She gazed at Rooke and grew breathless at the memory of Rooke’s seeking mouth, the weight of her hard, hot body, the demanding tug of her fingers on her breasts. What had truly changed, she realized, was that she wanted Rooke to breach the barriers. She welcomed the fury and fire of Rooke’s touch, even knowing she might never be able to put those walls back up again. And that realization shook her to her very foundation.

“Pops just brought the pizza,” Adrian said, her throat dry. The pen quivered between her fingers and she closed it in her fist so that Rooke wouldn’t see. “Did you sleep?”

“Some. I guess you didn’t.” Rooke pushed away from the door and walked into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator. “Beer? Soda?”

“Soda’s fine. No beer for you, remember.” Adrian wasn’t sure she would ever sleep again, not the way her body was behaving. When Rooke had gone into the bedroom earlier, she’d curled up on the sofa and waited for her body to calm down. Ordinarily if she’d been that agitated and aroused, she would’ve gone for a run or to the gym or taken a long shower. None of those options had been available to her and although she’d desperately wanted to come, she knew if she masturbated and managed to climax at all, she would only need to do it again, because it wouldn’t be enough. She wanted Rooke’s hand, Rooke’s mouth, Rooke’s fingers to deliver her from her agony. Reality check, reality check! her logical mind screamed. That line of thinking was dangerous and she needed to get some perspective. Like yesterday.

“Can I ask you something personal?” Adrian said as Rooke stacked plates and napkins on top of the pizza box and carried those along with two cans of soda into the living room. She hastily moved papers aside to make room on the coffee table.

“Yes.” Rooke placed the food in the space Adrian had cleared and settled onto the couch, leaving space between her body and Adrian’s.

“Are you… Hell, this is awkward.” Adrian leaned back and stared at the ceiling, which she now realized was an intricate pattern of stamped

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tin. She could make out interconnected designs reminiscent of Rooke’s carvings on the gravestones—and also near replicas of the scars on the surface of her hands. Beautiful. Rooke’s world was the physical, metal and stone, and now Adrian’s body seemed to have become a part of Rooke’s domain.

“Just ask, Adrian.”

Adrian straightened. Rooke’s voice was carefully neutral, her expression resigned, as if she were used to people not understanding her. As if she were used to being someone others couldn’t comprehend.

And that wasn’t the case at all—Adrian was the one at sea here. “Have you ever been with a woman? I mean, all the way with a woman.

Jesus—that sounds so adolescent.”

“I understand what you’re asking,” Rooke said quietly. She stared at her loosely clasped hands resting on her thighs. “I’ve pleasured a woman, but we didn’t share ourselves completely.” She met Adrian’s inquisitive stare. “I’ve never been naked with anyone. I’ve never had an orgasm with anyone.”

Adrian’s breath escaped on a short gasp of shock. “Oh God.”

Rooke stood abruptly and strode to the kitchen. She gripped the edge of the counter and stared out the window over the sink. The crystal-clear day had been followed by an equally brilliant night, and moonlight flooded the cemetery. Gravestones jutted from the icy surface like darkened doors hanging ajar in deserted houses. So many souls, so many stories, so many secrets. She knew exactly where her parents’ graves were. When she’d been younger, she would stare at the indecipherable markings on their gravestones, hoping to find some place inside herself to preserve their names, but she couldn’t. She worried that the relentless assault of the elements would erase their names, like it had on so many of the other stones. When she’d asked her grandfather about it, he’d assured her it was the nature of things to ultimately be absorbed by the world that created them, but that the stones would hold their memories for many lifetimes. It was then she realized that if life returned to the stone, it could emerge from it as well, and she had begun to seek her satisfaction in setting that life free.

All the while, she’d clung to the belief that one day there would be a woman to set her free.

“Are you worried I won’t know what to do?” Rooke asked, her back to Adrian.

