Heat blasted through him as if he’d stepped into the path of a flamethrower. Her lips on his, the taste of her, even the tentativeness with which she did it seared him. Maybe that most of all, that she was shy about this, held him motionless for an instant. But the heat was too much to be denied and then he was kissing her back, even as he was aware he was throwing gasoline onto a flame that should never have been kindled.

But I didn’t. She did.

And he wasn’t sure what to think about that. But then he felt the featherlight touch of her tongue over his lips and stopped thinking at all.

Amanda felt as if every muscle she had was quivering. She hadn’t really realized how much she’d wanted this until the split second when she knew she was going to do it. But then it flooded her, the awareness of how long she’d waited for this moment. Some small part of her mind wondered again if this was part of the reason for the fierceness of her anger at him, if she’d only been so angry because she’d known somehow that this was there, between them, just waiting to be awakened. But she spared it only a fleeting thought, to be filed away for future scrutiny, because right now all she wanted was more. More of this, more of this amazing heat, more of the feel of him, the taste of him.

He’d obviously been startled at first, and she couldn’t blame him for that. But when he’d begun to kiss her back, fiercely, hotly, something surged along every nerve in her body, something new, electric and impossibly exciting. It was the sensation she’d had the first time she’d ever seen him, multiplied a hundredfold.

His hands came up and cupped her face as he deepened the kiss she’d begun. She felt his fingers threading through her hair, then one hand slipped to the back of her head and held her as he tasted her deeply. She stroked his tongue with her own and heard him make a low, rough sound that sent a renewed burst of heat and sensation through her.

She shifted, wanting to be closer. Instead he broke the kiss and pulled away with a sharp gasp. In the same moment she realized the relative intimacy of their positions, realized exactly what it was that her thigh was pressed against. This proof she was not in this alone buoyed her, and when she pulled back far enough to look into his eyes...he was staring at her, his brow furrowed in obvious puzzlement.

“Adam?” She hadn’t meant it to sound so breathless, but she seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.