He drew her into his arms. She held herself stiff as a hundred warning lights went off inside her brain. This was insane...dangerous...exciting. She caught the familiar scent of his skin, and her senses veered out of control. He cupped her chin with his hand then lowered his head toward hers.
"Don't say anything," he whispered. "Just let yourself go."
She uttered a soft moan as he ran his tongue slowly along her lips, then eased it into her mouth, exploring the softness within. The bitterness and anger of the past temporarily vanished as a liquid sweetness flooded through her body.
His hands snaked their way up her spine and plunged into her thick hair. His hips pressed against hers and she felt his rising excitement. Her fingers were spread flat on his chest and she slid them under the smooth cotton fabric of his shirt and ran them, palms down, over his thick mat of chest hair.
His kiss moved down the side of her throat, along the slender column, to her tanned shoulder. With seductive deliberation, he nudged her lacy shawl and she let it slither down to the floor of the deck.
His burning mouth branded her shoulder, then moved slowly, inevitably, to her breast.
She cradled his silky head in her hands. With her forefingers she traced the proud curve of his cheekbones and the stubborn line of his jaw. For a moment it was as if the past six years had never happened. She was nineteen again, on fire from within for the man who had stolen her heart. She grew acutely aware of her breasts, of the way her nipples grew taut as his lips moved closer. She was as warm as the tropical night and the warmth seemed to rise in waves around her, threatening to make her throw reason to the four winds.
His face was half in shadow and his sad eyes looked down into hers with a look she couldn't fathom. He couldn't hurt her any longer, so why not allow herself this one last pleasure?
Her breath caught when his fingers encircled her wrist again. His dark brows were drawn together in what looked like a scowl. She tried to pull her hand away but he held it fast.
"Jake, we can't--"
Her words turned into a muffled gasp as, with great deliberation, he separated and then kissed each one of her fingertips in turn. His mouth was hot. The scrape of his teeth against the sensitive pad of flesh made her nipples grow taut. The gesture was fiercely erotic and it pierced her heart, catapulting her back into another time when there was only she and Jake and a wonderful future stretching before them.
Tilting her head back, she looked up at him, trying to read the expression in his eyes. The wind had picked up, whipping her hair about her face, making it as tangled and wild as her emotions. She couldn't control the rush of unwanted desire burning its way through her body.
He pulled her slightly closer with an insistent hand against the small of her back. "It was always good between us, wasn't it, Megan? Always." The simple touch of his hand against the bare flesh of her spine made her tremble with wanting him.
"Yes," she whispered, unable to deny the truth. "It was always good."
Her breasts and hips molded themselves against his body with an urgency that frightened her. She forced herself to grow rigid in his arms. He was not going to draw her close to him the way he used to do. She was older now, and smarter. Oh, he could be charming, flashing that killer smile of his, moving his powerful body with the grace of a jungle predator. Given half a chance, he could charm her right back into his bed.
"Do you remember the first time?" His voice was molten gold.
She struggled to dispel the magic settling around them. "I'm not interested in the past, Jake.