TALL DARK AND HUNGRY Page 0,48

ran to the next wider section around the next pillar. Deciding it would have to do, Terri perched carefully on the slippery, slender rounded surface to work on her shoe.

Bastien joined her after a moment, but he sat astride the narrow marble piece, so that he was facing her side. "You had me worried when you said you had to sit down."

"This strap came undone at some point," she ex¬plained. She finished doing it back up, then Terri straightened to smile at him. "I should be all right now."

"You're more than all right," he assured her, and just as he had done at the museum, Bastien caught her face in his hands and pulled her forward for a kiss.

After the briefest of hesitations, Terri went will¬ingly, her mouth softly parting under his, then widen-ing farther on a cry of surprise. She arched toward him, lost her seating, and started to slide forward off her marble perch.

"Whoa." Bastien broke the kiss to catch her before she landed on the sidewalk. They both laughed with embarrassment, and he helped her back up onto the rounded top of the strip of marble.

"I should have sat over there." She gestured toward the wider end. "But it was wet."

Bastien didn't even glance, he merely scooted for¬ward until one knee was at her back, and the other was against the front of her knees. It was an effort to help her keep her balance. Then he again lowered his head to kiss her. This time, when Terri arched toward him and started to slide forward, she hit the knee in front of her and took him with her.

They broke apart once more, laughing as they saved themselves; then Bastien caught her hand and stood. Terri thought that would be the end of the at¬tempted kisses, but instead of continuing on their walk, he tugged her back the way they'd come to the wider marble. He muttered something about the wa¬ter, used his shirtsleeve to wipe the worst of it away, then sat and pulled her down into his arms.

Terri sighed as his mouth moved toward hers. Bastien was holding her tightly against his chest, seemingly determined she not slide off anywhere. She hardly noticed. Her concentration was focused wholly upon his mouth and what it was doing. The moment his lips touched hers, she let her own open, then gasped as his tongue met hers. The kiss was just as startling to her as it had been in front of the mu¬seum. She didn't recall ever having felt quite so over¬whelmed, but then it had been ten years since she'd been properly kissed.

Not that she hadn't been kissed at all in that time.

There had been the rare occasion when the dreaded blind date, or setup by friends, had been impossible to avoid. But not one of those handful of men since lan's death had done anything more than nibble ea¬gerly at her lips, leaving her at best unmoved and at worst irritated and repulsed. If she were to be honest, however, Terri hadn't invited any of those kisses. She hadn't wanted them, hadn't been interested in those men. In Bastien, she was. She liked him; she enjoyed his company, and her body most definitely responded to his attention. Terri was plastered against him, her hands upon his chest, yet she found herself trying to get closer, pressing into him as her tongue moved tentatively forward to meet his.

The sudden squeal of tires and the angry honk of a car horn intruded and made her eyes blink open. Terri's head tilted to the side, and her gaze shot past Bastien's cheek to the street beyond. She couldn't see what had caused the noise, but what she could see made her stiffen and instinctively turn away from Bastien's kiss. He seemed undaunted, simply ran his mouth along her cheek until he found her ear. Terri almost moaned at this new caress, her eyes starting to droop closed again. It took a lot of effort to fight the urge.

"There is a whole row of taxi drivers here watch¬ing," she murmured, blushing as she glanced at the parked cars, their drivers out talking amongst each other while watching them.

"Let them," Bastien breathed into her ear. "The poor bastards are probably jealous."

"But..." Terri paused in her protest, her eyes closing on a shudder as Bastien chuckled, his breath blowing against her ear.

"Besides, the taxi drivers are nothing," he said. "On my side we have the Hilton doorman, the bell¬hop, the guys