would wavered. Maybe because this whole situation-the clay, the talking statue-was too firmly rooted in the past. She backed toward the door, still caught in the heat radiating from his eyes.

"I brought home pizza," she said. "Are you hungry?"

He nodded. Looking down, she noticed that he'd pushed the clay figures into each other, wedging them

together until one was no longer distinguishable from the other.

"Yeah," he said. "Let's go eat."

They were just finis.h.i.+ng dinner when Rey said, nonchalantly, "I poked around in the hot tub today."

Joely looked up from her last bite of pizza. "And?"

"It looks to me like the pH levels are okay. How long has it been since you treated the water?"

"I treat it once a week, whether I'm using it or not. Otherwise I have to drain it and start over every time

I decide to use it, and that's not fun."

He nodded. "Anyway, I was thinking, what's a trip to Colorado without a dunk in a hot tub?"

She quirked an eyebrow. "I'm guessing you're going for 'incomplete'?"

"Got it in one. What do you say?"

"Did you bring a swimsuit?"

"Do I need one?"

The innocent look in his eyes made her shake her head. "No, I guess you don't."

"Then let's clean this up and get going."

She picked up the nearly empty pizza box and transferred it to the counter. "What about that

thirty-minute rule? You know, about swimming after eating."

"This isn't swimming, and that's all a big lie anyway. Don't you keep up with these major health

announcements?"

"I guess I missed that one."

She stuffed the last few slices of pizza into a plastic storage bag and put them in the refrigerator. No

wasted leftovers tonight. Was that a bad thing or a good thing, that she'd managed to be practical with Rey talking about being naked in the hot tub? She felt like an old married woman, bantering casually about s.e.x without actually doing anything about it.

But wasn't that what she'd wanted to be when she'd married Rey? Eventually, anyway-an old married woman with her old husband next to her, joking about v.i.a.g.r.a. It wasn't such a bad place to be. Her parents were like that, and they'd been happily married nearly forty years. Life could be a lot worse.

She went into the living room to find Rey in the process of taking off his underwear. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" he said, balancing on one leg and displaying just about everything he had to offer in the process. "I mean, you seemed a little weird about the clay thing."

She crossed her arms over her chest, enjoying the show as he hopped on one foot, jiggling and bouncing in very interesting places. His c.o.c.k hardened as she looked at it, so she looked at it some more. It continued to rise, forming a lovely arc toward his stomach. His t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es jiggled amusingly for a few seconds, then stilled as they tightened. As well as she'd known him, she'd never watched this process in stark light, and it intrigued her. She smiled. Rey looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"That's because it's impossible to get clay out of your clothes," she said.

That wasn't the only reason, though. This was the new Rey, not the old, college-aged Rey he'd tried to

recreate before. If she was going to move ahead, it had to be with the new version. In this, as in all other things in life, there was no going back. He rolled his underwear into a ball and tossed it into the pile with his other clothes. "Aren't you going to join me?" "Yeah. Just a minute." She unb.u.t.toned her blouse as he opened the door, thoroughly enjoying the sight of his tight, naked a.s.s as he walked away from her, toward the door to the deck. That hadn't changed much. She was glad it hadn't. He'd always had a fine a.s.s.

She took off her s.h.i.+rt and tossed it on top of Rey's clothes, then went to grab some towels before she forgot.

Joely had never spent a great deal of time in the hot tub, and when she had, it had usually been for therapeutic reasons-loosening back muscles clenched from too many hours on her feet at the shop, or just for stress relief. She'd never had anyone else in it until now. So, even though she rarely wore a suit in the tub, and even though it was Rey who sat there waiting for her to get in, she felt a little self-conscious as she laid the towels down on the deck, then climbed up the two wooden stairs to step into the water. Rey watched her with an appreciative smile.

"Is this too hot?" he asked. "I turned the thermostat up a little."

"No, it's fine." It was warmer than she usually kept it, but not uncomfortable. She settled into one of the tub's molded plastic seats and reached over to turn on the jets. Pulsing streams of water began to pound against her back, just hard enough to feel good after a long day of work.

"Mmm," said Rey. "That's nice."

