town as much as I just wanted you,” Nathan told her, dipping his head to taste first one dark nipple and then the other.
She gasped, then sighed, a slow exhalation of breath that seemed to slide right into the heart of him. When he lifted his head again, she looked up into his eyes and said, “You hid it really well, being all crabby.”
He gave her a quick grin. “Couldn’t let the town gossips know what I was thinking. Hell, I didn’t want you to know what I was thinking.”
“Oh, me neither,” she admitted, holding his head to her breast. Her fingers threaded through his short hair, her nails dragging across his scalp.
He was on fire. His whole damn body felt as if it were lit up from the flames about to swallow him. “Shoulda done this days ago.”
“Oh, yeah,” she whispered and arched into him as he moved down her body, trailing damp kisses along her skin…down her chest, along the line of her stomach and across her abdomen. She tasted of summer and smelled like a spring meadow. He was surrounded by her taste, scent, touch. And still it wasn’t enough. His body ached like a bad tooth. He needed her and damned if he wanted to need. Being sucked into a maelstrom of emotions hadn’t been the plan. The plan was simply to bed her, so he could get her out of his system once and for all.
The plan. He fought to hold on to it. To remember why it was important. Nathan Battle didn’t do anything without a damn plan and once it was made, it was golden.
And yet…his brain shied away from thinking at all. Nathan wanted to concentrate solely on this moment, not what had led to it or what might come after. All he wanted right now was to revel in finally having her here, beneath his hands again.
Her body was long and slim with just the right amount of curves to tempt a man. In the starlight, her skin seemed like warm honey. He dragged the tips of his fingers across her flat belly and smiled to himself when she sucked in a gulp of air. He traced the tan lines that striped over her breasts and then along the narrow strip of paler skin that lay across the triangle of light brown curls at the juncture of her thighs.
“You wear a tiny bikini,” he murmured and wished he’d seen her in it.
She smiled. “No point in wearing a big one, is there?”
“Nope, guess not,” he agreed, sliding one hand down to cup her heat. “What color is it?”
She gasped and rocked her hips into his hand. “What? Color? What?”
“Your bikini, Amanda,” he whispered, “what color is it?”
He dipped a finger into her heat and she hissed a breath. “Is that really important right now?”
“Humor me,” he told her and swirled the tip of his finger around an already sensitive spot.
“Okay, okay, just don’t stop,” she ordered, then swallowed hard. “It’s white. With red …” She broke off and shuddered, as he continued to stroke her with slow deliberation.
“Red what?”
“Huh? Red? Right.” She nodded, licked her lips and wiggled her hips into his touch. “Red, um, dots. Polka dots.”
“Sounds nice.”
“Uh-huh,” she whispered. “I’ll be sure to show you sometime. But for right now could we …”
“You want more?” he asked, knowing she did, drawing out the suspense, the waiting, the wanting, for both of them.
“I want it all.” Her eyes snapped open and she met his gaze squarely. “Honestly, Nathan, if you don’t get inside me within the next minute or so …”
“You’ll what?” He grinned at her, enjoying the frustration in her eyes, in her voice. “Leave?”
She blew out a breath and scowled at him. “Funny. No, I’m not leaving, but Nathan—”
He rose up over her, looked down into her eyes and whispered, “You’re still so beautiful.”
“I’m glad you think so.” She sighed and reached for him, but he pulled back, grabbed the jeans he’d tossed aside a few minutes before and rummaged in the pockets until he came up with a foil square.
“Pretty sure of yourself, weren’t you?” she asked wryly.
“Pretty sure of us,” he told her as he ripped the foil open, then took another moment to sheathe himself.
Her expression was carefully blank as his gaze met hers and she asked, “Is there an us, Nathan?”
That was a good question, he thought, his eyes locked on hers. And he didn’t have an answer. Yesterday, he might have flatly said no. Tomorrow, he might do the same. But now…“There is tonight.”
A flicker of sorrow danced across her eyes and was gone again so quickly he could almost convince himself he hadn’t noticed it at all. He didn’t want to hurt her, but damned if he’d pretend something that wasn’t so. Besides, he didn’t want to think beyond the moment. Us? No, there was no us. But there was now.
“No more thinking,” he murmured and ended any further conversation by taking her mouth in a kiss that left them both breathless. His brain went blank and his body took over. Her hands slid up and down his back, her neat nails scraping across his skin, letting him know that the hunger that crouched inside him lived within her, too.
The past dropped away as they found each other again in the most elemental way. Every touch was a reaffirmation of what they’d once been. Every kiss and gasped breath was a celebration of what they were discovering now. In the warm summer air, they gave and took from each other until passion was a living, breathing entity, wrapping them so tightly together they might never completely be apart again.
They rolled across the quilt, arms and legs wrapped around each other as the river rushed on and the music continued to pump into the night air. Wind whispered through the trees and their strained breathing added to the symphony.
His hands moved over her body and every touch was achingly familiar while, at the same time, it all felt new, electrifying. As if this were their first time coming together.
He pushed her over onto her back and went up on one elbow to look down at her. She looked like a summer goddess, stretched out on that blue-and-white quilt, with starlight dancing on her skin. His breath caught when she licked her lips and smiled up at him. Her eyes were glazed with a burning desire that reached out to engulf him in the same flames. The fire felt good after so many years in the cold, he thought wildly. But he wasn’t about to wait another damn minute before claiming her and all she was.
He shifted, kneeling between her legs and when she parted her thighs and lifted her arms to him in welcome, he groaned in satisfaction. He pushed himself home in one long, smooth stroke and hissed out a breath at the sensation of her hot, tight body gripping his.
She gasped, lifted her legs and locked them around his hips, pulling him deeper, tighter. She arched, her hips rising to meet his, drawing him as close as she could. Then she trembled as pleasure whipped through her—a bright, white-hot thing that glittered in her eyes. He felt her pleasure with her every sigh. Felt the tension coiling in her body just from the way she moved
