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When she looked up at hi at her Her eyes didn't waver froain, only this time his kiss was slow and tender, as slow and tender as the one before had been untamed and harsh

"I want to taste you" The heat in his eyes and in his words caused her to shiver His hands expertly parted her blouse, and when he discovered she wasn't wearing a bra, his eyes narrowed into blue slits

His hands cupped her breasts and lifted them until they'd forhtened even before he began stroking them with his thumbs Catherine went still, afraid even to breathe, her eyes half-closed as she dealt with the intense pleasure his hands brought her His mouth followed, and she rolled her head back and moaned even before his mouth closed over her nipple With her eyes slammed shut, she arched her back The ied to cry out

All too soon his reedily accepting what he was offering Her hands slid along the curve of his back and up to the thickness of his entle; too gentle He broke away coainst the side of her jaith ahis way down her neckline

"I want to make love to you," he whispered, then quickly amended "I need to make love to you, but damn it all, Catherine, I refuse to do it in the front seat of a car"

With eyes still closed and her heart thundering like a Nebraska stor this difficult"

"Has it ever been easy for us?"

"No," he growled, his hands continuing to caress her breasts "You ain"

"It's the car, trust roaned, the sound rich and masculine "I just hope the seamstress who sewed these pants took her job seriously"

Involuntarily, Catherine's gaze dropped to the bulge in his loins Against her better judg the heat even through the thickness of his jeans

The temptation was so powerful that she had to force herself to look away She sighed, her shoulders lifted several inches with the effort

Wrapping his arms around her, Royce pulled her toward him, until her back was cushioned by his chest He leaned forward and slowly rotated his cheek over hers, nuzzling her ear with his nose "Tell rinned, content for the first time since the mail had arrived "You'd like her She's wonderfully witty and intelligent To look at her, you'd never guess she's in her early fifties, aler The best part is that she's strikingly attractive and doesn't realize it For the past fifteen years she's lived in San Francisco, and works at the corporate headquarters for this huge i business That's where she met Norman He's a er, and I swear he fell in love with Mom the minute they met He's waited ten years for this day, and as e Mohter are a good deal alike" Royce murmured

Catherine had to think on that a ht much about it" Catherine hesitated, then added, "She loved ently

"Loves," Catherine agreed softly

"You're close?"

"Always She's incredible If you reatest coive me"

"I think you're incredible," he whispered, playfully nuzzling her neck His arhtly wrapped around her h she were in thearms

Content, Catherine smiled, folded her ar to do, Royce?"

She felt the harsh sigh work its way across his chest It was a question she was sure he'd asked himself a hundred times One that had hounded them both for weeks, and they were no closer now to a solution than they had been before

"I wish I knew" It ithout saying that if they continued in this vein they were both going to be booted out of the Navy "I never thought I'd be jealous of hter"

"Of Kelly?" Catherine didn't understand

"Yes, of Kelly" His grip around her ht with you"