Only 03 - Only You

make her more comfortable. It simply gave her a better view over the ashes of the campfire.
    Reno’s powerful, broad-shouldered silhouette was looming unmistakably against the stars. His bare chest and feet were a lighter shade of darkness. Obviously he was ready for bed but not ready for sleep.
    Reno was standing quietly, watching Eve rather than the slow wheeling of the stars overhead. She wondered where he had been, and why he had told her to go to sleep when he walked out of camp alone, and if he knew she was awake now.
    Then he spoke to her, answering one question; he knew she was awake.
    “Can’t sleep?” Reno asked in a low voice.
    “No,” Eve admitted.
    He walked over and sat on his heels next to her bedroll.
    “Know why?” he asked.
    She shook her head and asked, “Can’t you sleep?”
    “No.”
    “Know why?” she asked, echoing him.
    Reno’s smile flashed faintly in the starlight.
    “Yes,” he said.
    “Are you worried about Slater?”
    “I ought to be.”
    “But you aren’t?” Eve persisted.
    “Not enough to keep me awake.”
    “Then why aren’t you sleeping?”
    “You.”
    Eve propped herself up on her elbow and stared at the darkness and thin starlight that hid as much as they revealed of Reno’s expression.
    “Am I that noisy when I roll over?” she asked wryly.
    He laughed. “No. You’re as graceful and quiet as a cat.”
    Eve waited, watching him with eyes thatgleamed in the dim light.
    “But every time you move,” Reno continued, “I get to thinking how warm you are under the blankets, and how much I’d like to be lying beside you, touching all that sweet warmth.”
    “I thought you didn’t want…” Eve’s voice faded.
    “You?” Reno asked.
    “Yes,” she whispered. “You hardly even looked at me while we made camp.”
    “I didn’t dare. I wanted you too much.”
    “Why does that make you angry? Do you think I’ll refuse you?”
    Reno let out his breath in a stifled curse.
    “I haven’t been like this since I was a boy,” he said roughly. “I don’t like it one damn bit.”
    “I’m not teasing you. I lov—” Eve corrected herself instantly, “I want you too much to be a good tease.”
    She held the blankets aside in silent invitation.
    “You’re tired, and so am I,” Reno said in a curt voice. “Tomorrow is going to be another long day. I should have enough self-control not to bother you.”
    “I want you,” she repeated.
    “Eve,” Reno whispered, trying and failing to control the wild rush of heat that had taken him at her words.
    With an almost soundless groan of hunger and need, he knelt and then stretched out next to Eve beneath the blankets. She felt the fine trembling of his hands on her face and was amazed that she could affect his strength so much.
    “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said hoarsely. “I want you so damn much, and you were so tight.…”
    “It’s all right.”
    Eve moved her head, kissing both of Reno’s hands in turn while he breathed her name into the fragrant warmth of her hair.
    “It’s all right,” she repeated with each brush of her lips over his skin. “I want to be a part of you again.”
    “Sugar girl,” he whispered. “Sweet and hot.”
    He discovered within the yielding luxury of her mouth a feminine hunger and demand that raced through his blood and brain like straight whiskey. The kiss began gently but quickly changed, becoming a hungry, searching prelude to the deeper joining that would soon come.
    Reno tried to rein in the wild need that had been eating at him since he had first tasted Eve in the liquid embrace of the pool, but control kept sliding away from him. He took the velvet heat of her mouth with deep, repeated movements of his tongue, probing and stroking, wanting her with a violence that was like nothing he had ever known before.
    When Reno finally forced himself to end the kiss, he was wholly, painfully aroused. He braced himself on his elbow and closed his eyes, fighting for control.
    It was impossible. Every breath he took was infused with the delicious scent of lilac and a woman’s secret warmth.
    “Reno?”
    The huskiness in Eve’s voice was another caress, making him want to groan. He touched her cheek with fingers that weren’t entirely steady.
    “I hope you want me half as much as that kiss suggested,” he said in a low voice.
    Eve took his hand and slowly moved it down to her breasts. Reno’s breath broke when he felt the nipple changing at his touch, becoming