Keeley tumbled out of the car the moment Lance opened the door for her. She half-stumbled, half-threw herself into his arms, laughter bubbling out of her.

Lance kissed her long enough that if it wasn’t for his arms around her she really would have fallen down. Then he raised his head, and the expression on his face made her legs go liquid.

“You know what I’ve just realized?” he asked her, his eyes dancing. “This is the first time I’ve brought you home.”

The low rumble of his voice sent delicious shivers up Keeley’s spine. “It’s not like I haven’t seen your place before.”

“Hmm.” Oh, God. More shivers. “Teleporting in while I was passed out from a gunshot wound wasn’t exactly the most romantic introduction. This time, I’d like to—”

He interrupted himself with a kiss that made Keeley’s knees go weak and left her with no doubts about what he wanted to do.

“I thought this was supposed to be a quick stop?” she murmured. “Grabbing overnight bags before we get on the helicopter?”

They’d left Maggie under the safe eyes of Parker, Yelich, and a half-dozen watchful meerkat shifters. She’d been cheerfully smearing gold ink over her sibling eggs, none the worse for wear for her latest adventure. Lance had murmured something about him and Keeley needing to pick up their toothbrushes from his apartment while Harley got the chopper ready, and…

… and every single other adult in the room had given them a Look that said they knew exactly what they were actually heading home for.

Well, fuck it. Lance was the best thing to ever happen to her, and she didn’t care who knew how much she loved him.

Lance chuckled and began kissing her neck. Keeley let her head fall back.

“Just—a quick—hey!” she giggled as he caught her dress in his teeth and began to pull it over her shoulder.

“I’m sure we could be very efficient about it,” Lance rumbled. His eyes flashed as he looked up at her, his breath hot against her skin. “But I don’t want to be. I want to take my time.”

“Hngh.” Keeley groaned and tried again. “Take your time, huh? Is that code for ripping my clothes off in the parking lot?”

Lance’s eyes narrowed. “Hmm,” he said, straightening. With an expression of extreme solemnity on his face undermined only by his sparkling eyes, he offered her his arm.

Keeley took it, feeling like she was walking on clouds. Lance walked her formally to the elevator.

She managed to wait until the doors closed before the urge to kiss him became too strong to resist. Lance pressed the button for his floor, and the moment his attention was distracted, Keeley struck.

Lance murmured in surprise as she dragged his head down. His lips were soft, and his surprise melted away as she slipped her tongue between his lips, replaced by urgent passion.

“Oh, God,” he muttered when they finally broke apart. “That’s really not fair.”

Keeley stepped back, smirking. Lance was hard up against the elevator wall. His pupils were blown wide with desire, the cool green of his eyes a thin circle around pools of red-hot darkness.

“What are you going to do about it?” she challenged him.

Behind her, the elevator bell dinged. Keeley thought about taking another step back, dropping her hands from his shoulders and slipping out the door, but her heart thudded no.

She leaned forward instead, trailing her fingertips up his chest. Now that she’d let herself really feel how much she wanted him—needed him, desired him, loved him—she couldn’t stop touching him.

Not even to tease him.

Lance’s eyes were hooded as he gazed down at her. “I’m going to do what I should have done the moment I met you. Take you home, and begin our life together.”

His eyes flared silver, and this time, Keeley was the one taken by surprise as he swept her up in his arms.

“Hey!” she squealed as Lance strode out of the elevator. “What are you—?”

Lance crossed the corridor to the door to his apartment in a few long strides.

“Just what I said. This is what I should have done all along.” He unlocked the apartment door without putting Keeley down. “Welcome home.”

Our home, she thought.

Lance’s eyes flicked up to meet hers, as though she’d spoken aloud and not kept her happy thoughts locked up in her own heart. He smiled gently, and a rush of affection buffeted against her.

Oh. Of course. The mate-bond. She must have sent her feelings through it, and he’d replied in kind.

“That’s right,” he said, the barest hint of a purr in his voice. “This is our home, now. Everything that’s mine is yours.”

The pure flood of love Lance sent her through the mate bond as he stepped over the threshold made her breath catch.

He kissed her, slow and deep, and she thought: If I could send a feeling by accident…

She concentrated. It was like using a muscle she hadn’t exercised, ever. Not just the sending part, but letting her guard down. Letting herself really feel what she was feeling, and not be afraid of her own desires.

Lance’s breath stuttered against her lips. “God, Keeley—”

He leaned his forehead against hers, breathing heavily. Keeley kissed him again and whispered, “Did that work?”

