Because she’d startled him, they fell to the frozen ground, and he stretched out, grabbing her and hugging her close. “Let it go,” he whispered, gently stroking her wildly trembling body. It was cold, they needed to get up, but she was going to shatter if she didn’t let it go. “Come on, baby.”

“I…can’t.”

“I’m right here, you’re not alone.”

“No, I…”

In spite of herself she burst into tears. Feeling helpless, he pulled her closer, murmuring wordlessly in her ear as she let go with a hard reluctance. She cried with such pent-up passion that he knew she’d stored this all up inside for far too long.

She wasn’t a graceful crier, but messy and noisy, which was so inexplicably endearing he could hardly breathe. Finally she quieted, but still kept her face buried against him.

“All I’ve ever wanted is to help you, Delia. I…I have money. I’ve wanted to offer it to you several times, but I knew you’d never accept-”

“No,” she said flatly, and lifted her head. “No.”

“You know I was an attorney, before my wife and son… Before.” He tucked a strand of wayward hair behind her ear. “I have a lot of money, more than I know what to do with. You can use it to-”

“No.” She pushed away from him and lay flat on her back, looking up into the stark sky. “I won’t be a user, like my parents were.”

“It’s not the same-”

“If I’m going to be their daughter, and it appears I have no choice, I sure won’t be like them. It’s enough that I have to live with the knowledge that all my life I’ve wanted nothing more than security. Maybe I didn’t mean money, exactly, but it equaled the same thing, which makes me no better than they were.”

“Accepting my help is not the same thing.”

She sat, hugged her knees and looked so miserable he felt torn to shreds.

“I’ve never meant to hurt you,” he said quietly. “Never.”

“I know.” Her eyes met his. “And I’m not that stubborn, Cade. If it comes right down to it, I’ll ask for help before I lose Jacob.”

“But you could have so much more…”

“No, I can’t,” she said softly. “I can’t have the ‘more’ that I want.”

“Delia.” How to tell her he thought that maybe the “more” she wanted was exactly the same thing he wanted. But the thought was so unnerving he didn’t know what to do with it. Instead, he reached over and pulled her close.

It started out as comforting. Warm. Safe. But then they shifted, and he felt her curves and soft skin. Her lips brushed his throat once, then his jaw, and the touch spread wildfire through his body. Before he could stop himself, he whispered her name in a voice thick and raspy with longing.

In response, she snuggled closer, and he wondered if she wanted more comfort or just…but then she slid her tongue over his skin, giving him his answer. When she did it again, he made a strangled sound that he couldn’t control, and she froze.

“Is that…?” she began. “Was that wrong?”

Was she kidding? If it’d been any more right, he’d have died right there on the spot. With his fingers he pushed her hair away from her eyes and lifted her face.

“You can never go wrong when you touch me,” he told her, watching her anxiety fade. “Ever.”

She smiled, a curious combination of come-hither and innocence. “Maybe you’re cold?” she asked.

“Not with your body pressed against me.”

“Okay, good.” Once again she buried her face in his neck. “You always smell so good, good enough to…” She bit him lightly, then sucked that skin into her mouth.

Unsettled by how quickly his body went from the comforter to the seduced, he inhaled sharply. He was as aroused as he’d ever been, with just one touch of her tongue.

“Kiss me,” she whispered. “Kiss me and make me forget.” She didn’t wait for him to comply, but reached up, threaded her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth down to hers. “Don’t make me beg.”

“I’ll be the one begging,” he managed, trying his damnedest to remember how vulnerable she was right now, how he couldn’t possibly take advantage. But then she touched the tip of her tongue to the corner of his mouth, her blue eyes clear now and very aware.

“Kiss me,” she whispered again.

Helpless to resist, he did just that, pressing hard against her before he could think. Then there was no room to think because he had her warm lush body sprawled beneath him, her breasts plumped against his chest, her thighs spread to accommodate his. His hands slid down her sides, then back up, finding their way beneath her soft sweater, over her quivering stomach and ribs to cup her breasts.

“Yes,” she gasped, arching into his palms, and he crushed her to him for more mind-blowing kisses, each beginning before the last one finished. It shouldn’t have surprised him how right it felt to hold her, to touch her, to just be here with her. He’d been with other women since he was widowed, but always as a mutual physical release.

This wasn’t just physical, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be something he could easily walk away from, but even that didn’t stop him.

Nothing could have stopped him, except Delia herself.

His fingers found the thin straps of her bra, and he pulled them down. He slid up her sweater, baring her to his gaze, and when he looked down at her, saw her full curves, the dusky peaks hard and pebbled, he thought he’d never seen anything so beautiful. Hands suddenly unsteady, he held her still, bent his head and drew one of the pouty nipples into his mouth, sucking gently as she gasped his name and gripped him more tightly. Her hips were undulating in a rhythm against his, and when he stroked a hand down to them, seeking her heat, her center, he found her soaked from the ground.

They were lying on the ground, the frozen ground, which their bodies had heated up and thawed. “Delia…” She would catch a cold.

Hell, he would catch a cold, too, given the way she had him puffing air as if he’d run a five-mile race uphill. But she didn’t seem to care, if the throaty little pants she was letting out were any indication. And because he was powerless to resist, he rasped a thumb over her nipple one last time. “Honey…”

She tossed back her head, eyes closed as if she’d never experienced anything like this before, and yet she boldly slid her hands down the back of him, cupping his buttocks, bringing him closer to the heaven between her thighs. He groaned as his raging erection slid over her moist heat, his vision nothing but a haze now. “We have to stop. Delia, we can’t…not here.”

Her eyes opened, her gaze unfocused and sexy as hell. “What?” Her voice was low.

“We have to get up.”

Slowly, she blinked him into focus, her eyelashes still damp from her crying jag. “Stop?”

It was the last thing he wanted to do. “Yeah.”

“I see.” She pushed free and straightened her clothing-which meant she hid the most incredible body he’d ever seen from him-and shoved her hair out of her face. She stood, weaving a bit, until he stood, also, and steadied her. “I said I’m okay.” She took a step back from his assisting hands.

“Delia.” Gently he rubbed at the tracks of tears on her soft cheeks. “Don’t vanish behind that cool calm of yours. Please don’t. You don’t have to always be the strong one.”

Her look told him she didn’t believe that. Her words told him even more. “The case is over for you. Maddie’s the heir by default, which means you’re free to leave. That must feel…well, freeing.”

He stared at her, stunned. It was true he was free. It’d been what he’d wanted, what he’d craved, and he hadn’t even realized it was now his for the taking.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “That didn’t occur to you until just now, that you’re able to leave here, forever. I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.”

She looked away from him, self-consciously tugging at her sweater, which revealed her still-hard nipples. “You were right.” Tipping back her head, she stared up into the sky. “I’ve held back from the people I care about most, and that’s unforgivable. I need to fix that.”