But she didn't, not this time. She drowned herself in it, watching him climax, until he finally closed his eyes to ride her on the final, overwhelming waves. Then, when he sighed and looked at her again, she kissed him gently on lips still trembling a little.

"I love you, too," she whispered.

He smiled, and closed his arms around her, and cradled her against his heartbeat.

Later, she poured Rey a cup of coffee while his eggs were cooking. He sipped at it, eyeing her through a

misplaced lock of dark hair. Wearing a sweatsuit and no socks, unshaven and tousled from early-morning lovemaking, he looked tremendously s.e.xy. "I have a question for you, Rey," she said, sliding the finished eggs into a plate. She set the plate down in front of him and picked up her own plate of toast.

"Shoot," he said.

"If all this works out, where are we going to live?"

He considered a moment, but he didn't look particularly perturbed by the question. "I guess we'd have

to work that out."

"Yes, we would. Do you have any thoughts on the subject?"

"I've never lived outside New York," he said. Her heart sank, but he wasn't finished. "However, I think

I might like it here. I could find work in Denver, or I could even help you out with your business."

She chewed her lip, almost afraid to believe he was really saying this. "You'd be willing to move?"

"Yeah, I think so." He paused. "Would you?"

This caught her off-guard. She hadn't expected him to turn the question back on her. "Honestly, Rey, I

don't know. I've worked really hard to do what I've done here. I don't know if I could give it up."

He nodded. "Well, one of us has to make the sacrifice, and since I'm the one who screwed things up in the first place, it might as well be me."

"Rey-"

He held up a hand. "It's all hypothetical right now, anyway, isn't it? We have a month to think it all

through."

She nodded. "You're right."

Still, his willingness to consider leaving New York gave her a new sense of optimism. If he could make

that big a change for her, it seemed that much more likely that he'd make an extra effort to be sure things went well from there. She chewed her toast, watching him eat his eggs, and considered another possible piece to the plan.

"Tomorrow, when we go in," she finally said, "you could look over my books and tell me what you think. We could come up with some ideas about how we could work together." He nodded. "That sounds like a good idea." He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "So what do you want to do today?"

"I want to show you Colorado. I want to show you why I stayed."

It was too cold to hike, so she took him for a drive. South down highway 285, through Shawnee to

Grant, where she turned to head up Guanella Pa.s.s.

She'd only been this way once, last spring. It was too late in the year to see the stands of aspens in glittering gold, but the scenery was still incredible. The road twisted and turned, switching back on itself time after time as it wound its way up and over the ridge of mountains. With each hairpin curve, a new vista was revealed-here a waterfall, here a grand sweep of evergreen forest, here the ma.s.sive slope of a snow-covered mountain.

The road became iffier as they neared the top. Joely trusted her own driving and the Jeep's four-wheel drive. Rey clutched the edges of the seat as the road became little more than raw rock, throwing the Jeep back and forth alarmingly. At least, apparently, for Rey, who kept his eyes fixed on the often steep drop-offs, sometimes out his window, sometimes out Joely's.

At the top of the pa.s.s, she pulled the Jeep over. There was a path here where you could hike up Mount Bierstadt, one of several fourteeners-fourteen-thousand foot peaks-in the area.

"What do you think?" Joely asked.

"It's beautiful," he said. He sounded sincere, and when she looked at him she saw appropriate awe on his face. "It really is. I can see why you love it. It must feed your artistic muse."

"Yes, it does." She took a long breath, letting the spell of the place settle over her.

They sat in silence for a time, then Joely turned, surprised, as Rey's hand settled over hers. "Not much traffic up here, is there?"

"Not this time of year. It gets busier over the su-"

She broke off as his mouth closed on hers. He kissed her, soft and warm and deep, then drew back with a wicked smile.

"How far off-road can you get this thing?"

"As far as I like, I suppose. I don't want to get stuck in the snow, though."

"Hey, it's a Jeep. Show a little adventurous spirit."

