"No, that's not why I'm here. I don't know any news about Ronnie."

"I guess that's good."

"I guess."

"I couldn't believe it, Doc. That sound. That horrible, deafening sound. Then to see him lying there so still, amidst all that glass and blood. More blood."

"Shh."

Comforting words were whispered across her hairline, along her temple. Then the words ceased, and only his breath, his lips, drifted over her brow, touching her damp eyelids. Tiel raised her head and looked at him through tearful eyes. Reaching up to touch his face, she made a small sound of want, which he echoed.

A heartbeat later, his lips were on hers. Insistent and hungry, they rubbed hers apart. Their tongues flirted, stroked, before his dominated. It claimed and explored her mouth. Tiel's hands met at the back of his neck. She threaded her fingers up through his hair and submitted to his kiss, which was symbolically, blatantly sexual.

As though boosted by a powerful stimulant, her senses quickened. Each sensory receptor was sharpened to a fine point. She had never felt more alive, yet she was also a little afraid. Like a child at her first carnival, she was dazzled and dazed by the sensual onslaught, enthralled by it, overwhelmed by it, apprehensive of it, and yet eager to experience it.

His belt buckle gouged her tummy, but it wasn't an unpleasant sensation. The cold metal turned warm against the strip of bare skin between the hem of her tank top and her bikini line. Strong and confident, his hands settled on her lower back and pulled her closer.

He kissed his way down her throat. She angled her head to one side, and he feathered her earlobe with his breath, his tongue. Following the course of her head, she turned her body slowly, enabling him to kiss the side of her neck, her shoulder. Lifting her hair, he kissed her nape. The touch of his mouth there sent shivers of delight up her spine.

With her back to him now, she leaned against his wide chest while his hands smoothed over her front. He pressed her breasts beneath his palms, cupped them, reshaped them, before his hands continued down to her rib cage-which he was almost able to encase. At her hipbones, his hands rested.

Tingling with arousal, her movements against him were feline, shameless, inviting. He responded by slipping his hand into the front of her briefs, down, down deep into the vee of her thighs.

When he found her center, she murmured his name, turned her head, and sought his lips with hers.

They kissed while his fingers continued to caress, separate, penetrate. She came up on tiptoes, her body arching outward, straining toward his hand, until her shoulder blades were propped against his collarbone and her head was grinding into his shoulder.

She placed her hand over his, urging his fingers higher.

But that still wasn't good enough. She wanted to be close to him. As close as she could be… and she wasn't nearly close enough.

Turning suddenly, she molded herself to his front. The sound that rumbled from his chest was low, animalistic, arousing. He palmed her bottom and lifted her against his middle. They fit like two pieces of a puzzle. Perfectly.

Snugly. Breathtakingly. Tiel raised one leg and rested it on his hip. As they kissed lustily, he stroked the underside of her thigh.

Then he carried her to the bed. It was only a distance of a few steps, but to Tiel it seemed to take forever before she felt him stretched out alongside her. She readjusted her body beneath his weight.

He pushed his fingers into her hair and held it off her face. His eyes, practically liquid with desire, seemed to pour over her features. "I don't know what you like." His voice was raspy. Even more so than usual. She wished it were tangible so she could feel it abrading her skin like the sand that had blown across her earlier.

Her fingertip traced the shape of his eyebrow, followed the length of his straight, narrow nose, outlined his lips. "I like you."

"What do you want me to do?"

For one dreadful moment, she feared she would lapse into another crying jag. Emotion made her chest and throat tight, but she managed to contain it. "Convince me I'm alive, Doc."

He began by removing her tank top and lowering his mouth to her breasts. He kissed them in turn, but lightly, teasingly, and he continued sipping at them until they were ready, and then he applied his tongue. Watching this was an incredible turn-on. She began to feel increasingly restless and hot. Pressure gathered in the lower part of her body.

Then his lips closed around her hard nipple. The silky heat, the tugging motion of his mouth, felt erotic and empowering.

She couldn't keep her hips and legs still, and when her knee nudged his crotch, then stayed to prod lightly the fullness there, he grunted with a mix of pleasure and pain.

Suddenly he was off the bed. He undressed hastily. His chest had just the right amount of hair. His skin was taut.

Muscles were well defined, but not grotesquely so. His belly was flat. His penis jutted aggressively from the juncture of tapering hips and strong thighs.

Just as he placed one knee on the bed, Tiel sat up. Her fingertips followed the trail of silky hair that bisected his belly down to the fan of denser growth. The shaft was warm, hard, alive; the tip velvety in texture. Without a single nod toward shyness, he allowed her to study him.

Then she wrapped her arms around his hips and hugged him close, so that her head was pressed to his lower chest and his sex was nestled between her breasts. It felt delicious.

But after a moment, he groaned, "Tiel…"

Gently he eased her back onto the bed. He leaned over her and removed her underpants. He paused for a moment, his eyes focused on her with frank interest. Then he bent down and kissed her just above the line of her pubic hair. It was a lazy, sexy, wet kiss that prompted her to reach for him with unabashed longing.

He stretched out on top of her. Her thighs parted naturally.

He slid his arms beneath her back and hugged her to him.

And then he entered her.

They were twined together naked, without even the benefit of the bedsheet to cover them. The air conditioner was blasting cold air into the small room, but their skin was radiating heat.

Tiel actually felt feverish. She lay sprawled atop him, her head on his chest, one arm flung over his waist, one knee securely lodged in his crotch. He was breathing evenly and contentedly, idly stroking her hair.

"I thought I had hurt you."

"Hurt me?" she mumbled.

"You cried out."

Yes. At his initial thrust. She remembered now. She turned her head into his chest and nuzzled him. "Because it felt so good."

His arms tightened around her. "To me too. That thing you do-"

"What thing?"

"That thing."

"I don't do a thing."

He opened his eyes and smiled. "Yeah you do."

"I do?"

"Hmm. And it's bloody great."

Blushing, she returned her cheek to his chest. "Well, thanks."

"The pleasure was mine."

"I'm exhausted."

"So am I."

"But I don't want to sleep."

"Me either."

Several moments passed, a time of sweet reflection.

Eventually Tiel stacked her hands on his sternum and propped her chin on them. "Doc?"

"Hmm."

"Are you asleep? Is it all right if I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"What are we doing?"

He opened only one eye to look at her. "Do you want the scientific nomenclature, the polite phraseology, or will twenty-first-century vernacular do?"

She frowned at his teasing. "I meant-"

"I know what you meant." The second eye came open, and he tilted his head on the pillow to look at her from a better angle. 'Just what you said earlier, Tiel. We're con vincing each other that we're alive. It's not all that uncommon for people to want sex after a life-threatening experience.