“Did it—? Christ.” Lance groaned deep in his throat, and Keeley giggled, feeling light-headed.

She’d sent him everything he made her feel. Loving and loved. Protected and protective. The sheer joy of the knowledge that she was no longer on her own. From now on, it wasn’t just her against the world. It was her and Lance, together.

Everything that had happened that day felt like part of an intricate lock that she’d worked through stage by stage and had finally clicked open. Instead of a constant ache of stress and worry inside her, there was peace.

Peace… and the desperate urge to screw Lance’s brains out.

Keeley knew what she wanted, and she wasn’t afraid of wanting it anymore.

Lance had lifted her bridal-style, but as he carried her towards his bedroom she wriggled around in his grasp until she could wrap her legs around his waist. This gave her access to his chest. She pulled his shirt up, unbuttoning it and glorying in the feeling of his strong muscles under her hands.

“God, Keeley.” Lance’s voice was thick with lust. She looked up from his chest and almost drowned in the liquid heat of his eyes.

Need pierced her. She let herself drop down lower on his hips, until the hard rod of Lance’s cock rubbed between her legs.

Lance swore, and the sensation that burned down the mate bond made Keeley’s blood catch fire.

They were on the steps up to Lance’s room. Keeley dragged Lance’s face to hers, kissing him and biting his lips until she thought she would explode. He groaned against her mouth. In a rare moment of un-catlike clumsiness, his foot slipped.

With feline grace, Lance caught them both before they could fall. The edge of a step pressed into Keeley’s back. Lance changed his grip to pick her up again, and she pushed back, laying him back against the stairs.

“The bed is literally less than six feet away,” Lance reminded her, his eyes dancing.

“I know.” Keeley slid one hand between his legs. “I don’t think I can wait that long. What about you?”

Lance groaned. His eyes rolled back in his head as Keeley squeezed his cock through his pants.

“You make a convincing argument,” he admitted.

Keeley half-stood to mount him and didn’t realize he’d dragged her panties down until they tangled around her knees. Giggling, she let herself fall onto him, kicking her underwear the rest of the way off as he removed her dress and bra just as quickly.

Her nipples tightened as they brushed against his chest. Urgency gripped her, need pounding like a drum between her legs.

Lance’s belt buckle gave way under her light fingers, then his fly, and then she was wrapping her hands around his cock.

“I want you so much,” she gasped as she ran her fingers along his thick length.

Lance’s fingertips dug into her hips. His eyes burned with the same need that blazed through Keeley’s veins.

Biting her lip, she lowered herself onto him.

Keeley cried out. She wanted him too much to wait for her body to adjust; she pushed down, driving herself deeper and deeper, every movement stoking the fire burning inside her.

Lance grabbed her face in his hands, drawing her down to claim her mouth as he surged beneath her. He was as frenzied as she was.

“I won’t lose you again,” he said, his voice ragged with desire. “Oh God—Keeley—”

He was losing control. Keeley could hear it in the hitch of his breath, the gravel rasp of his voice. She pressed her body against his. Every touch set off new flames of need inside her.

He needed her. He wanted her. And she wanted him. Nothing in her life had ever been as right as this.

Keeley thrust her hips forward one last time. Fireworks went off behind her eyes as she came in an explosion more visceral and intense than ever before. Lance wrapped his arms around her and roared as he spilled himself inside her.

Keeley lay limp on top of Lance for a few breaths. She rested her hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat become calmer. Lance ran his hands down her back in long, slow strokes.

He chuckled. Keeley raised her head.

“What?”

Lance’s gaze was hazy with sated lust, but there was no hiding the pure love in his eyes as he looked at her. “I think I’m going to need to move the bed closer to the front door, if this keeps up,” he said.

Keeley crossed her arms on his chest and rested her chin on them. “I don’t know. This feels fine to me,” she said, and wriggled her hips. Lance’s cock was still buried deep inside her, and the movement set off a new surge of warm, lazy desire. “Feels very fine.”

“Perhaps for you. I’m worried my spine is going to become permanently stair-shaped.” He brushed a stray strand of hair off her face. “But for some reason I don’t want to move.”

Keeley sighed. The lazy desire coiling inside her was sharpening up. But this was only supposed to be a quick stop…

Except. There was one thing they definitely needed to do before they headed away again.

“What are you thinking?” Lance murmured. “I can tell it’s making you happy.”

Keeley smiled.

“I was remembering how attracted to you I was that first morning here,” she said, tracing patterns on Lance’s collarbone. “I thought I was going crazy. I’d never felt like that about anyone before. So… sudden, and intense.”

