Hidden Talents

me you were alone in the cave. They said you'd probably stop here on your way down.”
    “The last door,” Caleb whispered.
    “What?”
    “Forget it.” He reached for her.
    She didn't vanish.
    Caleb pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her scented hair. “I want you.”
    “I know. It's all right, Caleb. I want you, too. You must know that.”
    He lifted his head and looked down into her brilliant eyes. He was lost in the vision he saw there. “I need you.”
    She turned her head and kissed his throat. “Yes. I need you, too. It's time.”
    He swept her up into his arms, kicked the door shut and carried her down the hall to the bedroom. The beaded curtain around her bed glittered in the shadows.
    Caleb pushed through the sparkling curtain. It shivered like the water on the surface of a crystal spring. A thousand tiny glass beads clashed and chimed in the darkness.
    He fell onto the bed with Serenity in his arms. The force of his need made his hands shake.
    Serenity moaned softly. She burrowed against him with a hot, sweet abandon. Caleb's entire body tightened in fierce arousal. The smell of her, spicy and unbearably female, stoked the fires within him. With a groan he thrust his leg between hers and tugged at the sash of her robe.
    Beneath the robe Caleb discovered a warm, flannel nightgown. He struggled with it impatiently, shoving the hem up to Serenity's waist. His hand skimmed eagerly over her smooth, soft skin until he found the inviting nest of hair.
    She arched against him. “Yes. Please .”
    “Tell me,” Caleb muttered. “Tell me how much you want me.”
    “I can't. There are no words.”
    “Then show me.” Caleb took her mouth with swift urgency and slipped his fingers into her moist heat. “God, yes. Like that.”
    He moved his lips to her throat while he fought to lower the zipper of his jeans. Then he fumbled blindly in his pocket for the small foil packet.
    It seemed to take forever before he was ready, but in reality it was only a few damp, breathless moments. When he shifted position to settle between Serenity's legs, his foot thrust through the beaded curtain. The glass beads danced.
    “Caleb?”
    “Right here.” He felt the warmth of her soft, inner thighs cradle him. She was wet and ready and reaching for him.
    He had never wanted anything this badly in his whole life. He reached down to guide himself to the sultry entrance of her body. He groaned as he thrust slowly and deliberately into her.
    She was warm and slick and so snug that he could hardly breathe. Too tight.
    He heard her catch her breath, felt her stiffen as he sank deeply into her softness. He stopped, shaken.
    “My God, Serenity.”
    “No, don't leave me,” she whispered. “It's time. You're the right man.”
    “Are you all right?” he managed hoarsely.
    “Yes. Yes, I'm all right.” She wrapped her arms around him and lifted her hips. “It's just that I never dreamed it would be like this.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like finding the other half of myself.”
    He waged a monumental battle with his self-control, but it slipped from his grasp even as Serenity drew him into her. He held her more tightly than he had ever held anyone or anything else in his life.
    Triumph, satisfaction, a feeling of wholeness and a pounding sense of joy raced through him, a fabulous maelstrom of emotions that he could not begin to sort out. He didn't care. He only knew one thing for certain in that gloriously shattering moment, and that was enough for now.
    He was alive.

    The light moved like a shower of jewels across his face. Caleb sensed the various colors—amber, ruby, emerald, sapphire. It was a strange sensation, not unpleasant, just odd. He waited a moment to see if the feeling would pass. When it didn't, he reluctantly opened his eyes. He found himself lying in a pool of sunlight filtered through the veil of glass beads that formed the curtain around Serenity's bed.
    He turned his head and realized that he was alone. The sound of running water told him that Serenity was in the shower. For a moment he lay still, half afraid the memories of the night might dissipate like steam off a hot spring pool.
    But a reassuring sense of reality poured in along with the morning sun. He was definitely in Serenity's bed. The warm, rumpled sheets and the satisfaction that permeated his whole body constituted all the proof he needed that he had not been dreaming. He pictured Serenity in the shower and smiled. He sat up and