And above and beyond what her body was feeling, there was the mate-bond.
She could feel it. A tether between them, a spark inside her that was answered inside him, a gravitational pull from his body to hers. She knew she’d never be able to describe it physically, but it was there. Jeff was her mate. They were one.
They were joined in their souls...and in their bodies. When Jeff moved again, Leah was rocked to her core. As she started to come, he kissed her so deeply, she could feel it in her entire body, and she gave herself up to the pleasure.
***
Jeff was having more trouble concentrating on work than he’d ever
had in his life.
“Hart!” Cal barked at him halfway through the day. “Where’s your head at! We’ve got real work to do, and you’re staring up at the clouds with a dreamy expression on your face.”
Jeff apologized immediately. “I know I’m distracted today, Cal. I’ve had some...life changes in the last couple of days.”
Cal eyed him. “Is this anything to do with that young lady with the baby?”
Jeff nodded, feeling the grin spread involuntarily across his face. “She’s my mate.”
Cal eyed him harder. “Well,” he said. “You know that this job is just as important as it is every day, mate or no.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jeff. “Won’t happen again.”
“Well,” Cal said again. Then, totally unexpectedly, he clapped Jeff on the shoulder. “You know, the fallout from the storm’s just about cleared up, and it occurs to me that you had pretty much a thirty-six-hour work day this week, rescuing that girl and her baby from the snow. Why don’t you take off early?”
Jeff blinked. “Are you sure about that? I can stay on...”
“As distracted as you are? Not a chance.” But Cal’s eyes were warm. “Get on out.”
Jeff didn’t stick around to be told again.
Huh. He’d always thought that Cal didn’t have an emotional bone in his body. Cal lived for the job, it seemed. But maybe he’d been wrong about that.
He drove home as fast as he safely could in the snow, and let himself into the house quietly, not sure if Emily might be sleeping.
Inside, he discovered a perfectly clean house, a peacefully-sleeping baby, and her peacefully-sleeping mother. When he peeked into his own room, Leah was curled up in his bed.
The sight brought an overwhelming feeling of tenderness. This was his family, and he had a roof over their heads and a job to support them.
Just as Jeff was about to withdraw and leave Leah to sleep, her eyes blinked open. “Hi,” she said, with a sleepy smile.
“Hi,” Jeff said softly. “Don’t mind me. Go on back to sleep.”
“No, no, I just wanted a little nap.” Leah sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her dark hair fell in curls like a waterfall around her shoulders, and she was so beautiful it was almost hard to look at her.
“I must have slept forever,” Leah said, yawning. “What time is it?”
“Only one-thirty,” Jeff assured her. “I got off early.”
Leah smiled happily. Jeff remembered thinking, right after they met, that he wanted to learn how to make Leah smile a real smile, instead of the barely-noticeable one she’d had at first.
He didn’t think he’d ever been prouder of anything in his life.
“Thanks for cleaning up the kitchen,” Jeff said. “You could’ve left it for me. I meant to get to it before I left, but I got...distracted.”
They shared a grin. Leah said, “It was no trouble. And I don’t want—I don’t want this relationship to just be you taking care of me all the time. We’re partners. You cooked, and so I can do the dishes.”
Jeff thought that staying home with a sick baby all day meant that you should be exempt from dish duty, but he understood the larger point. “Partners,” he agreed. “How’s Emily doing?”