her lower lip while he slid his arms around her back to mold them closer together. Surprises, he thought as he began to lose himself in her. The lady was full of them.
He tasted cool, fresh, different, so excitingly different. Passion took them beneath the surface. Wrapped together, they came up again, mouths fused, water cascading off skin.
There’d never been anything like him in her life. He didn’t ask, but took. His hands moved over her body with an intimacy she’d always doled out stingily. She chose a lover, sometimes impulsively, sometimes calculatingly but she chose. This time, she’d been given no choice. The moment of helplessness was as exhilarating as anything she’d ever experienced.
He’d bring her madness in bed. If he could take her so far with a kiss… He’d take her, up, over, beyond, whether she wanted to go or not. And oh, now, with the water lapping over her, with his hands stroking and his mouth growing hotter, hungrier, she wanted to go.
And then, she thought, he’d give her a salute, a cocky grin, and slip off into the night. Once a thief, always a thief, whether it was gold or a woman’s soul. Perhaps she hadn’t chosen this beginning, but she’d hold on long enough to choose her own end.
She pushed regrets aside. Pain was something to be avoided at all costs. Even if the cost was pleasure.
Whitney let her body go limp, as in total surrender. Then quickly, she lifted her hands to his shoulders and pushed. Hard.
Doug went under without a chance to gulp in air.
Before he’d surfaced, Whitney was at the side of the lagoon and climbing out. “Game’s over. My point.” She grabbed up her blouse and pulled it on without bothering to dry.
Fury. He’d thought he knew precisely what it felt like. Women. He had thought he’d known what buttons to push. Doug discovered he was just learning. Swimming to the side, he hauled himself out. Whitney was already pulling on her slacks.
“A nice diversion,” she said, letting out a quiet, relieved breath when she was fully clothed. “Now I think we’d better have that picnic. I’m starving.”
“Lady…” Keeping his eyes on her, Doug picked up his jeans. “What I’ve got in mind for you is no picnic.”
“Really?” On solid ground again, she reached in her pack and found her brush. She began to pull it slowly through her hair. Water rained out in gemlike drops. “You look like you could use a bit of raw meat at the moment. Is that the look you use to scare little old ladies out of their purses?”
“I’m a thief, not a mugger.” He snapped his jeans, and tossing wet hair out of his eyes, approached her. “But I might make an exception in your case.”
“Don’t do anything you’d regret,” she said softly.
He gritted his teeth. “I’m going to love every minute of it.” When he gripped her shoulders, she stared up at him solemnly.
“You simply aren’t the violent sort,” she told him. “However…”
Her fist connected with his stomach, hard and fast. Gasping, he bent double.
“I am.” Whitney dropped her brush back in the pack and hoped he was too dazed to see her hand shake.
“That does it.” Holding his sore stomach, he sent her a look that might’ve made Dimitri step back and reconsider.
“Douglas…” She held up a hand as she might to a lean, vicious dog. “Take a few deep breaths. Count to ten.” What else was there? she wondered frantically. “Jog in place,” she hazarded. “Don’t lose control.”
“I’m in complete control,” he said between his teeth as he stalked her. “Let me show you.”
“Some other time. Let’s have some wine. We can…” She broke off as his hand closed over her throat. “Doug!” It came out in a squeak.
“Now,” he began, then looked up at the whirl of engines. “Sonofabitch!”
He wouldn’t mistake the sound of the helicopter a second time. It was almost overhead and they were in the open. Wide fucking open, he thought on a surge of fury. Releasing her, he began to grab up gear. “Move ass,” he shouted. “Picnic’s over.”
“If you tell me to move ass one more time—”
“Just move it!” He shoved the first pack at her even as he hauled up the other. “Now get those pretty long legs moving, sugar. We ain’t got much time.” He locked his hand over hers and headed for the trees in a dead run. Whitney’s hair flowed out behind them.