She looked toward him to see him with his eyes half-closed, wriggling against the sensation of the water jets. The sight aroused her instantly. She crossed her legs against the hot, wet need pooling between them. It didn't help-the friction just increased the sensation. Her l.a.b.i.a felt thick, and the hot water of the tub aroused her that much more. She wanted him inside her so badly, wanted him deep, wanted him to f.u.c.k her hard up against the side of the tub- He opened his eyes and looked back at her, a wicked grin curling the sensuous curves of his mouth. "No wonder you haven't needed a man around. You've had this hot tub. I'm jealous." He moved sinuously against the jet she knew was right behind him, and she couldn't help but wonder exactly where he was directing the sharp, pulsing current. Up his a.s.s, maybe. She'd certainly done that enough times.

She gathered herself. "Yes, a girl can have many of her emotional and s.e.xual needs filled by a large plastic bucket of hot water equipped with pulsating jets," she said wryly.

His grin deepened, and wickedness flashed in his eyes. "You're a very bad girl. I like that." Lifting a hand out of the water, he beckoned to her. "C'mere."

She tilted him a skeptical look, but half-floated her way across the tub to sit next to him. His arm closed around her waist and he drew her tight against him, his mouth seeking hers.

There was no point even thinking about resisting him. Her hands clutched at his shoulders as his lips pressed against hers, softly at first, exploring. He kissed her as if it were the first time he'd ever done so, as if there were a million new, small sensations to find there in the meeting of his lips with hers. One hand moved up from her waist to cup her breast, rolling her taut nipple against the middle of his palm. Desire shot through her and she moaned low in her throat, pus.h.i.+ng herself closer to him. She was already so hot, so slick. She felt like if she breathed the right way, she would fall into o.r.g.a.s.m.

She hooked a knee over his bare hip, half-straddling him. Her s.e.x opened against his thigh and she pulsed her hips, dragging the lips of her c.u.n.t against the rough hair of his leg. The sensation sent her higher, skirting the edges of pure ecstasy. She moaned into his mouth.

Suddenly, Rey's gentleness departed and he dove into the kiss like a starving man. Joely met the sudden surge of pa.s.sion, opening her mouth to his questing tongue, pressing her body harder against his. His thumbs flicked her nipples, stinging the sensitive flesh, then he pulled his mouth away from hers to close it over her breast. His tongue took over where his thumb had left off, his greedy mouth suckling, teeth sc.r.a.ping over her nipples. He bit her softly and she cried out at the sharp lance of pain, but when he started to draw back, she held his head still.

"Don't stop."

He didn't. He bit her nipple again and she flinched, digging her fingers into his hair. Drawing her breast deep into his mouth, he sucked her hard, until she shuddered with the intense sensation, her voice keening in her throat.

"G.o.d, Rey..."

He pulled his head back and looked up into her eyes. She looked back, into the warm, deep gray, and the love there made tears spring to her eyes.

His hands slipped under her, lifting her hips away from the bottom of the tub. The water pushed her up, and she let herself go, until she was floating next to him. He s.h.i.+fted with her, one hand sliding down her stomach until he cupped her s.e.x, his fingers questing. The tip of his finger outlined the mouth of her v.a.g.i.n.a, circling, opening her l.a.b.i.a, stroking her.

One finger dipped inside her, then two, and she gasped. With her body floating, it was as if she had become nothing but the flame he had ignited there between her legs. He pressed his fingers in and out of her, slowly, then harder, firmer. He curled the tips up, finding the exact spot inside her v.a.g.i.n.a, and when he touched her there, pressed hard, a sharp, sensation stabbed through her, pain but not pain, so intense she could barely contain it. She jumped, gasped, grabbed his shoulder with one hand to steady herself. She heard him laugh.

He worked the spot for a time, watching her face, smiling, then his thumb found her swollen, hungry c.l.i.t and circled it, softly, then more firmly until, caught up in the sensation, she rose in a sudden rush and toppled over the edge. He held her while she did it, and when she came back to herself, he was smiling at her.

Still overcome by the intensity of her climax, Joely managed to get her legs under her again and reached for Rey. She closed her fingers around his shaft, finding it steely hard and ready for her. She stroked him once, then he stopped her with a touch.

"Back inside," he said. "I want to be inside you, and I forgot to bring the condoms."

"Do they even work underwater?" she asked as he lifted her in his arms, hauling her out of the hot tub. She shuddered as the chilly night air hit the water on her skin. The change in temperature was a definite shock, a deep, pervasive, sensual sensation in and of itself, as every inch of her responded, every nerve ending jolted to alertness.

Either he didn't hear her query about the condoms, or he wasn't interested in the answer, because he didn't say anything. He deposited her on the deck, then grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her. She'd barely managed to adjust it over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s when he picked her up again, carrying her back into the house.

