Like building thunderheads in the distance, she could feel it gathering, the towering pressure tightening deep inside her womb until she could hardly stand it… please please please…

“Evan…oh God…”

“Just let it go,” he murmured, watching the fragmented emotions she knew were crossing her face. “It’s going to be so good……”

Oh, it was. His lips grazed hers as all hell broke loose in her body and she surrendered to it—that’s all she could do. One small part of her pulled her entire body taut as ecstasy burst outward from the heavy thrust and drag where he claimed her. She clenched down on him, crying out his name. True to his promise.

“There you go, baby. Christ…”

He buried himself more fully inside her and sharpened his movements, driving her through it, and the sobs lodged in her throat broke out in staccato bursts when she couldn’t draw enough breath to scream. Her hands gripped his hard enough to snap bones. She tossed her head back and forth, the only part of her she still maintained control of. She was his, every inch, held open and immobile, captive to her passion for him. Like wind gusts during a hot summer storm, it swept her away.

“Fuck, honey, do I need to pull out? You feel too good…”

“No, no, don’t leave me, it’s okay.” She locked her legs tighter around him and held on as her final contractions milked him of all restraint. His hips slammed forward and he surged inside her, pulsing with his release. He said her name, growled it, as she drank in the sight of him, the sensation of him spilling himself inside her. So thick and warm. His hair fell forward around his face and the veins stood out in his neck. God, he was exquisite.

One final thrust and he eased himself down over her, his chest heaving. His hand smoothed up her arm and he palmed her breast, turning his face into her neck. With her hands finally free, she wrapped her arms around him and held on as if he were a life preserver. He felt different from her ex, leaner, all sinewy strength and coiled power. He took better care of himself. Did everything better.

She was shaking like a palm frond in a hurricane, unable to stop the helpless little sounds that kept slipping through her lips. With complete concentration she managed one deep, cleansing breath to coax down her ragged pulse. The scent of their sex bloomed throughout the room, filling her nostrils. Now that the heat they’d generated had rushed out of her, she could feel the blush roaring high and hot in her cheeks.

No, no, don’t leave me…

She cringed, digging her fingertips into his flesh as an anchor against the surge of embarrassment that heated her blood, so different from the intoxicating fires of moments ago. Jesus, what had she done? “Oh, God…” she whispered, covering her face with one hand.

“It’s okay, Kelsey.”

“No, it…” She couldn’t speak. He pulled himself from her, then snuggled close and brought her into his embrace.

“Sweetie. Look at me.”

She did, but it was difficult now, when she could never remember a time she hadn’t wanted to look at his beloved face. She blinked, trying to force the fresh torrent of tears back where they belonged. It just wasn’t possible.

No, there was no emptiness now. She was bursting at the seams, overflowing.

“Don’t cry,” he said gently, swiping her cheeks with his thumbs. “You cry and I want to break something. Or someone. What is it?”

“I can’t. I’m sorry. Not…right now.”

All this time…all these years. All her restless longing had converged on her at once.

“Okay, okay.” His eyes were troubled as he stroked her hair. “Just answer me this. Do you regret it?”

She hated that she was making him look like that, but there was nothing she could do except reply to that question truthfully, and without hesitation. “No. Don’t ever think that. And I’m okay, really.” She drew a deep breath and felt the panic start to pass. They were both adults, they would be all right. It was rather late for the protection discussion, but she felt the need to ease his mind. “I’m on the Pill, so you don’t have to worry.”

He chuckled, his warm breath tickling her cheek. “I’m really not worried, honey.”

Okay. She stroked her fingertips up and down his spine as long minutes passed and she puzzled over that. The image that flashed through her mind then was unavoidable: a dark-haired toddler smiling up at her with Evan’s green eyes. What unsettled her most was that it only made her want to maul him again.

You only had sex with the guy. Stop thinking about white picket fences, dammit. It was almost as if she could hear Lisa’s voice in her mind, chiding her.

So she did what it commanded. Amazing, to just let go and drift on this euphoria. To finally hold him in the carnal embrace she’d fantasized about for so long.

Chapter Six

Evan watched Kelsey struggle bravely with her tears. He only wished he knew what to say to help her win the battle with them, but what was there to say when your best friend was weeping with guilt over finally having mind-blowing sex with you?

Goddammit. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but to do so now might shatter her fragile calm. Still, he marveled at her dramatic shift from wounded kitten to hellcat and back again, and wanted to break Todd Jacobs’s freaking neck for hurting her. She should have let him do it seven months ago when he’d tried.

Because that’s what this was about, wasn’t it? Her anger, her hurt, her betrayal. All taken out on him.

It was all right. Hell. He could take it, and consider himself a lucky guy for it.

“Mmm, I don’t want to let you go,” he murmured in her ear finally. “So sweet and warm.”

She sighed, running the sole of one foot up and down his calf. His body stirred at the gesture, thinking of those perfect feet, pretty and dainty with little seashell toenails. Everything about her body was pretty and dainty.

“We can sleep like this,” she suggested, smiling dreamily at him. They were still wrapped tight in each other’s arms. She was heavenly soft against him.

“We will. But I’m not ready to sleep just yet.” He made the words as rich with erotic promise as he knew how. Guilt or no, she couldn’t deny that it had been good. It had been very, very good. They couldn’t unring a bell. Might as well ring it again.

“Really?” she asked, a tinge of amazement in her voice, in those reawakened gray eyes as she looked at him.

He supposed that meant his former best friend had been down for the count after one shot. “You’d better believe it.” He grinned, bringing her hand down to wrap around his thickening cock. “Because I think you’re still capable of walking right now.”

The peace that had settled over her expression shattered in anguish. He put his fingers to her lips as she opened her mouth, undoubtedly to wail in mortification. “Honey, that was the hottest thing that’s ever been said to me, and you’re going to stop being embarrassed about what you want, if I’m the one who has to break you of it. Nothing we do together is wrong, especially after what was done to us.”

She closed her eyes and her trembling started all over again—he took it as permission. Thank God. Once more, even if it was the last time.

He spent a good amount of time exploring the silken skin that had too often been so close to him, yet so far away. She’d trusted him with her body, and he cherished every square inch of it with his touch, his lips, but he had to keep coming back to her br**sts. They were lovely; they fit his hands perfectly. He slid his mouth down over her flesh and encircled her nipple with his lips. Warmth gathered in the skin beneath his wet ministrations, and he swirled his tongue around the sweet pearled tip before he suckled it gently. Her fingers tightened around his cock, sending a jolt through him so intense that he groaned against her.