“You guys looked like bums,” she responded between kisses.

“I felt like a bum that morning. Man, the hangover I had. And you set a killer pace on that run and wouldn’t shut up. You just kept chatting away while my head tried to pound its way off my neck.”

“I knew you were hurting bad,” she admitted.

He drew back to stare down at her. “You did that on purpose?”

She grinned up at him. “It wasn’t like I was going to get many opportunities to get the best of a bunch of SEALs. I took the opening when it presented itself.”

He pulled her close and laughed into her hair. “I can’t even be mad at you. I’d have done the same thing.”

She laughed against his chest, her body vibrating with humor and life. He couldn’t get enough of her. He kissed his way across her temple, along the line of her jaw, under her chin, and back up to her mouth. He cupped her face in his hands and savored her, so relieved finally to have arrived at this moment he could hardly breathe, let alone form coherent thoughts.

Never in his life had he wanted a woman without having her as long as he’d wanted this one. She arched into him eagerly as well, kissing him back with enough enthusiasm to drive him nearly to his knees.

He picked her up and then knelt beside the fire, spreading out the clothes in a makeshift bed. He was more used to sleeping on the hard, cold ground, so he stretched out on his back, drawing her down on top of him.

Her legs tangled with his, and he reveled in their smooth, sleek strength against his. She pressed up on his chest to stare down at him, her hair falling in a curtain of gold around them. The firelight flickered through it, kissing her face with otherworldly beauty.

“I don’t care if it bugs you or not, I can’t get enough of looking at you, Sherri. You’re…perfect.”

“For once, I’m not bothered to hear that from a man,” she confessed.

“How long can you hold that plank?” he asked playfully.

“Long enough to drive you crazy,” she shot back.

“Who knew that all this time I was conditioning you to torture me?” he responded. He wrapped his arms around her and urged her to sprawl on top of him. He murmured, “I’m a big guy. You won’t crush me. Use my body heat to stay warm.”

“How about I just use your body?”

Not in a million years had he ever dreamed he would hear those words from this woman. “Be my guest, darlin’. I’m yours to plunder.”