He set her down in the kitchen, where she toweled herself off quickly, trying not to drip too much onto the wooden floor.

She didn't think she'd ever seen him so single-minded. He took no more than a few seconds to swipe himself with the towel before he half-ran into the living room to grab a condom from the couch. He'd remembered them, apparently-he just hadn't remembered to bring them outside.

He tossed the square packet to her and she tore it open. When she looked up, he was standing in front of her. He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her hard, his mouth questing deep into hers, tongue probing. His mouth was hot after the shock of the cold outside air. Her towel started to slip down and he readjusted it, holding it against her shoulders. After a time, he drew back and pressed his forehead against hers.

She drew a steadying breath. "Right here?" she asked. "Right here," he said, his voice rasping with need.

She smiled and looked down. His c.o.c.k was fully, achingly erect. She had explored it quickly with her fingers while they had still been in the hot tub, but seeing it, the long, full curve, the weeping tip, made need jolt from her groin to her chest, need to take him in, to feel him take her, deep and hard. Reaching down, she unrolled the condom over him. It seemed a shame, almost, to cover him up. Pretty, she thought, the shapes and contours, right down to the blue veins tracing the shaft.

He left her little time, though, to admire it. Condom in place, he grasped her by the waist and deposited her on the kitchen counter. She c.o.c.ked her legs over his hips and he plunged inside.

For a moment, he held still, sheathed deeply inside her. She could feel every inch of him, the tip of his c.o.c.k pressing against her womb, sending a slow wave of heat up through her chest.

She let him stay there for a long breath, then nudged his hips with her calves, pus.h.i.+ng him closer, even further inside, though that had not seemed possible. A moan wrenched its way out of his throat and he pulled out, then pressed back in, starting an irresistible rhythm.

She'd finished once, in the hot tub, but the heat rose inside her again, rising and pulsing until she found herself in the tide of another climax. His thrusts quickened, harder and deeper, as her body tightened on him, and when she toppled for the second time, he joined her. She pushed herself closer to him, pulled him in as deep as she could, feeling the steady, heavy pulse of his e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n.

She felt suspended outside her own body as the waves pa.s.sed over her, as her c.u.n.t clenched and eased on him. Finally, he lowered his head and kissed her hair.

"I love you," he said.

She opened her mouth to answer him but nothing came out. A thick clog of tears had filled her throat. Closing her mouth, she swallowed hard, feeling a hot tear wind its way down her cheek. He only smiled, and kissed the tear away.

Chapter Nine.

She woke early again, comfortably coc.o.o.ned in the warm blankets next to Rey. While he snored softly next to her, she snuggled against him, pressing her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his back. He s.h.i.+fted a little. She tucked her chin into the curve of his shoulder and lightly kissed his ear.

"Good morning," she whispered, softly enough it wouldn't wake him if he were deeply asleep.

He made an odd, very unromantic snorting noise. "Morinn," he mumbled, then rolled over to face her, wrapped his arms around her and apparently fell headlong back to sleep again.

She smiled. He should have been awake and raring to go, with the two-hour time difference between here and New York. His jet lag seemed to be working in the wrong direction. She settled down into his embrace and closed her eyes.

A moment later, he sat up. "It's time for you to go to work, isn't it?"

She looked into his bleary eyes and realized she never wanted to get out of this bed again. "It's okay.

It's Sunday. It's my only day off."

He nodded and lay back down, closing his eyes again.

She grinned. "You sure you want to sleep, hon?" she said.

Opening one eye, he regarded her with interest, more awake than he'd been a few seconds ago. "You

had something else in mind?"

She slipped her hand down his stomach, and his c.o.c.k stirred and went hard as she cupped his b.a.l.l.s.

"Maybe."

He growled and grabbed her. She laughed as he rolled on top of her, pus.h.i.+ng her down into the bed.

It was indescribably delicious to have a man in her bed again, Joely thought as his talented hands began

their work, drawing lines of fire over her body, arousing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, gently invading and rousing her. No, not just any man. This man. This man who could make her feel so wanton and so safe at the same time. Who knew exactly where and how to touch her to start that hot ecstasy spiraling inside her, and how to nurture it until it filled her and overflowed. Who knew without asking that she wanted him to look into her eyes as he came hard inside her, and to keep looking as he, too, toppled over the peak.

And there was more than fire in his eyes when he did it. She thought she'd seen it last night, but it had been hard to tell in the semi-darkness. Love. He could speak it all he wanted, but seeing it dark and heavy in his gray eyes made her want to weep.