She turned to find him taking a slow, leisurely look at her in the matching nightgown and robe. "I was about to shower," she said, undone by his intense attention.

"Not yet."

As he came toward her with intent in his gaze, Kate's heart hammered. She wanted to cry from the sweet relief of being with him again, but this wasn't the time for tears. This was the time for happiness and joy.

He put his arms around her and lifted her into his kiss.

Kate held on tight as he walked them into the bedroom.

They landed on the bed in a frenzy of arms and legs and lips and tongue.

"Did you think about what you want?" he asked between kisses.

Kate nodded and ran her fingertips over his smooth jaw. "I want you. I've always wanted you. Did you think about what you want?"

"I want what I've always wanted, since the day you sang 'Crazy' in my dining room and made me fall in love with you."

Amused, Kate raised a brow. "I made you?"

Nodding, he came in for another kiss. "I had no choice. I was as powerless to resist you then as I am now."

"Make love to me, Reid."

"Are you sure, honey? I'm an old man. You could have anyone you want-"

"I'm with the one I want, and I'm tired of yearning for what used to be. That gets exhausting after a while."

"Yes, it does." Hovering above her, he combed the hair back from her face and kissed her so softly she almost didn't feel it. "I can't believe we get to be together like this again. I want to do it right this time."

"I want that, too." Kate smoothed her hands over his back, looking for the hem of his s.h.i.+rt. As her fingers skimmed his lower back under his s.h.i.+rt, he gasped in response to her touch. "There were some things we always did right," she added with a coy smile that made him laugh.

"Indeed there were. As I recall," he said, dipping his head to drag his tongue over her neck, "we did this pretty well." He punctuated the statement by rolling her earlobe between his teeth.

Kate s.h.i.+vered. "Very well. I've never had better."

"I hate to think of you doing this with anyone else."

She pushed his s.h.i.+rt up over his chest. "I didn't particularly like it, if that makes you feel any better."

Ducking his head to help her remove his s.h.i.+rt, he said, "Only a little better."

Her gaze fixated on his splendid chest as she relearned every inch of him with eager hands. Other than a touch of gray mixed into his dark chest hair, he looked exactly as she remembered. "At least you didn't have to see any of my others."

When his lips set in a grimace, Kate regretted reminding him of the breakup with Mari.

"I hate that I caused her pain."

"I hate it, too. I certainly know what it feels like to want something I can't have."

"I can't help how I feel about you."

"She knows you didn't hurt her intentionally. I was the one who showed up unannounced, so I'm sure all her anger is directed at me."

"Which isn't fair."

Kate shrugged. "I'm a big girl. I can take it." She raised her hands from his chest to his face, using her fingers to smooth away his frown.

He tugged on the belt to her robe, spread it open and pressed his lips to the valley between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "I wouldn't have thought it possible, but you're even more beautiful now than you were back then."

Seduced as much by his words as the gentle press of lips to sensitive skin, Kate wrapped her arms around him, holding him against her chest as tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.

When he looked up and saw the tears, he kissed them away. "What is it?"

"I'm so happy to be with you again. I feel like I might explode or something."

"Mmm, that sounds promising, darlin'."

Her tears turned to laughter, which became a moan when his hand landed on her leg, raising the nightgown as his fingers moved from her knee to her core.

He seemed surprised to find no barrier to stop him from sliding his fingers through the moisture between her legs.

Kate arched her back, needing to get closer to him. She fisted her hand in his hair as he made her crazy by tugging on her nipple through the silk gown with his lips while stroking her with his fingers. The combination had her on the verge of coming, and he'd barely touched her. It had never been like this with anyone else, and she was wise enough now to know it never would be. He was it for her. The one. The only one she needed. "Reid, please... Don't make me wait. It's been so long."

Her plea seemed to break what was left of his control. Showing none of the finesse she'd come to expect from him during their brief time together, he freed himself and plunged into her.

She cried out from the sheer pleasure of the incredible feel of him inside her again after such a long, lonely time.

"Ah, h.e.l.l," he said through gritted teeth. "Did I hurt you?"

"No. Please don't stop."

"Why is this so much better with you than it's ever been with anyone else?" he asked as he held perfectly still.

Kate moved her hands from his shoulders to his backside to keep him inside her. "I don't know." She raised her hips, seared by the "rightness" of their undeniable connection.

He met her gaze. In his eyes, she saw his love s.h.i.+ning down on her. "I need to move."

She released her tight hold on him.

Their coupling was fast and frantic and everything she wanted and needed. It was just as she remembered, and she couldn't seem to get close enough to him. She wanted all of him, everything he had to give her and then some. With her arms now linked around his neck, Kate held on tight through the first peak and then through a second, more powerful release that claimed him, too. He threw back his head and cried out as he surged into her before collapsing on top of her.

Kate hugged him to her, loving the feel of his heart pounding in time with hers. For the first time since the last time with him, she was exactly where she belonged. As that realization settled over her, something eased, and the tight ball of pain she'd carried in her chest since that last awful day finally released its grip on her.

"I love you," he said. "I'll always love you."

"I love you, too."

He raised his head to look into her eyes as he pressed a kiss to her lips. "How about we try that again, with some finesse this time?"

"In a minute," she said, setting his head back on her chest. For right now, she was content to hold him while he continued to throb inside her. She wrapped her leg around his hips.

And that's when it dawned on her that they'd had unprotected s.e.x. "Aw, s.h.i.+t."

