“Oh.” Of course. That talk. What a ding-a-ling. Mick felt his face flush, as well as the tips of his ears and the back of his neck. But along with the embarrassment was another emotion he didn’t want to look at too closely. A feeling akin to waking up and discovering his Christmas stocking was just the way he’d left it the night before, hanging loose and empty on its thumbtack. Expectations. Frikkin’ fairy tales bite you in the butt every time. “Ah,” he said. “Right.” Mick shoved aside the childhood memory. That has no bearing on this. You have a wonderful, warm, sexy woman in your arms. Stop looking up the ass of things. Speaking of asses . . . Sarah’s terry-cloth-clad bottom was brushing against the bobbing tip of his rock-hard erection with every step, a glorious torture. He cleared his throat, trying to sound like a normal person instead of a man crazed with lust. “I had a full physical at the beginning of September. Had a clean bill of health. I’ve never injected. Haven’t had a sexual encounter for”—he paused; even counting backward was an effort, given all the blood from his brain had taken up residence in his nether regions—“in a little over a year.” A little over? Ha. Eighteen months to be exact. It was mind-boggling really. He hadn’t made a conscious decision to abstain. It had just happened. “So, health-wise, all clear on this front.” All this “health” talk had done nothing to tamp down his erection. The memory of Sarah’s sweet cries, how she’d shattered in his arms, had left him teetering on the razor’s edge of sanity. Every molecule in his body, every nerve ending was demanding succor.

“I’m not a drug user either, and in the abstinence department?” Sarah’s expression was wry as he set her down on his bed. “I’ve got you beat.” A shadow flickered across her face, so quick he almost missed it, and then it was gone. “While I was in the hospital, I had the doctor run the works on me. Got the results in the evening, and the next morning I hit the road. Kevin and I hadn’t been intimate in the seven months prior. Once we discovered I was pregnant, he’d lost all interest, and since he’s the only man I’ve ever slept with . . .”

The need to possess, to be buried deep inside her was more than a hunger now. It was rapidly becoming more vital than the inhalation of his next breath. “You’ll be sleeping with me.”

“Haven’t slept yet.” A teasing smile played on her lips.

“Oh, we will.” His voice summoned up from the very core of him and carried the weight of a vow. Her eyes darkened, her lips parted, as if an inhalation was caught between them, like a wish, while she waited for what came next.