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Abra blinked, wondering if he was ain the hallway Are you going to let me in?"

"Yes, but - " She stepped back, and he caes didn&039;t look this good Or slanced back toward the bedrooe You didn&039;t say you were back"

"I wasn&039;t" Since she didn&039;t seem to be in any hurry to do so, he shut the door hiht of the plans she had beena quick look around her juh her hair "You should have told ht I wasn&039;t - I&039;m not ready"

"What&039;s the matter, Wilson?" To please himself, he put his hands on her shoulders, then ran the her robe aside She was definitely giving him a whole new perspective on athletic wear "Got another man under the bed? In the closet?"

"Don&039;t be stupid" Frustrated, she pulled back She knew her face was scrubbed as clean as a baby&039;s And her hair - she didn&039;t need a reen-and-white jersey Hardly the sophisticated, seductive lingerie she&039;d envisioned "Da"

He checked an iather her up and shut her up Maybe he&039;d let hilad to see him as he was to see her Andpatiently and alone for hiht have," he said slowly, "if I&039;d gotten you instead of a recording Where were you?"

"When? Oh" Her , she shook her head "I was out to dinner"

"I see" He stuck his hand in his pocket, and it knocked against the jeweler&039;s box He didn&039;t have any claims on her The hell he didn&039;t "&039;Anyone I know?"

"Myat?"

"Nothing"

Her chin came up as she snatched at the sleeve of her robe "I kno I look, Johnson If you&039;d givenabout it The place is a wreck"

"It&039;s always a wreck," he pointed out It was all beginning to seep in She&039;d wanted to set the stage, and he&039;d come in ahead of his cue

"I could have cleaned up a little" Scowling, she kicked a shoe aside "I only have lousy wine"

"Well, in that case, I&039;d better go" He turned away, then turned back as if he&039;d had a sudden thought "Before I do, I have so to say about the way you look"

Abra folded her arlint was back in her eyes "Watch your step"

"I guess there&039;s only one way to handle this honestly" He stepped toward her and put a friendly hand on her shoulder "You do want us to be honest with each other, don&039;t you, Abra?"

"Maybe," she ot to tell you soh to take it"

"I can take it" She started to shrug his hand away "I wish you&039;d - "

Whatever she wished would have to wait He jerked her forward and crushed her mouth with his She tasted heat, waves of it that only increased when her lips parted on a half moan In one quick movement he stripped the robe from her, then took his hands up and under the thin jersey to explore naked skin and subtle curves Gasping, she strained against his rough hands Then she was clinging, her knees buckling, as he sent her arrowing to the edge

"Cody"

"Shut up," he murmured before he pressed his lips to her throat

&039;"Kay" She couldinto her hips Her head was spinning, but underneath the dazed pleasure was an urgency every bit as great as his She tugged at his jacket as they began to work their way across the roo his shirt up and over his head In one quick, possessive stroke, she ran her hands up his chest "Now"

Her desperate ht he&039;d be ready for them, but anticipation and reality orlds apart Desire became raw, impatient, primitive For both, the bedroom was too far away When they tumbled onto the couch he was still half dressed, with each of the into hi over him, while she reared up to keep herfro him farther and farther from sanity

With a sudden oath, he pulled the jersey down, yanking it to her waist so that he could bury his mouth at her breast With an abandonainst hierous scrape of teeth and tongue

The lights burned around them In the apartment overhead someone turned a stereo up loud, and the bass vibrated in a low, passionate rhythrance she&039;d splashed on an hour beforeto drive him crazy That was all Cody could think as he followed the trail of her jersey down, farther down the smooth, taut skin of her torso Everywhere he touched, everywhere he tasted, she responded with a ripe, huge pleasure that astonished hi breaths she dreere nearly sobs

They&039;d waited too long - a lifetiether - no more evasions, nowas finally stripped away, her long, graceful lier think, nor did she wish to She wanted only to feel She wanted tothat would tell hi inside her But the words wouldn&039;t form She had never wanted like this, never needed like this Her body felt like a furnace that only he could stoke higher There was a tre Instinctively she reached out, half in delight, half in defense As if he understood, he drove her to a shuddering cli, endlessly, weightlessly Even as she spiraled down he caught her and sent her soaring again

He could see her in the laht, her skin sheened with moisture, her eyes dazed and open Her hair was spread out on the rug where they&039;d rolled He tried to say her nas burned like fire, and the word flamed out like a curse when he crushed her lips one last ti ruthlessly into his back Driven to the lied into her She rose up to meet him with a speed that tore at his already-tattered control

Fast, hard, hot, they raced together to a place neither of them had ever been

Weakened, stunned, Cody collapsed onto her He had neither the energy nor the clearheadedness to separate what had happened to him into individual actions, reactions, sensations It was as though one huge bubble of e him drained

She was as soft as water beneath hi slow and shallow He felt her hand slide off his back and fall li Beneath his lips her heart beat quickly, and he closed his eyes and let himself drift with the sound and the rhythm

They didn&039;t speak Even if words had been possible, he wouldn&039;t have knohich ones to use to tell her what she had done to hied to him now and that he would do whatever was necessary to keep her Was this what love did? she wondered Did it fill you ild energy, then leave you so fragile that you thought you would dissolve fro she had ever felt before paled to insignificance co had been new and almost unbearably intense She hadn&039;t had to think or plan or decipher She&039;d only had to act on her own needs - needs she had successfully ignored until the first time he&039;d touched her

It seemed he understood and accepted that Just as it seemed he understood and accepted her No one else ever had - not like this

Was it love, she asked herself, or just the ers tangle in her hair and closed her eyes It mattered - tooshe believed, everything she&039;d planned, if only he would touch her again

There was no point in denying what she felt for hie to think about what he ht feel for her

He pressed a kiss to her throat "You okay?"

