boldness, then carried her across the patterned carpet and placed her gently in the center of his bed. She'd watched him undress. His movements were hurried, swift, shoes kicked off, his shirt pulled off male-fashion, with one sharp tug over the back of his head. She still remembered the play of golden light on his lean, muscled shoulders and curved torso, waist, and hips, as he stepped out of his jeans. Aroused and urgently ready, his maleness had brought a small gasp from her.
“I won't hurt you, Honeybear,” he'd whispered as he lowered his strong body next to her. “I'd never hurt you.”
“Drink first?” Carey asked, moving toward the compact, chrome kitchen. “Coffee, tea? Wine? Scotch?”
And Mrs. Larsen's rented room abruptly changed to an ultra-luxurious trailer-studio, all burnished metal and pale wheat wool and Bauhaus functionalism. “God, no,” Molly replied, shaking her head, “no wine or scotch. We were at the Holiday Inn drinking until four this morning. By the way,” she added, noting that his rangy frame limned against the entrance to the lighted kitchen hadn't gained an ounce, “I saw you walk in with Christina around three A.M.”
“If you're hung-over,” he said, as if she hadn't mentioned Christina, “you have to try my famous ‘morning after' remedy.”
“What's that?” Molly asked, somehow pleased he hadn't wanted to talk about the woman. And suddenly, all sorts of rockets began detonating in small, heated explosions through her senses when she recalled with a startling vividness what Carey was like “the morning after.” His remedy in those days hadn't been a drink. The memories were so real she could almost feel his hands on her body.
“Tried and true formula,” he casually replied. “Orange juice, honey, tonic water, and a little champagne.” If he felt the charged memories in the air, he was deliberately ignoring them. “Absolutely foolproof,” he declared, already pulling bottles out of the refrigerator. “Sit down, make yourself at home.”
In short moments, the drink was prepared. It was marvelous, she thought, taking a sip-crisp, cold, sweet. Slipping his arms into a shirt that had escaped his cleaning because it was a part of the litter on his desk, Carey dropped onto the couch opposite her, slouching low along the wide cushions. His shirt was unbuttoned, his long legs stretched out so they almost reached Molly's chair. As they talked, his arms were lightly crossed on his muscled chest and he looked at her in that same brooding way, so achingly familiar it seemed she'd seen him just yesterday. He'd always listened to her that way, intense, concentrating, as though he were watching, not only listening, but watching the words come out of her mouth.
The lamplight caught the modeling of her classic cheekbones, accentuated the shadowy dark blue of her eyes, underscored the fullness of her bottom lip, highlighted the pale yellow of her linen blouse. Her breasts strained against the light fabric, the outline of her nipples tempting jonquil buds.
Carey shifted his position slightly, his body warming too fast, her nearness too provocative. He concentrated on the conversation, wrenching his mind from the sensual feeling bombarding his brain.
They quickly, casually, covered the how, what, and where questions, the physical details of their lives in the intervening years, carefully avoiding the interior shots, the close-up exposures revealing emotions, hopes, and dreams. Molly was saying, “So when the reunion came up, I was-”
“Come here,” Carey said, so quietly that at first she thought she'd misunderstood. Her sentence remained unfinished, her expression inquisitive. “Come here,” he repeated.
“No,” she answered when she was sure what he'd said. “No.” Her refusal was almost a desperate whisper.
“Please?” he pleaded softly and held out his hand.
She gazed at him for a long time, at his eyes, those gorgeous black eyes staring straight into hers, at his hand, strong, sure, well-formed, only a yard away.
“Please,” he said again, and after a moment of taut silence, he exhaled a rush of breath. “God, Honeybear, do you know how long it's been since I held you last?” His voice was hushed, with a quivering thread of undisguised longing vibrating in the deep, rich tone.
“Nine years, nine months, twelve days, seven hours,” she whispered and rose to go to him, no more able to deny him now than in the past.
