Her heart was pounding, not from fear now, but desire. Her limbs, which had been so heavy in the nightmare, were strong. Anxiously she embraced him, drawing him closer to her. Her skin, which had seemed so wet from the dream’s red-stained water, was damp again. And hot. With the warm perspiration and excitement of physical need.

He shifted, his body poised above hers, one hand stroking a strand of hair from her face. She watched as he swallowed, his Adam’s apple working as he tried to contain himself, and she felt the stiffness of his erection against the juncture of her legs. Hard, thick and straining. Separated only by a thin barrier of cotton.

“Kris,” he whispered again, and in the half light she saw the desire in his eyes, the darkness of his pupils. “I don’t want to—”

“Sure you do.”

“I mean—”

“You want me,” she said, throwing back the words that he’d taunted her with earlier in the evening.

With a groan he started to roll off her, but she grabbed his arms, held him fast.

“It’s four in the morning, Kristi. I’m not in the mood for word games.”

“What are you in the mood for?”

“Don’t do this,” he said.

“Do what?”

“You know.”

“Yes.”

He warned, “This is dangerous.”

“No, Jay, it’s not,” she said, and lifted her head to kiss him hard on the lips. He didn’t respond, but she felt the heat in him, sensed the tenuous hold he had on his emotions.

“You told me earlier that it wouldn’t work and now, after what I would assume was a very disturbing nightmare, you want to make love?”

“I won’t think less of you in the morning. I promise.”

He half laughed. “Goddamn it, woman, I missed you.” Before she could respond, he kissed her again and this time there was no turning back. She skimmed his boxers off his buttocks and he nearly tore her pajamas from her body.

Her arms wrapped around his neck as they wrestled on the small bed, their limbs straining and entwining.

As they had years before.

It seemed so natural as the old bed creaked and the dog, resting on the rug, snored softly.

Kristi kissed Jay feverishly, warm sensations rushing through her veins, her skin heating as he caressed her. Her breath came short and fast. He kissed her lips, her throat, the hollow between her breasts. His thumbs circled her nipples and deep inside the wanting heated in a liquid spiral and she thought only of making love with him until dawn, maybe later….

Her fingers traced the sinewy muscles of his shoulders and she felt the scrape of springy hair against her smooth flesh as he breathed across her breasts only to take a nipple in his teeth.