“Then by all means, let’s get to it,” he said, lowering her to the bed, then settling down beside her atop the thick comforter.

The break had allowed just enough time for ardor to cool. To Janet’s astonishment, it took little more than a sweeping caress of her bare hip with callused fingers to return it to a fever pitch.

But Harlan was clearly in no hurry now that they’d made it this far. He seemed intent on making each response linger, then build to a shattering crescendo before trying something new. In her head, Janet knew that this was the same body she’d lived with all her life, but under his gentle, tormenting ministrations it seemed entirely new and heart-stoppingly responsive.

She was filled with astonishment over each exquisite, devastating sensation. And when every nerve was vibrantly alive, when he finally, at long last, entered her with a slow, tantalizing thrust, she felt as if she’d finally discovered the true meaning of joy.

As their bodies played out this timeless ritual, over and over through the night, perfecting it, elaborating on it, exploring its every nuance, she wondered if she’d ever been alive before she met Harlan Adams or if she’d just been existing in some half-awake state, waiting for this moment.

Discovering such passion deep within herself should have been exhilarating, but in the silvery, moonlit darkness just before dawn broke she was overcome by an agony of indecision. She tried to compare these new, barely tested feelings for the man sprawled out half on top of her, his hand possessively circling her breast, with older loyalties to the grandfather she had adored.

If there hadn’t been such a history in her family of mistakes, of choosing mates so unwisely, perhaps she could have reached a different decision. But neither her father nor her first husband had understood this gut-deep need she had to discover the Comanche side of her heritage. She doubted Harlan would be any different, especially when he realized that part of that discovery meant righting a century-old wrong if there was any legal means at all to do so.

Sighing, she resolved that this night would never be repeated. She knew with everything in her that it was a decision Harlan would never understand, one he would fight with all of his incomparable powers of persuasion. She also knew it was the only one she could make.

And knowing that broke her heart.

Harlan was the kind of man who usually snapped awake in an instant. He’d never had much interest in lingering in bed when there were chores to do and a ranch to run. Maybe the trait had been born of necessity decades ago, but it had become a habit he’d had no reason to break, not even when the whole day stretched out emptily ahead of him.