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“You’re kidding, right?” Adrian hurried to her, and against her better judgment, wrapped her arms around Rooke’s waist from behind.

She rested her chin lightly between Rooke’s shoulder blades, breathing in her tangy, tantalizing scent. “If you’ll recall, I was two seconds away from coming just from kissing you. Believe me, I’m not worried about your technique.”

“Why didn’t you let yourself come?” Rooke asked, running her fingertips over Adrian’s arms. “I would have liked that. I would have liked to feel you tighten when you got close, and then feel you shudder when you let go. I would have liked to hear you while the pleasure took you.”

A fresh jolt of excitement struck directly between Adrian’s legs, making her tremble. She whimpered softly and shut her eyes tightly.

“Be careful or you’ll talk me into coming.”

Rooke loosened Adrian’s grip and turned, putting her back to the counter and tugging Adrian against her. She wanted to touch her, wanted to please her. She wanted to be the one to give her that. “You’re still so excited, I can feel you shaking. Could you do that—come from me telling you how much I want you?”

“I never have before,” Adrian murmured, sinking into Rooke’s arms, wondering how much more she could stand before she just lost it. “But you aren’t like anyone I’ve ever met before. You do things to me…”

“Bad things?”

Adrian kissed Rooke’s throat, then rubbed her cheek against Rooke’s shoulder. “No. Wonderful things.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” Rooke rested her chin on top of Adrian’s head and stroked up and down Adrian’s back, imprinting the contours of her muscles and bone. Adrian burrowed into her, giving a small mewl of pleasure, and hunger rose up in Rooke’s belly like a great beast scenting its prey. She pressed one thigh between Adrian’s legs and Adrian immediately opened for her. Reaching down, she cupped Adrian’s rear and worked her leg more tightly into Adrian’s center.

“I can’t remember right now.” Adrian’s head reeled. She might have held on to reason a little while longer if Rooke hadn’t handled her like she owned her. Adrian dropped her head back, her hazy eyes half closed, her lips parted sensuously. “You make me feel so damn good.”

Rooke rocked her thigh between Adrian’s legs and watched her

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start to surrender. She slipped one hand between them and caressed the outer curve of Adrian’s breast. Adrian sagged and Rooke couldn’t think of anything except having her. Until Adrian told her to stop, she would follow the call of Adrian’s flesh. Bending her knees slightly, she cradled Adrian’s rear, lifted, and set her up on the counter.

Astonished, Adrian gripped Rooke’s shoulders and automatically spread her legs to let Rooke slide between them. When she glanced down, her center was pressed to Rooke’s abdomen and oh God, she ached to have her bare sex against the tight muscles she’d glimpsed earlier. She wanted to be touched. She wanted Rooke to touch her. She sensed danger, but she couldn’t think. She couldn’t think.

“I can’t think,” Adrian gasped, frightened and so terribly aroused.

Rooke unbuttoned Adrian’s blouse and pushed it off her shoulders.

She kissed the prominence of her collarbone, the soft hollow beneath, and rubbed her cheek over Adrian’s breast still cupped within her satin bra. “I’ll stop whenever you want me to. I swear it.”

“Oh God,” Adrian half laughed, half sobbed. “I can’t. I can’t stop now. Please, God, Rooke. Touch me.” She moaned when Rooke squeezed her still-covered nipple, arching like an overstrung bow about to snap. Desperate for the silken heat of Rooke’s mouth, she pulled her bra up herself, baring her breast. “Please…your mouth. I need your mouth.”

Rooke cradled Adrian’s breast in both palms as she lowered her head. She sucked Adrian’s nipple as she softly kneaded the firm flesh in her hands. Adrian’s cry of shocked pleasure made Rooke’s clitoris jerk and she thrust her pelvis against the hard edge of the counter. She groaned at the twin sensations of Adrian’s ripe nipple in her mouth and the sharp pressure in her groin. While she worked her way back and forth between Adrian’s breasts, she tugged off Adrian’s blouse and bra until Adrian was bare to the waist. Then she ran her tongue down the center of Adrian’s torso and around her navel.

