"Yessss."

He caressed the very tip of her nipple with his tongue circling her flesh until she felt him suck it into his mouth. He suckled her as his fingers moved between her legs. Her grip on his manhood tightened as he drove her closer to a climax. She stroked him up and down as his fingers moved faster between her legs, and then everything convulsed inside of her and she threw her head back and cried out his name.

He still sucked strongly on her nipple as everything inside of her clenched and then released. She let go of him and brought her hands to his head, tunneling her fingers through his thick, chestnut hair and holding him to her.

He lightened his touch but didn't let her go. He turned his head on her breast, and she cradled him to her. It was nice but it wasn't enough. She wanted Cam inside of her.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"That I never want you to let go of me," she answered honestly, hugging him as closely as she could.

Cam had put off his pleasure as long as he could. He wanted to have a bond that couldn't be broken.

He pushed her blouse off her shoulders and leaned forward to undo the clasp of her bra. It loosened, and she shrugged it off, tossing it aside.

She couldn't be more beautiful. He ran his hands down her shoulders to her chest and cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in both of his hands. She leaned back on her elbows and looked up at him.

It was the most sensual thing he'd seen in his life, and he knew the image of her like this-on his desk-was going to stay in his mind for a long time.

He played with her b.r.e.a.s.t.s until she reached for his erection, drawing him closer. "No more games, Cam," she said. "Come inside of me and make me yours."

He reached for her hips and lifted her with one arm while he pulled her panties down her legs and tossed them on the floor.

He glanced down at her almost bare body. She looked so s.e.xy lying on his desk like a feast waiting for him.

She rubbed her finger over the moisture at the tip of his erection, then brought her finger to her lips and licked it. Her eyes closed as she sucked his essence from her finger, and he knew he couldn't wait another second to get inside.

He pushed her thighs farther apart and came forward, poised to enter her. The sensation of flesh on flesh gave him pause.

He looked down at her face. She lifted herself toward him, her mound rubbing against him. He groaned her name. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s jiggled as she moved and he leaned down to take the tip of her nipple into his mouth. He suckled her, searching for something that could only be found with her.

She shifted her thighs, and he moved closer as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He nudged her opening and teased her by slipping just the tip of his erection in and out of her body.

She moaned his name, and he pulled back, looking down at her feminine secrets, which were exposed to him. He traced his finger over the smoothly shaven area.

She reached for his hips and tugged him forward. He entered her slowly at first and then plunged all the way to the hilt. She felt so good, and he told her so, whispering dark s.e.x words in her ear as he pulled slowly out of her body.

Her skin was smooth and smelled of peaches. He just couldn't get enough. He kissed her neck, then licked the skin at the base of her neck.

He was addicted to the taste of her. The feel of her. She went to his head and consumed him. All he could think of was staying inside her body forever. He had it right a couple years ago when he'd taken her to his bed and kept her there for a matter of weeks.

He felt her tighten around him, and he wanted to get deeper inside. Needed to take her as deeply as he could. He put his arms under her thighs and lifted her legs high, resting her heels on his shoulders.

She leaned back on his desk. Her pert b.r.e.a.s.t.s with their berry-hard nipples were tantalizing. He reached down and palmed her as he thrust even deeper into her body.

And it still wasn't enough.

He felt everything in his body driving toward climax. Tingles started to move down his spine as she reached up for his shoulders and pulled him closer to her.

She lifted her neck and shoulders and found his mouth with hers. She sucked hard on his tongue, and he responded by thrusting into her harder until her hips were lifting toward him.

She held him tightly to her, and she cried out his name as she came. He tried to hold on, not wanting to come so quickly, but everything inside of him clenched and he spilled himself at that instant.

He kept thrusting into her and felt her tighten around him again as she continued to come. Then he stopped and fell into her arms. She held him close. For the first time since she'd come back into his life, he felt a moment's peace.

This-she was what had been missing in his life up to this point. And having her again made him acknowledge that it had been a mistake to ever let her go. Becca was his.

"You're mine now," he said.

"Am I?" she asked.

