Call It Destiny

head.
    „I could have killed him,“ he ground out against her skin.
    „It’s over, Jake. It’s al! over,“ she crooned, understanding instantly.
    „Don’t ever do that to me again.“
    „Leave you? Or get into trouble?“ she teased gently, her nails making searing little paths over his back.
    „Either.“
    „I’ll try to behave more sedately in the future,“ she promised demurely.
    Her deliberate though light mockery was more than he could take at the moment. Forcefully Jake pushed his knee between hers, making her fully aware of his own state of readiness. She responded satisfactorily, catching her breath and making that soft feminine animal sound that he had learned last night fascinated him.
    „In the morning you’re going to come home with me,“ he told her between kisses. The soft satin skin of her stomach awed him.
    „Yes, Jake.“
    „No more running off to think things over,“ he continued. He trailed his palm down to the curve of her hip, delighting in the shape of it.
    „No, Jake.“
    „You and I belong together.“
    „Yes, Jake.“
    „I like the way you say that,“ he growled. „Heather, you make me go crazy, do you know that? Out of my head. I’ve never met a woman who affects me the way you do. God, you’re soft. So soft. Put your legs around me. I love the way you cling to me when you’re on fire. As if you’ll never let go.“
    „I won’t let go,“ he heard her murmur into his chest. „Ever.“
    This time he wouldn’t make the mistake of letting her think things over in the morning, he vowed silently. She was his and there was no point giving her any more rope. It was time to draw in the slack and let her feel the strength of the cord with which he held her.
    Perhaps it was the aftereffects of the traumatic evening events or perhaps he was always going to feel like this when he made love to Heather. Whatever the reason, Jake knew a throbbing excitement in every region of his body. Never had he been so captivated by a woman. After making her his last night he had known he would never be able to let her go. Memories of Rick Monroe in that cabin with her stormed through his head.
    „There won’t ever be any other men, Heather.“
    „No. Oh, Jake, I could never want any other man the way I want you.“
    He heard the promise on her lips and reacted to it with a surge of satisfaction that sent him driving into her soft welcoming body. She opened for him willingly, letting him know just how much he was wanted and needed. He reveled in the way she drew him even closer, her nails biting deeply into his back as her legs clung to his hips.
    If there was glory in the taking, there was undiluted pleasure in the giving, Jake discovered. He was enthralled with the way Heather trembled with passion in his arms. Every nuance of her response fed his own desire. When she tightened beneath him, arching her head back over his arm, he thought he would never know such satisfaction as he did in that moment. And then he reminded himself that he would have unlimited moments such as this in the future. She was his now.
    His own cry of release was muffled in her hair. Jake lost himself in the woman he was holding and it was a moment or two before he realized exactly what she was saying over and over again as they came down together from the heights.
    „I love you, Jake. I love you, I love you, I love you.“
    The litany caught at him. „Oh, Heather, Heather go on saying it. Just go on saying it forever.“
    But the exhaustion and the strain had crept up on her. The relaxation of the aftermath of their lovemaking claimed her completely. Smoothing the damp tangled hair back from her forehead, Jake gazed down at Heather as she drifted peacefully into sleep.
    She looked soft and trusting, the vivid awareness of the hazel gaze shielded behind bronzed lashes. In this moment she appeared as gentle as a kitten and about as physically strong. Yet she’d held on to that leather belt coming out of the stream as though she were some kind of superwoman.
    Jake watched her quiet features and decided that he was not very familiar with that kind of feminine power and uncompromising determination. Oh, he’d read the odd news account of a mother who had gone back into a flaming house to rescue a child, or the tales of women who, during wartime, fought alongside their men.
    It wasn’t that he’d ever doubted that the female of the species could be every bit as fiercely determined as the male. It was just