The Private Eye

eyes. “It's your choice, Maggie. If you'd rather wait, we'll wait. I'll understand. It's the way I had planned things in the first place. I don't want to rush you.”
    She took a breath and shook her head. “No. I don't want to wait.”
    “I'm glad,” he said simply and slid the robe from her shoulders.
    Maggie trembled when Josh started to lift the nightgown over her head.
    “Relax, sweetheart. This is going to be very good. For both of us.” Josh dropped the nightgown onto the floor and stood looking down at her. He plucked tenderly at first one budding nipple and then the other. “Don't be nervous.”
    “It's not that.” She hugged herself, shielding her breasts from his inspection. “I'm cold. That's all.”
    “Then why don't you get under the covers?” Josh lifted the quilt, inviting her into the cozy warmth of the big bed. “I'll build a fire.”
    She tingled under the heat of his gaze as he watched her scramble into bed. She pulled the sheet up to her chin. Maggie wanted to be nonchalant about it but she knew her swift dive for cover only betrayed her tension. She wasn't accustomed to having a man warm her naked body with his eyes alone, the way Josh had done.
    Safely ensconced under the covers at last, she watched as josh went over to the stone fireplace, knelt down on one knee and expertly lit the kindling beneath the logs. Flames crackled to life.
    Josh stared into the fire as it began to burn. “You're beautiful, Maggie,” he said at last without turning his head. “Did I tell you that?”
    “No.” She was curiously touched. The sincerity in his voice was bone-deep. Josh was not one to hand out compliments lightly. “Thank you.”
    Josh got to his feet. “I just wanted you to know. Someone told me once that I wasn't very good with women. I'm not romantic enough, or something.”
    Maggie swallowed heavily. “I think you're the most romantic thing that's ever happened to me.”
    Josh studied her for a moment and then he smiled slowly. “You mean that?”
    “Yes.”
    “I'm glad.” He flipped off the wall switch, plunging the room into intimate shadow. The light from the fire bathed the bed in a soft, golden glow.
    Silhouetted in the firelight. Josh unfastened his jeans and peeled them off. His gaze never left Maggie as he kicked off the briefs he wore underneath and walked to the bed.
    Maggie looked up at him, transfixed by the evidence of his arousal. He wants me, she thought. The knowledge filled her with sensual assurance and a glorious feeling of her own power as a woman. She stopped clutching the sheet and held the covers back.
    “I only came here for a good-night kiss.” Maggie smiled at Josh as he slid in beside her.
    “It's going to be one hell of a kiss.” He put his hand on her bare shoulder and stroked slowly down her side to her hip.
    Everywhere he touched her. Josh's fingers burned her skin. The fire pulsed through her, sending her senses spinning with a restless, excited energy.
    But then Maggie relaxed completely as Josh pulled her close. The last of her tension and lingering uncertainty vanished, to be replaced by a growing passion.
    This was right, she thought as her head fell back across his arm. This was what she had been waiting for all her life. Josh was the hero of her dreams.
    She gazed up at him from beneath her lashes as he leaned over her. With questing fingertips she explored the muscular curve of his shoulder and the strong planes of his chest. She loved the feel of him, loved the power and the strength of him.
    Maggie kissed Josh's throat and heard him groan in response. Then his leg was sliding between her thighs again and this time there was no denim to get in the way.
    “So beautiful,” Josh muttered, his lips on Maggie's breast. “So full of heat. I need your fire to warm me. Sometimes I think I've been cold forever.” His hand slid down over her stomach and then lower still.
    His fingers threaded through the tight curls. “Open for me, sweetheart. Take me into your warmth.”
    A knock on the door came just as Maggie started to part her legs for Josh's touch. “January? You in there, man?” the Colonel called softly.
    “Hell.” Josh groaned and rested his forehead on the hollow of Maggie's shoulder. “I don't believe this. Say it isn't so.”
    Still disoriented from the riot of excitement and passion that was singing through her, Maggie cradled Josh's head in her hands and stared up at the canopy. She tried to figure out what was