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Jane nodded, gazing down at her hands When she looked up, her shtly crooked, incredibly sensual, and her eyes were like the golden fire of a sunrise

"Well, I suppose one of us should make the first move"

7

In a thousand years, Jane would never have thought that beco intimate with someone she’d known a matter of days could be so effortless and natural

Yes, one of them had needed to ether, they’d both beenmoves And after she spoke, he stood, and she must have stood, as well, because she was suddenly in his arms

She wondered just when she’d known that she had desperately wanted that moment to come, and she wondered what made one person so desirable to another Was it the unique, underlying scent of each hu? The way a mind worked, the sound of a voice, the way one person could reach out to soht left her mind She felt his fierce heat as he drew her close and as his lips touched hers For a moment, that first kiss was almost frantic, as if they both feared they had seconds and nothing more, and every taste and sensation had to be seized

And then it eased into so that was slow and seductive, the feel of hisabout him that suddenly seemed necessary for life itself

When they broke apart, his lips were mere inches from hers, and he whispered softly, "Not that this isn’t hbors close by, but"

She smiled, and she was aliddy Then he gathered her up into his arh he paused and said softly, "May I? Agents of the law can be very finicky when a threat is perceived"

She slipped her ar the saent"

"But this is a local situation," he told her

"Yes, but you did invite me in," she reminded him

"Because of your artistry"

"I hope it’s up to par"

He carried her down the hall "Agent Everett, the second I saw you, I became aware that you certainly surpassed par"

"Thank you," she said "And I do admit, we feds never like to appear as if we can’t handle a situation, but I’m not sure that if we’d reversed this, I wouldn’t have dropped you"

"Sos just work out the way they should," he said

They’d reached the bedroo from the hallway and the rooms beyond He didn’t turn on a lah thethey could see the dark, moon-draped hills beyond, majestic in the purple shades of the desert

Cloaked by the shadows that surrounded theether again, as he opened the belt of the robe she wore She was instantly aroused by his touch He rose, re his holster and the Colt he’d chosen for his eapon, laying them on the table by the bed She felt his hands brush her midriff and her breasts as the hot, wet fever of their kiss deepened She tugged at his shirt, pulling it fro apart only momentarily, he all but ripped the shirt over his head before joining her again and the feel of his bare flesh against hers was so arousing she was al" into the Krewe had been all-consu for many of the past months But none of her previous relationships over the years had ever had this depth Sloan knew her, as no one she’d met before had; he knew that she saw and felt and accepted a world that existed on the fringes of their own, and he was the saave everything about this htened intensity, and then there were the si heat and brilliance of the desert sun

His touch, his kiss, lips, tongue, flesh--all ers playing his spine She felt hi with his buckle while he removed the shoes and socks Then he slipped the robe fro to the floor They were locked together in a tangle of liain, she felt erotically bathed by his caress and the heat and fire of his lips Her breasts arhs and intimate areas, and she responded with a passion and abandon she hadn’t known she possessed She twisted in his ar the intihed and teased and whispered, and then words were gone in a flurry of hunger; she are of the thundering of her heart, the rush of her breath and the feel of hiency that appeased and spurred the desperate need that rocked through her

Each thrust took her higher, each brought another burst of sensation that wiped away the rest of the world The cli in the desert beyond, and she felt the fierce and shuddering movement of his body as he joined her Then he lay beside her in the shadows, and again, the sound of their breathing, the beating of their hearts, seemed like a rhythmic chorus They lay with their bodies damp, still entwined, wordless for several minutes The silence between the love had never before seemed so miraculous, and maybe it had been new and unique because the intimacy she’d felt with him was deeper than she’d felt with a man before He knew and understood what she hat made her different fro her