Only 06 - Winter Fire

returned the caress, sliding over his hungry flesh. He guided himself to her, testing her readiness. As he stretched her, more of her intimate heat spilled over him.
    It was like setting fire to a torch.
    His body corded. He sank into her as far as he could go. He drank the startled, sensual cry she made before it went any further than her lips. His hips moved, thenmoved again, driving him faster, harder, deeper into her sultry, clinging center.
    Sarah’s legs tightened and her hips moved in return, urging him, arousing him until he knew nothing but the sensation of her living fire surrounding him. He wanted to slow down, to regain his self-control, but he could no more do that than he could resist the satin heat of her passion in the first place.
    Her nails sank into his thighs as she twisted up to meet him. The night came apart around him in a series of deep, wrenching pulses that left him shaken and light-headed, fighting for breath.
    Uncertainly Sarah held Case, stroked him, gently kissed his forehead and eyelids and lips.
    After a long time he lifted his head and looked down at her with glittering eyes.
    â€œDid I hurt you?” he asked.
    â€œI thought I was hurting you ,” she said unhappily. “You sounded like you were dying. Did I—did I disgust you again?”
    â€œDisgust me? What are you talking about? You’ve never disgusted me.”
    â€œNot even the first time we did this?”
    â€œYou couldn’t disgust me if you tried,” he said flatly.
    She let out a long breath of relief.
    â€œBut I’m disgusted with myself,” he said roughly. “I’ve never lost control like that. I’m sorry.”
    He gathered himself to get off her.
    Her legs locked around his hips.
    â€œYou said I didn’t disgust you,” she whispered.
    Case caught Sarah’s face between his hard hands.
    â€œYou don’t disgust me,” he said distinctly. “You excite me as no other woman has, ever.”
    â€œThen why are you going away?”
    â€œBecause I’m crushing you.”
    Smiling, she rocked her hips against him. The hot, delicious sensations that went through her at each movementmade her want to hold him even closer, deeper.
    â€œYou’re not crushing me,” she murmured. “You’re keeping me warm from the inside out. That’s a handy thing on a cold winter night. Would you like a job as my blanket?”
    He made an odd sound and lowered his face next to hers on the bedroll.
    â€œCase? Are you all right?”
    â€œNo. You make me want to…”
    His voice unraveled. He couldn’t explain the complex emotions seething just beneath his control.
    â€œâ€¦to laugh,” he said finally. “I don’t want to laugh, to feel, to love. Never again. I can’t .”
    Sarah was glad that the night concealed what his words did to her; pain and denial, anger and a savage kind of grief.
    And above all, acceptance.
    She understood what drove Case away from her, and why. She could not fault him for his choices.
    She loved him.
    â€œIt’s all right,” she whispered fiercely. “Laugh or cry or do nothing at all. This is just a dream, remember? Dreams don’t count.”
    As she spoke, her hips moved with a sensuous need that was unmistakable to Case.
    She still wanted him.
    A hot shudder racked him from head to heels. His heartbeat doubled. Blood raced through him and gathered in a storm, transforming him. His whole body tightened against her. He filled her until she overflowed.
    â€œOh, my,” she whispered dreamily. “That feels wonderful.”
    Her hips moved in counterpart to her words, stroking Case and pleasuring both of them.
    â€œSarah.”
    â€œMmm?”
    â€œYou’re burning me alive,” he said roughly.
    â€œIs that good or bad?”
    â€œAsk me again in a few minutes.”
    â€œWhat?”
    His answer was a kiss that filled her mouth as thoroughly as he was filling her body. He didn’t stop until she was breathless and twisting against him hungrily, seeking the ecstasy she sensed just beyond her reach.
    Only then did he roll away from her. Hastily he began stripping off the clothes he had merely unfastened before.
    â€œWait,” Sarah said urgently, reaching blindly for him. “Where are you going?”
    â€œNowhere. I’m as hungry as you are.”
    Belatedly she understood that he was simply taking off his clothes. Starlight ran