The Bloodline She Burned novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Office Couch

Neither of them let go of the other's hand until the sky outside the window went grey.

"Sleep," Gabriel said. "The couch in the office is yours."

"It's been mine for three weeks."

"Then you know where it is."

She did.

She stood, and he stood, and the practice room was very still.

"Off the server," she said.

"That's what I said."

"We're not on the server."

His mouth moved, almost a smile.

"No," he said. "We're not."

She walked into the back office and he followed her and shut the door.

The blanket still lay folded on the couch, smelling of coffee.

He did not touch her.

He stood with his back against the door and let her look at him, which she did, slowly, from his crooked nose to his hands.

"You've decided something," he said.

"Yes."

"Say it."

"I want you to take off my coat, Gabriel, and I want you to be slow about it for exactly as long as you can stand."

His breath went out of him.

"That's not long," he said.

"Then you'd better start."

He crossed the room in two steps.

He eased the coat off her shoulders and let it drop.

His fingers found the hem of her sweater and lifted it, and the cold air hit her ribs, and then his mouth did.

He kissed the line of her stomach, once, very gently, and she put her hand over his head and held on.

"This is the first time I'm asking," he said. "If you want me to stop, say it."

"Don't you dare."

"That's not stopping."

"That's the opposite of stopping."

He laughed against her skin.

It was the first time she had heard him laugh, and she felt it all the way down.

He undid her jeans and drew them off, and then he knelt on the cheap carpet and looked up at her.

"You're shaking."

"I'm cold."

"You're lying."

"I'm both."

He pressed his mouth to the inside of her knee, then her thigh, then the top of it, and stopped, and waited.

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