Her pin collided with the floorboards underfoot, reminding Sera of their first encounter at the Echelon-Arnost country home last summer. A sly grin bloomed on her face in response to his own. "Take my hair down?" she requested, even though they were still on the stairs — it felt like an intimate choice, and she was interested in adding more intimacy to this encounter, when they had the twin luxuries of space and time. d