She no longer felt any remnants of prim behavior. She felt wild with wanting him, wanting to slide down the impressive length with a shuddering sigh, like giving in to that decadent slice of pie she had been denying herself.

When he was done, he came toward her, her heart swelling in her throat. He easily could have picked her up. Instead he backed her toward his bed. When her thighs bumped against the mattress, he came over her, leaning her into the sheets and comforter. Then he scooped her up and pulled them both into the middle of the bed.

She felt the crisp hairs on his chest brush against her breasts, her nipples tingling.

"I can't wait," he groaned. He kissed her on the forehead. "I want you. Now, not later."

"Ben," she murmured as she ran her hands up his arms to his shoulders. Relishing the texture of hard sinew beneath her fingers, she savored his jagged intake of breath.

Supporting his weight on his forearms, he framed her face with his hands. Their eyes met, locked, and they never looked away as he nudged her knees apart. Then he reached between them, guiding his length to her. His hips arched, and his shaft slipped inside just a bit. He was big, and she drew in her breath as he filled her as he had promised, as she had dreamed about. He never looked away.

She took him completely, raising her knees, inhaling a shuddering breath when he sank to the hilt.

Then he began to move, slowly at first because she was so tight. "Mmm," she whispered on a sigh. "Yes," she said, closing her eyes, her body beginning to move in tandem with his.

Soon they were both moving together, hard and fast.

"Yes," she cried out.

He buried his face in her neck, calling out her name as he gave in to the primal, base, instinctual need. He thrust inside her, again and again. "Come on, baby."

And she did. When he cupped her hips, pulling her body up to meet his bold, fevered thrusts, her body exploded with sensation. She thrust her pelvis against him as she climaxed, her spine arching off the mattress, taking him even more deeply. She clinched around him, and he gave one final thrust. "Julia." Her name was torn from his throat as his body convulsed in a long shuddering explosion.

They held on to each other, panting, reeling. They didn't move, didn't speak. When they finally fell apart, Julia lay back, suspended, floating, feeling drained and empty. But more than that she felt shock-shock at what had happened. Never, in any of the times she had experienced passion, had she felt anything close to this. It was a life-altering feeling of falling and flying, contracting and exploding.

When the sensation settled, her limbs felt luxuriously weak, and she stretched like a cat, feeling sexy and fulfilled. And it wasn't until then, as her mind settled down from an amazing passion, that she wondered what the hell she had just done.

Julia bit her lip and wrinkled her nose. "Oops," she whispered.

Thankfully, Ben had already fallen asleep.

Chapter Seventeen.

Ben woke with a start.

Darkness surrounded him and his heart beat hard. But it wasn't with the anger or futility that he woke so often with these past two months. Something was different, he realized as he shook off the last remnants of sleep.

Without so much as moving a muscle, he took in his environment as his eyes adjusted. The furniture, the bed, the pressure against his chest.

Julia.

They were naked in his bed, the tangle of sheets doing little to cover her as she slept curled against his side. A shiver of awareness passed through him as he remembered what had happened last night. This woman. The way she hadn't let him turn away. Then their bodies coming together in a way that left him wanting her even more. As his heart settled, Ben could hardly believe the release he felt-a release that was well beyond the physical.

He stroked her arm, wanting to wake her gently. He ran his ringer along the line of her ear, then her jaw. She murmured, but only curled closer.

"Good morning," he said, kissing her brow.

She mumbled something from that place halfway between sleep and being awake. He laughed softly, and kissed her again.

The sun was rising, coming in through the crack in the heavy velvet draperies. He stoked her hair, the strands like silk. Finally she stretched and rolled onto her back, the sheet only hiding her in places. What he could see sent blood surging through his body. What he couldn't see, his hands and mind remembered.

He kissed her again, his lips trailing along her collarbone.

It took her a while to figure out where she was. He wasn't sure what she'd do when reality registered on

her brain. When he saw those violet eyes flicker with understanding, he couldn't make out her expression.

Concern? Regret?

