It happened then. Eli shifted in his chair and Brynne, straddling him in much the same way she had during the snowmobile ride, shattered, arching her back, crying out in startled release.
Eli groaned and slid his hands up under her sweater and bra, stroking her hard nipples with the pads of his thumbs.
Brynne ground against him, in glorious frenzy, and came again, harder than before, so hard that she convulsed in Eli’s arms. When she’d finally finished, she collapsed against his chest, resting her head on his shoulder, her breath fast and shallow.
She was embarrassed.
She was satisfied.
And she wanted to be satisfied again. Then again.
“You know,” she said, when she could speak, without raising her head to look into Eli’s face, “I think I’m ready.”
Eli gave a low laugh, his hands still cupping her breasts, his thumbs stirring her to want more.
Much, much more.
“You’ve been saving those up for a while,” he said, moving to pull off her sweater, unfasten her bra and toss it aside, leaving her breasts bare to his gaze. “Let’s see if you have any more tucked away.”
With that, he leaned forward to take Brynne’s right nipple into his mouth. He suckled gently, but hungrily, and she squirmed, her fingers in his hair.
“Eli—” she whimpered, pleading. “The bed—”
He stopped suckling only to tease her with the tip of his tongue. “Not yet,” he murmured. Then he opened the snap on her jeans, eased his hand inside and found the core of her femininity.
As he enjoyed her breasts, he stroked her with his fingers, teasing her endlessly. Mercilessly.
And when the next orgasm seized her, it was so powerful that it didn’t make Brynne whimper, like before. It made her howl.
After that cataclysmic release of tension and pent-up longings, things happened, at least for Brynne, in a dreamlike sequence.
Beyond the fact that Eli carried her to her bed, she would remember sensations, sweet chaos, an unrelenting hunger for this man she wanted so fiercely, so ferociously, and was so very afraid to love.
* * *
AFTER THE LOVEMAKING, Eli was exhausted—this time, in a good way—but he didn’t allow himself to sleep. Long after Brynne drifted off, soft and sweet in his arms, he simply lay there, holding her, reveling in her warmth and her presence.
Beyond the boundaries of that rumpled bed, the real world waited to pounce, and Eli didn’t want to go back and tangle with it one moment before he had to make the shift from lover to lawman.
Not that the word lover covered the subject, because it didn’t. It was far too casual to define what he felt for this woman.
He’d loved her for a long time, he knew that now, but tonight, when they’d joined, over and over again, with all the force of two fiery meteors colliding in outer space, new things had come into being, intangible and, at the same time, elemental.
It was as if they’d created a brand-new universe, complete with galaxies and black holes, moons and planets, a vast, uncharted expanse that existed only between, and for, them. Exploring even a small part of this invisible but very real microcosm would take a lifetime, if not several of them.
Eli wound a tendril of Brynne’s silver-blond hair gently around one finger.
He wanted to say it. I love you.
But he wouldn’t, couldn’t. Not yet.
Because, while Brynne had certainly been more than ready for lovemaking—by far the best Eli had ever had—she wasn’t prepared to deal with the full force of his love for her.
She was still fragile. Could she still be hung up on Clay Nicholls?
Yes, she’d made love like a tigress.
But that didn’t mean she’d had the same deep, life-changing experience as he’d had.
So he would wait.
He would take things step-by-step, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat.
Holding himself back would be like trying to round up a herd of wild horses, single-handed, and drive them into a corral, but he would manage it.
Somehow.
Eli smiled, remembering Brynne’s unrestrained responses to his touch, first on his lap in a kitchen chair, then in bed. He’d never dreamed she could be that passionate, with her cool, Nordic queen beauty.
But she’d sought him out, hurled her body against his, clawed and clutched and bucked beneath him, only to ride him minutes later, wild in her desire to give and receive pleasure.
He was sated, on a physical level, but tonight, with Brynne, he’d visited other dimensions, places that weren’t places, time out of time.
I love you, Brynne Bailey, he told her silently.
She stirred in her sleep, and the softest of smiles curved her lips.
Eli lay awake until sunrise, and he savored the warmth of Brynne’s presence, the clean, faintly flowering scent of her hair, the slow and even meter of her breathing.
For now, it was enough to be near her.
* * *
SOMETHING COLD AND damp pressed against Brynne’s forehead; she opened her eyes and gave a squeak of surprise.
She was face-to-muzzle with Festus.
She laughed, sat up.
Eli’s side of the bed was empty, but the scent of freshly brewed coffee and the sizzle of bacon indicated that he’d gone no farther than the kitchen.
Brynne sprang out of bed, realized she was completely naked and dashed for the hook next to the shower stall in her bathroom, where her favorite chenille bathrobe hung.
She pulled it on, tied the belt at her waist and hurried barefoot out of the bedroom and along the corridor to the living room-kitchen area of the apartment.
Eli was back in his clothes, now slightly rumpled, but she knew he’d showered, because his hair was damp and he smelled of her favorite peony-scented body wash.
He stood in front of the stove, frying bacon in her cast-iron skillet.
“Morning,” he said, looking back at her over one shoulder and grinning. “You might want to call in the law—I stole this bacon from downstairs. The eggs, too.”
Without waiting for a reply, he inclined his head toward the refrigerator. “Don’t you eat anything besides yogurt and canned tuna?” He made a disgusted face. “What a combination.”
“The tuna is for Waldo,” she said.
She paused, vaguely alarmed. Festus was present, probably hoping for a bacon rainfall, but there was no sign of her cat.
“Where’s Waldo?” she asked, concerned.
Eli laughed. Shook his head once.