“Yes.” She smiled again. “This is nice.” Moments passed in easy silence. “Mikhail.”

“Hmm?”

“There weren’t enough choices for me, either.”

She was so beautiful when she slept, he could hardly look away. Her hair, a tangled flow of golden fire, curtained part of her face. One hand, small and delicate, curled on the pillow where his head had lain. The sheet, tangled from hours of loving showed the outline of her body to where the linen ended just at the curve of her breast.

She had been greater than any fantasy: generous, open, stunningly sexy and shy all at once. It had been like initiating a virgin and being seduced by a siren. And afterward, the faint embarrassment, the puzzling self-doubt. Where had that come from?

He would have to coax the answer from her. And if coaxing didn’t work, he would bully.

But now, when he watched her in the morning light, he felt such an aching tenderness.

He hated to wake her, but he knew women enough to be sure she would be hurt if he left her sleeping.

Gently he brushed the hair from her cheek, bent down and kissed her.

She stirred and so did his desire.

He kissed her again, nibbling a trail to her ear. “Sydney.” Her sleepy purr of response had his blood heating. “Wake up and kiss me goodbye.”

“’S morning?” Her lashes fluttered up to reveal dark, heavy eyes. She stared at him a moment while she struggled to surface. His face was close and shadowed with stubble. To satisfy an old craving, she lifted her hand to it.

“You have a dangerous face.” When he grinned, she propped herself up on an elbow. “You’re dressed,” she realized.

“I thought it the best way to go downtown.”

“Go?”

Amused, he sat on the edge of the bed. “To work. It’s nearly seven. I made coffee with your machine and used your shower.”

She nodded. She could smell both—the coffee and the scent of her soap on his skin. “You should have waked me.”

He twined a lock of her hair around his finger, enjoying the way its subtle fire seemed to lick at his flesh. “I didn’t let you sleep very long last night. You will come downtown after work? I will fix you dinner.”

Relieved, she smiled. “Yes.”

“And you’ll stay the night with me, sleep in my bed?”

She sat up so they were face-to-face. “Yes.”

“Good.” He tugged on the lock of hair. “Now kiss me goodbye.”