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 with him.
As if they were somehow connected on a deeper level than just physically, he felt what she did, knew when he looked into her eyes how close she was to climax. He knew her as he’d known no other woman. Her body was as familiar to him as his own. Her passion as important as his own.
Her hands clutched at his back, his shoulders, his arms. Every strangled breath and sigh fed the fires inside him. His hips pistoned into hers as he withdrew from her body only to plunge deep inside her heat again.
Her gasps and sighs filled him, pushing him harder, faster, as he quickened the rhythm between them and she rushed to meet him. He took her mouth, his kiss demanding, hungry. She had demands, too. Silent, desperate demands that he met eagerly.
“Nathan. Nathan.” His name became a chant that was caught up by the wind and tossed into the night sky. She whispered and pleaded, moving her body into his, fighting for the release that waited for her.
And when the first tremor hit, she clung to him, riding out wave after wave of pleasure tearing through her. Nathan felt her body fist on his as her completion took her. Only then did he give himself up to the coiled tension inside, finally releasing his stranglehold on control, surrendering to what only Amanda could do to him.
His body exploded, his mind shattered and when he collapsed against her, Amanda’s arms came around him in the darkness.
Amanda’s heartbeat was racing. With Nathan’s heavy weight covering her, she felt, for the first time in years, complete. Ridiculous to admit, even to herself, but without him in her life she’d always felt as though something was missing. Something vital.
Now, here it was.
But she didn’t know how long this could last.
He’d already told her that as far as he was concerned they weren’t together. This was just sex. Stupendous sex, but just sex. If she made more of it than that, she would be setting herself up for pain and disappointment.
He shifted and rolled to one side of her, drawing her with him until she was nestled against his chest. Amanda listened to the sound of his rapid heartbeat and knew that he was as affected as she was. Some consolation in that, she supposed.
The silence between them stretched on for what seemed forever until she simply couldn’t stand it anymore. Best, she told herself, to be the one to speak first. To set a tone that would let him know that she wasn’t going to swoon into his arms or cry and beg him to stay.
Not that she didn’t want to, but he didn’t have to know that, did he?
“Nathan, that was—”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “It was.”
“So,” she said, lifting her head to look at him, “come here often?”
He grinned, fast and sharp and her breath caught.
“Haven’t been here in years,” he said. “Not since—”
He stopped, but now she knew that he hadn’t brought another woman to what was most definitely “their” place. Funny how much comfort that brought her. Oh, he was no monk and during the time they were apart—there had no doubt been dozens of women in his life. She winced at that thought. But at least he hadn’t brought them here.
“It’s beautiful here,” she told him, glancing at the moonlight on the water.
“Yeah, it is. Look, Amanda …”
Oh, that sounded like the beginnings of a we-have-to-talk speech. Which she really didn’t want to hear at the moment. She preferred the teasing, tempting Nathan who had just shattered her so completely. She didn’t want to talk to the dutiful and honorable Nathan. Not now.
So she just wouldn’t give him the opportunity to turn this moment into a regret-filled this-will-never-happen-again speech. Abruptly, she sat up and reached for her shirt. Dragging it on over her head, she flipped her hair back over her shoulder and asked, “How about some of that wine?”
He studied her for a long minute, then sat up and reached for his own clothes. “Sure, that’d be good.”
“And cookies,” she reminded him, determined to keep a cheerful, nonchalant attitude. Standing up, she stepped into her panties and then her skirt, smoothing the material before sitting down on the quilt again. “I think we need more cookies.”
Once he was dressed, he sat down opposite her on the quilt and watched her warily, as if she were a time bomb with a faulty fuse and could go off any second. “Cookies.”
“Why not?” she asked. “Don’t you remember? Sex always gives me an appetite.”
Unexpectedly, he smiled as he poured them each a fresh glass of wine. “I do remember all of the picnics we had in bed.”
Stillness washed over her as memories slammed into her mind. So many nights they’d spent in bed, laughing, loving and then feeding each other whatever they’d been able to find in the refrigerator. “We had a lot of good times, Nathan.”
He handed her a full glass, then clinked his to hers. “Yeah, we did. But, Amanda …”
She cut him off and saw his jaw tighten at being interrupted. “Let’s just leave it there, okay? We had good times back then and we had a good time tonight. Isn’t that what you said earlier? We have tonight?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“So,
