Aria tiptoed down the hallway and avoided the creaky spot in the middle automatically. Behind her, Laredo stepped square on the bad board and a squeal as loud as a gunshot echoed through the whole house.

Aria stopped and swung around to stare at him. What the hell? She mouthed the words and then struggled not to laugh when he held up his hands as though he were acknowledging not only his mistake but also his total helplessness. Why was it so cute for a guy to be helpless? It should have been annoying, but it wasn’t at all.

Turning back around, Aria reached for the door to Bella’s bedroom. Aria eased it open and peeked inside. Moonlight spilled through the curtains and created strange watermarks on the wood floor. Bella was tucked into the bed like an angelic creature with her wild hair spread out on the white covered pillow and her tiny hands tucked beneath her cheek.

Aria stepped aside so Laredo could take a look. She realized that it had to be tempting for him to rush in there and wake up his daughter. The two had a lot to talk about. But right now, Bella was safe and sound asleep and that was what mattered most. Laredo sighed as he stared at the little girl. Then he finally nodded to Aria, and she carefully closed the bedroom door without a single sound. She’d been in this house for far too long to let those old squeaks and creaks get the better of her.

Laredo did not speak until they got back to the living room. “Thank you for taking such good care of her. I can’t believe the sirens and the craziness didn’t wake her up!”

“I can.” Aria curled up into the corner of her sofa. “You should have seen how exhausted she was when she was trying to bed down for the night in that mare’s stall. She was ready to be asleep.”

“We’re lucky to have you,” Laredo murmured.

He sat on the sofa beside her and pulled her legs into his lap. Once again, Aria wished that she wasn’t wearing blue jeans. Pajama bottoms would have been nice. Or maybe it would have been even nicer to be naked. Maybe she could be wearing just his dress shirt or something like that. A man thought that was sexy. Right?

“What are you thinking about?” Laredo murmured.

She felt her cheeks flush red. The only light was the soft yellow glow coming from the lamp on the end table. The rest of the cluttered room was shrouded in shadow. “I was wondering what you think is sexy.”

“Me?” He looked mildly surprised. Then he put both of his hands flat on her shins. She felt the heat of him through the denim and shivered. “I think you’re sexy, Aria. Pretty much anything you do is sexy. Anything you wear. Anything you say. I’d say I spend at least three-quarters of every single day being completely distracted because I’m thinking about you. And your sexiness is only one part of those thoughts.”

“Wow.” Aria could not help but be flattered and maybe just a little surprised. “That’s pretty blunt of you.”

He slid one hand up her leg toward her thigh. “Would you prefer that I be something other than blunt?”

“No.”

“Exactly.”

His hand moved to her belly. “You know, it’s very uncomfortable to recline on a sofa in blue jeans.”

“Is it?” Aria whispered. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Hadn’t you?” He plucked at the button of her jeans until it came unfastened. The zipper was next. Soon his fingers were gently touching the lower part of her belly just on top of her plain white panties. “Maybe I just spend too much time worrying about whether or not you’re comfortable.”

“It sounds like you don’t have enough to do,” she teased. “All of this thinking about women and sexy time and stuff.”

His fingers tickled her belly and she gasped. Then his hands gently pulled her legs down until she was reclining against the arm of her sofa with her legs draped over his lap and the fly of her jeans wide open. It felt very odd and yet also delicious. His fingers were drawing tiny circles against the bare flesh of her belly, and it felt amazing.

Laredo began to slide her jeans down her legs. “I think these should come off.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. That way you and I can both be more comfortable.” His blue eyes were electric. She could not look away.

He was mesmerizing her and she liked it. The denim slid slowly down her legs and then fell to the floor. She had taken off her boots when she walked in the front door, but where had her socks gone? Her feet were bare, and that was an odd sort of intimacy she felt acutely in so many ways.

Laredo put his hands on her bare feet and began to massage the arches of both feet. Aria moaned. How could she not? Nothing had ever felt so good. Nobody had ever done such a thing for her. She wanted to be a little self-conscious about her feet in general, but the nearly reverent way that Laredo was touching her overcame any apprehensions and sent her straight to decadent enjoyment.

“You have adorable feet,” he murmured. Then, to her shock, he lifted one to his face and gently pressed his lips to the top of her foot. The tickling touch made her suck in a quick breath of surprise. Her lips parted, and she could not decide how to react.

Then Laredo put one of her feet on his shoulder and let his hand slide up the inside of her leg. He massaged each and every muscle grouping with the kind of unhurried care he did everything else. His hands were firm but gentle. It felt as though he were making love to her with each touch of his skin to hers.

He spent some extra time on the insides of her knees. The tickling sensation soon receded, and she felt a heaviness building in her womb that had nothing to do with feet. Her core began to heat up as everything in her body grew tight and absolutely attuned to this man.