"Good morning," he said.

"Ah, good morning." She sat up, tugging more of the sheets around her. "I meant to leave."

"Leave?"

"Ah, yeah."

He could tell she was embarrassed, or maybe the red in her cheeks was frustration with herself that she

was still there. Only Julia could be upset that she had had sex, then fallen asleep without leaving.

He smiled at her and wanted to pull her close.

She scrambled away. "Ah, well, it's good to see you're back to a hundred percent."

"Who says I am?"

"Last night told the tale." Then she blushed again, though this time there was no doubt that it was

embarrassment.

"I was impressive, huh," he joked.

She scooted to the edge of the bed.

"Julia?"

"Look at the time. I'm running late. Today's my big day for getting shots for the opening segment of

Primal Guy." She hopped off the mattress awkwardly as she tried to keep the sheets around her without

tripping and falling. "I hope you're feeling better about Henry."

So much for his good mood. He instantly tensed.

"Great," she said with a groan. "You're not feeling better about it, and I shouldn't have brought it up."

"I won't feel better about it until I find out who killed him. I owe him that."

"Fine, then I'll help."

As only Julia could, she went from piqued that she had been foolish enough not to leave his bed after

sex, to wanting to help someone with a problem.

"You are not going to help with this," he stated ominously. He rolled off the bed, walked naked over to the chair, and pulled on his jeans. "You said he was killed in an alleyway," she continued as if he hadn't said a word. "You've never told me why he was there."

"Julia-"

"Ben"-she rolled her eyes-"just tell me."

He eyed her, then said, "The department believes he was there on a drug bust."

"But you think there was more to it."

"Maybe. There's word on the street that it wasn't a drug bust. That it had something to do with Henry

and a woman."

He saw the way her body tensed.

"A woman?" she asked.

"What is it?"

"Well, something Todd said about how his parents fought all the time."

"Todd told you that?"

"Yes. Then later, when I told him he should talk to you or his mom about it, he said no way he could

talk to his mother about his parents fighting over hookers."

"What?" Ben bit out in surprise.

She held her arms up in surrender. "Don't kill the messenger. I'm just telling you what Todd told me."

Ben started to pace. His brain spun with questions and a flare of recognizable anger. "Tell me exactly

what he said."

She did, recounting first the conversation they'd had in her entry hall, then the second conversation

they'd had in Rocco's bathroom. "I told him all parents fight. But he said yeah, maybe, but his fought all the time. About hookers."

"Damn it." Ben dragged his hands through his hair. He didn't understand the fury he felt, the anger and frustration. At Julia. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

Julia wasn't intimidated. "I only heard about it yesterday afternoon. Plus, if you must know, he said his mother would be furious if he talked to you about it. Besides," she added with her own anger, "it didn't come up in the middle of sex last night. I'm telling you now."

"Fuck."

"One of these days you might want to expand your vocabulary."

Then she turned on her heel and left.

Ben watched her go, then pounded across the room and went to the computer. With dread and denial filling him, he started surfing escort services. Had that been the missing piece? Had Henry found hookers on the Internet, not just a date or even drugs?

The truth was, Henry had been acting oddly before he was killed. He had been edgy, quick tempered, and a real pain in the ass. Wasn't that really why Ben hadn't answered the phone? He had been sick and tired of Henry's constant moods. One minute wanting to fight, the next apologizing on the verge of tears.

Ben had told him to see the department shrink. But he hadn't done any more to help him.

The all-too-familiar guilt shot through him at one fact that wouldn't leave him alone. Ben had been pissed off at Henry for months before the night Henry was killed. Ben had been distancing himself for weeks, and the day before that horrible night, Ben had put in a request for a new partner.

Had Ben sensed that something was wrong and hadn't wanted to face the reality of a good cop gone bad?

Was that the problem? Deep down was there guilt about not having been there for his friend for the last few months-not just that one night?

With a curse, Ben Googled escort services in El Paso, Texas. He came up with a handful and he started surfing them one by one.