"Stress. What a useful word."

"Do you miss her? Think about her a lot?"

"No. But sometimes I wonder about what my life would be like if I had gotten married eight years ago and settled down to a normal routine."

Amy felt a great wave of empathy. She touched the side of his hard face. "Eight years is a long time.

Surely there have been other opportunities for you to establish a family, if that's what you wanted."

"I'm not sure what I've wanted for the past eight years. I've just followed a routine that worked. Gone where I'm sent, done my job, come back and designed bird cages. Drank a little Scotch. I don't think much about the past."

"Or the future?"

"I haven't thought much about the future, either," he said.

"Oh, Jed..." Her fingertips trailed lightly down his throat to his bare shoulder.

"Until lately," Jed concluded softly.

"What?"

"I haven't thought much about the future until lately. But now I find I'm starting to think about it again." He pulled her into his arms, cradling her against him, burying his face in her breeze-tossed hair.

Amy wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. "Are we friends or lovers, Jed?"

"Both." He sank to his knees, drawing her down with him. His hands went to the hem of her T-shirt as she knelt in front of him, and his smile was a lazy, s.e.xy promise. "Last time I rushed things." He kissed her nose as he slid the shirt up over her head. "I'd been wanting you a long time. You knew that, didn't you?"

Facing him on her knees, Amy's eyes softened in the moonlight. His chest was solid and warm under her palms. "A couple of times when you came back from a trip I thought you might have wanted me."

"Might have wanted you?" There was soft laughter in his voice. "I was burning up for you. And all you seemed to want to do was play checkers and old Beach Boy alb.u.ms."

"We were supposed to be friends."

"And you were afraid to let the friendship grow into something else, weren't you?"

"A little," she admitted. His rough fingertips grazed the peaks of her uncovered b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She felt herself grow taut and sensitized. "Afterward I couldn't figure out where we stood."

"I wanted to give you some time." His palms were warm on her sides now as he stroked his way down to the fastening of her white jeans. "Maybe I wanted some time for myself, too." He leaned down to kiss the firm peak of one breast.

"Jed, there's so much we don't know about each other," Amy whispered.

"Does it matter?"

"I don't know." She drew in her breath as he unsnapped her jeans.

Jed turned her around and cradled her between his thighs with her naked back pressed against his chest.

He pushed the denims off her hips, sweeping the sc.r.a.p of underwear along with them.

Amy tilted her head back as his fingers stroked the inside of her bare thigh. She could feel the muscles in his legs as he gently pulled her body toward his. His manhood was straining against his trousers, pressing into the curve of her b.u.t.tocks. She was thrillingly aware of the power he was restraining for her.

"You feel so good," Jed murmured. He kissed the curve of her shoulder as he leaned over and around her to part her thighs. When she was open to his touch he began to stroke the dark curls just below her stomach.

Amy shivered and closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder. She absorbed his warmth and felt her hunger for his touch grow. When his probing fingertips found the delicate flesh between her legs she cried out with aching wonder. Then he was parting the silken skin, tracing exquisite patterns in the hidden places. Amy gripped his muscular thighs on either side and her nails made small half moons in his skin.

"Jed, I don't understand how you can do this to me so easily." It was neither a protest nor a plea, simply an exclamation of amazement. Amy didn't fully understand her own reaction to him. She'd never responded to a man like this in her life.

"The effect is mutual." His fingertips were teasing her more intensely now. When Amy began to tremble, Jed pulled her closer to the warmth of his thighs. "Feel me, sweetheart. Feel how much I want you."

With an inarticulate murmur, Amy turned in the confines of the close embrace, pushing Jed back until he lay in the sand. He grinned up at her as she sprawled on top of him. He flexed his legs, drawing his knees up on either side of her so she was carefully trapped. His hands worked slowly, hungrily, down her back to the sweet contours of her hips.

"You like this, don't you?" Amy said half-accusingly as she nipped lightly at his flat nipple. "You're getting off on seeing how quickly you can make me respond."

"What man wouldn't? You respond so beautifully. You're hot and silky smooth and vibrating. I can feel the shivers going through you already."

