She cried out again. Her harsh moan whipped the fire of his own hunger, and the gentle teasing gave way to a monstrous need.

“Tell me if I’m too rough,” he managed as he moved over her.

“When were you ever rough?” she returned, shivering as she felt him moving slowly, sensually into her body.

“I’m starving,” he whispered unsteadily. “I don’t want to hurt you or the baby.”

“You won’t. Oh, you won’t. Please, Cort, please, please…!”

His hips pressed hers into the mattress in a quick, smooth rhythm that very quickly brought her to ecstasy, but before she could relax, he started all over again. Each sharp movement of his body made her quiver with excitement. She looked into his pale brown eyes and felt herself begin to melt under him.

“It wasn’t…this intense before,” she choked.

“We weren’t this involved before,” he returned. He kissed her hungrily. “I love you,” he whispered gruffly. “I’ll never stop. Never…never…never!”

He ended on a harsh groan followed by a convulsive shudder that brought her own shivering body to another pinnacle. She cried out and her nails dug into his long back as she moved with him harder and harder until she thought she might pass out from the force of the pleasure.

“Oh… God…” he bit off, and actually went into convulsions.

She buried her face in his hot, damp throat and went every step of the way with him, shivering wildly as she followed him into the fire.

A LONG TIME LATER, he rolled off her and onto his back, still shivering in the aftermath.

“Are you sure I wasn’t too rough?” he whispered.

“I’m sure.” She curled up close to him, damp with sweat and throbbing with ebbing delight. “I never felt anything like that, not even the first time!”

“Me, neither,” he confessed. He was still trying to get his breath and his heart was shaking him.

She lifted herself up on his chest so that she could look into his eyes. “Did you mean it?”

He traced her cheek. “Did I mean what?” he asked with a lazy smile.

“What you said.”

“That I loved you?”

She nodded.

He chuckled. “Why else did I marry you?” he asked. “If I only wanted sex, I could have seduced you and walked away.”

“I thought you might,” she replied with a shy smile. “I mean, it was pretty intense, what happened in Lander, but I wasn’t sure you really felt anything more than desire.”

“You grew on me from the first time I saw you,” he returned. “The women who passed through my life weren’t interested in things like knitting and romance novels,” he teased.

She made a face. “I can imagine what they were interested in.”

He nodded. “Diamonds and fur coats,” he said. “It was nothing but casual encounters. I never risked my heart. Not until I came up to Wyoming, disheartened and jaded, feeling more like a walking wallet than a man.”

“Jake McGuire told me once that he felt that way, too. Don’t look like that,” she chided. “You know I only thought of Jake as a friend. If I’d known him a hundred years, I’d still have felt that way.”