Strength seemed to build, impossibly. She thought she could feel each individual muscle of her body coil and release as they moved together. Power called to power. Lee remembered the lightning, remembered the thunder, and lived it again. When the storm broke, she was clasped against him, as if the heat had fused them.

Minutes, hours, days. Lee couldn’t have measured the time. Slowly, her body settled. Gradually, her heartbeat leveled. With her body pressed close to his, she could feel each breath he took and found a foolish satisfaction that the rhythm matched her own.

“A pity we wasted a week.” Finding the effort to open his eyes too great, Hunter kept them closed as he combed his fingers through her hair.

She smiled a little, because he couldn’t see. “Wasted?”

“If we’d started out this way, I’d’ve slept a lot better.”

“Really?” Schooling her features, Lee lifted her head. “Have you had trouble sleeping?”

His eyelids opened lazily. “I’ve rarely found it necessary to get up at dawn, unless it’s to write.”

The surge of pleasure made her voice smug. She traced a fingertip over his shoulder. “Is that so?”

“You insisted on wearing that perfume to make me crazy.”

“To make you crazy?” Folding her arms on his chest, she arched a brow. “It’s a very subtle scent.”

“Subtle.” He ran a casual hand over her bottom. “Like a hammer in the solar plexus.”

The laugh nearly escaped. “You were the one who insisted we share a tent.”

“Insisted?” He gave her a mildly amused glance. “I told you I had no objection if you chose to sleep outside.”

“Knowing I wouldn’t.”

“True, but I didn’t expect you to resist me for so long.”

Her head came up off her folded arms. “Resist you?” she repeated. “Are you saying you plotted this out like a scene in a book?”

Grinning, he pillowed his arms behind his head. God, he couldn’t remember a time he’d felt so clean, so … complete. “It worked.”

“Typical,” she said, wishing she were insulted and trying her best to act as though she were. “I’m surprised there was room in here for the two of us and your inflated ego.”

“And your stubbornness.”

She sat up at the word, both brows disappearing under her tousled bangs. “I suppose you thought I’d just—” her hand gestured in a quick circle “—fall at your feet.”

Hunter considered this a moment, while he gave himself the pleasure of memorizing every curve of her body. “It might’ve been nice, but I’d figured a few detours into the scenario.”

“Oh, had you?” She wondered if he realized he was steadily digging himself into a hole. “I bet we can come up with a great many more.” Searching in her pack, Lee found a fresh T-shirt. “Starting now.”