All Night Long

pulled them on. She heard the metallic slide of the zipper. For some reason it seemed like an excruciatingly erotic little sound.
    Be cool
, she thought.
Remember to breathe. Look at the positive side, you might
not even need the peanut butter to take your mind off your nerves
.
    Peanut butter was, however, a good deal safer.
    She turned away from the fascinating sight of him, opened the drawer that contained the limite election of flatware and seized a butter knife.
    “Do I get one of those peanut butter crackers?” Luke asked.
    She risked another quick glance in his direction and saw that he was coming toward her.
    “Uh, sure,” she said.
    She started to reach for the kitchen light switch but suddenly remembered that, while Luke was no uite decent, she was wearing only a nightgown.
    No problem
, she thought.
She could make peanut butter crackers with her eyes
[_closed. _]
    “You gotta have something to drink with peanut butter.” Luke walked around the edge of the counter, heading for the refrigerator. “Otherwise it sticks to the roof of your mouth and gums up your tongue. Scientific fact.”
    “No, wait,” she said quickl ut it was too late. He already had the refrigerator door open. The fixture inside gave off a shaft of light that illuminated her from head to foot.
    Why hadn’t she brought along a sexier nightgown? The answer was simple, of course. While she had

    been careful to pack full fashion battle armor to confront Dunsley and the past, she had expected t pend her nights alone, as was her custom.
    Luke glanced at her over his shoulder. She went very still, not knowing what to expect.
    What she got was a meltingly slow, breathtakingly sexy, utterly masculine look of appreciation.
    Without a word, Luke closed the refrigerator door. He crossed the very short space between them wit single stride and gripped the counter behind her, one arm on either side of her waist. Leaning in clos e put his mouth against her ear.
    “Told myself I wasn’t going to do this tonight,” he said. “Clearly I lied.”
    “This is probably not a good idea,” she whispered.
    “Got a better one?”
    Therein lay the real problem, she thought. She didn’t have a better idea. Kissing Luke was far and away the best idea she’d had in years, maybe forever.
    She wound her arms slowly around his neck and smiled. “Nope.”
    He gave a soft, husky groan, and then his mouth closed over hers.
    Heat and sparkling energy crackled through her. He made the kiss last a long time, not rushing her.
    A slow hunger that had nothing whatsoever to do with peanut butter and crackers built inside her, tightening her lower body.
    She could kiss him like this for weeks or months at a time,” she thought, relaxing into the embrace.
    The sleek, muscled contours of his back felt wonderful beneath her hands.
    Experimentally, she slid her palms under his tee shirt and around to the front of his chest. She spread her fingers in the crisp, dar air she discovered there.
    “This,” he announced, releasing his grip on the counter to peel off the tee shirt, “is a whole lot bette han peanut butter and crackers.”

    He pulled her close a second time. First she felt his lips on, her throat. Her head tipped back. Then she felt his teeth. Thrill after thrill coursed through her. She had been wrong, she thought. She could not go on kissing him like this for weeks or months. If she did, she would suffer unbearable frustration. She needed much more, and she needed it right now.
    Obviously he was able to read her mind because the next thing she knew, his warm, strong hands were gliding downward toward the bones that defined the curve of her hips. He flexed his fingers, squeezing gently.
    He was so strong. He could break things with those hands. But he wouldn’t hurt her.
    She knew that intuitively in every fiber of her being.
    He touched her as though she were made out of silk and moonbeams, making her feel as though sh ere a rare and magical being, capable of sorcery. She sensed wonder and a deep, clawing need in him. No man had ever made her feel that she could cause him to shudder with desire.
    Excitement and a heretofore undiscovered sense of her own feminine power swept through her, a rus f pure, intense sensation that left her dazed and breathless.
    She let her hands drift down his sides until her thumbs slid just inside the waistband of his jeans. Slowly she moved her fingers to the front where she could feel the hard, shockingly masculine