She knew full well where his mind was. The idea appealed to her. A lot. She reached toward the gears.h.i.+ft but caught his thigh instead. "I can get us far enough."

With the Jeep in low gear, she trundled over the uneven, snowy ground until they were s.h.i.+elded by a stand of evergreens.

"Back seat?" he said, mischief in his eyes.

"d.a.m.n straight," she answered, adjusting the driver's seat as she spoke, moving it forward as far as it would go.

Braving the cold, they got out and climbed into the back seat. Before Joely had quite closed the door, Rey had caught hold of her, dragging her across the back seat, half into his lap. He kissed her, devouring her mouth while his hands slid down her back, cupped her a.s.s. His tongue pressed in, tangling with hers.

Joely laughed. "What?" Rey said, almost as if in protest.

She shook her head, unable really to explain. It just struck her funny, that they were about to make love in the backseat of a car, like teenagers afraid of getting caught by their parents.

He grinned at her, eyes twinkling, and she sensed that he understood. She smiled back. That was the way they had always been-in synch, practically reading each other's minds. It felt good to have that back.

She grappled with the snap on his jeans, with the zipper, finding it quite difficult to get them unfastened while he was sitting. But she managed to get them open, and to work the jeans down his hips and partway down his thighs. His c.o.c.k was already firmly erect, and as she worked the jeans down, he worried a rather bent condom package out of his pocket and laid it on the seat next to him.

She smiled up at him, not sure why that particular gesture touched her so much. Maybe because it proved he'd planned ahead, or maybe because it proved he was thinking about protecting her. Either way, it made her warm. Made her love him.

She maneuvered into an uncomfortable sitting position on the floor between the driver's seat and the back seat. She'd positioned the driver's seat to its farthest forward position, so there was some room, but it wasn't quite enough. Still, she could make do. She adjusted until she was relatively comfortable, sitting between Rey's open knees. He looked down at her, heavy-lidded, lips slightly parted, and put his hand on her head, combing his fingers into her hair. He knew what was coming. Not forcing it, but obviously antic.i.p.ating it.

She smiled. Tenting her fingertips against his knees, she traced them up his thighs, then back down. His eyes closed and he let his head settle back against the headrest with a soft sigh of contentment.

She slipped her fingers again along his thighs, up to his belly, dropped a fingertip into his navel, lifted it back out again, carefully avoiding his p.e.n.i.s, circ.u.mnavigating even the dark curls of his pubic hair. Then, with no preamble, she bent in and took the head of his c.o.c.k into her mouth.

He jumped, gasped, and she chuckled, licking the slick head. A sticky, salty drop of pre-come dissolved under her tongue.

He filled her mouth as well as he did her body, and the taste of his skin brought back memories of other back seats, other b.l.o.w. .j.o.bs, quickly going down on him behind bushes at dusk on the college quad. She took him in, deep, all the way to the back of her throat, smiling at the way the slope of the head of his c.o.c.k fit perfectly against the back of her palate. She had missed that. They fit together like puzzle pieces.

His hands fisted gently in her hair and he moved her head a little, signaling her. At the touch, she set to work, sliding her mouth up and down his shaft, licking the rim of his c.o.c.k, then taking him down her throat again. After a few repet.i.tions, he began to pulse his hips, and she slowed down her own movements, letting him f.u.c.k her mouth. It felt good. He tasted good.

Faster, deeper, and she brought up a hand to curl her fingers around his shaft as he thrust, working his skin, feeling the hardness beneath it. Then, abruptly, he stopped, and drew her head up.

"Inside," he said. "I want to come inside you."

She nodded, then looked around at the narrow confines of the Jeep. How had they done this, years ago? How did teenagers manage? Was it just because they were skinnier?

"Turn around," he said.

She did, with some difficulty, ending up positioned in the s.p.a.ce between front and back seats, facing toward the front window. She stood, more or less, bent over the front seat with the back of her head against the roof.

He laughed. "You don't look very comfortable."

"I'm not." She couldn't help smiling; it was all really fairly ludicrous.

