"I'm glad. I really am."

"I know you are."

'"Kay I'll call Chad and try to make some nonblatantly suspicious small talk. I better see you at dinner, though."

Lyssa's fingers pulled the soft, denim-colored top sheet up to her nose to better smell Aidan. She didn't want to leave her home. She wanted to seclude herself with him, keep him, never let him go. "We'll be there."

"See ya then."

The connection was severed. Lyssa hit the off button, then set the phone down next to her. Through the open bedroom door, the scent of fresh, hot coffee drifted up to her. It was such a domestic thing to experience with a man she'd met so recently But it worked. It made her feel whole and loved, in a way she hadn't felt in years. If ever. Wanting to be with him, she tossed back the covers and pulled on a robe.

As she crept down the stairs in her attempt at stealth, Lyssa hoped she'd catch another display of Aidan's morning exercise routine. Instead she found him yawning and drooping wearily over the jeweled book at the dining table. She padded up behind him and set her hands on his shoulders, kneading her fingers into the tense muscles of his back.

He groaned, and leaned his head back. "Hi," he murmured in that low tone that made shivers run down her spine.

"Hi." She bent and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Did you sleep at all?"

He shook his head. "No way I'd risk it with you asleep at the same time. I've been checking on you every half hour."

"I thought I was safe once I'd fallen into deep sleep?"

"That's an educated guess." His mouth curved. "In any case, you're adorable when you're sleeping."

Lyssa moved around the chair and slung her leg over his, straddling his lap and wedging herself between him and the table. It was a tight fit, but she didn't mind. Especially when his arms came around her and tucked her closer to all that warm, yummy-smelling skin and ripped muscles. "Find anything interesting in that book?"

"Some things, yes." He sounded weary and disheartened. "Basically I'm just translating at this point so I can look at the whole text at once. Piece by piece isn't working."

"You can't read it?"

"It's in the ancient language. Like most of your words are derived from Latin."

"Ah, gotcha." Her hands slipped along his bare sides, and her lips moved along his jaw, her aim to take both of their minds away from talk of Aidan going home. "You don't have a morning shadow."

"Mmm," he purred, tilting his head to grant her access to his throat. "Guardians don't grow facial hair beyond eyelashes and brows."

"Really? " The doctor in her pulled away in curiosity "What other physiological differences are there between us?"

"Nothing important." He rolled his hips sinuously beneath her to prove his point.

"I see morning wood is universal." She giggled when his fingertips danced across her hipbones.

"Morning wood is for guys who just woke up. This wood is the kind a guy gets when his woman sits on his lap wearing only a robe."

Kissing the corner of his smile, she got serious. "Have you slept at all since you got here?"

Aidan sighed. "I slept the first night I was here."

"You were sick, so that doesn't count."

"Are you trying to mother me?" The warmth in his eyes made her stomach quiver.

"My feelings are far from maternal. I'm being selfish, actually, You're going to need your strength for sex."

"Oh?"

His eyes lit wickedly and he pushed the chair back. Rising, he set her down on the wooden tabletop and then reached around her to sweep all the books to the floor. The steady thuds and rustling sounds of pages flipping was strangely erotic. Leaning over her, he forced her to drop backward until she lay across the table like a feast. "Sometimes less energy leads to longer foreplay. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

His tongue licked along her bottom lip. She caught it and sucked on the tip. He shivered, and she smiled, loving that she had that effect on him.

"I need you to have energy," she murmured against his mouth, "so you can help me burn off all the food you've been making me eat. I've never eaten at three o'clock in the morning before. I'm sure it went straight to my hips."

"Ha!" he scoffed, pulling back to give her a mock glare. "You're underweight and you know it. Besides, you needed to eat to make up for missing breakfast."

"Was that your reasoning?" Lyssa pursed her lips skepti-cally. "I thought you were refueling me for round six. Or was it seven? You could give the Energizer Bunny lessons on going and going and going—"

"I'll give you lessons," he threatened, tugging open the belt she had at her waist.

She smacked at his hands. "No way. Sleep first, then sex."

"But I'm not tired."

"Bullshit. You look worn out." But she was tempted. Boy, was she tempted. Yeah, she was sore and ached in places she hadn't known she had, but the pleasure… Dear god, the orgasms were addictive. They blew her mind and fried her nerve endings. She understood sex addiction now. Completely.

