His agonized whisper brought her back in an instant. She looked up into a black passion and tried to smile. But the feelings were too strong, and she turned loose of the pool and grabbed onto him as he took them down.

She burst from the inside out. Bubbles of pleasure shot out in jet strength to every nerve ending and then drifted lazily throughout her limbs, making her bone-weak and unable to stand.

Cole felt himself die as he emptied inside her. Sinking and sighing, shuddering with a surfeit of passion, he held her tight and took them back to the top with his last ounce of strength.

They burst through the surface, taking in air, holding onto each other, because alone, neither of them would have been strong enough to stand.

They stared long and hard into each other’s eyes while their breathing returned to normal and sanity regained its rightful place in their world. But nothing would ever again be the same. They’d crossed over a boundary into uncharted waters. Cole watched the slow smile spreading on her face.

“What?” he asked gently as he bent down and tasted the smile. It was warmer than he’d expected. He smoothed hair and water from her eyes and blessed the corner of her lips with a kiss.

Debbie returned the favor, drinking from the droplets that lingered on his mouth. Letting her tongue rasp over the beard-roughened jaw clenching at her touch. She was tasting and savoring the texture of her man.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” she asked.

His arms tightened around her. His body was already reminding him that he’d only gotten a taste of what he still hungered for.

“I know what this means to me,” he growled. “I’ve marked you, woman. You may not see it, and you may not be able to feel it, but you’ve just been branded as thoroughly as those calves were at the Longren Ranch.”

“You’re wrong,” Debbie whispered as her hands slid down his body and encompassed that which was already changing again. “I can see and feel just fine.” She taunted him mercilessly with a gentle upward thrust. “But there’s something you haven’t realized.”

“What?” he moaned as her hands slid up and down the growing length of him. He was desperately trying to concentrate on her words when all he wanted was to concentrate on the mass of feelings she was erecting inside him.

“I won’t let you go, Cole Brownfield. Not now. Not ever again. You made the decision for both of us tonight. You belong to me, just as surely as I belong to you.”