I understood that she was looking out for her friend, but yeah, I didn’t appreciate the way she said it.

“You don’t want me to use her?” I confirmed, glancing at Caro. “Well, Nicole, I was planning on taking her to bed and using her in ways that aren’t even mentioned in the Kama Sutra, but now you’ve told me that, I think I should go take a cold shower instead.”

Caro glared at me and snatched the phone back as I grinned at her.

“Sorry about that, Nic!” she huffed out. “Nic?” Then she started smiling at whatever the über-bitch was saying to her. “I’ll get back to you on that, Nic.”

As far as I was concerned, the conversation had gone on long enough, so I started untying the straps of Caro’s bikini and kissing down the back of her neck. She gasped when I tossed her bikini top to the floor, massaging her nipples into tight little peaks.

“I’ll have to call you back, Nic,” she said breathlessly, then ended the call and threw herself at me, knocking both of us onto the bed.

She straddled me and I let her push my hands above my head as her mouth met mine and her breasts were crushed against my chest.

Our tongues were twisting together, our teeth clashing, and I was achingly hard.

I sat up suddenly, cradling my arms around her waist as she squeaked in surprise. I kissed her neck, running my tongue over her throat.

“You taste like the sea,” I rumbled against her, “and your skin smells like sunshine.”

She moaned happily, and I ran my fingers up her back, letting them tangle in her hair, then pulling her face back down to mine.

“I want to be inside you, Caro.”

I could hear the need and desperation in my voice. But she smiled against my lips, then rolled off me, scooting down to the bottom of the bed.

“Raise that glorious ass,” she said, tugging on the hem of my boardshorts.

I grinned at the way her eagerness matched mine, lifting my hips from the bed. She pulled off the shorts, threw them behind her, then sat back on her heels staring down at me.

As her eyes wandered along my body, I propped myself up on my elbows, wondering what differences she saw between now and the boy of 17 that she’d known. There was a small white scar across my left hip where a piece of shrapnel from an RPG attack had nicked me. I had another puckered scar across my right shoulder from parachute training where the webbing had gotten twisted and left a mark almost like a burn. That had been fucking painful, but the mark was faint now.

And of course there was the Semper Fi tat, but I got the impression she liked that.

“You’re beautiful, Sebastian,” she whispered, her voice soft and so fucking sweet. “I love to look at you. I love to see you like this, when it’s just the two of us. Why does it feel so right?”

I shook my head slowly, a little stunned by the depth of sincerity I saw in her eyes.

“Maybe it was just meant to be. I mean, shit, could we have had any more challenges thrown at us?”

“We’ve certainly had our share,” she sighed.

I sat up and held her cheek with my hand.

“Don’t be sad, Caro. We’ve got our second chance … or maybe we’re on our third … I kinda lost count already.”

“That is very true,” she laughed, lightly. “Now you seem to have a very desirable hard-on there, so what say we have some fun with that?”

I smirked at her as she licked her lips.

“I’m all yours.”

She grinned and jumped off the bed. “Are the condoms in your toiletry bag?”

“Yeah, baby.”

I watched as she rooted through the overnight bag until she found what she was looking for. But when she looked up, her expression was irritated.

“Sebastian, there’s only one condom left in here,” she said, shaking the box at me.

“Shit! You’re kidding! Fuck, how did I … ah, crap. Give me that fucker—I’m going to make the most of it.”

I reached for the condom, but she backed away from me, smiling

“Oh no, Hunter,” she said, waving the foil packet at me, “this one is all mine.”

I swear my cock swelled some more and twitched, just from the way she was looking at me. She’d always turned me on more than any woman I’d ever met.

“Feeling a little needy, baby?” she chuckled, as she walked around the bed.

“Fuck, Caro!” This woman was gonna kill me.

I tried to catch her hand, but she danced away.

“Dear me, someone is impatient,” she laughed, determined to torture me.

“Yeah, very!” I agreed quickly.

She stood at the end of the bed, looking down at me, her expression heated and amused.

“Would you like me to take these off?” she asked in a sing-song voice, tugging gently on the delicate laces of her bikini bottoms.

Fuck, yeah! I nodded silently.

“Or maybe you’d like to take them off me?”

She climbed up from the foot of the bed and crawled all the way up until she was poised above me, the foil packet held in her teeth. I reached up to untie first one, then the second ribbon, and the small strip of material fell away.

I let my hand drift up the inside of her thighs and then gently slid my index finger inside, massaging her slowly. Her eyes were locked on mine: watching me, watching her, watching me. Her gaze was scorching and my body overheated quickly.

I pushed another finger inside her, moving faster, and her breath began to come in short gasps.

“Come on, baby,” I encouraged, my voice strained.

She clenched around my fingers and then tried to push my hand away.

“No, baby,” I crooned to her, “you can take more.”

“I can’t! I can’t!” she gasped, her eyes begging, but I wouldn’t stop, and another orgasm ripped through her, arching her spine as her body shuddered and trembled.

Then she collapsed onto my chest, and I stroked her back, running my hands down her spine, feeling soft tremors still running through her.

Gently, I rolled so she was on her back, then kissed her neck and chest, sucking and tugging on her nipples with my teeth until they were tight little fists. Her body was limp and pliant, so when I pushed her knees apart, there was no resistance as I slid inside her.

Only then her body tensed up and she gripped onto my shoulders.

“Sebastian, no! Don’t!”

I was too lost in sensation, my mind fogged by heat and lust.

“Come on, baby, you feel so good.”

I rolled my hips, and she trembled around me. But then she shoved hard against my chest and I pulled out, confused and more than a little pissed.

“No!” she yelled, her eyes hard and accusing. “What are you doing, Sebastian?”

“I just want to make love to you, Caro.”

“I know … but, you’re not wearing a condom.”

She opened her hand, showing me the foil packet that she was still holding, unopened.

“We don’t need that, Caro.”

I didn’t want anything between us ever again.

“What?” she yelped. “Are you crazy, Sebastian? I could get pregnant!”

“Would that be so bad?”

I wanted it all with her—why didn’t she understand that?

“You want me to get pregnant?” she stammered.

I sighed and closed my eyes, rolling onto my side.

“I want to have a life with you, Caro, for the rest of my life. Look—kids—whatever. If it happens, then great; if it doesn’t, that’s fine, too. Just as long as we’re together. This time, forever.”

She pushed away from me and flung her arm over her eyes. But I reached up and pulled her arm away, forcing her to look at me.

“Caro?”

I needed to know what she was thinking.

“Sebastian…” she stuttered, trying to pull herself together. “We were apart for ten years. I saw you again less than a week ago, we had sex, a couple of dates, more sex, we fought, we broke up … and now you’re saying you want to have children with me?”

Now she was getting it. “Yeah.”

“Do you know how crazy that sounds?” she gasped, her mouth hanging open.