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hit the brakes. Before she could do the same, he managed to shift toward her, grab hold of her and let his mouth ravish hers. He molded her breasts, gave himself the pleasure of riding his hands up those legs, under that seductive red.

She closed her teeth over his tongue, a quick, erotic trap, and struggled with his fly. He managed to yank down one shoulder of her dress before he rammed his knee into the gear shift.

"Ouch," she said on a breathless laugh. "We'll have to add knee pads to the elbow pads."

"Damn car's too small. We'd better get inside before we hurt ourselves."

Her hands gripped his jacket, yanked to bring him back for one more wild kiss. "Hurry."

They shoved out of opposite sides of the car, then bolted for each other. Another breathless laugh, a desperate moan, sounded in the silence. They stumbled, grappled, and groped as their mouths clashed. She yanked and tugged his jacket away as they circled up the walk like a pair of mad dancers. When they reached the door she simply shoved him back against it. Her mouth warred with his, breaking only so she could drag his sweater up, nails scraping flesh before she tossed it aside. The heels and the angle brought her mouth level with his jaw. She bit it as she whipped the belt out of his pants, and tossed that aside as well.

Jack fumbled behind him for the doorknob, and they both lurched inside. Now he pushed her back to the door, yanked her arms over her head and handcuffed her wrists with his hand. Keeping her trapped, he shoved her skirt up and found her. Just her, already hot for him, already wet. And her gasp ended on a cry when he drove her hard and fast to climax.

"How much can you take?" he demanded.

Breath ragged, body still erupting, she met his eyes. "All you've got."

He drove her up again, beyond moans and cries, storming her system with his hands, with his mouth. Heat sheathed her, slicked her skin as he dragged the dress down to free her breasts, to feed on them. Everything she wanted, more than she could imagine, rough and urgent, he used and exploited her body. Owned her, she thought. Did he know? Could he know?

Want was enough, to want like this, be wanted like this. She would make it enough. And wanting him, craving him, she braced against the door and wrapped a leg around his waist.

"Give me more."

She consumed him, in that moment before he plunged inside her, the look, the feel, the taste of her consumed him. Then with a new kind of madness, he took her against the door, battering them both while her hair tumbled out of its pins, while she said his name over and over. Release was both brutal and glorious.

He wasn't entirely sure he was still standing, or that his heart would ever beat normally again. It continued to jackhammer in his chest, making the basic act of breathing a challenge.

"Are we still alive?" he managed.

"I . . . I don't think I could feel like this if I wasn't. But I do think my life passed before my eyes at one point."

"Was I there?"

"In every scene."

He gave himself another minute, then eased back. He was indeed still standing, he noted. And so was she - flushed and glowing, and naked but for a pair of sky-high sexy heels.

"God, Emma, you're . . . There are no words." He had to touch again, but this time almost reverently.

"We're not going to make it upstairs yet."

"Okay." When he gripped her hips, lifted, she boosted up to wrap both legs around his waist. "Can you make it as far as the couch?"

"I'm going to give it a try." He carried her there where they could fall in a tangled heap. T WO HOURS LATER, WHEN THEY FINALLY MADE IT UPSTAIRS, they slept. She dreamed, and in the dream they danced in the garden, in the moonlight. The air was soft with spring and scented by roses. Moon and stars silvered the flowers that bloomed everywhere. Her fingers twined with his as they glided and turned. Then he brought hers to his lips to kiss. When she looked up, when she smiled, she saw the words in his eyes even before he spoke them.

"I love you, Emma."

In the dream her heart bloomed like the flowers.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

IN PREPARATION FOR THE SEAMAN MEETING, EMMA FILLED THE entrance urns with