“I want to taste you,” Rooke murmured, her mouth against Adrian’s skin, her fingers gripping the snap on Adrian’s jeans.

Adrian lurched, her ass tensing as a spasm ran through her sex.

She was too far gone to hold back now, her mind nothing but a blizzard of pleasure and need. “Yes. Yes, yes, please.”

Swiftly, Rooke unzipped Adrian’s jeans, then gripped her around

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the waist, raised her up, and tugged her jeans down. Grasping the material with both hands, she pushed the material below Adrian’s knees.

“Rooke, please. Touch me,” Adrian groaned.

“Soon.” Rooke slowed everything down. This she wanted to savor.

She trailed the backs of her fingers up the insides of Adrian’s thighs until she brushed the drenched lips of Adrian’s sex with her fingertips.

Delicately, she plucked the tender flesh between her fingers, opening her so she could take in every beautiful detail. She skimmed along the edges of the dusky rose cleft and gently fingered the swollen flesh shielding Adrian’s clitoris. When she lightly massaged the firm ridge buried beneath the hood, Adrian’s hips bucked.

“Do you want me to come?” Adrian cried. “You’re going to make me.”

Rooke kissed her mouth, licking the inner surface of her lips as she lightly caressed her clitoris. “Are you close?”

“Very. God.” Adrian clutched Rooke’s shoulders and ground against the fingers stimulating her. “Seconds from coming in your hand.”

“Can you wait?” Rooke teased at the corner of Adrian’s mouth, then thrust her tongue deep inside. Adrian writhed in Rooke’s arms, moaning and sucking on Rooke’s tongue. Rooke slid three fingers inside and Adrian instantly clamped down on her.

Adrian’s head flew back. “Oh my God!”

Rooke dropped to her knees and covered Adrian’s sex with her mouth. Casting her gaze upward, she met Adrian’s stunned, storm blue eyes.

“Take me,” Adrian whispered.

Rooke sealed her lips around Adrian’s clitoris and the instant she sucked, Adrian climaxed. Rooke pushed deeper inside as muscles rippled and rolled. Adrian’s hips thrust hard against her mouth, over and over, her cries of release searing Rooke’s soul. Rooke kept licking and stroking until Adrian cupped her jaw and eased her face away.

Standing, Rooke gathered Adrian close and kissed her damp cheek. She tasted tears.

“Are you okay?” Rooke whispered.

Adrian clung to her, her mind fuzzy and her body demolished.

Rooke felt like the only solid thing in the universe. She’d kept her

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eyes open as long as she could, wanting to see Rooke taking her. Just remembering the fierce possessiveness in Rooke’s eyes made her clitoris jerk to life. She’d never been so completely controlled by anyone before. She wrapped her arms around Rooke’s shoulders and rubbed her breasts against Rooke’s chest. When she rolled her swollen sex over the rough cotton of Rooke’s sweatpants, she shivered and came again.

“More?” Rooke whispered.

“No more. God, I’m shattered,” Adrian groaned once she caught her breath. Body and soul. Oh God, what had she done?

Rooke hooked an arm behind Adrian’s knees, lifted her from the counter, and walked the few feet to the sofa where she lay her down.

“That was impressive,” Adrian said weakly.

“You’re not that heavy, and no rough edges at all.” Rooke knelt by the sofa and stroked Adrian’s hair away from her face. Adrian’s eyes were still hazy with spent desire. She gently disentangled Adrian’s jeans from around her ankles. “I’ll get something to cover you up with.

Be right back.”

Adrian struggled against the incredible lethargy that made it difficult to even raise her head. “We’re not done yet. I want you naked.

I want to take care of you.”

Rooke kissed her. “I’m fine. Better than fine. You’re unbelievably beautiful.”