She moaned under the crush of his mouth. He half lifted her against him, grinding her body into his while his mouth absolutely devoured hers. He forgot about her age and his, all the differences between them, and just gave in to the mindless hunger that made him feel as if he could fly.

Her arms tightened around his neck while she gave in to the first real adult kiss she’d ever had in her life. She’d been kissed a time or two by boys when she was in high school. She’d never liked it much, and kissing had been pleasant but not really appealing to her.

This was different. This was, as he’d said, falling into fire. She didn’t recognize the woman who clung to Banks’s neck as if in panic that he might stop kissing her. She opened her mouth for him, pressed as close as she could get to all that warm, muscular strength that was making her as weak as a kitten. His mouth was hard and tender and insistent, all at once. She’d never felt anything remotely like the anguished longing he was arousing in her.

She felt his breath jerk as he lifted his lips just a breath away from hers. He was trying to get back the control he’d almost lost. Clancey’s pale silver eyes were half-closed. She looked dazed, yielding, completely his. The snippy office clerk was melting in his arms, hungry and sweet and soft as silk.

“This is a mistake,” he managed gruffly.

She nodded. “It’s a terrible mistake,” she whispered, lifting her face. “Please do it again...?”

His mouth settled back on hers. His arms slid around her, bringing her intimately close as the devouring kiss went on and on and on. He groaned, because the need was suddenly painful. He had to stop or lay her down on the front porch in view of the whole world.

He drew back breath by breath, his big hands firm on her shoulders as she tried to get close again.

“We have to stop. Now,” he said in a voice so husky that it didn’t even sound like his.

Clancey looked up at him with her mouth swollen, her silver eyes wide and full of dreams, her face flushed from the torment of emotions he’d awoken in her.

His hands were almost bruising, but she didn’t feel them. She was lost in new knowledge of him.

“I’m nine years older than you. We work together. Grace is coming home soon.” He began reciting all the reasons he should never have touched Clancey.

“Nobody ever kissed me like that,” she said, sounding dazed.

He scowled. “Never?”

“I didn’t like boys in school,” she said unsteadily. “I never...felt anything. I thought there was something wrong with me.”