Opposites Attract

lips over her shoulder. “Cold shrimp.” He bit her tender bottom lip. “Mmm, that’ll do. Yes, for two.” As he dropped the phone back on its cradle, Asher found his mouth in a desperate, yearning kiss. “Food excites you?” he mumbled against the hungry lips. Struggling not to take her instantly, he ran his hand to her hip, kneading warm flesh.
    “I want you.” Her voice was low and throaty, her hands questing. “I want you now.”
    “Shh.” Slow, patient, his stroking aroused rather than subdued. “Relax. There’s time. I want to see you again.” He drew away from her. “Really see you.”
    She was burning for him. Now she lay naked and vulnerable under his gaze. As she watched, his eyes darkened, grew stormy. Her breathing quickened. When she reached out he took her hand, burying his lips in the palm.
    “You’re more beautiful than ever,” he said huskily. “It shouldn’t be possible. I’ve looked at you so many times and have been afraid to touch.”
    “No.” Asher pulled him to her until they were heart to heart. “I’m never more alive than when you touch me.” With a sigh Ty nestled down until his head rested between her breasts. Asher combed her fingers through his hair as contentment layered over desire. “Today, when I watched you playing Michael, I wanted you. Sitting there, surrounded by thousands of people in the middle of the afternoon, all I could think about was being with you like this.” She gave a gurgle of laughter. “Wicked thoughts, such wonderfully wicked thoughts.”
    “So your invitation to dinner carried an ulterior motive.”
    “In your weakened condition I knew you’d be a pushover, though I had thought I’d have to take you out and ply you with food and wine first.”
    “And if I’d refused?”
    “I’d have come up with something else.”
    Grinning, he lifted his head. “What?”
    Asher shrugged. “I could have come up here and seduced you before you’d gotten your strength back.”
    “Hmm . . . I almost wish I’d said no.”
    “Too late. I have you now.”
    “I could get stubborn.”
    Slowly she smiled. “I know your weaknesses,” she whispered, running a fingertip up the nape of his neck. His shudder was quick and uncontrollable. Leaning up, she took his face in her hands. Lazily she rubbed her lips over his, then deepened the touch into a kiss—a long, draining taste that left him weak. Her tongue glided over his, then retreated.
    “Asher.” On an oath he crushed her beneath him, savaging her mouth with a need that had risen so quickly, it left him dazed. He didn’t hear the discreet knock on the door, nor did he understand her murmurs.
    “The door,” she managed. “Ty, it’s room service.”
    “What?”
    “The door.”
    Laying his forehead on hers, he struggled to recapture his control. “They’re awful damn quick,” he muttered. He found he was trembling. How could he have forgotten that she could make him tremble? After letting out a long breath, he rose. Asher pulled the sheets up to her chin and watched him cross to the closet.
    A beautiful body, she thought, both proud and admiring. Long and lean, with a network of muscle. She looked her fill as he rummaged through his closet for a robe. Strong shoulders, trim waist, narrow hips and long legs. An athlete’s body or a dancer’s. He was made to compete.
    He shrugged into the robe, belting it carelessly. Grinning, he turned to her. Asher’s heart lodged in her throat. “Ty, you’re so beautiful.”
    His eyes widened in astonishment. Torn between amusement and masculine discomfort, he headed for the door. “Good God,” he said, making Asher smother a giggle. She brought her knees up to her chest as he signed the check at the door. In some ways, she mused, he was a little boy. To his way of thinking, the word
beautiful
applied only to a woman—or to an ace. He’d been more insulted than complimented having it applied to him. Yet she saw him that way—not only physically. He was a man capable of lovely gestures, a man unashamed of his deep love for his mother, unafraid to show tenderness. He had no cruelty in him, though on the court he was unmerciful. His temper was explosive, but he was incapable of holding a grudge. Asher realized that it was his basic capacity for feeling that she had missed most of all. And still he had never, in all their closeness, in all the months of intimacy, told her that he loved her. If he had once said the words, she would never