"Yes."

He leaned over her on the desk, keeping their bodies connected. He kissed her softly and tenderly, letting the emotion of this moment overwhelm him. She was more than just s.e.x to him, and he had no words to tell her but hoped that one small kiss would convey what he was feeling.

She wrapped her arms around him and toyed with the hair at the back of his neck. He could rest in her arms for a lifetime.

A lifetime.

She went to his head faster than anything else ever had. He'd always been disciplined, so alcohol and women had never been a distraction for him.

But Becca was.

Looking down at her at this moment, he realized he didn't want to spend another day without her by his side. He wanted to give her things she couldn't give herself.

There was something very rewarding in doing that, and he wasn't about to let her slip away. Or was he? It wasn't just Becca whom he was getting involved with. There was his son to think about.

The son she'd hidden from him.

He glanced down at her. She had her eyes closed sleepily. He knew she wanted to stay in his arms-and he wanted her there. But too much. At some point she'd become too important to him, and that was dangerous. He needed distance.

He pulled back. He wasn't ready for this type of feeling or commitment.

He pulled out of her body and handed her some tissues from the box on the corner of his desk. He couldn't think of anything to say as he turned and walked to his private washroom.

Then he looked at himself in the mirror and knew that no matter how much he wanted to pretend that nothing had changed between him and Becca, it had.

He had no idea how he was going to go back to being the man he'd been before. The man who had a barrier between himself and everyone except his brothers. d.a.m.n, she'd shown him that he was vulnerable. Something he'd never wanted to admit or acknowledge before.

But now he wasn't sure he wanted to go back to his old life. And he'd never been the kind of man who didn't know what he wanted. He wasn't going to let Becca slip away, so he had to figure out how to keep her in his arms and and keep the s.p.a.ce between them that he needed for his life to stay on track. keep the s.p.a.ce between them that he needed for his life to stay on track.

Becca was everything that he needed to make his life the complete package. But he didn't want to lose his head and forfeit everything he'd already worked hard for.

Eight.

Becca hopped off Cam's desk as soon as he closed the bathroom door behind him. She found her panties and bra and quickly put them back on. Making love had seemed the right thing to do, but after he'd walked away she felt small and vulnerable.

More vulnerable than she'd expected to. The last time they'd had s.e.x she'd just felt fulfilled. But she knew this time the stakes were much higher. She wanted Cam to be more than her lover. She wanted the little pretend family they had to be real.

She put her blouse on and b.u.t.toned it swiftly. She put her shoes back on and stood there for a few more minutes, wondering what she should do. She wanted to leave but that didn't feel right.

It was clear that making love had affected Cam as deeply as it had her. The thing she didn't know was how how it had affected him. For her it had felt like the confirmation of everything she'd been longing for. For him...well, she had the feeling that he wanted to pull back and put some distance between them. it had affected him. For her it had felt like the confirmation of everything she'd been longing for. For him...well, she had the feeling that he wanted to pull back and put some distance between them.

She was tempted to leave right now. She heard the toilet flush and realized he was going to be back out in a minute. Was she staying or going?

She started for the door but stopped as she heard him behind her.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I wasn't sure you wanted me to stay," she said. What she really wanted-no, needed-was a hug. She needed his arms around her so she wouldn't feel so alone and so d.a.m.ned fragile. But the look on his face said there wasn't going to be any cuddling. Not now.

"I'm not sure either," he said. "I thought that having you would ease the tension between us, but I may have created more problems."

She swallowed hard. "I don't know. I wanted to be your lover and spend every night with you. You were right-living together and not sleeping together is weird."

"Me, too, but we are still strangers. s.e.xually compatible strangers, but maybe we need to cool it for now."

She nodded. "Um... I need to go home and have a shower before the rehearsal dinner."

"Why?"

"Because I can still smell you on my skin and I need to be thinking with my mind and not my hormones if I'm going to meet your brothers."

"I like the thought of my scent on you," he admitted. "And I want to talk about the Mercado before you go home. If you stay on that side of the desk I think we can conduct business and then you can go home. I will pick you up at seven."