"What is it, honey?"

"We probably should've talked about this before..."

He looked up at her, his eyes wide with shock. "Christ have mercy! I never gave it a thought."

"That makes two of us."

"You're not-"

"On the pill? Not anymore. I haven't been in any kind of relations.h.i.+p in a long time."

"So we should, probably, you know..."

"Not worry about it?" she asked, smiling at him.

"That's easy for you to say. You're young and spry."

She pressed her hips tighter against him and was rewarded with a throb deep inside. "You seemed pretty spry just now."

"Maybe so," he said with a low chuckle, "but a baby..." He shook his head as if the notion was too big to get his mind around. "You should be with someone your own age, darlin', someone who can give you babies and be there to watch them grow up."

Kate knew he was being serious, but she was so thrilled to be back in his arms that she didn't feel like being serious. "Where do you plan on going?"

He poked her ribs, making her laugh. "You know what I mean."

"All I know is I've spent most of my adult life yearning to feel like I did for three beautiful, all-too-brief months when I was eighteen. There's nothing you can say or do that would scare me away or make me not want to be with you. If we just made a baby, then we'll have a baby. That baby will be loved and appreciated and cared for. That baby would be ours. Yours and mine, for as long as we both live."

He finally withdrew from her and s.h.i.+fted onto his back, bringing her into his embrace. "You're so very calm about it."

She shrugged. "It would hardly be the end of the world for either of us. It's not like we don't have the means or the ability to take care of a baby."

"True."

When he was quiet for a long time, she glanced up at him. "What're you thinking?"

"Ashton is thirty-five. He'd be horrified if I told him he's going to be a big brother at his age."

"He'll be horrified anyway, the minute you tell him you're back with me. What's a little more horror on top of that?"

"I'm outmatched by you," he said, smiling. "You have an answer for everything."

"I always was the adult in this relations.h.i.+p," she reminded him.

He replied with a playful scowl. "In that case, you can figure out where we're going to get some condoms. We're going to need quite a few of them, in fact."

"Why? Are you feeling spry?"

He cupped her breast and tweaked her nipple between his fingers. "Very spry."

"In that case, we're in luck. When you stay at a five-star resort, they think of everything. Half-and-half in the fridge, and condoms in the bathroom."

"Seriously? Remind me to send my friend Desi a thank-you note."

She leaned in to kiss him. "Don't go anywhere."

With his arms crossed under his head, he said, "Wouldn't dream of it."

Acutely aware that he was watching her every move, Kate went into the bathroom to retrieve the box of condoms she'd noticed in the closet along with a wide a.s.sortment of other toiletries-anything a guest could want or need. She returned to the bedroom and straddled his thighs, watching with amazement as he hardened before her eyes.

"That's one heck of a sight, darlin'," he said as his sleepy eyes took a long, slow perusal from her shoulders to the juncture of her thighs and back up to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Emboldened by his obvious appreciation, she s.h.i.+fted over him and bent to take his erect p.e.n.i.s into her mouth.

His sharp inhale filled her with enthusiasm as she set out to drive him mad with lips, tongue and the gentle drag of teeth. At the same time, she tightened her hand around the base and stroked him the way he'd once taught her to. The combination had his eyes closing and his lips parting. She kept it up until he was panting and raising his hips as he thrust into her mouth. After taking him to the brink of release and then backing away three times, she released him and sat up.

His eyes flew open as he tried to gauge her intent.

Using her teeth on the wrapper, Kate removed the condom from the foil and took her own sweet time rolling it on.

"Are you trying to kill me, sweetheart?" he asked as he cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Who? Me?" She positioned him between her legs and slid down, one inch at a time, drawing out her descent for maximum impact.

"G.o.d, that's good," he whispered as he rested his hands on her thighs.

It was so very, very good. Nothing had ever been better or felt more right. He was the other half of her, her soul mate, the love of her life. Knowing now what she wished she'd known way back when fired her pa.s.sion as she rode him to an explosive finish.

When she collapsed on top of him, his arms came around her and his lips skimmed her forehead. Surrounded by his love, Kate closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace. For once, everything was right in her world.

And then it dawned on her that Jill had never called.

Sun streaming through an open window woke Jill from the deepest sleep she'd had in ages. She had no idea where she was, only that the room was big, painted white and looked out on an endless expanse of blue ocean. The roar of the surf hitting the beach reminded her of home.

She sat up and pushed the hair back from her face, taking a better look at the view.

Then it started to come back to her-Ashton, and the kiss, the flight, eating the picnic he'd brought as they soared high above the plains. They'd talked for hours. He'd never heard about the accident that changed her life-and that of the rest of her family-when she was fifteen. Her mother had been hit by a car and left in a coma that she recovered from three years later.

Ashton had been shocked to hear about the awful dilemma her parents had faced when her mother awoke to learn her father had fallen in love with someone else. Although her parents were still close friends and had long been happily remarried to Andi and Aidan, it wasn't a story Jill told often or to just anyone. However, it seemed natural to share it with him.

He'd talked about losing his mother in a car accident when he was barely two years old. It had pained her to experience his dismay over having no memory of the woman who'd given birth to him and to realize they shared an awful bond of car accidents changing both their lives.

The coc.o.o.n of the c.o.c.kpit and the isolation of soaring through the sky had given their conversation a level of intimacy that wouldn't have been possible anywhere else.

Reliving it now, Jill tried to remember how she'd gotten from the plane to the house.