"Beast." But she clung to him, seeking the zipper of his pants. His fingers sank into her as she found what she sought and began to force his jeans down over his hips. Amy sighed. "I can feel you shivering, too."

"Shock waves. I'm about to explode."

"Just like a volcano. That's the way it was last time. Are you always like this?" She pushed the jeans off, taking the briefs with them. He was suddenly filling her hand, urgent, hard, throbbing.

"No, I'm not always like this. But it's getting to be a habit around you." Jed's eyes gleamed in the moonlight as he caught her around the waist and eased her up until she was kneeling astride him. The strong length of his manhood brushed tantalizingly against her. "Last time I was in such a d.a.m.n hurry I was afraid I'd hurt you. I think I did hurt you a little."

"No." She shook her head in swift denial.

"This time you'll be in charge. Take your time, love, and take as much as you want."

Amy sighed her need, balancing herself with her hands planted on his shoulders. Slowly she eased herself down, feeling the thick, waiting length of him probing eagerly at the soft, moist entrance of her body.

"You know how to torture a man, don't you?" Jed's voice was a husky gasp as she carefully fitted herself to him. "Are you going to draw this out forever?"

"You said I should take my time." She felt a daring, feminine mischief rise inside her as she looked down into his stark face. Slowly she eased herself down another inch. He was so big, stretching her, filling her.

The sensation was incredible. She was losing herself in the pa.s.sion she saw in his eyes.

"When I said to take your time, I didn't mean you should make it last a week. Come here, lady, before I go out of my mind." His hands closed around her and he surged upward, driving deep into her damp, feminine sheath.

Amy cried out and fell forward, her hair spreading over his chest. As she gave herself up to the intoxicating rhythm, her fingers gripped his shoulders tightly. It was like riding a wild stallion, all muscle and driving energy. Her knees tightened around his waist and she felt his exhilarating response. For an endless time everything around her ceased to exist. There was no past to haunt her, no future to fear, only this man and this moment.

When he felt the tiny convulsions begin to shimmer through her and heard the breathless sound of his name on her lips, Jed gave a m.u.f.fled shout of release, lifting himself one last time into Amy's softness.

And then it was over. The short, sweet aftermath settled around them. The rush of the light surf on the sand, the silver moonlight and the balmy air seemed to bathe Amy and Jed, creating an intimate, protected world that was impervious to external intrusions.

But as so often happens, the danger came from within. Amy's eyes were still closed, her head still pillowed on Jed's chest, when he spoke softly, fracturing the crystal thin coc.o.o.n in which Amy huddled.

"I answered a couple of questions for you tonight, Amy. I think it's time you answered some of mine."

She went still. "What questions?"

"I'd like to know what really happened the night LePage died."

Chapter Six.

Jed could feel the tension overtake her body. She barely stirred against him, but he was instantly aware of the I deep change in her mood. The sweet, sensual relaxation was gone as if it had never been.

"Why?" Amy's voice was hard.

"Why do I want to know what happened the night LePage died?" Jed flexed his shoulders, aware of the gritty sand beneath him. Making love on a moonlit beach had a few minor drawbacks. "Because I'm curious. Because you've told me yourself you've had trouble sleeping for the past eight months and, unlike your father, I think it's got something to do with LePage, not your writing. Because I wonder why, if LePage wasn't your lover, you're so upset about his accidental death after all this time. Lots of reasons." He wove his fingers through her tangled hair as she raised her head, crossed her arms on his chest and stared down at him. The green of her eyes was washed out by the moonlight, but he could see the watchful caution in them.

"It's considered tacky for a woman to discuss one man with another."

She was looking for a loophole, Jed knew. She was hoping to distract him with a few snappy little retorts. He decided not to let her wiggle away that easily. The best approach in a situation such as this was the direct one. "Was LePage your lover?"

Her store of snappy comebacks failed her immediately. Amy shook her head, her eyes reflecting the truth of her denial. "I've already answered that question. No!"

"Then why did you get up in the middle of the night to return to the scene of his death? That was where he had the accident, wasn't it? That was the entrance to the underwater caves you told me about."

"Jed, I see absolutely no need to discuss this."