She nodded. He talked about what he wanted for the Mercado, and she took copious notes. When he was finished, he walked around his desk. He turned to the credenza along one wall and picked up a portfolio. "This contains the design specs for our new project. Take it with you and look it over."

She took the leather binder from him, and when their hands brushed against each other, she shivered. She still wanted him. During their affair two years ago they'd spend an entire afternoon making love. And to be honest, now that her body had had him again, it craved more. She craved more.

Why was Cam the one man in the world who could make her feel like a s.e.x-crazed teenager? It had been that way from the beginning, and she shouldn't have been surprised that two years later nothing had changed.

"Why are you staring at my hands?" he asked.

"I was remembering the way they felt on my body," she said.

He cursed low under his breath and put his hands on her waist, drawing her closer. "I was thinking the same thing. This starting over is hard."

"Yes, it is. I wonder if we are making a mistake," she said, tipping her head back so she could look up at him.

She wanted to see a sign in him that everything was going to be okay but his dark blue eyes were unreadable. There was no sign. And she felt foolish for even looking. Since her junior year in college she'd been on her own. Why should now be any different?

She was the one who took care of herself and made sure that she had what she needed. Cam wasn't going to be her hero or her white knight. That wasn't the kind of guy he was.

He was a modern man who expected the woman he was involved with to be her own savior. And it didn't matter one bit that all she wanted was to cuddle close to him and rest in his arms. That she wanted some kind of comfort from him and the a.s.surance-no matter how false it was-that everything would be okay.

"No," he said. "This wasn't a mistake. I won't let it be." He kissed her tenderly on the forehead. "I'm sorry I'm rushing you out the door, but Justin just got back to town and I have a meeting with him and Nate in twenty minutes. You have made me forget about work."

"Oh, okay."

"I had no intention of seducing you this afternoon. But I'm glad I did."

"Are you sure?"

"No. But I don't regret it and I think if we ignored this side of our relationship we'd be starting over on a lie and I don't want that."

She flushed and nodded and walked away without saying another word.

He felt as if he was missing something important but had no idea what it was and could only watch her leave.

Calling her back to him would be the right thing to do, but he needed some s.p.a.ce. Some distance to figure out who he was and what he should do next.

He had never encountered anyone who shook him up the way she did. He wanted to pick her up in his arms and lock the door and make love until they didn't have the strength left to lick their lips. But that wasn't going to happen.

He also wanted to make sure she knew that she was more to him than a lover. He had to keep reminding himself that he was moving on to another stage in his life. But he didn't want to put the white-hot lovemaking with Becca behind him.

He realized that the two of them were always going to be incendiary, and nothing was going to change that. He just had to figure out how to manage that part of the relationship.

Added to that was the fact that they were parents. Ty was important to him and Becca was important to Ty. So they were tied together in way that he hadn't antic.i.p.ated. A way he'd never been attached to someone before.

He sank back in his chair and tried to concentrate on business. It had never been hard for him until now. He knew where his focus needed to be, but Becca challenged that. He wasn't going to be an absentee father to Ty. Not that he wanted to be but, honestly, he knew more about babes than babies and he was struggling to find his way with his son.

There was a knock on his door and he beckoned the person to enter. It was Justin and his fiancee, Selena. Cam got up and walked over to his brother, embracing him.

"Glad to have you back home," Cam said.

"Good to be here," Justin said.

Cam leaned over and gave Selena a kiss on the cheek. "Have a seat, you two, and I'll tell you about our problems."

"With the Mercado?" Selena asked.

Selena was a beautiful Latina with olive-colored skin and thick ebony hair. She was pet.i.te and curvy. And she had eyes only for Justin. Something that always made Cam feel good. He liked seeing his brothers with women who clearly adored them. He wasn't sure if it was because his mother had been so cold or not, but he had never thought any of them would find a woman they could be that comfortable with.

At moments, he thought that he might find that with Becca. But he doubted it. He'd have to relax his guard around her and she'd have to do the same and they were both wary of each other to do that.