When he took a breath, she lifted his face to hers, enjoying another ecstatic, longing kiss. Parting, she took his hand and they hurried up the stairs to her bedroom.

Soft morning light filtered through the trees and into the room, bathing it in a kind of peaceful glow. The covers lay where she’d pulled them off when she rose, the sheets still wrinkled, a depression in her pillow where her head had lain.

Slowly, she crawled in, moving to the unrumpled side to make room for him. As he followed her, Elgin put out her arms to him.

“I want you,” she murmured. “No strings, no expectations, no promises. Just now and for however long it lasts. It’s been so long I’d almost forgotten how it feels to want someone as much as I want you. Please…”

“It’s pretty obvious how much I want you,” he answered quietly as he wrapped her in his embrace, feeling her arms around his body. “I’ll do whatever you want, however you want to do it. Just let me be with you, make love with you. You make me feel…well, like I never thought I’d feel again.”

“Come inside me, now.” She underscored the urgency in her voice by taking his cock in her fist and guiding between her legs.

“Don’t you want me to play with you?” he mumbled, surprised by her eagerness.

“Right now,” she breathed in his ear, “all I want is you. Inside me. Fill me up and then some with that thick, hard, beautiful cock of yours.”

Settling between her legs, Harm slid effortlessly into her wet pussy, a short gasp of pleasure and a tensing of her body under him. And then he felt her relax, matching her movements to his, pushing herself against him, taking him up, the friction of his sac on her swollen clit, sparking new fire in her blood with each stroke.

Her lips and arms and pussy enfolded him, wrapping him in heated pleasure, making him forget everything but her body and the sensations roaring through his own. Far from romantic, fantasy lovemaking, they were two people, filled with lust and bottled-up passion, releasing an animal need as primal as life itself. It didn’t mean anything except the pleasure of the moment. They wanted each other and that was reason, explanation, enough.

Elgin moaned softly and he felt the first tremors of her release ripple through her body. Fingernails dug into his skin as she grabbed his ass, kneading and grinding, trying to force himself deeper, harder into her. The muscles inside her, closed more tightly around his cock and his tempo sped up, his own orgasm just strokes away.

Her moans and cries of pleasure mixed with his as they crested and exploded together, rainbow bolts of sensation shooting through them like a perfect electric circuit feeding on itself until the power is spent.

“Oh…God…” she breathed between pants as she struggled to catch her breath. “You’re…you’re…unbelievable.”

“Likewise,” he mumbled, exiting gently and collapsing beside her. Elgin curled herself around him, snuggling in the crook of his arm and laying her head on his chest.

Slowly, she ran her fingertips over his chest, tweaking his nipples playfully and exploring the thin, light brown hair sprinkled over his chest, tapering in a straight line to the surprisingly soft nest of pubic hair and his not-quite-resting cock.

“You have a nice body,” she told him, her voice still a sultry whisper. “Now that I’m not in such an…excited state, I hope you’ll let me examine it in a more leisurely, more thorough fashion.”

“Only if you’ll reciprocate.” He took a nipple between his long, hard fingers and felt her tremble against him. Even having just climaxed, he felt his cock stir once more and he knew the morning’s delight would continue.

“That feels good,” she encouraged him, moving her fingertips down to his inner thighs and fondling his sac.

“Before we get carried away again, don’t you think we ought to talk?” She raised her eyes and saw the seriousness in his.

“About…?”

“Well, for one thing, protection.” He flushed slightly and glanced past her to the wall. “I…uh…didn’t come prepared. I mean… I… You and me…”

The Scout scenario flashed in Elgin’s mind and she clenched her teeth to keep from laughing out loud.

“Oh.”

He gazed down at her. “I don’t make a habit of dropping into bed with every woman I meet. Especially not a client. Most especially not when I’m on a case. I guess maybe I should have figured that a woman like you would just naturally…”

“Excuse me,” she interrupted sharply, raising herself on her elbow. “What exactly do you mean, ‘a woman like me?’”

“I don’t know. Beautiful. Worldly. Sensuous. You probably have hot and cold running guys chasing after you.” Those sad dark eyes looked away again, his voice dropped to a whisper. “I haven’t been with a woman in almost five years. That’s a major reason for my lack of…staying power. That and the fact you’re so sexy. I…uh…generally take my time about this.”

Gently, Elgin put her fingertip under his chin and turned his face back to hers. “Trust me, you did just fine. It’s sort of like gulping your food when you’re hungry. And believe me, famished doesn’t begin to explain how I felt. It’s been more than three years for me. Despite what I write, I don’t drop into bed either. I have to feel a connection, something ‘special’ that I want to share with someone. Like what I feel for you.

“If it makes you feel any better, I had my annual physical four months ago, including the standard blood tests. I’m depressingly healthy. And I’ve been on The Pill for irregular cycles since I was seventeen.”

“I was married to the last woman I had sex with,” he told her quietly. “We only used protection because we didn’t want to start a family right away. When she died, something in me did too.”

“I’m sorry, Camp. I didn’t mean to bring up unpleasant memories. I didn’t mean to rush into anything…to take advantage of the situation. Of you.”

He smiled a little and ran the ball of this thumb gently down her cheek. “Isn’t the man supposed to say that at a time like this?”

“I’m the one who came at you, remember? I think on some level I’ve been attracted to you from the beginning. I tend to be willful and, as Sheila puts it so delicately, damned bullheaded. That, combined with your attitude towards my writing…well, I guess the sparks flew but in the wrong direction.”

Harm stared past her again and she had the feeling that he’d gone somewhere else; somewhere she couldn’t follow. For long moments, she lay beside him, silently speaking to him with her body. At long last, he looked at her again, the sadness in his face, eyes, whole body, making her heart suddenly ache.

“Jeanne was seventeen when I first met her. She was the oldest daughter of my first partner after I got out of the police academy. Bill invited me to a barbecue one weekend. We’d only been partnering about three months. I rang the bell and she answered. Five foot four, red hair, blue eyes, a body to make a man fall on his face at her feet. I loved her before I even knew her name.

“We waited two years. A lot of necking, a lot of petting, a lot of cold showers, but she wanted our first time to be ‘special.’ A celebration.” Harm paused and Elgin thought he might cry but he managed to go on.

“Our wedding night was beautiful. We spent hours playing and fondling and arousing each other. I wanted her to be happy, as fulfilled emotionally as physically. When she climaxed the first time, I almost came myself, she was so enraptured, so high. From then on, all I wanted was to make this woman happy. Explore all the ways there are for two people in love to show it. Make her body sing and be glad we were together.”

“It sounds wonderful.”

“It was. For a while. But in those days, I wanted a career as much as I wanted a home. I worked all the overtime I could get. I told her it was so we could save money and buy a house and start a family and I meant it. But I also wanted to make rank, get ahead. When I wasn’t working or studying for the next exam, I was asleep.”