She resisted for a heartbeat, then she gave in, her mouth melding to his. Her luscious lips were soft and forgiving. She tasted sweet, too, and for some unexplained reason, he flashed back to his very first kiss. Martina Garcia. Behind the bleachers when they’d both been in the sixth grade. He’d kissed a lot of women since Martina, but none of them had rekindled that initial flash of heat and pure desire. Until now.

After a moment, Emma’s hands pushed gently at his chest, and he pulled back reluctantly. She stared into his eyes. “You’re right,” she said quietly. “That wasn’t a very smart thing to do. But I’m glad you did.”

RAUL PARKED directly in front of her house. Feeling too conflicted even to think about the consequences of what she was doing, Emma led him up the sidewalk to her gate, then through it, to the door. Her thoughts whirled, but she hardly noticed. Her body was the only thing that counted right now. Every emotion, every sensation, every feeling was something she’d never experienced before. The wind on her face, the heat of the evening, even the call of the wild parrots from next door-it all felt so different, almost unreal.

Raul’s kiss had triggered something needy in her, something she didn’t even realize had been missing until this very moment. As they entered her house and he swept her into his arms, she wondered blindly if it had been his kiss or his offer of friendship that had brought them to this point.

She had to have both, she realized now, and maybe he did, too. She wanted a man who needed her, but she needed a man who wanted her. There was a hidden side to him that called out to her, a side that said he’d been hurt, too. They could heal each other, at least for a night.

He lifted his hand to her face, cradling her cheek in his palm. Their eyes met and locked, then he lowered his head and began to kiss her.

SHE ENTERED his embrace with an urgency that surprised him, and he took full advantage of her passion, ignoring the voices in the back of his head that insisted he leave while he still could. Their advice was useless and he knew it.

He couldn’t have stopped kissing Emma any more than he could have stopped his heart from beating. She was too soft, too tender, too willing to let his lips and hands put aside the pain that was now a part of her very soul. As his mouth covered hers and he tasted the sweetness of her tongue, he thought of the way she’d looked when she’d told him about her children. He had never seen that kind of anguish on anyone’s face. It had ripped into him with a sharpness he’d never forget. In his past, he’d lost years, but she’d forfeited something even more precious. Her future.

Their kiss deepened and he knew he was lost. Lost and crazy, for sure. Raul wanted Kelman, and he’d counted on using Emma to get him. The way he felt about her this very minute was not part of the plan, and it never had been.

She murmured into his open mouth and made a sound of longing. Splaying his hands across her back, he answered her with a groan of his own, everything else fleeing his mind. A second later, he picked her up and began to climb the stairs to the second floor. To her bedroom.

She clung to him with her arms around his neck, and when they reached the top, she nodded to the right. He turned that way and entered the room that faced the street, the one where he’d seen the light and billowing curtains that first time he’d sat outside her house. A huge four-poster bed took up one wall, and he headed straight for it.

In two quick steps, they were there. Emma slid from his arms as quietly as a whisper, then raised her hands to his shirt. Unbuttoning it, she stayed silent, but behind her touch was a desperation that needed no words to be communicated. Raul felt the same way. He urged her out of her jacket and her skirt and blouse quickly followed. Within seconds they were both naked.

He said nothing; he was afraid to break the spell as he stared at her in the darkness. Like Emma’s touch, he let his eyes communicate his thoughts. You’re beautiful. Beyond anything I ever imagined, even in my dreams. Her gaze met his in understanding, then she lowered it and brought her pale hands up to rest on his chest. The feel of her fingers filled him with desire.

He forced himself to stand still and simply drink in the beauty of her body. In the dim light coming through the bedroom draperies, she was a carved statue, her skin the color of pearls. He knew at that moment he’d never forget, no matter what happened in the future, the way she looked right now. Her blond hair, hanging to her shoulders, echoed the creamy tint; the nipples of her breasts were a pale rose. The only shadow of darkness fell at the apex of her legs, and even there, he saw simply a deeper shade of ivory. She looked fragile and vulnerable, and staring at her, Raul felt as though he had just learned a secret no one else could possibly know.

Finally he could stand it no longer. He lifted his arms and put them around her, and the feel of her skin against his own ignited their passion immediately. They fell onto the bed, a tumble of arms and legs and open mouths. Emma’s hands danced over his body, sending him into a spiral of passion. He returned the favor, his own touch sweeping over her and finding nothing but the soft neediness of a woman too long without someone who cared.

They kissed deeply, almost as if they couldn’t part, Raul’s hands slipping over her polished back to her buttocks. Cupping their sweet curve, he managed to bring her even closer. A moment later, he tore his mouth from hers only to drop it lower, then lower still, his tongue finding all the places she’d kept hidden until now. She moaned under his caresses, then arched her back and cried out.

When he rose above her, their gazes met in the gloom. Her lips were swollen, her eyelids half-shut, heavy with desire that had already been spent and that yet to be released. Without thinking further, he kissed her once more, her scent rising between them to cast a magical spell. For what seemed like a lifetime, they stayed that way, their lips their world, then finally he drew back once more. He reached for the foil-wrapped condom he’d brought with him. A second later, he entered her.

EMMA’S FIRST LOVER had been an older man, a professor at her college. She’d been young and ignorant, too naive to understand what was happening until it was over. Afterward, they’d continued, because they’d started and neither seemed to know how to end it gracefully. The second man she’d made love with had been her husband. Their time in bed had produced the two most precious people in the world-her children. If Todd’s touch had been hurried, his kisses cursory, it hadn’t mattered.

Neither of those two experiences meant anything anymore. Not after Raul’s lovemaking.

Emma curled up on her side, the sheet pulled over her bare breasts, and stared at the closed door of the bathroom. The sound of running water escaped from beneath the threshold, a shadow accompanying the noise as Raul apparently crossed the room. She shut her eyes for just a second and ran her fingers over her mouth and down her neck. Her body felt the same, but how could it be? Surely it had changed under the fire of his touch, welded itself somehow into another form altogether. It must have, for she felt completely different on the inside.

She lay perfectly still and relived the past hour. She felt as though she was in shock. Nothing had prepared her for this…this complete annihilation of her previous experiences. It wasn’t just the fact that Raul had touched her, she realized slowly, it was how he’d touched her. His fingers going over her skin as if he were a blind man, his lips covering her mouth as if he was dying of a thirst only she could quench. Raul had devoted himself to her, and in doing so, he’d lifted her up to a place she’d never been before. She truly felt loved.