"I'll fix that," he a.s.sured her.

He reached around her and unfastened her jeans, sliding them slowly down her hips. He leaned in as he did so, tracing his tongue down her back, until it touched the top of the cleft between her b.u.t.tocks. She s.h.i.+vered under the soft, wet contact. He withdrew, then blew gently on the trail he had left behind. She laughed.

"d.a.m.n, that's cold."

He laughed, too, then cupped his hands around her hips and settled her back toward him.

She moved with him, trusting him. He maneuvered her backward, one hand steadying her while the other reached between her legs, his fingers sliding inside her. She closed her eyes, the better to feel the penetration, as his fingers went in deep, as far as they could go. Then they slid out, and she felt the head of his c.o.c.k press against her v.a.g.i.n.a from behind, catching on her l.a.b.i.a, then sliding past, embedding in her.

Rey brought her gently back, at the same time rising behind her. There was a handle on the Jeep's ceiling, just above the door, for extra stability during rough off-road travel. Rey took hold of it as he lifted himself from the back seat, using it as leverage as he pushed deep into Joely from behind.

Joely braced herself against the front seat. She was cold but she didn't care; Rey was inside her and she could feel his hot belly against her back.

"You good?" he asked.

"Good," she managed. Good didn't cover it. Fantastic, wonderful, transcendent... There were no words. He was just-inside. Part of her. Irrevocably.

"Good," he repeated, and braced himself, and began to thrust.

It was awkward, but the awkwardness enhanced it. She looked out the open window at the snow, the trees, and the thought that someone could wander in and walk right up to the car and watch them made her hot and b.u.t.tery. G.o.d, he felt good inside her, stabbing, deep, taking her. He could possess her so completely, so easily. No wonder she'd never wanted another man the way she'd always wanted Rey. The way she wanted him now.

Deeper, harder, the tempo increasing. Joely reached up to close her hand over his, on the handle above the door, her fingers digging tight into his hand. He was pounding into her, hard, and finally she reached down and touched herself.

His c.o.c.k moved fast, in and out of her, and she set one finger on either side of it for a moment, feeling her own body s.h.i.+ft to accommodate him, feeling the slickened shaft's pistoning movement. Then she slid her finger up to find her c.l.i.t, touched it, tapped it, closing her eyes as the familiar fire burst under the contact.

"I want to feel you come," Rey said, his voice low and insistent, and she nodded. She circled her c.l.i.t with her finger-she was almost there, it wouldn't take much-and sure enough, she suddenly felt herself open up, as if something were rising and bursting under her finger, filling her whole body with slow, easy waves of molten heat.

"G.o.d," she whispered. Rey made a small, breathy sound, and shoved into her hard, and held still, except for the sharp, small movements of his pelvis, and the pulsation Joely could feel inside her, as he emptied.

Finally, finished, his breath still fast and ragged, he gathered her against him. "Joely, that was-"

But he stopped then, abruptly.

"What?" she said.

"Shh." He reached around her, touching her lips with his fingertips. "I saw something."

She peered out the side window. "A person?" she whispered.

"I don't know." He pulled her jeans into place as he drew back from her, covering her. He didn't seem as concerned about his own state of dishabille. The gesture touched her.

They held still for what seemed a very long time before Rey suddenly let out a long breath. "Look." He pointed.

She looked. Emerging from among the trees was a herd of elk. She saw five now, but there were more, and they moved slowly out of the trees, down the mountain toward the open area next to the road where they could graze. One after another they came, most of them cows, but one or two bearing short, spiky antlers.

"Wow," Rey breathed. "They're gorgeous. I had no idea they were so big."

She laid her hands over his and leaned back into him, savoring the moment.

They fell silent again as the rest of the herd pa.s.sed. Three of them stopped, peering at the car with wide, calm eyes. Finally, they went on with the others, apparently deciding the unmoving Jeep wasn't a threat.

"That's it," said Joely. "That's why I stayed here."

He nodded slowly. "I think I would have, too."