He smiled faintly, lifting himself slowly to a sitting position. He kept a firm hold on her as he did so.

"You do the imperious lady bit rather well. Just like one of the sorceresses in your books. But the act works better when you have your clothes on. Nude, you're much too soft and s.e.xy to pull it off. Tell me what happened that night."

She shook her head more in bewilderment than refusal. "I don't understand why you've gotten so curious about me lately. For the past three months you haven't given a d.a.m.n about my past or anyone in it."

"Things change."

"The h.e.l.l they do. What's changed?"

"We've started sleeping together for one thing. How's that for a major change in the relationship?" He gave her a whimsical look, inviting her to soften and relax, but she didn't take him up on the invitation.

He felt her test the strength of his hold on her with a subtle effort to pull up and away from him. He reacted as though he hadn't felt her muscles gently flexing, and kept her braced lightly but firmly across his thighs.

"LePage has nothing to do with our relationship, such as it is."

"So tell me about him."

"G.o.d, you're persistent."

"Engineers tend to be. Persistent and thorough. They like to know how and why something works." He paused. "Or doesn't work."

For a moment he thought she would continue to resist the light pressure he was applying. Jed was considering the best way of increasing the pressure when Amy spoke in a neutral, almost bored tone.

"I've already told you all there is to tell. He was simply a friend who liked diving."

"Did the two of you do a lot of diving while he was staying here?"

Amy nodded. "Sure. I showed him all the best places. He seemed to be enjoying himself. But our personal relationship was always casual. There are no deep dark secrets about what happened the night he died. He should never have tried to go into those caves, especially alone."

"Amy, I'm not as dumb as I look. I know there's more to the story."

Before he could stop her, she sat up and moved out of his reach. "All right! There was a little more. Not that it matters. We argued that night before going to bed." She grabbed her T-shirt and pulled it over her head.

"About what?"

She sighed. "Take a guess."

"s.e.x?" Jed watched in fascination as she seized the topic he offered.

"He wanted me to go to bed with him. Claimed I'd promised more than I'd delivered. Said I was a tease.

I told him if he felt that way about things, he was welcome to go back to San Diego. He got mad. I guess he decided to work out his anger by going diving."

"In the middle of the night. In a cave that was marked off limits by his host." Jed watched her closely.

Amy was as tense and high-strung as she had been before he'd made love to her.

"That's when we had our argument." Amy got to her feet, hastily tugging on her jeans. "The middle of the night. Maybe if we hadn't argued he wouldn't have gone diving. Maybe that's what bothers me."

Jed didn't believe a word of her story, but he decided now wasn't the right time to call her on it. He had pushed her far enough tonight. Thoughtfully he climbed to his feet, reaching for his jeans. Before he gave up entirely, however, he decided he'd try one more goad. "You told me your father didn't want tourists to even know about the caves. How did LePage find out about them?"

Amy froze. There was a taut moment of absolute stillness before she said in a very distant, very neutral voice, "I showed him the location."

Jed knew for certain then that he had gone as far as he could for the time being. He broke the unnatural tension flowing between them with a soft chuckle. "I feel like I've been lying on sandpaper."

A flicker of relief lit Amy's eyes as she realized he was going to lay off the questioning. "Better you than me. That's what you get for playing the gentleman."

He tried to wipe off some of the sand. "It was worth it." Jed worked the zipper on his jeans and then looped his arm around Amy's shoulders with comfortable familiarity. "What made you take the walk this evening?"

He felt her flinch under his arm but her voice was steady. "Same old problem. I couldn't sleep. Thought I'd try some exercise."

"That pool where I found you looked a little treacherous."

"It is. It's the place where Bob died. It's the entrance to a network of flooded caves that run under that part of the island. They've never been charted. Dad has never wanted anyone to take the risk."

"I can see why your parents made it off limits. They wouldn't want to be responsible, even indirectly, for accidents. The LePage incident must have reinforced all their concerns."

Amy nodded soberly as she walked beside him across the sand. "So many things can happen in a flooded cave. A diver could easily get lost. There would be no way to surface in an underwater cave.

You'd have to find your way back to the opening. If you couldn't do that in time-" Her sentence stopped abruptly.