“You bet.” He eyed the letter opener warily. “You don’t plan to use that on any particularly sensitive part of my anatomy?”

Letting her gaze skim down, Rachel touched her tongue to her upper lip. “Probably not.”

His smile came slowly and was full of relief. “You’re really not mad, are you, sugar?”

“That I walked in and found you in a compromising position with a blond bombshell?” After a quick laugh, she shifted her grip on the letter opener. “Why should I be mad, sugar?”

“You may have saved my life.” He thought he’d gauged her mood correctly, but his approach was still cautious. “You don’t know what she said she was going to do to me.” He gave a mock shudder, and slipped his arms around her, as if for support. “She’s a yoga instructor.”

“Oh, my.” Biting back a grin, Rachel patted his back. “What did she threaten you with?”

“Well, I think it went something like…” He leaned close to her ear, whispering. He heard Rachel’s surprised chuckle. “And then…”

“Oh, my” was all she could say. She swallowed once. “Do you think that’s anatomically possible?”

“I think you’d have to be double-jointed, but we could give it a try.”

Wicked laughter gleaming in her eyes, she tilted her head back. “I don’t care what you say, Muldoon. I think you liked being pawed.”

“Uh-uh.” He nuzzled her neck. “It was degrading. I feel so…cheap.”

“There, there. I saved you.”

“You were a regular Viking.”

“And you know what they say about Vikings…” she murmured as she turned her mouth to his.

“Go ahead,” he said invitingly. “Use me.”

“Oh, I plan to.”

The kiss was long and satisfying, but as it began to heat he tore his mouth from hers to bury his face in her hair.

“Rachel, you don’t know how good you feel. How right.”

“I know this feels right.” Eyes shut tightly, she held him close.

“Do you?”

“Yes. I think…” She let her words trail off into a sigh. She’d been doing a great deal of thinking over the past few days. “I think sometimes people just fit. The way you told me once before.”

He drew back, cupping her face in his hands. His eyes were very dark, very intense, on hers. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was reading in them, but it made her heart trip-hammer into her throat. “We fit. I know you said you didn’t want to get involved. That you have priorities.”

She linked her fingers around his wrists. “I said a lot of things.”