THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

vocabulary.”
    He took her hand in his, the same one she’d gnawed on a moment ago. “You think your mortality frightens me?”
    “I’ll grow old! Wrinkles and gravity and post-menopausal weight gain—”
    “Ah, yes. The aging process. Ainsley, have you forgotten that I’ve been there before? I cherished every minute of every day I had with Margitta, and she was never anything but beautiful to me. Never. I can assure you that the prospect of your aging holds no terrors for me.”
    “But it does for me!” she wailed.
    He turned her hand over and stroked the incredibly sensitive flesh of her palm, the pad of his finger moving in a slow, seductive circular motion. “Then I shall have to do as I did for Gitta, proving every day how lovely she was in my eyes.”
    Ainsley’s breath caught, partly at the sensations he was arousing from the brush of his fingers against her palm, but mostly at the idea of his making love to her like that, as though she were the most beautiful woman in the world. It took an effort of will to force her mind back to what she wanted to say.
    “In your wife’s case, I have no doubt that you succeeded. One look at that photo you keep in your bedroom and anyone would know she felt beautiful.”
    He’d adjusted his grip on her hand and his caress moved to the inside of her wrist. Her pulse, already hammering frantically, kicked up a gear. God, he must be able to feel it. Hell, he could probably hear it.
    Concentrate, Ainsley.
    “But if that relationship was so wonderful, why have you been alone so long?”
    His fingers stilled. “I believe I related the experience with Reina, did I not?”
    She pulled her hand away from his clasp. “I’m not buying it.”
    His eyebrows soared. “You doubt my veracity?”
    “Of course not. I don’t doubt your story for a moment. But clearly it was the result of an unfortunate set of circumstances. A long period of celibacy after your wife’s death, followed by a purely carnal encounter with a vampire groupie.”
    “Ainsley…”
    “Okay, okay.” She held up a defensive hand. “Negative characterization withdrawn. But the fact remains that you didn’t love Reina and she didn’t love you. You obviously had no such control problems with your wife.”
    “Perhaps it had something to do with the fact I was enjoying regular conjugal relations with my wife?” he suggested dryly.
    “What about us? You were able to stop with me,” she pointed out. “And your period of celibacy was much longer this time, correct?”
    A muscle in his jaw leapt. “Correct.”
    Her triumph at scoring the point sputtered, as the obvious occurred to her. “Unless—”
    “Unless what?”
    Oh, Lord, how pitiful was she? Ainsley lifted one shoulder in a stiff shrug. “Nothing.”
    He laughed softly, knowingly.
    No fair! Her chin came up. “Dammit, Delano, I thought we were going to stay out of each other’s heads.”
    He lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “I can state unequivocally that I did not find Reina remotely hotter than you, to use your own vernacular.”
    She gritted her teeth. “Well, here’s some more vernacular for you. Screw you, Delano . I don’t care what you find hot. Or who you find hot.”
    “No?”
    His gaze swept her face, dropped to the curve of her breasts, to her hands clasped so primly on her knees. His gaze traveled back up to meet hers. Without warning, his mind brushed hers in a sensual caress a hundred times more seductive than the one his fingers had bestowed on her palm.
    Oh, help! He was right there. His mind was right there, barriers completely down. She shuddered.
    “Don’t be frightened,” he coaxed. “Come in and see for yourself how much I want you.”
    Tentatively, she ventured further, instantly encountering a vast need, powerful and unquenchable. Moaning, she let it wrap around her, felt her womb clench and her nipples go tight with it. Heart pounding, she pushed deeper, then deeper still. And dear God, there was no end of it! A sixth ocean, unfathomable, endless.
    A hundred images washed through her mind, pictures of the two of them, limbs tangling, bodies joining in every way imaginable, and some she had never imagined.
    “Delano!”
    He laughed. “Need I point out that not all those erotic pictures were mine?”
    “Well, it’s not hard to isolate the ones that weren’t mine!”
    He picked up her hand again, brushing her knuckles with his thumb. “And did they offend you?”
    She let her breath out on a groan.