CHAPTER 18
T heir fingers touched like a bridge between poignant memory and hope, and he pulled her into his arms, folding her against his chest, her head cradled with the gentlest pressure close to his heart. She heard the quickening acceleration of his heartbeat through the muscle, sinew, and bone of the honed athletic body that had altered so little. He held her lightly, tense and rigid despite the tenderness of his embrace while a warmth and wonder inundated their souls. It was as if time had been turned back, all the pages of the calendar in some bizarre time warp had flipped backward, and they were transported to an enchanted long-ago summer. He felt the warm tears first, and then looked down at her, lifting her face gently with a crooked finger. “Don't cry, Honeybear,” he murmured. “We're together.” His lips touched her eyes, lightly kissing away the tears, his fingers reaching up to slide through her golden hair. “Oh, Honeybear,” he groaned, “I've missed you so.” And his hands slipped to her shoulders, tightened, almost hurt as he covered her mouth with his, tasting her lips and the sweet interior of her mouth with a desperation that would have startled any of his current friends and lovers. Carey Fersten was never a desperate man.
Molly's hands smoothed over his pale hair, moved down over the powerful muscles of his neck, glided laterally and clung to his solid shoulders while she cried tears of joy, her mouth welcoming his fevered urgency. And when the first powerful demand to feel and touch and know for certain had diminished, they nibbled between soft sighs and giggles, delicately exchanging low murmurs of pleasure.
Long moments later, Carey drew back enough to look into Molly's face, his dark brows slanted in raven-winged swoops over deep-set smoky eyes that always had the power to melt her at a glance. “Welcome home, Honeybear.” His smile was warm, tender, soul-shattering. “No more tears… never any more tears for us.”
Feeling enchanted, content, as if she'd arrived in a safe fjord after a calamitous stormy sea, Molly raised tear- splashed lashes. A blissful radiance filled her eyes as she murmured, “Sure as ever.”
“Not as ever,” Carey whispered, his glance smoldering. Molly's cheeks were brushed with a rosy glow, her lips reddened to bright cherry by his bruising kisses, her mouth slightly open as though the warming pleasure coursing through her needed release. “But older and much, much wiser,” he added, lowering his head to recapture the passion her melting lips offered, “and damn sure, this time.” His breath was warm on her lips, his mouth brushing a seductive caress back and forth as he eased her down on the couch, his hands insistent on her body, arranging her carefully beneath him.
His fingers moved to the buttons of her blouse. Between tantalizing kisses, between gentle nudges of his lean hips which enticed with the magnitude of his need, he deftly opened her lemon-colored blouse. Deliberately sliding the fabric aside, he exposed her full breasts, the slender curve of her rib cage, the unmistakable arousal of her peaked nipples.
He touched one begging peak with a delicate fingertip and watched its swelling response. Molly felt the cushioned couch under her melt into mythical, pink-tinged olympian clouds, felt the spiral of flame spin downward to the throbbing center of her trembling senses. And when his slender hand moved to her other breast, his warm palm rubbing its crested point, she moaned a low, purring sound.
“You haven't changed,” he breathed in a husky tone. He glanced down at her gently undulating hips, and his hand moved to the waistband of her slacks.
Suddenly, she saw herself as naive and vulnerable, a prey to his expert seduction. How could she, she anxiously thought, when every rational argument decreed Carey Fersten not only unreliable but inconstant? He was hardly the kind of man who offered a stable future, despite the honeyed words. He hadn't been years ago and certainly wasn't now, with his star status. She felt foolish, confused. “No.” On impulse, she pushed him away. “No, please don't.”
Raised on his elbows, he gazed down at her. Her eyes, full of entreaty, held his. “I want to,” her voice shook, “and I don't want to. Do you know what I mean?” she inquired with candid honesty.
His body tense, he exhaled slightly. “No,” he said. Balancing on one elbow, he covered her hands pressing
