The blaze cast strange long shadows across the room as he crawled back into the bed.

He wrapped his arms around her and pressed kisses on her sleepy eyelids, her warm throat. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. I’m catching a plane to England at nine tomorrow morning. Just a few days. Then I’ll never leave you again. I promise.”

He didn’t know how long they snuggled under the covers, kissing each other all over while he murmured that he meant his promise, they’d wasted too much time, she was perfect, wonderful, and he could never have enough time with her. Athena permeated his body and mind. He felt panic, like this night was momentous and he had to hold her tighter and make love to her hot, sleepy body and fascinating mind.

Athena’s mind raced with feelings and images of Drew and the Fastnet and his leaving her. How could he? They had just found each other again. She wanted to understand his need to finish the race that his parents had never completed. His words had torn at her heart.

She tried to hang on to these feelings but they faded beneath his slow, sweet kisses, which went on and on. His intimate words spoken amid the soft sheets filled her with so much longing she felt tears well up in her eyes.

Drew had always been the reason she could never feel this with anyone else. Why she’d always felt like she was making a mistake with another man. It had always been Drew. Drew in her heart and mind.

The leaded-glass windows with the stained-glass panels on top reflected the firelight, causing a prism of color to play across their bodies. His looked so beautiful and strong to her. So precious she never wanted to let him go.

“I love the weight of your breasts in my hands,” he whispered.

She thrust to meet him, wrapping her arms, her body around him.

His voice, his husky sounds of desire, of wanting her, released something wild. She opened herself to him completely. With them there weren’t any inhibitions or pretense.

He rolled on top of her, the crush of his weight, him hard against her, driving her a little mad.

I won’t let him go.

She felt so hot, so full of love for him she knew she would explode any second. She lifted her hips, welcoming him inside her.

She withered under him, shuddering with each of his powerful thrusts. Rigid, heat pumping through him into her, Drew called her name and she held him. The overpowering sensation of being filled, complete, caused sobs of joy in the back of her throat.

Like the Greek Sirens, Athena would call his name, hypnotize him, bind him to her so he could never leave.

She held him tight, feeling his warm breath against her breasts.

She held him until she knew from his even breathing he had fallen asleep. She pressed one more kiss on his forehead and slowly, carefully eased away from him.

The way his face looked in the firelight, the high cheekbones, the long, full curve of his lips, brought fresh tears to her eyes. It felt like a weight pressing down on her chest now that she understood what racing in the Fastnet meant to him. But what might it cost him?

She’d been waiting her whole life for these nights with him. To show with her body what she’d always felt in her heart and mind for Drew. To have had this intimacy for so short a time and to have it be over at dawn reminded her of the worst of all the Greek tragedies her father had taught them. So many nights wasted, and more to come.

Logically she knew he would be away only a few days.

When his parents went to the Fastnet, they never came back.

She padded stark naked into the small office. The light from the computer screen flashed three a.m.

She googled the Fastnet.

It was all there, the articles about the famous offshore yachting race. Particularly the Fastnet the year Drew’s parents were killed. The words conjured up the waves in the Fastnet storm big enough to capsize large and small boats alike. She could feel the frigid night with roaring white water surrounding her. See the rudder of Drew’s parent’s yacht snap off and the violent waves throw the crew out of the cockpit to the end of their tethers into the freezing, deadly ocean.

She switched off the computer and sat staring at the blank screen. The course of her life had altered because she’d been forced by circumstances, fate, to reveal her true feelings. Drew, too. She knew it, felt their unique bond forge in a new, more powerful way. She couldn’t, wouldn’t let him sever it again. She’d keep him here any way she could. Make love to him all night if necessary. She smiled into the darkness—no hardship there. Any thoughts that he might be a selfish lover were laughable.

This feeling rivaled the stuff of legend, of myth. Maybe she was being silly. Giddy and stupid on love.

No way would he be getting on that plane tomorrow morning to sail in the Fastnet. She’d convince him to never go.

She’d stopped him once. She’d do it again to save him.

She went back into her bedroom and crawled into the bed next to him.

CHAPTER

18

When Drew opened his eyes, Athena lay beside him, her face dreamy in the flickering light. She curled up against him, and he pulled her closer. She felt petal soft and smelled of Jackie O’s perfume and him.

She kissed him in a soft, drunk-on-love sort of way, and he couldn’t resist doing the same. She felt too good.

The hot tension started building up inside him. Christ, he wanted her again. Even though he could hardly keep his eyes open, he fought sleep with everything he had.

He needed to make love to her one more time. Before he left, he’d tell her he’d always loved her but was too stupid, too young, and too afraid to admit it.

The sound of the shower beating against the bathroom tiles woke Athena. She sat up, shivering alone in the bed. Her Bose clock radio blinked five a.m. Obviously, she hadn’t tired him out enough. Too early.

I need more time.

When she opened the glass shower door, Drew was soaping all over, his beautiful hands sliding down his body, like she wanted to do.

She stepped under the torrent of water and took the soap from his hands. Slowly, she rubbed the fragrant sandalwood bar over his shoulders, down his flat stomach, between his thighs. She lingered there, gliding her hand over and over, feeling him swell beneath her fingers.

“Athena, stop it,” he said with a shaky laugh.

“Don’t you like it?” She widened her eyes the way people do when they’re daring someone.

“I like it too much,” he gasped, reaching down to take the soap away from her.

Smiling, she let him remove the bar from her fingers. She slid to her knees and put her mouth where the bar of soap had been. The water flooded over her hair and face as she licked the contours of his body, sucking gently, all the while stroking his hips and thighs with her hands. She loved the feel of him, filling her mouth, her palms.

“Christ!” He pulled her up into his arms, and she wrapped her legs around him. The water felt cool against her hot body as he pushed her against the cream tile and plunged into her until she felt too weak to do anything but cling to his slippery body, loving the feel of him inside her and his mouth open and gasping against her throat.

Afterward he wrapped her in a large, soft green bath sheet, drying every crease and valley of her body. He carried her to the bed and lay down beside her, folding her into his arms.