"I know you want it," he purred. "Otherwise you would have gotten dressed. And you know… I've got more than enough energy to give you what you want."

"You shouldn't have any energy. You should be spent." Her head tilted to the side. "Are all Guardians as horny and tireless as you?"

"Not all, no. I've always had an appetite, but it was easily satisfied." He pushed the edges of her robe aside and licked a trail from her pelvic bone up between her breasts.

Her back arched upward. "Are you saying I can't satisfy you?"

"Every damn time," he whispered, his lips hovering just above a hard, waiting nipple. "You're about to do it again, too."

His mouth, hot and wet, seared her skin. She gasped and writhed, but was quickly subdued by his fingers sliding between her legs. They parted her, stroked her clit, slipped inside her. He released her breast and growled.

"Fuck, that makes me so hard." He withdrew and slipped two fingers inside her. "I can feel my cum in you. You're soaked with it."

"Yeah," she gasped as he pressed deep. "I told you. You should be spent after last night." Reaching down, she caught his wrist and stilled his movements. "Tell me something. Are we reproductively compatible?"

He went completely still, then took a deep breath. "Would you want us to be?"

His gaze was steady, intense, searching. Deep sapphire pools that were slowly losing the cynicism she'd seen when she first opened the door to him. She made him happy; she had no doubts about that.

The tip of his finger rubbed gently inside her. "Would you, Lyssa?"

The question broke her heart. As she'd lain in bed that morning, a bunch of silly, unrealistic dreams of Prince Charming and happily-ever-after had flooded her mind. The knowledge that he was home with her, making coffee for her, hers to take… She couldn't deny that thoughts of sharing her life and a family with him had rushed to the fore.

Tears stung her eyes. "Yes. I would."

It was all she could say past the lump in her throat, but it was enough for Aidan. He cupped her cheek and lowered his lips to hers. "Then let's try."

"What?" Every muscle in her body was strung tight as a bow. "Are you saying it's possible?"

His smile was sweet, but his eyes were sad. "I have no idea. But we can dream."

Picking her up, he carried her to the couch. JB caught a clue, for once, and leaped from the sofa arm to pad off to a quieter venue. Aidan laid her down carefully, sinking to his knees beside her, his beautiful eyes dark with lust and love. His large hand slid up her inner thigh.

"I can't conceive, Aidan. I take medicine to prevent it."

"In my dreams, you don't." He kissed her knee and then came over her, spreading her thighs, lavishing the attentions of his tongue across her clit until she writhed, before moving higher.

She leaned up on her elbows, watching, shrugging out of her white terry cloth robe one arm at a time. Eager to feel his warm skin next to hers.

"In my dream, this is our home," he said softly, his gaze moving across her like a tactile caress. "We wake up early every morning so we have time to make love. Slowly. My body covering yours, pushing deep inside yours, as if we have all the time in the world. We part reluctantly, kissing each other good-bye before leaving for work. We think about each other all day, and wait impatiently to be together again at night."

He licked across first one nipple and then the other, his hands shoving down his waistband. "We take vacations to private beaches where I watch you play in the surf, laughing, your skin a golden tan. I strip you there on a blanket. Push your suit aside and sink my cock into you. Ride you until you can't take anymore. Then I carry you inside and take you again. We share meals together, trials together, life together."

Lyssa's head fell back into the soft cushions as his fingers went to her pussy and slipped inside her. "Aidan…"

She closed her eyes to fight the tears, but they escaped anyway, sliding down her temples and wetting her hair.

"Every day you say my name just like that. Soft and breathless with desire. And every time I hear it, I love you more. I think of how lucky I am to have you. How well you take care of me, always fussing after me. I soak up every moment of it, because I need you." His voice lowered and grew husky. "So much."

"Yes." Her fingers slipped through his hair as he levered his body over hers, his pendant dangling and glowing between them, his lean hips sinking between her spread legs. The wide, flared head of his cock teased the slick opening to her cunt, making her arch to take more of him. "I need you, too."

"And one day, we decide it's time to have a baby." His hands cupped her shoulders, holding her in place as he eased his cock into her, filling her full with the heated, throbbing length of him.