waist to ankle, all while his lips never left hers.
She didn’t know when he unfastened his trousers, but by the time he got to the wall, he was ready for her. He entered her with all the force of his desire. She arched her back against the wall and pushed against him, taking him deeper and deeper inside her.
As his strokes began, Terri lifted her arms and put her hands against the wall, pushing hard. Nate could take it. He could hold her full weight, easily stand up against her strength. He cupped her backside and pulled her even closer.
When he came, Terri was clawing at his back, trying to rip the shirt off him.
“Sorry,” he whispered into her ear. “Next time is yours.”
He carried her down the hall to what had been his bedroom.
She expected him to lay her down gently, but he didn’t. He dropped her so she bounced on the mattress.
“I spent night after night imagining this.” He was looking at her beautiful nude body on the bed.
“And here I thought you never noticed me.”
“In those shorts?” He was slowly unbuttoning his shirt, taking his time. “Did you cut them off?”
“Maybe.” She turned onto her side, drew one leg up and put her hand on the curve of his backside. “Was it too much for you to handle?”
When Nate took his shirt off, Terri drew in her breath. She was going to get to touch what she’d seen so often!
“You shortened your shorts and I lifted so heavy I nearly detached my pecs.”
She got up on her knees and ran her hand over his chest, over the curves of the hard muscles. “It was worth it.”
With a quick gesture, he let his trousers fall to the floor—and Terri saw him hard and upstanding, ready for her. She ran her fingertip down the side of him.
“Not too much for you?” he asked huskily. “All the men in my family are—”
“Do shut up,” she said pleasantly, and he did.
They made love all night. With Terri on top until her legs gave out, then Nate rolled her beneath him.
At first he was cautious about putting his full weight on her, but she just laughed. “I’m not a Townie.” They knew who she meant but she didn’t say the name. Reality, consequences, and worse, separation, would happen tomorrow.
But now, for this one night in heaven, they had each other.
Only once did Nate try to persuade her out of the year-long separation. Terri said, “We can’t build a life on the tears of an innocent person.”
After that, they didn’t talk much. But then, they’d done that and nothing else for weeks. Talked to cover their longing. Talked of work and other people and past experiences that hid what they’d really wanted to say. They’d shared experiences instead of emotions. Confessions of past feelings instead of declarations of true love.
There had been gentle hints of future wants and needs. Bits of hope that somehow they’d be together.
All these were replaced with touching, tasting, tongues, fingers, hands. Exploring bodies they’d seen but had been forbidden to touch.
They showered together. Ate spicy sandwiches, then licked mustard off each other’s skin.
Laughed. Every touch, every gesture made them laugh. Happiness that had been delayed, suppressed, came out in a joy that started inside them and erupted. If laughter could be said to come from the pores of their skin, it did.
As the sun rose, the light from inside them began to fade. They lay still, her head on his shoulder, bodies wrapped together.
There were no words that could be spoken. It had all been said. They must part. Not for themselves, but for those they loved—and would love. The sacrifice they were making was for people who did not deserve pain or in some cases, more pain. It was for the protection of the children they would have.
“You—” Terri began, but Nate put his fingertip over her lips.
He stroked her hair in a gentle way. So gentle, so sweet, that she fell asleep. And when she awoke, he was gone.
Chapter 17
Nate was in DC, sitting on the hated white couch in the apartment he and Stacy had stayed in. He was bent over, head in hands, and trying not to think that his life was over. A year! He was to stay away from Terri for an entire year.
When footsteps came down the hall, he didn’t look up.
“Might I ask what you’re doing in my apartment?” Rowan asked.
With a sigh, Nate leaned back and looked at his