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body and heart - as she found, with him, passion wrapped in the shimmer of romance. Here was all she wanted, had ever wished for. The sweetness and the heat. And as she gave, more and more, she filled until she was dizzy with love.

His flesh to her flesh, so warm, brought her a quiet joy even as pulses spiked. His lips pressed to her heart as it beat for him.

Did he know it? Couldn't he feel it?

And when he took her up, slowly up, his name - just his name - bloomed in that heart. She clouded his mind like a silver mist, sparkled in his blood like champagne. Every languorous move, every whisper, every touch seduced, entranced.

When she broke for him, rising up like a wave, she breathed his name. And she smiled. Something inside him stumbled.

"You're so beautiful," he murmured. "Impossibly beautiful."

"I feel beautiful when you look at me."

He skimmed his fingers over her breast, watched her eyes glow with fresh pleasure. He lowered his mouth, a gentle taste with teeth and tongue, and felt her body quiver with fresh need.

"I want you." Her breath caught as she arched under him. "You're what I want, Jack."

She surrounded him, taking him in, moving with him in slow, savoring beats. Surrounded, he lost himself in her.

S ATED, HE RESTED HIS CHEEK ON HER BREAST, LET HIS MIND drift.

"No chance of playing hooky tomorrow and staying right here?"

"Mmm." Her fingers threaded through his hair. "Not this time. But what a nice thought."

"The way things stand we'll have to get up at dawn."

"I find I often do better on no sleep than with a few stingy hours."

He lifted his head, smiled at her. "That's funny. I was thinking the same thing."

"It would be a shame to waste the rest of that champagne, and those lovely chocolate-covered strawberries."

"Criminal. Stay right here. Don't move. I'll get them."

She stretched, sighed. "I'm not going anywhere."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

FIVE MINUTES AFTER EMMA GOT HOME, MAC CAME THROUGH the door.

"I waited until he left," Mac called out as she climbed the stairs. "That's herculean restraint." She scowled when she walked into Emma's bedroom. "You're unpacking. Putting everything away. I hate this level of efficiency. Why can't at least one of you be a slob like me?"

"You're not a slob. You're just a bit relaxed with your personal space."

"Hey, I like that. Relaxed with my personal space. Okay, enough about me. Tell me all. I left my own lover to his lonely bowl of corn flakes."

With last night's dress in her hands, Emma spun a happy circle. "It was fabulous. Every minute."

"Deets, deets, deets."

"An elegant French restaurant, champagne, a suite at the Waldorf."

"God, that's all so you. Snazzy date wise. Casual date-wise, maybe moonlight picnic at the beach, red wine, candles tucked into little shells."

Emma closed her empty suitcase. "Why aren't I dating you?"

"We'd make a lovely couple, it's true." Draping an arm over Emma's shoulder, Mac turned to the mirror and studied - Emma in her trim jeans and soft shirt, and herself in the cotton pants and T-shirt she'd slept in. "Stunning, really. Well, we can keep it in reserve if things don't work out otherwise."

"Always good to have a backup. Oh, God, Mac, it was the most perfect night." She turned, squeezed Mac into a hug before doing another spin. "We didn't sleep. At all. It's amazing, really, that we have so much to talk about, to find out about each other still. We talked all through dinner, then took a long walk. And he'd had them bring up champagne and light candles, put on music."

"Wow."

"We drank more champagne and we talked, and we made love. It was so romantic." On a humming sound, she closed her eyes, hugged herself. "Then we talked and drank more champagne, and we made love again. We had breakfast by candlelight and - "

"Made love again."

"We did. We drove home through horrible traffic with the top down, and the traffic didn't matter. Nothing did. Nothing could." She gave herself another hug. "Mac? I'm a happy person most of the time."

"Yeah, it can be annoying."

"I know, but too bad. Anyway, I'm a happy person, but I never knew I could be this happy. I didn't know I could feel like this. Like I just want to jump and dance and spin and sing. Like Julie Andrews on a mountaintop."

"Okay, but don't do that because that's seriously annoying."

"I know, so I'm only doing it on the inside. All the times I imagined