not only cleaned but ironed the Night Stalker tee (who irons t-shirts?) and I tugged it on.

“For food,” I turned and looked at him. “Do you want food?”

“What did you make?”

“I was going to make steaks, green beans and au gratin potatoes. I only finished the potatoes.”

His eyes softened when he heard the menu and he said, “I could eat.”

I guess I scored a hit with the meal, even if I hadn’t been able to cook it for him.

I padded into the kitchen and went straight to the wine. I was struggling with the cork when he followed me in, wearing only his jeans. He took the wine from me and effortlessly uncorked it. I grabbed the glasses, set them on the counter and he poured.

I slopped a mess of potatoes in a bowl and nuked them. To satisfy my own hunger, I decided I would skip the potatoes and go straight to the pie. I sipped my wine and watched the microwave, feeling weird. We’d taken another step towards togetherness, the best step by far, but it still freaked me out.

“How was your day?” I asked, trying to cover my discomfort.

Boy, that sounded lame.

“Progress is better on my other cases,” he said behind my back.

The dinger went, I pulled the potatoes out, set the hot bowl on a folded towel and handed it to him with a fork. He leaned a hip on the counter and ate standing up.

I sucked down more wine and headed to the fridge.

“I’ve decided to work the Rosie case again. I’m gonna recruit Tex. He has good skills.”

By this, I meant he wasn’t scared of anything, including breaking the law. Not to mention, he thought I was a fun date.

I opened the fridge and slid out the pie.

Lee was watching me. “You didn’t say anything about pie.”

“Chocolate cream.”

He stared at me, fork frozen halfway to his mouth. Something was working behind his eyes. Whatever it was, he processed it and I could tell it pleased him but he didn’t share it with me. I let it slide, he’d tell me if he wanted me to know but it didn’t take a brain surgeon to realize he liked the idea that I made his favorite pie.

“Why are you goin’ after Rosie?” he asked.

“Because he got me into this and I’m sick of dead bodies and bullets flying. Everyone I love is scared for me and Rosie’s the key. I’m gonna root him out, kick his ass and then things will get back to normal.”

I walked to the other side of the kitchen, slid the pie on the counter and grabbed a fork.

“What you mean is, you’re gonna get Tex to kick his ass,” Lee said.

I considered cutting a piece but decided against it. It was just Lee and me, no reason standing on ceremony. I dipped my finger into the cream and turned to Lee.

“I could take Rosie. No problem.” Then I stuck my finger in my mouth.

His eyes dropped to my mouth as I sucked my finger. I cocked my head and grinned at him. He one-upped me by gifting me with The Smile. The problem was, The Smile was not only amped up with a good deal of warmth and intimacy, it was mega-watt with the knowledge of the great sex that had gone before and the promise of what was to come.

My legs got a little weak.

“Last time you saw Rosie, he was waving a gun at you,” Lee pointed out.

“Tex has a gun.”

“Tex has a shotgun. Civilians with guns are a little scary. Civilians with guns they don’t know how to use are very scary. Toting around a shotgun is just nuts.”

I shrugged, jumped up, planted my ass on the counter, crossed my legs and took another sip of wine. Then I picked up the whole pie, took a moment to decide where to start and decided to start with the best part. I grabbed the fork and I dug straight into the middle.

After about four bites, I lifted my eyes to Lee. He was holding his wine and watching me, his bowl in the sink.

“What?” I asked.

“Are you upset about me bein’ late? You went out of your way with dinner.”

“Nope,” I replied.

“You lie as easy as you breathe, be honest.”

I stared at him.

“Why would I be upset? Do I seem upset? You said you’d call when you were on your way home. I know you’re busy and you have a lot on your plate. I planned dinner accordingly. Nothing’s going to spoil. Jeez, Lee. I may fib every once in awhile but only when it isn’t important. It’s just dinner, not missing a Led Zeppelin reunion.”

He took a sip of wine and kept watching me.

I scooped out a huge wodge of pie and turned the fork toward him.

“Want some?”

His face changed and he set the wine aside.

“Yeah,” he said, coming toward me.

Holy shit.

I was thinking he wasn’t talking about pie.

I wasn’t wrong.

He took the fork and tossed it into the pie. Then he took the pie and set it aside.

“I wasn’t done with that,” I said to him.

“You can go back to it later.”

He pressed open my legs. I hadn’t put any panties on and I felt immediately exposed. He came between them, sliding my ass across the counter and the feeling went away as I felt his warmth against me.

“What are you doing?” I asked, even though I knew exactly what he was doing.

“Dessert,” he said and he kissed me.

He tasted like wine, I was sure I tasted like pie.

I wasn’t lying, I wanted more pie but after he started kissing me, I didn’t miss it much.

One of his hands was steady at my hip, the other hand was working between us, he was undoing his fly.