He shrugged this off, too aware that the fingers on his face were stroking lightly, something she had done in the past. Sometimes before they’d made love, and often afterward, when they’d talked in quiet voices, she’d stroke his face, tracing the shape of it as though she’d needed to memorize it. Perhaps she, too, sometimes awoke in the middle of the night and remembered too much.

Unable to bear it, Ky put his hand around her wrist and drew it away. “The wound wasn’t that bad,” he said simply.

“I’ve never seen a stingray that large.” She shivered and his hand tightened on her wrist.

“Don’t think about it now. It’s over.”

Was it? she wondered as she lifted her head and looked into his eyes. Was anything ever really over? For four years she’d told herself there were joys and pains that could be forgotten, absorbed into the routine that was life as it had to be lived. Now, she was no longer sure. She needed to be. More than anything else, she needed to be sure.

“Hold me,” she murmured.

Was she trying to make him crazy? Ky wondered. Did she want him to cross the border, that edge he was trying so desperately to avoid? It took most of the strength he had left just to keep his voice even. “Kate, you need to sleep now. In the morning—”

“I don’t want to think about the morning,” she murmured. “Only now. And now I need you to hold me.” Before he could refuse, she slipped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

She felt his hesitation, but not his one vivid flash of longing before his arms came around her. On a long breath Kate closed her eyes. Too much time had passed since she’d had this, the gentleness, the sweetness she’d experienced only with Ky. No one else had ever held her with such kindness, such simple compassion. Somehow, she never found it odd that a man could be so reckless and arrogant, yet kind and compassionate at the same time.

Perhaps she’d been attracted to the recklessness, but it had been the kindness she had fallen in love with. Until now, in the quiet of the deep night, she hadn’t understood. Until now, in the security of his arms, she hadn’t accepted what she wanted.

Life as it had to be lived, she thought again. Was taking what she so desperately needed part of that?