“I’ll show you a challenge!” He grabbed her.
Her squeal turned to a moan of pleasure as he homed in on the center of her desire, and then it was her turn to gasp, her body arching as he brought her to the peak of ecstasy.
“You’re right,” he said after the tremors in her body quieted. “Not much of a challenge.”
“Challenges are vastly overrated.” She sighed. “I love how easy it is being with you.”
I love you,he thought. Instead, he said, “Same.” Love was new to him, and he needed to come to grips with this scary new emotion. He’d never loved anybody. He had no parents, nosiblings. Not even a pet. Until Amity, he’d doubted he had the capacity to love.
He poured his emotion into his kiss, his lips lingering as her breath fanned over him like a gentle perfume. She moaned, and tender kisses turned more amorous. She began to stroke him, and then passion ignited. They went at it again, this time with a fervor that left them gasping and shuddering.
They fell asleep in each other’s arms, awakening for the second time to find bright light streaming through the windows.
“We boinked and napped through breakfast,” Amity said.
“I prefer boinking to breakfast any day.”
“They say if you put a coin in a jar every time you have sex in the first year of marriage then take a coin out of the jar when you have sex in the second year of marriage, you won’t even remove half the coins.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think we’ll empty out the jar the second year,” he said, realizing he was counting on a second year, and a third—a lifetime of years. “What would you like to do today?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
He waggled his eyebrows dramatically. “Put coins in a jar!”
She laughed. “For that, I am going to need some sustenance. Let’s hose off and grab some lunch.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he said.
“Would you mind if we dropped by the library for a few minutes after lunch? Darmaine told me there are terminals for resident use. I’d like to figure out how to dye horniger yarn and fabric. I won’t research today, but I’d like to take a look at the terminal setup.”
“I don’t mind if you do a little research. I have some of my own to do.” He’d been hoping for an opportunity like this. If he could get some examples of sofas, he could start construction as soon as the new hires arrived.
“You do? For what?”
“Furniture blueprints.”
“So, you don’t mind?”
“Not at all.”
“I guess we have a plan, then,” she said. “Aren’t we the romantic couple, researching together?”
“The couple that researches together, stays together,” he quipped.
Chapter Thirteen
“I won’t be long,” Amity said as they entered the library. “I’ll just take a quick look-see.”
“No rush,” he said.
“Besides checking on dyes, I’ll see if I have any messages. I doubt I do.”
“We can get messages? Is that allowed? What about security?”
“Generally, it’s not, but Artisan’s Loft residents are given an intranet account for us to contact each other—and receive official information. Refuge will forward external messages from a limited number of preapproved organizations with appropriate security clearance.”
“I didn’t know about that.”