“That’s because—”

Keeley put her finger on Lance’s lips and rolled her eyes. “Well, I know that now, don’t I? But at the time, I thought I was losing it. And… it was all I could do not to follow you into the shower.”

“Really?” Lance’s smile promised to fulfill all of Keeley’s wildest dreams. “I suppose we do need to clean up before we return to the agency.”

“Um, holy shit.”

Keeley’s legs were still wobbly from the stairs. Her mouth hung open as she looked around Lance’s en-suite.

She’d thought his guest-room bathroom was fancy. This was something else.

There was a shower, sure. Or at least that’s what Keeley thought it must be. There were at least a dozen shower heads arrayed along the ceiling at the far end of the room. Some of them were above the bath. The enormous bath. Everything was warm marble and granite, and Keeley had never seen stone look so cozy and inviting before. Even the long marble block running alongside the bath looked comfy. For a block of rock.

“Okay, I definitely should have snuck in here with you the other day. What was I thinking?”

Lance swept her hair off her shoulder and kissed the back of her neck. “At a guess, something along the lines of ‘Who is this freak who can turn into a giant cat, why am I playing mommy to a baby dragon, and who just tried to kill us all?’”

“Watch it, or I’ll start to think you really can read my mind.” Keeley leaned back against Lance’s chest. “I can’t believe it was only three days ago.”

“Shifter relationships tend to move quickly.” Lance nuzzled the top of her head. “Are you okay with that? This is your home too, now, but if you’d prefer to take things at a more human speed…”

“No.” Keeley’s certainty surprised her. She turned to face him. “I spent the last ten years hating myself for who I thought I was. Now…”

She bit her lip, but the faith and love in Lance’s eyes gave her the strength to go on. To say out loud words that a day ago she wouldn’t have even dared to say inside her own mind.

“I have ten years of life to catch up on. And I don’t want to waste a minute of it without you.”

Relief flashed in Lance’s eyes. Keeley knew he would have given her all the space she needed, no matter how much it hurt him. Well, frankly, she’d had enough of his self-sacrifice the moment he put himself between her and a bullet.

Lance’s hands slipped down her sides. “Let me show you what you’re not missing out on, then.”

He drew her over to the shower and adjusted the controls until they were both drenched under a waterfall-like cascade of hot water. Keeley hadn’t thought she could possibly be more relaxed, until Lance directed her to lie down on the raised marble block beside the bath.

“It’s warm!” she exclaimed.

“My snow leopard likes the heat,” Lance explained. “And it’s good for relaxing after a long day. Not as good as a sun-heated rock by a mountain pool… but close enough.”

“Mmm.” Keeley lay down on her front. Warmth seeped up from the stone, easing her muscles as hot water pattered down from above. “Are you going to lie down, too?”

“Not yet.” Lance’s voice moved away.

Keeley closed her eyes, letting herself sink into the heat. This was luxury beyond anything she’d ever imagined. She was warm, and satiated, and safe with her mate. Things couldn’t get better.

Lance came back and sat next to her. She heard him handling something and then felt the brush of a soapy loofah on her back.

Things had just gotten better.

“What’s this?” she murmured, her voice blurring with pleasure.

Lance coughed softly. “I told you, we’re doing this properly. You’re my mate.” He lowered his mouth to her ear, so close she could feel the tickle of his breath. “I’m grooming you.”

He hesitated, and she could imagine his eyebrows drawing together. “Of course, if you don’t want me to…”

Keeley reached out and grabbed the nearest part of him she could reach, which turned out to be his knee. “I want everything about you,” she said firmly.

She stretched luxuriously across the marble as Lance washed her. He started at her shoulders and moved down, gently soaping every inch of her and scrubbing in soft, slow circles with the loofah.

Keeley’s breathing slowed.

It wasn’t just a shower—this was intimate, a slow, careful worshiping of her body that left her head spinning with wonder.

Her skin was tingling by the time he set down the loofah. And then he started using his hands.

“Is this good?” he asked, digging his fingertips into the knotted muscles around her shoulder blades.

“Yes,” Keeley breathed. The heat from the marble suffused her entire body, but now it was joined by a new warmth from inside her. Not a blazing fire this time, but a liquid, languid heat.

Lance continued his massage, his gentle fingers finding every ache and knot in her body. He turned her over and she lay on her back, gazing up at him while he made long strokes up her thighs.

“Lance…” Even her voice sounded liquid. Keeley couldn’t remember ever being so relaxed.

