Don’t think of the reservoir and what we did there. She had kept busy and had been fine all evening. She had allowed herself no time to remember all the erotic games they’d played in the motel this afternoon. Only they hadn’t been games. Everything she’d done with John had been done with searing intensity.
She unlocked the apartment door and went inside. She turned on the light and kicked off her shoes. Empty as usual. Her mother hadn’t been home at all that week. She’d shower and go to bed. She hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last month, and she might be able to doze off.
Maybe.
She didn’t feel sleepy. Every nerve was keyed, and the effort to keep from thinking about John Gallo was added stress. Homework? She’d gotten behind in that, too, but there was nothing urgent. She’d get back in the routine now that she had no distractions.
Distractions?
That was a tame word for John Gallo. Oh, yes, he had distracted her and seduced her and taught her a hundred ways to enjoy her body… and his.
But that last time at the motel had revealed that pleasure could be as much a trap as the one she was trying to escape. He was too good, and he had warned her that he would do anything to get what he wanted.
Right now he wanted her.
It might change with time and distance, but that might be too late if he persuaded her to do what he wanted. Even now she could feel her body flush, ready, as she remembered what he had done this-
The doorbell rang, startling her.
No one came to the door at that time of night.
Unless her mother had lost her key again. She misplaced it at least once or twice every few months.
She slid back the viewer in the door. “Again, Sandra? We’re keeping that locksmith-”
It wasn’t Sandra.
John Gallo.
Eve slid back the bolt and threw open the door. “What’s wrong? Why are you-”
She was crushed against him, his mouth on hers, hard, frantic.
And she was frantic, too. Her arms slid around him, and she was making sounds deep in her throat. “Why?” she gasped. “I thought you were gone. Why are-”
“This is why.” His voice was guttural; his hands ripping open the buttons of her shirt. “I was sitting at that gate at the airport, and I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I had to have you one more time.” He was tearing off her bra, his lips on her breast. “Don’t say no, Eve.”
No? She was as wild as he was. The shock of his appearance had sent her hurtling back into the sensual storm she always experienced when she was with him. She could scarcely breathe. Her hands were running up and down his back, bringing him closer as his tongue sent sensation after sensation through her. “The plane…”
“I can catch one at three. I’ll still be there on time.” He’d backed her against the kitchen table and was pulling down her jeans. “I don’t give a damn…”
And she didn’t either. “The couch…”
He wasn’t paying any attention to her. She didn’t know if he even heard her. He’d lifted her onto the kitchen table, and he was suddenly over her, in her, with one movement. She inhaled sharply. Fullness.
Hardness all around her. The table against her buttocks, his belly pressing down on hers, the stroking…
The stroking!
His breath was harsh, his chest rising and falling against her with every thrust. “I knew you… wouldn’t want it here. This is your space, and you don’t want me in it.” Another deep thrust. “You don’t want to… remember me here. You don’t want to remember me at all, do you?” He sank deep and rotated. “Do you?”
She gasped as her hands clutched wildly at his shoulders. “It’s not-” She shuddered as the pace quickened. “You told me-”
“I said a lot of things, didn’t I?” His face above her was flushed, fierce, completely sensual. “But all I can think about right now is that you have-to-remember me. I won’t let you forget me. Every time you look around you, you’re going to remember me here, doing this to you.” He suddenly slid back off the table, taking her with him.
Her legs instinctively curled around his hips.
He was walking, pausing to stroke, then walking again.
Then they were on the couch. “Do you know how many times I thought about doing it with you here?” he whispered. “You liked the reservoir because it was neutral territory, and I’d give you anything you wanted. But toward the end I didn’t want neutral.” He was moving fast, hard. “I wanted this. Because I won’t-be-forgotten, Eve.”
Wildness. Hunger. Heat.
Madness.
She had to have more.
Arching, clasping, taking…
And then there was no more to take.
It was beyond…
She screamed.
He was still moving. “That’s right.” He was gasping, “Again, Eve. You can do it. I’ll just do this…” His eyes were glittering, wild. “More…”
Again.
“I want to make you-but I can’t-wait.” The tempo grew harder, more intense. “Can’t-” He groaned, his spine arched, his head thrown back, his face a mask of pleasure so intense it looked like pain. “Eve!”
He collapsed on top of her.
She didn’t want it to stop. On and on and on… She clasped him to her with all her strength, as she tried to get her breath.
He lifted his head and kissed her lingeringly. “Beautiful…”
“You always say that. I’m not…”
“You are. Like a flame…” He kissed her breast. “And you feel like a flame curling around me. When I was at that gate, I kept thinking of the way you felt. I thought I’d go crazy if I didn’t have you one more time.”
“You did go crazy.” And so had she. All he’d had to do was explode through that door, and she had been ready for him. Ready? She’d been wild for him. Everything she’d been telling herself about how good a thing it was that they were separating had vanished the minute he’d touched her. Which meant that everything she had told herself was true. “And you’re going to miss that second flight if you don’t leave soon. It’s after midnight.”
“I won’t miss it.” His tongue traced her lower lip. “I want to stay, but I’ve done what I had to do.” He got to his feet. “I have to go shower. Stay here. I want to see you like this when I come back.” He vanished into the bathroom.
She didn’t know if she could have moved if she’d wanted to. Every muscle felt limp, and she was lying there in a warm haze. He’d said he was going. There was no reason to stir right now. She didn’t have to think or worry. Everything was the same as it had been that afternoon. This had just been a wild, unexpected epilogue.
She heard the shower. He would be gone soon. The wrenching pain she was feeling was all part of the confusion their togetherness had begun to foster lately. She would be fine. It would go away when he went away.
He came out of the shower ten minutes later. “Good.” He smiled. “You stayed there. I wasn’t sure if you’d do anything I told you to do. Resistance should be kicking in about now.”
“I didn’t want to move.” She met his gaze. “And you’re leaving. Maybe I wanted to please you.”
“You did.” He dropped to his knees in front of the couch. “And I pleased you, didn’t I?” He put his palm on her belly. “It’s a wonder. I was so hot I could only think about myself and how fast I could have you.” He traced the outline of her navel. “I’m lucky you didn’t kick me out.”
“You knew that wouldn’t happen. And you said you’d been wanting it to be here. So I don’t think it was as mindless as you say.”
He was silent. “Oh, I was mindless. The other was just instinct.” He bent and kissed her nipple. “I’ve got to get out of here, or I’ll have to have you again. I can’t miss another plane.” His teeth tugged gently at her earlobe. “I’ve got to do what I promised my uncle I’d do. I won’t mess up my chance.”