his mother, the clear respect he had for his father.
She could love him very easily.
And end up with her heart broken, she reminded herself, when he walked away in a few weeks to return to his life overseas.
She stepped away from him, hoping a little physical distance would help her regain her equilibrium. His boat brushed against the dock and she seized on the distraction.
“What time do you usually leave in the morning? I often see the boat is gone before I leave for work.”
She hoped he didn’t guess that she always looked out the sunroom window first thing to see if she could see it moored here.
“Early,” he answered. “I try to reach the Chalk Creek mouth before sunrise but don’t always make it.”
“You must be a very dedicated researcher for that kind of commitment. I hate thinking about you just...walking away from something you obviously care about a great deal.”
He shifted in the moonlight and she saw reluctance and a hint of sadness in his eyes. “I don’t have a choice, Samantha. I wish I did.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Not this time. As I said, as soon as we return to England from this trip, the children and I are moving to be closer to my parents. The wheels are already in motion.”
He kept his voice carefully impassive but she thought she could hear a strain of sadness underneath.
“You don’t want to leave your work, do you?”
“It’s not about what I want.” His mouth was firm, resolute.
“Ian. Please don’t make the mistake I did, going along with what was expected of me simply because it was the easier route.”
“It’s not the same thing.”
“If you don’t want to work with your father, stand up for yourself. You love studying salmon and working with your students. Do you really want to throw that away to work in some stuffy office without a window?”
A little smile quirked at his mouth, though she saw it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Whoever said I was heading to a stuffy office without a window?”
“Wild guess. Am I right?”
“Not exactly. But close enough, metaphorically, I suppose.”
“If that’s not what you want, you need to tell Henry. You only have one chance at life. Why spend it living someone else’s dream? Take what you want.”
Before the words were out, before she realized what he intended, Ian was reaching for her, his mouth fierce and passionate on hers.
For an instant, she froze, not quite sure where the kiss had come from. This was a side to him she didn’t recognize. Fierce, wild, passionate.
Wonderful.
His mouth was firm, determined, on hers, leaving no doubt as to what he wanted. Samantha kissed him back, her heartbeat racing and desire lapping at her like water against the dock.
So much for emotional equilibrium. All her emotions were raw and close to the surface.
She wanted him. Right here, right now. The attraction she had felt for him before had seemed powerful enough but this wild rush of her blood consumed her until she could think of nothing else but being with him.
She wrapped her arms around him, wanting to hold tightly to this man, this moment. The wedding was only a few weeks away and she knew he would be gone shortly after that, out of her life forever.
She couldn’t let herself fall in love with him, as she had done before with alarming regularity, but was it wrong to want to hold on to every moment she could while she had the chance?
* * *
SHE HAD TOLD him to take what he wanted and her words had triggered something deep within him.
She was what he wanted.
All evening, he had been fighting against the hunger prowling through him like a caged beast. Every time he looked at her while she laughed at something his father said or smiled at a joke Amelia made or listened, deep in conversation, to his mother and Gemma, he had wanted to grab her by the hand, tug her into the darkness and kiss her just like this.
He wanted to kiss her until she was making those soft, sexy sounds in her throat, until her heart beat as rapidly as his, until neither of them could remember all the reasons why they shouldn’t be doing this.
What was it about her that turned him from a staid, rather boring professor to a man consumed by hunger?
The salmon he studied had a biological imperative to return to the waters of their birth to spawn. They could cross hundreds of miles to