Only 06 - Winter Fire

in pale streamers over his skin as he lay on his back and twisted out of his pants. Still slick with her passion, his hard, aroused flesh glistened against the night.
    He looked huge.
    â€œDear God,” she whispered, stunned. “Was all that inside me?”
    Case made another odd sound, laughter or pain or both at once.
    â€œEvery bit of it,” he said in a low voice.
    Even darkness couldn’t conceal the widening of Sarah’s eyes.
    â€œI don’t believe it,” she said.
    â€œI do. You liked it, honey. You twisted up against me like a cat, wanting more, but I lost control before I could give you what you need.”
    She reached toward his hard, intimidating arousal. Then she stopped short.
    â€œMay I…touch you?” she asked uncertainly.
    Something very close to a smile gleamed in the moonlight as he looked at her.
    â€œAnywhere you like,” he said. “Anyway you like. But would you mind sharing those blankets first? It’s cold out here alone.”
    Trembling with sensations that were neither entirely fear nor wholly pleasure, Sarah lifted the blankets in silent invitation.
    She still couldn’t believe that she had held all of him inside her body without being torn apart.
    There was a rush of cold air and then Case was beneath the blankets with her. She lay on her side, facing him. At first his skin was cool against hers. Then it became deliciously warm.
    Slowly, thoroughly, he gathered her close, putting the naked length of their bodies together for the first time. His blunt arousal lay against her stomach like a length of warm rock.
    â€œDear Lord,” she breathed. “There is an awful lot of you.”
    Though he made no sound, his shoulders moved in what might have been silent laughter.
    â€œNo more than there was before,” he finally whispered against her lips.
    â€œIt’s hard to believe.”
    â€œIt’s hard, period.”
    â€œI noticed.”
    â€œThat’s why women are so soft,” he murmured.
    â€œAs in the head?” she whispered tartly. “So that we’ll let men put that great hard thing inside us?”
    Again his shoulders moved.
    Again Case made no sound.
    â€œYour head is harder than mine,” he whispered after a moment.
    â€œHa!”
    â€œIf you don’t believe me…”
    His fingers closed around hers. He pulled away just enough to guide her hand down his body.
    Sarah’s breath came in with a startled sound as he stroked her fingers from the smooth, blunt head of his erect flesh to the hot thatch of hair at the base.
    â€œSee?” he asked huskily. “Not so hard after all.”
    â€œIt’s as hard as stone.”
    â€œStone doesn’t have a heartbeat.” He wrapped her fingers around him. “I do. Feel it.”
    The pulse of his life’s blood beat unmistakably against her palm.
    The wonder of it took her breath.
    Curiously she explored with her fingertips the strange flesh that was both rigid and alive.
    â€œSleek satin here,” she murmured, caressing his tip, “and so different down here. Not rough. Just…different.”
    As she combed gently through his dense hair, she discovered another way that men were different from women. She curled her fingers around the tightly drawn spheres and at the same time smoothed her palm over the heartbeat hidden within stone.
    His breath came in on a husky curse and a ragged prayer.
    â€œAre you sure I’m not disgusting you?” Sarah asked anxiously.
    â€œDamned sure.”
    Still, she hesitated.
    â€œDoes this disgust you?” Case asked.
    His hand slid down between her legs. He threaded through the hot nest of hair and found the slick, aroused flesh beneath. Deliberately he circled the sultry opening.
    Her breath broke.
    â€œDoes this disgust you?” he asked again.
    â€œYou must be joking,” she said, trembling. “Don’t you know how good it feels to me?”
    â€œDoes it?”
    â€œDear God, yes.”
    â€œThat’s how it feels to me,” he said. “Good. So good. And this is even better.”
    He parted sleek folds of skin and teased her until she made a broken sound. Silky heat licked over his hand.
    â€œPure fire,” he breathed. “God, I love feeling yourresponse. How could something so generous disgust me?”
    Sarah didn’t answer. She couldn’t. His thumb was rubbing against the coiled knot of her