This woman in his arms.

‘Riley.’ Had she said his name? She couldn’t have, but the sound was between them, a long drawn-out sigh, a sigh of longing, of aching need, of want.

Of need between two people?

This was crazy. Unwise. Cruel even. To kiss her under such circumstances…

He wasn’t kissing her-she was kissing him. But maybe the delineation was blurring.

Maybe they were simply kissing. A man and a woman and a need as primeval as time itself.

Pippa.

His defences were disappearing, crumpling at the touch of her loveliness, in the aching need of her sigh, in the heat of their bodies. He was kissing in return, demanding as well as giving, his mouth plundering, searching her sweetness, glorying in her need as well as his own.

Pippa.

She was like no woman he’d ever touched. His body was reacting without control. She was stripping him bare, exposing parts of him he never knew he had, parts hidden behind barriers he’d built up with years of careful self- restraint.

Where was the self-restraint now?

Certainly not with Pippa.

She needed this. He knew it at some basic gut level. She was a mature woman, a woman who knew her way in the world, a woman who fought for what she wanted. Or didn’t want.

Right now she didn’t want control.

Eight hours in the water had shown her, as his job showed him almost every day, that control was an illusion.

Pippa had cheated death. Her nightmares had brought it back but she was fighting past them.

Tonight was all about life, about affirmation of now. She was taking what she needed to survive.

This woman…

There were so many undercurrents, so many things he should make himself consider, but all he could think was how she felt in his arms. Her kiss, her mouth. Her hands holding him close, demanding he hold her close as well, growing closer… closer…

Her kiss was almost savage in its intensity-fire meeting fire. Sense was disappearing-had disappeared. There was only this woman.

There was only now.

Her fingers were unfastening the buttons of his shirt. He felt the tug, registered it for what it was, somehow made himself react. There was nothing between them but these clothes. If they disappeared…

He hauled back and it hurt, but he made himself put her away, holding her up from him, meeting her gaze in the moonlight.

‘Pippa, if we go further…’

‘Do you want to go further?’ Her voice was steady, as it hadn’t been steady until now. The tremors had ceased. She met his gaze squarely, surely, with honesty and with trust.

Trust. The sensation made something inside him wrench open. Barriers… Where were they? Not here. Not now.

‘More than life itself,’ he said, and knew it was true. ‘But it’s not wise.’

‘I’m not feeling wise.’ And before he could realise what she intended, she tugged her shirt off and tossed it aside. Her hands reached behind her back for her bra clip. ‘Riley, I’m a mature woman. I’ve spent the night deep in horror. Yes, I’m using you. I know I am. Can you accept that? Want it even? I want it so much.’

He caught her hands and held. Stopping the bra disappearing.

‘No.’

‘No?’ The tremor was suddenly back.

‘Pippa, this is unprotected sex we’re talking.’

‘I’m supposed to be on my honeymoon. I’m protected.’

‘You know as well as I do that-’

‘That there’s more risks than pregnancy?’ Her eyes didn’t leave his. ‘There is that. I’m safe. Roger’s a careful man. Double blind crossover tests, safe from everything except bridesmaids. How about you?’

‘You shouldn’t believe-’

‘Neither should you. But I will believe. Can I be safe with you, Riley Chase?’

‘You can be safe,’ he said huskily, for the feel of her body over his was making his whole body seem to transmute into something he barely recognised. ‘But, Pippa, is this purely to make you forget?’

‘Forget?’

‘Roger? Near drowning? Hopelessness?’

‘No,’ she said, surely and strongly. ‘It’s to make me remember. And before you ask,’ she whispered, lowering herself again so her mouth was close to his, ‘yes, it’s seduction. Yes, I’m using you. I need you to affirm… life.’

She faltered then, suddenly unsure, but he knew it wasn’t her actions she was questioning, it was her reasons. ‘This night… You… It seems as natural as breathing. I’ve signed no contract yet at Whale Cove. Tomorrow I can walk away. I well may, because what happens tonight could make working together impossible. But it’s not interfering with me wanting you now. And you… do you want me?’

How could she ask?

There was something changing within him. Something he hadn’t been aware could be changed. The tenderness… the aching need he had for her…

Pippa.

Was she a fool?

She probably was, but she didn’t care. She was in the middle of the Australian desert with a man she didn’t know. Or maybe she did know him.

He’d saved her life but this went deeper. Something about Riley Chase resonated with her as no man ever had before.

Someday she’d ask him about his childhood, she thought. If she stayed around that long. If there was a shared tomorrow.

It didn’t matter if there wasn’t.

Or maybe it did matter, but for now she couldn’t allow herself to care, for if she cared she’d allow in caution, rational thought, sense.

She didn’t want those things. She only wanted Riley.

She’d told him it was to drive away nightmares. It was, but there was more. More she could hardly admit. More she didn’t understand.

She was still resting lightly over him. She let her fingers run the length of his face, feeling the roughness of the stubble on his jaw, tracing the faint indentation of a scar at the side of his mouth, feeling the strength of his features.

She knew this man.

It was a strange sensation, but she believed it. She didn’t need to know how he’d got that scar, where the life lines had been formed. Something within this man was stirring a response within her that she couldn’t understand but could only believe.

Two halves of a whole? That was fantasy, but there was something. Some basic link.

If he told her now he’d had a happy childhood, a safe, secure existence, she’d never believe him. He was a man who walked alone. As she had, all her life.

As she would again tomorrow?

Maybe, but not tonight, for tonight she was holding Riley, and he was driving away every other thought. Taking away terror, giving her life.

She was exploring his face with her fingers, loving what she was learning. She met his gaze, devouring the look of him.

There was need in his eyes. There was strength and truth and passion.

Another man might have taken what she offered without questions. He was still and silent, making sure…

He could be sure.

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