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"Staying would be a bad idea."

"Worse than this?"

"Different kind of bad. Staying means this is more than sex."

Her hand stilled on my back. "Isn't it?"

I turned to look at her. Her face was half shadow, half city light, her eyes wide open.

"Is it?" I asked.

She was quiet for a long time. That pause she always took. I'd learned to wait it out.

"Don't know," she said finally. "I just know I don't want you to leave."

"Cam."

"Stay. Tonight. We'll figure out the rest tomorrow."

"That's a terrible plan."

"Yeah."

I looked at her and saw it all, the parts she'd spent the last few hours burying under commands and control. The want. The fear. The loneliness of this enormous, empty, beautiful house.

"Just for tonight," I said, knowing it was a mistake even as it came out of my mouth.

She pulled me closer and pressed a kiss to my forehead that was far too tender for what this was supposed to be.

"Just for tonight," she agreed.

"Harper."

Her voice echoed thickly and dreamily in the dark. Close. Her mouth was at my ear, and her body was a long warm wall against my back, and her hand was resting, flat and heavy, on my stomach.

"Harper. Wake up."

"Mm. Wha... what time is it?"

"Three." Her hand didn't move. It stayed exactly where it was, right below my navel. "Are you awake?"

"Kind of. Getting there." I blinked at the dark window. The city was quieter now, the gold dimmed. "Why are you awake? Do you not sleep? Is this a vampire situation? Does your skin sparkle in the sunlight?”

"I've been lying here for an hour." Her lips brushed my shoulder, right over one of the bite marks, and I shivered. "Thinking."

"About what?"

"You." Her thumb moved, just once, across my stomach. "Say yes, and I'll show you."

I was awake now. Very awake. "Yes."

"Yes, what?"

I smiled into the pillow. "Yes, Cam."

Her hand slid down. She found me already wet, already aching, and she made a low, pleased sound against my neck.

"Already?"