Again.

“I want to make you—but I can’t—wait.” The tempo grew harder, more intense. “Can’t—” He groaned, his spine arched, his head thrown back, his face a mask of pleasure so intense it looked like pain. “Eve!”

He collapsed on top of her.

She didn’t want it to stop. On and on and on … She clasped him to her with all her strength, as she tried to get her breath.

He lifted his head and kissed her lingeringly. “Beautiful…”

“You always say that. I’m not…”

“You are. Like a flame…” He kissed her breast. “And you feel like a flame curling around me. When I was at that gate, I kept thinking of the way you felt. I thought I’d go crazy if I didn’t have you one more time.”

“You did go crazy.” And so had she. All he’d had to do was explode through that door, and she had been ready for him. Ready? She’d been wild for him. Everything she’d been telling herself about how good a thing it was that they were separating had vanished the minute he’d touched her. Which meant that everything she had told herself was true. “And you’re going to miss that second flight if you don’t leave soon. It’s after midnight.”

“I won’t miss it.” His tongue traced her lower lip. “I want to stay, but I’ve done what I had to do.” He got to his feet. “I have to go shower. Stay here. I want to see you like this when I come back.” He vanished into the bathroom.

She didn’t know if she could have moved if she’d wanted to. Every muscle felt limp, and she was lying there in a warm haze. He’d said he was going. There was no reason to stir right now. She didn’t have to think or worry. Everything was the same as it had been that afternoon. This had just been a wild, unexpected epilogue.

She heard the shower. He would be gone soon. The wrenching pain she was feeling was all part of the confusion their togetherness had begun to foster lately. She would be fine. It would go away when he went away.

He came out of the shower ten minutes later. “Good.” He smiled. “You stayed there. I wasn’t sure if you’d do anything I told you to do. Resistance should be kicking in about now.”

“I didn’t want to move.” She met his gaze. “And you’re leaving. Maybe I wanted to please you.”

“You did.” He dropped to his knees in front of the couch. “And I pleased you, didn’t I?” He put his palm on her belly. “It’s a wonder. I was so hot I could only think about myself and how fast I could have you.” He traced the outline of her navel. “I’m lucky you didn’t kick me out.”

“You knew that wouldn’t happen. And you said you’d been wanting it to be here. So I don’t think it was as mindless as you say.”

He was silent. “Oh, I was mindless. The other was just instinct.” He bent and kissed her nipple. “I’ve got to get out of here, or I’ll have to have you again. I can’t miss another plane.” His teeth tugged gently at her earlobe. “I’ve got to do what I promised my uncle I’d do. I won’t mess up my chance.”

“No, that would be a mistake.”

“So that may mean I won’t be able to get back here for a while. And you won’t come to me.”

“No.”

“But I will come back, Eve.” He lifted her up and put his cheek against her belly. It felt rough and hard against her bare flesh. “And you will remember me. Say it.”

“You’d be hard to forget.”

“That’s not good enough.” He lifted his head, and his eyes were glittering, burning, as they held her own. “Tell me. You’ll remember everything we did, everything we are together. No matter how long. You won’t forget me.”

She couldn’t pull her gaze away. His intensity was overpowering and hypnotic, enveloping her, binding her.

“Tell me,” he said softly. “You know it’s the truth. You’re part of me. You’ll always be with me. You’ll remember.”

How could she help it? No matter how their paths parted or intertwined, he’d been the first in so many ways, and the power of his personality had stunned and beguiled her. Even at that moment, she couldn’t imagine the days or years to come without him.

“I’ll remember you,” she whispered.

“That didn’t hurt, did it?” He smiled brilliantly. His arms closed tighter, and he kissed her. “The only thing that will hurt will be the waiting.” Then he put her back on the couch and got to his feet. “And I’ll cut that down to as little as possible.”

“I’m not going to wait for you. That’s a trap, too. And you won’t want to wait for me after you’ve been gone for a while.”

“I didn’t think I would, either. But things are changing. I’ll have to see.” He moved toward the door. “But one thing I do know. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before you. I’m not sure that I’ll ever feel like this again. I want to reach out and grab and hold on.” He opened the door. “But that’s my nature. Good-bye, Eve.”

“Good-bye, John.”

He was standing framed in the doorway as he had been framed by the elevator doors that first night. He was the same, yet not the same. Muscular thighs outlined in denim jeans, same face that was hard yet beautiful in its sensuality. But now she knew that body, that face, in a thousand different positions and expressions. She knew his toughness, his bluntness, his seductiveness, the bitterness that he seldom spoke about, the driving passion that could be as explosive as a lightning flash.

He wanted her to remember him?

This was how she’d remember John Gallo.

CHAPTER

6

The water. Stay out of the water. The current was so strong it would carry her away and over the falls.

Eve’s breath was coming in harsh pants that hurt her chest as she scrambled up the bank and into the brush.

Run.

A bullet took the bark off the oak next to her.

Close.

How could he see in this thick brush?

She heard the splashing in the river behind her. He wasn’t afraid of the current. Could the devil be afraid of anything?

“Eve!”

It was John Gallo. He caught up with her and grabbed her hand. “This way.”

“No!” She tried to pull away.

“Trust me.” He was gazing down at her, and he looked as desperate as she felt. His face was somehow … different. John’s face, yet not the John she knew. “I’ll find her. I won’t let you die. Trust me.”

“Why should I? When have we ever trusted each other?” She jerked her hand away and started to run again.

A moment later, another bullet grazed her hair, then embedded itself in the ground in front of her.

And she heard the sound of running footsteps behind her. Her heart was beating so hard it was jumping out of her chest. Find a way, or she was going to die.

Trust me.

Never.

Pain, high in her back …

She hadn’t heard that bullet.

Death?

*   *   *

EVE JERKED UPRIGHT ON THE couch, her eyes wildly searching the darkness.

Her pulse was racing, but the palms of her hands were cold. It took a minute for her to realize that she was not still in that deadly brush.

A dream?

But it had seemed so real. John Gallo had been gone nearly three weeks, but he had also seemed so real. Although it was a John Gallo she had never known. If she was going to dream about John, why wouldn’t it be sensual, sexual, and not a horrible, deadly chase that had ended her life. That was what her time with John had been all about. Sex, passion, and mindless pleasure that had ended with a desperate intensity that had almost frightened her.

And perhaps that was why she had dreamed of John as the pursuer, the enemy, just exaggerated and translated into a life-and-death struggle.

And all this soul-searching was crap over a simple nightmare. She swung her feet to the floor and got up and went to the bathroom. She drank a glass of water, then went back to the couch.