situation had just become impossible. Unless…she could find a way to go back. Go back to being a tough, law enforcement professional, using her knowledge and connections to help a man who needed her. Go back to nothing more than friendship.
Determined to somehow put aside what the last few hours had really meant to her, she eased out from under his arm and sat up. The sun eased through a hole in the clouds and she realized it must be nearing mid-morning. Sighing, she reached over and grabbed a handful of warm sand, letting it slip between her fingers like the minutes of the time they had left.
Her first experience of desire was becoming just a memory. It had to be put behind her and forgotten. That was the only way. The best way.
A gentle tickle, like the flutter of butterfly wings, moved across his skin and pulled him from sleep. When Marc opened his eyes, he remembered where he was. And he remembered…Dana.
She sat across from him on the blanket, fully dressed and slowly pouring sand over his body. “Good afternoon,” she said quietly. “I wanted you to get enough rest. But as the day got later and the sky darker, I began to worry that it might rain on us.”
He reached out, wanting to pull her to him for one more kiss. He was still not completely shed of his drugged sense of need. Though his brain was still fogged over with sleep, he wanted to experience yet another taste of her.
But she scooted back—away from his touch.
A tiny sliver of dread replaced the drifting sense of lust he’d felt upon awakening. In the overcast light, he saw a purplish bruise along the base of her neck and noticed her lips were swollen from his kisses. He touched his own lips and wondered if he had that same well-loved look.
When he looked down and saw the faint scratches on his shoulders, their morning in each other’s arms came flooding back to him in full, vivid detail. They’d been wild together. Savage and visceral.
After being numb for so long, well over a year now, it surprised the hell out of him just how much he’d felt with her. Marc had returned all the passion and all the tender caring he’d witnessed in her eyes when she looked at him.
He’d been beguiled by her need. Fascinated that the tough FBI agent had waited—and wanted him. And he’d been stunned to discover a new dimension to making love.
Each of them had wanted only to please the other. It was the way he’d always imagined it could be. She’d managed to soothe his spirit and go a long way toward healing his battered soul.
Marc wanted to explore this relationship much further. He’d thought he’d been in love before, several times. But all of sudden, with Dana he’d felt a closeness and a need that was beyond all of his experience.
She sat there a few feet away, obviously waiting for him to free himself from the last bounds of sleep. He searched her eyes, expecting to see the same sweet connection that he’d seen in them only a few hours before.
“You’d better get dressed,” she said, coolly. “It’s getting late and we have plans to make.” Averting her eyes, she stood and brushed the sand from her hands.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, his heart threatening to burst from his chest. “Talk to me, Dana, damn it.”
Shaking her head, she took another step away. “Nothing’s the matter. It’s about to rain. And it’s time we decided how to proceed with our investigation. I have some ideas I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Wait a minute.” He scrambled over the blanket, retrieved his slacks and quickly yanked them on. She’d turned her back and was staring up at the path, inspecting the way through the pine trees at the top of the dune. “Wait just a minute.”
He reached out and took her shoulder, spinning her around to face him. “Dana,” his voice cracked with emotion when he said her name. “Please talk to me. Are you sorry about what we did? Were you lying when you said you’d wanted me to be the one?”
When she looked into his eyes, he spotted that fleeting look of vulnerability again. Right before she shut him out with a frozen stare. “Not at all, Marc. I’m just glad the anticipation is finally over. You were very gentle and made the whole process quite pleasant.”
Pleasant? He couldn’t have felt more like he’d been hit over the head with a brick than if she’d actually slugged him with a real one. Funny how a sensible word like that could make such anger surge up and threaten to swallow him whole.
“What…” His voice left him and he had to fight to get it back. “What are you trying to tell me, Dana?”
“I’m not trying to tell you anything,” she said, as she pulled her shoulder loose from his grip. “We had a great morning, but that shouldn’t stop us from working together and finding the proof of your innocence.”
Damn it. That almost sounded right. Everything she’d said made sense if he could get his ego out of the way. Besides, he believed that her real motivation to be here was solely to get her job done, not to make him feel loved. After all, they hadn’t made each other any promises.
But then…why did it hurt so much when she brushed their time together off so cavalierly?
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