Thank you for reading!

They moved slowly inside, a few steps here, stopping for a kiss, or to hold each other, smiling at each other like two kids on their first carnival ride. Neither one of them felt any particular need to hurry—they were together now, they both wanted the same thing, and everything else could come in its own good time.

Ava closed the door behind him and went around the house turning off the lights. Slowly, looking at him as she flicked each switch, wanting him to know where this was leading.

Boyd knew. The knowledge, the feeling of her wanting him, was already pounding in his head and he was trying to get used to the idea, the knowledge that something he had thought impossible was coming true.

At last she came to him in the darkness, dropping her coat on the floor even as she reached for the buttons on his, pushing it off his shoulders and letting it fall on top of hers.

"Ava. Are you certain that this is what you want?"

For answer, she pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. This time there was urgency in it, heat and hunger that would no longer be denied, and Boyd lost himself in the return of the kiss, the taste of her mouth, the scent of her perfume.

Ava broke the kiss, reaching for his hand, pulling him upstairs. She had tried not to dream about this, tried not to imagine what it would be like, but she had never entirely been able to put the idea out of her mind. There was a deep ache inside her already, an anticipation of what was to come, as she brought him into her bedroom and shut the door behind them. Not that the door needed to be closed, but it meant something, to be together behind a closed door. It meant him, and her, and no one else—everything else outside them, away from them.

She sat down on the bed and unlaced her shoes, taking them off and tucking them under the bed. Boyd hadn't moved. He was standing against the door and watching her. Ava patted the bed next to her, and he started to take a step, then thought better of it. "Ava, this is … I can't do this."

"I bet you can." She started on the buttons of her shirt.

"No, I mean … I … There is nothing I want more than this, but my feet are on a path you rightly chose not to walk. I cannot ask you to take this journey with me, and if I continue what we've started here, I won't want to stop."

"I never said you should." Ava peeled the shirt off and reached for the hem of the T-shirt she wore under it.

"But you said you didn't wish to be involved with … criminal activity."

"I said that. And I meant it at the time. But now—" Ava dropped the T-shirt on the floor and looked up at him, wanting him to understand how things had changed. "This house is cold and empty without you, Boyd." She meant more than just the house. Standing up, she began unbuttoning her jeans. Boyd's eyes followed every move of her fingers.

"The cost, Ava. The cost."

"I get it. If I want you, then I have to take the rest. And—I want you." She pushed her jeans down and stepped out of them, standing in front of him in only bra and panties. "You want to see how much?"

His eyes were heavy-lidded, his mouth open as if he was having trouble breathing. "My God, yes."

She unfastened her bra and let it fall. "Then come over here."

"Ava." Then he was holding her, kissing her again, his hands roaming over her bare back and cupping her rear through the thin fabric of the panties. He was hard against her, and Ava pressed herself closer even as her fingers were moving between them to unbutton his shirt.

It took longer than she wanted to remove all his layers and be standing there, skin to skin, so warm, exchanging kisses on neck and shoulders and chest, hands exploring. Ava broke away, not sure how much more she could take, peeling off her panties and lying down on the bed, with a pointed look at his jeans, which had to be getting mighty uncomfortable about now.

The haste with which he removed the rest of his clothes said she had been compeletely right, and then he was on the bed with her, kissing her again even as they shifted together, delighting in the friction and the closeness.

Ava reached into her drawer for protection, and closed her eyes while he touched her, making sure she was ready. A brief caress said he was more than ready himself. When they were joined at last they lay together for a moment, just enjoying the feeling, looking at each other. He kissed her again as he began to move, and it was—just right. It felt as though everything in her life had been leading her here, to this moment, with this man.

When it was over, when their heartrates had slowed and their bodies had cooled, he held her close, his fingers gentle in her hair. "Ava, Ava, Ava. To think I have gone all my life and never known what this felt like."

She didn't need to ask what he meant. She knew. She felt it, too.

"I never want this to end."

"Doesn't have to."

"You don't have to be involved in anything that makes you uncomfortable. I promise you that. I will shield you from as much as I can," he said, kissing her temple and her cheek and just under her ear.

Something about that felt strange to Ava. It was the way things had been with Bowman, but she had never expected things to be that way with Boyd. She had imagined herself as more of a partner. But tonight—tonight she had what she had wanted all this time. He was with her now, hers to care for. There was plenty of time to decide how she wanted to handle the rest of it. For now—now she would sleep, safe and warm with Boyd's arms around her.