Because she’d never felt as safe as this before. Not with anyone.

He made her happy. He made her feel safe to be happy. She wanted him to be happy, too. He had to know how much she cared for him. All of him. Everything that he was.

“Lance, I want to groom you, too.”

Lance’s hand stopped. Keeley sat up.

“Please?”

Lance made a strange, strangled noise in the back of his throat. Keeley swept her legs around and took his hand.

“I’m going to take that as a yes,” she decided, and the sudden delighted light in his eyes assured her she’d made the right choice.

Keeley gently pushed Lance down onto the warm marble, then grabbed a fresh loofah and began to soap him up.

Lance had groomed her in worshipful silence. Keeley didn’t find herself able to do the same.

“Your back!” she exclaimed as Lance rolled onto his front. “You’re all bruised!”

“Only bruised?” Lance remarked under his breath.

Keeley ran her hand across the marks that mottled his dark skin. “I thought you weren’t hurt at the warehouse,” she accused him.

“Not badly.”

“You should have said something when we were on the staircase.”

“I was distracted.”

Keeley hissed in her breath as she carefully scrubbed at Lance’s back, but he was right; it was only bruises, no broken skin. Still. “Don’t scare me like that. It’s only a few days since you got shot.”

“Mmm.”

“If I’m going to be living with you, you need to start telling me when you’re hurt before I get your shirt off.”

Lance’s back had been going up and down as he breathed; now it stopped. In one fluid movement he sat up and swung around, grabbing Keeley’s hand. His eyes blazed silver and green at the same time.

“I will,” he said, his voice rough.

Keeley’s heart melted. Lance had lost control on the staircase, the same as she had, but this was a different loss of control. The way he looked now, the snow leopard staring out at her at the same time as his human half, was more vulnerable than she had ever seen him.

“If this is going to work,” she began, and regretted it immediately as worry flashed across Lance’s face. “No, I mean, it is going to work, but it has to be more than just incredible sex and you looking after me. I know I’m the more broken one out of the two of us, but you have to let me look after you, too.”

A smile fluttered tentatively at the corners of her lips. “I don’t have a lot of experience looking after someone else, but that’s one of the things I’ve got to catch up on, right?”

Lance’s expression relaxed. “Deal.”

“Good.” Keeley put her hand in the middle of his chest. “Now, lie back down. I haven’t finished grooming you yet.”

Lance made a happy rumbling noise as he settled back down on the warm marble. Keeley frowned, and then laughed silently to herself.

Is he purring? Actually purring?

Oh, my God.

She finished washing him, as slowly and carefully as he had groomed her, and then laid the loofah aside. The shower was still cascading over their heads, sluicing off Keeley’s shoulders and the edges of the marble.

She leaned over Lance, spreading her fingers across his pecs. Her body made a shelter from the rain-like shower, and he smiled up at her.

“Now I’ve looked after you, and you’ve looked after me,” he said, his voice curling around Keeley’s heart. “What was the third thing you said, about what we need to make this work?”

Keeley laughed. “Seems like you remember. Why don’t you remind me?”

This time, their lovemaking was slow, as gentle and intimate as the shared grooming had been. Lance kissed her from her neck down between her breasts to her upper thighs, his lips teasingly soft and never touching her most sensitive spots.

The bath had filled while they washed. Lance slipped off the marble bench and gently pulled Keeley into the water after him. Keeley’s breath was already hitching with pleasure. As they both sank into the water, she thought it would only take one touch for her to unravel entirely.

The new scar on Lance’s chest gleamed as the water hit it. Keeley covered it with her hand, and then took her hand away and kissed it.

She met Lance’s eyes, and he picked up her hand and kissed the fine scars on her fingers and the slight grazes from the holding cell.

Life has hurt both of us, his gaze seemed to say. But we’re together now. Stronger. I won’t let you get hurt again.

And I won’t let you get hurt, Keeley thought.

She wrapped her legs around Lance, her movements slow and almost dreamy in the warm water. When he entered her, every nerve in her body lit up with the sensation of pure pleasure.

Lance groaned into her shoulder as he filled her, slow and deep and perfect, and Keeley cried out. Her fingertips bit into Lance’s shoulders as she came, holding him close against her until the crash of pleasure faded into perfect, peaceful joy.

Afterwards, Keeley rested her head on Lance’s shoulder. The golden light inside her was fixed now, and she knew nothing would destroy it again. She and Lance were bonded for good.

He was hers. And she was his. And if he looked after her, and she looked after him, it would all work out.

Especially if the sex stayed that incredible.