Lover Beware

That’s asking for trouble.”
    He was right, of course, so she wasn’t about to argue.
    “I needed some time, Jerry. On my own, okay? Besides, I’ve got backup.”
    “I had to wake up your backup. Lotta good he was going to do you.”
    Jerry scratched his head as he regarded her. “So you wanna tell me why you found it necessary to come out here alone?”
    “No.”
    “Same old Anna. As immovable as a brick wall.” He fingered aside a stray hair on her cheek, tucked it behind her ear. “Brings back memories. The two of us standing in the dark outside your apartment door and me wondering what would happen if I kissed you.”
    “The tough-ass D.A. Jerry Costos afraid to kiss a woman?” She grinned. “Hard to believe.”
    “I wasn’t a D.A. then.”
    “You are now.”
    “So how about it? Just a kiss for old times’ sake?”
    Lowering her gaze, Anna did her best to ignore the fluttering of emotion around her heart. “Hardly seems like the time or place.”
    He slid one hand around her nape, thumbed up her chin so she was forced to look into his eyes. “There never was a good time for us, was there, Anna? Both too damn caught up in our own careers and too narrowly focused on our own ideals to give an inch.”
    He pressed his lips to her temple—a warm sigh escaping him. “Okay, I was unfair. I screwed up. Maybe I didn’t realize just how much until now.”
    Anna backed away. Odd that she didn’t want to. Time and space should have eradicated the effect his touch had on her, and her need to give in to them. She tried her best to fight the familiar feelings of attraction…and desire…for Jerry. They had been good together—sexually. And, for a while, emotionally. Even now, in this horrible place that inspired fear and disgust—even with the lingering images of a victim and her killer still burning like acid behind her eyelids—she experienced a rush of old and unwanted emotions that turned her body warm, closing off her throat.
    How easy it would be to give in to them. Open her mouth under his. Relish the feel of his hands on her body—so pleasuring, gentle, and hungry.
    “Anna.” Jerry reached for her, fingers tenderly closing around her arm and pulling her close. “You haven’t a clue how I felt when I arrived at the hotel to discover you were out here alone. Jesus. I might be a D.A., but I’m a man first. Don’t judge or crucify me because I give a damn that you could be out here in trouble. Christ, I’ve lived the last years kicking myself up the ass that I drove you away. Every time word came down that an agent had been wounded or killed in the line of duty, I felt gut-punched with fear that it had been you.”
    Anna turned her face away, refusing to allow Jerry to see the emotions in her eyes.
    He tucked his finger under her chin and lifted her face. “I wanted like hell to get over you. I thought I had until I came face-to-face with you at J.D.’s place. I’d tried damn hard the last years to hate you for breaking my heart. And one look into your eyes blew that all to hell.”
    “Don’t,” she pleaded. “Jerry, it’s over.”
    “I don’t think so. I know you too well, Anna.” He pulled her against him, hard, those eyes that could cut through a perp’s heart and soul like a cleaver now centered on hers—smoldering and yearning, making her knees weak despite the war of refusal that was going on in her heart.
    “Don’t,” she repeated throatily, to no avail. His mouth slanted over hers with a purpose that drove her head back, kindling that hot rush of desire that had haunted her memory the last six years—awake, asleep, even in the arms of the few men with whom she had become briefly involved.
    His tongue raked the inside of her mouth, flirted with her tongue, drawing a groan from her that made the heat of the night intensify until sweat beaded on her body—hot pinpricks of pain that slid across her skin, making her shiver, making her tremble until, despite her denial, she lifted her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Body pressed against body, her heart pounding against his chest, the erection in his pants like hard burning lead against her loins. Another time, another place they would have fallen to the ground and made shameless love under the watching hot August moon.
    Oh, God, she was tempted. So tempted. His hand cupping her breast under her T-shirt, fingers sliding over her aroused nipples until they ached and strained so badly the pleasurable pain made