“You mean, you want to go back to the hospital.”
“Yes, that, and…”
She let her voice trail off, her eyes still on his. She was so close that he was practically breathing her in, and it was painful. Because she wasn’t Katie.
She wasn’t Katie at all.
It had been the familiarity that had first drawn him to her, but her deep russet hair was all her own, as were the ever-changing emerald and gold of her eyes. And her seductive smile…that, too, was hers and hers alone.
“Yes?” he asked softly. “And…?”
She slipped her arms around his neck and drew close. Her lips found his, while her body pressed tightly against his flesh. The kind of tight that caused the curves and hollows of their bodies to meet in perfect alignment. He was painfully aware of the fullness of her breasts, could feel the pressure of his instant erection and knew she could feel it, too.
She wasn’t Katie, he reminded himself.
She was Lauren, and she was in shock. As strong as she might be normally, she was vulnerable right now. If he had any decency at all, he would step away and…
Who the hell could be that damned decent?
There was no hesitation in her lips. They molded to his, and her mouth was sweet, with a hint of mint, the sweep of her tongue an inducement and a tease, a hint of sheer enticement.
A voice spoke in his head.
But he couldn’t do it. Her fingers played across his chest, and her touch was electrifying. He was locked in a kiss that seemed to grow deeper and more passionate by the moment. Amazed that she had come to him, he cupped her face, needing more of her lips. His fingers threaded through her hair. Silk and velvet, a form of seduction all its own, it fell over his hands.
She stepped away from him then and, meeting his eyes, lifted the hem of her skirt and pulled her dress over her head. Then she stood before him wearing nothing except for strappy high-heeled sandals.
“You go out that way often?” he couldn’t help but ask, his voice husky.
She smiled. “Only here,” she assured him. And she moved back into his arms.
He didn’t have to shed his towel. It managed to disappear on its own.
After that there was nothing between them, nothing at all, and he was touching her completely, savoring the feel of her flesh, trying not to give in to sheer insanity.
He had hungered for her, watched her, been awakened by her, and through it all, he had somehow kept his sanity, kept a clear head….
Until now.
His mouth lifted from hers, nuzzled against her earlobe, caressed the smooth flesh of her throat. She arched against him, fingertips running down his back. Along his spine. Over his buttocks. He felt his muscles flex and tighten.
Dear God.
Her lips pressed against his throat.
Her tongue teased his flesh, traced a searing line along his jugular.
He picked her up and made his way to the bed. They fell on it together, limbs already entwined before they even touched the mattress. His eyes met her, and she smiled slightly; then she sought his lips again, and their kiss that was wet and searing and overpowered every. At last his mouth left her lips and traveled down to her collar bone, where it taunted and explored. He drew his hand up from her thigh to her hip, moved her midriff, then caressed her breast before he laved and teased with his tongue.
As he tasted her, he felt her fingertips, erotic, light, sensual, moving down his spine.
Around to his ribs.
Between them.
To his erection.
He groaned against her flesh, kissed his way along her skin, urgency racing through him. He wanted her right then; he wanted her forever. He wanted this to go on, and he felt he would lose his sanity if it did.
He moved lower.
Lower.
Teasing, tasting, the silken, fiery feel of her flesh creating a searing thunder in his mind, in his blood. She arched against him, whispered in longing and in protest, and moved with a subtle and sinuous grace that aroused his every muscle, every cell. His excitement was raw, carnal, soaring. Somehow he held on to his tenuous control As he teased and caressed her from the rise of her breasts to her abdomen, inner thighs, between. He heard her cries, felt the tremors of release shudder through her body, and felt her fingers dance across his flesh as she strove to drive him to an equal madness.
But he had been maddened from her first whisper.
From the first sight of her.
She moved against him, rising, finding his lips again, her body sliding against his. Their fingers entwined, and