Laredo let his fingertips dance gently over her inner thighs. She unconsciously spread her legs just a little farther apart. Her knees split open farther, and she curled her toes into his T-shirt to keep her foot from falling off his shoulder. He let his hand inch closer and closer to the apex of her thighs where everything came together. It felt as though there was a point of combustion between her legs and everything was so very close to going up in flames.

Aria could not stop watching his hand. It was impossible to rip her gaze away as his index finger slipped beneath the elastic band of her panties where it pressed tightly to the inside of her thigh just beside her mound. The softness of his finger slowly teasing the tangle of hair covering her mound was almost more than she could take.

It felt as though her lungs had stopped working. She was holding her breath as she watched. Everything between her legs was going to melt into a puddle just from the anticipation of his touch. Then the very tip of his index finger gently probed the top of her slit, and she realized that she was absolutely ready to implode at that very second.

“Laredo,” Aria whispered. “What are you doing?”

“Touching you.”

His response was simple, honest, and devastating to her self-control. She squirmed as she wished for him to get closer to the goal. He would not budge in his slow seduction of her body. Instead of moving his finger deeper into her delicate folds, he turned his head and gently kissed her ankle.

The teasing touch of his lips against her flesh was the perfect counterpoint to the feel of him gently applying pressure to her mound. He began to circle his finger on the full flesh above her sex. One finger became two. The delightful feel of this slow, deliberate attention to her most hidden place was making her breathing shallow and her heart race.

Aria wiggled her bottom a bit on the sofa to allow Laredo better access. The new position loosened the fabric of her panties and allowed his fingers to move more freely. He very gently dipped the length of his middle finger into the slit of her sex. She felt him brush the tiny bundle of nerves just beyond that barrier. The slippery, sliding touch of his finger to her warm flesh was everything she needed and yet not enough.

Aria gasped and gave a little whimper. Laredo gently kissed her ankle and rubbed his other hand up and down her calf. He massaged the muscles there in the same rhythm as he slowly manipulated the tender flesh between her legs until she felt as though every bit of heat in her body was concentrated right there. Excitement built. It was a slow burning sensation that left her gasping and trembling as she rose toward a climax that threatened to leave her in a little puddle there on the sofa.

“Laredo!” Aria moaned. “Oh, oh, oh, please?”

The pad of his finger settled more firmly between her folds. He rubbed in a slow, circular motion until she felt something snap deep inside her body. She stiffened. It felt as if she had just been launched off the edge of a cliff. It was a rollercoaster drop, and she wanted to feel it again and again. Her eyes closed and her vision blurred. Then, just as suddenly as the peak had occurred, she felt the most exquisite sense of languor overtake her from head to toe. She was boneless there on his lap, nothing but a puddle of satisfaction with a silly smile on her face.

“That was absolutely amazing,” Laredo whispered in her ear.

Aria giggled. “That’s my line. Isn’t it?”

They were still on her sofa. They were still together. It was still—oh, it was amazing. Just like he’d said. But it was more than that too. It was everything. In this moment, she felt safer than she’d ever felt before with anyone. There was no pressure to perform or pressure to push beyond her comfort zone. She was lying on her sofa with nothing but her panties on, and she did not feel self-conscious in the least.

“Aria, you are something else,” he murmured.

Laredo shifted on the sofa so that he was lounging behind her. Aria did not hesitate to snuggle in beside him. She reached up and grabbed hold of the throw she’d left draped over the back of the sofa. Pulling it over her bare legs, she let her head rest on Laredo’s arm and sighed.

“Everything all right?” he asked softly.

Was everything all right? Everything was perfect. There had to be a way to tell him that and to make him understand just how much she appreciated him. It wasn’t enough to say she was fine or everything was good or wonderful or even perfect. Those were just words.

So, Aria turned her face toward Laredo and pressed her nose to his chest. She inhaled deeply of his scent and felt a calm sense of familiarity wash over her soul. “I love you,” she whispered. “It’s very strange, but I feel like I’ve been rushing toward this moment my whole life. I’ve known you forever. Yet I feel like I’m only just now getting to really know you.”

He sighed and slipped his arms around her. Soon she was cocooned beside him on the couch with his hands carefully smoothing her hair back away from her face. “I love you too, Aria. You’re an incredible woman, and you make me feel more masculine than anyone else in my life ever has.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m never going to let you go.”

Aria yawned. Right now, it felt as though everything was going to be just fine. That really wasn’t the case though. There were so many things that were seriously messed up. There were legal issues and professional issues and just—there were issues! But right now, none of that mattered.

Laredo’s soft breathing lulled her into a deep slumber, and soon she could not have said what was happening. The house could have blown away in some cataclysmic disaster and Aria would not have noticed. All of that could wait for tomorrow. Right now, she was sleeping in the strong arms of the man she loved.