"I don&039;t know" It was an honest answer, she thought as she dragged in a deep, greedy breath "I think so" Clearing her throat, she opened her eyes again They were on the floor, she realized, wondering how they&039;das I don&039;t have to move for the next week or two" He turned his head so that he could nuzzle lazily at her neck "Stillher already-sensitized skin had her shifting beneath his to be set up"

"Set up?" He shifted lazily to her ear

"Yes I was planning" She let her words trail off as he skiertip over her nipple She started to say his nah as his lips teased hers

"A," heinside her "Absolutely a"

She was as astonished as he when passion leaped out again and took control

Soht they fell into the bed, but they didn&039;t sleep It was as though in the feeeks they had known each other adown in an avalanche There was no music, no flicker of candles, no seduction of silk and lace They cay fed on energy, desire on desire In the darkest hour of the night they fell into an exhausted sleep, only to ith the first light of dawn hungry for ain, rele of limbs, they slept

She aith the sun full on her face and the bed ey, she stroked a hand over the sheet, , she opened her eyes and saw that she was alone

Abra sat straight up, looking quickly around the rooht No one could have drea her hands over her face, she tried to think

- Could he have left her? So could he just have strolled out as easily as he&039;d strolled in? And what if he had? she asked herself as she leaned back against the headboard They had said no strings, no coo as he chose, just as she was

If it hurt, if it left her feeling empty and miserable, it was no one&039;s fault but her own The trouble, Abra thought, was that she alantedher eyes, she reht no woh, the lack was in her

"I was hoping you&039;d wake up with a smile on your face," Cody said froesture she gathered the ruone"

He walked over and, easing down on the mattress, offered her a cup of coffee "Gone where?"

"I" Feeling foolish, she sipped at the coffee and scalded her tongue "Just gone"

His eyes darkened briefly, but then he shrugged "You still have a very poor opinion of ht you probably had things to do"

"Yeah" He shifted, sliding a leg onto the bed He was da hi his time, he sipped "Your coffee&039;s stale, you know"

"I never seeain Small talk That seemed the best way out, and the safest "I&039;d, ah, offer you breakfast, but - "

"I know There&039;s nothing in the kitchen but a banana and a bag of corn chips"

"There&039;s cookies," she ht they were rocks" Deliberately he put a hand under her chin "You want to look at me?"

She did, while her free hand otten a few things if I&039;d known you were cos is the issue here Why don&039;t you tell me what the probleled for a casual tone She was an adult, she reminded herself As such she should be able to handle the ht of day when he&039;d taken you to the darkest depths of your own passions? She could hardly tell hiiven her so one?"

"No" She said it too quickly, and she swore silently So ht, and any pretense of sophistication "Listen, I don&039;t knohat I&039;m supposed to do next, what I&039;m supposed to say or how I&039;m supposed to act I haven&039;t had a lot of practice at this kind of thing"

"No?" Thoughtful now, he took the coffee from her and set it aside "How much have you had?" It wasn&039;t a question he&039;d known he would ask He&039;d told himself that her past life was just that - her life But he wanted to know if there was anyone, anyone at all, who had shared what he had experienced during the night

"I don&039;t think this is a joke"

He grabbed her shoulders before she could roll out of bed "A what&039;s happening here by so that happened before I don&039;t like it"

"Sorry," she said stiffly

"Not good enough" He kept his hold firuy, the one who bounced your heart around tell ry color rose to her cheeks as she tried to push him away "I don&039;t see that that&039;s any of your business"

"You see wrong Nothing new"

She struggled with the te "I haven&039;t asked you about any of the women you&039;ve been involved with"

"No, but you could if you thought it was i It&039;s not important"

But it was important He saw it in her eyes, heard it in her voice Both teentle with her If comfort had been the answer, he would have offered it Soh

"If that&039;s true, why are you upset?"

"I&039; honest"

"Maybe we did We should also have said so around in past relationships"

"Fair enough" He gave her a long, level look "Unless they seep over into this one If I&039; to be compared to someone else, I want to knohy"

"You want to hear about hi the sheet with her to wrap around her body "He was an architect" She sent Cody a humorless smile

"Is that your basis for co," she countered "You could say I have a habit of tue and working full-tiiven a shot as assistant to the engineer on a small project James was the architect He&039;d just moved from Philadelphia He was very smooth, very smart" Sheher, and he found he couldn&039;t take it Rising, he dipped his hands into the trousers he&039;d pulled on earlier "All right I get the picture"