A Man Like Morgan Kane (16 page)

Being in his arms was such sweet torment, such unbearable ecstasy. She trembled, her body quivering from head to toe.

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He knew she was remembering, just as he was, that night in his apartment, when they'd made love for the first time. He had never wanted a girl the way he'd wanted Beth. He had waited for her, been as patient as he knew how to be, coaxing her slowly to surrender to his desire. But in the end, her passion had been as great as his. And in all her sweet, loving innocence, she had given herself to him, and nothing—absolutely nothing—had ever equaled what they'd shared.

The repetitive drumbeat escalated, building the tension as the plaintive words of Seger's love song wrapped themselves aroundBethany's heart and bound her to Morgan as securely as his strong arms did.

"This was our song." Morgan nuzzled her ear. "I've never forgotten the way you looked that night or the way you cried out my name … or what it felt like to be your first lover." He kissed her neck. She sighed.

"Your only lover."

The music softened, the drumbeat fading to a hushed plea.Bethany's heartbeat accelerated to a deafening roar. Gradually the music swelled and expanded, growing again into a resounding combination of drum, piano and Seger's lonely lament. "Stay with me, Beth," Morgan had said that night. And she had stayed, asking for nothing more than to be with him. She had thought it would be forever. She'd been wrong.

Morgan turnedBethanyin his arms, lifting her up off the patio floor until her small feet dangled in the air.

She clung to his big, broad shoulders as he lowered his head and took her mouth in a breath-robbing kiss.

I have to stop this before it goes any furtherwas the lastcoherent thoughtBethanyhad before her own long-denied passion claimed her.

Chapter 7

«^»

Blossoming like a withering flower drawing in the life-giving nourishment of the rain,Bethanyresponded to his kiss. Her body wrapped itself around his, clinging, pressing, longing for a remembered pleasure.

Opening herself up to him, she accepted his thrusting tongue inside her mouth. She trembled when he cupped her hip, drawing her intimately against his arousal.

The kiss consumed her. Consumed him. They became the kiss. The kiss became them. Joined together in the intensity of their mutual need, they hurled headlong into dangerous waters, the hazardous depths of desire.

Morgan lifted her up and into his arms without breaking the kiss. He carried her across the patio and laid her down on the wrought-iron chaise longue. Easing her onto her side, he wedged himself alongside her.

He explored her body with hungry hands, feasting on the silken feel of her soft flesh. She jerked his tan cotton shirt from beneath the waistband of his jeans and slipped her hands up and over his broad back.

Morgan broke the kiss. Both of them gulped in air. He blazed a warm, moist trail down her throat, across from one shoulder to the other, and then his tongue slid inside her halter top, dampening the crevice between her breasts. Moaning,Bethanylifted her hips, pressing her femininity against his sex.

Skimming his fingertips up and under her skirt, along the satin skin of her thigh, he returned his mouth to
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hers, drinking in her sweetness.

While he nipped at her bottom lip, he cupped her breast, squeezing gently. "I want you," he groaned the words. "Here. Now."

His big, nimble fingers loosened the ties on her wraparound skirt just as he drew the tip of her breast into his mouth, suckling through the thin barrier of the material covering her.

Instinctively she unbuttoned his shirt in her need to eliminate any barriers between them. When she touched his lean belly, he sucked in his breath.

Longing for Morgan's possession,Bethany's body wanted to surrender, wanted to succumb to his masterful seduction. Like a dormant creature awakening from a decade of sleep, sexual desire emerged from the depths of her celibate body, ravenous, demanding and dangerous.

"Please, don't do this to me," she begged, but her hands asked for more as she stroked his chest, her fingers threading through the thicket of brown hair. Her mind warred with her body, her reasoning struggling to overpower her physical needs.

"I'm not doing anything you don't want me to do, Beth, and you know it." Gliding his hand between her legs, he fondled her. When she cried out, he captured the sound with his month and adeptly eased his fingers inside her red bikini bottom. "You want me. You need this as much as I do."

"We can't." She pushed halfheartedly against his chest."I can't. Anne Marie is—"

"In her room," Morgan said. "She isn't going to disturb us. Don't use your daughter's presence as an excuse."

"Please. I—I can't let this happen." She grabbed the front of his shirt, her fingers curling around the material, bunching it into wrinkled wads.

"Why not?" He stroked his index finger across her sensitive nub and was rewarded with a rush of moisture. "You're hurting, honey. And I can ease that hurt."

She could give in so easily to what he wanted—to what she wanted. Heaven knew Morgan Kane was the one man on earth to whom she'd never been able to say no. She wanted him now more than she'd ever wanted him. Her woman's body longed for the fulfillment he alone could give her. Physical relief was easily achieved, but ease for a heart's aching loneliness, for asoul's starvation required the complexity of love and passionthat she had found with no other man.

His touch tempted her almost beyond reason. But as tempted as she was, as close to the edge as he'd brought her, she could not escape an inevitable truth. Morgan Kane had nearly destroyed her once, and it had been his fault. She'd been young, naive and trusting, and he'd used her. But she was a mature woman now, a wise and cautious woman. If she allowed him to use her, cast her aside and destroy her emotionally, she'd have no one to blame but herself.

To Morgan their mating would be a physical act; to her it would be so much more. Could she give herself to him again, with no promises, without any pledge of love? Could she accept this for what it was and not want more?

No! She couldn't. She didn't dare.

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Bethanyshoved against him, harder and harder. "I'm not ready for this," she told him. "I can't—"

Removing his hands from her body, he rolled over and off the chaise longue. Standing up, he turned his back to her. "Deep down inside, you're still the same, aren't you, Beth? You want all or nothing. You'll deny us both what we so desperately need because you still can't separate sex from love."

No, I can't! she screamed silently. Damn you, Morgan! Damn you for making me care. She wanted to hurl herself against him, to beat her fists into his big, broad back.

Bethany eased off the chaise longue, picked up her skirt and walked away without looking back, leaving Morgan alone on the patio. Music from the CD player belted out a recent Seger hit tune, his gravelly voice filling the night air. She slammed the kitchen door behind her, then leaned back against it, her body trembling uncontrollably. Willing herself not to cry, she stood there shaking, holding all the pain inside her.

Morgan stripped off, down to his black swim briefs, tossed his clothes onto the patio floor, then dove into the pool. He swam from one end of the Olympic-size pool to the other and back again. He was aroused and hurting, in physical misery. Anger swelled up inside him, needing a release. And somewhere in the vicinity of his heart, he felt a few aching twinges.Bethanywasn't the only one who hadn't changed.

Around her, he was still the same greedy, insensitive bastard he'd always been.

His sleek, superbly toned body sliced through the water. He was physically and mentally in perfect harmony with the aquatic environment, which was like a second home to him. He continued making the trek, back and forth, again and again.

Knotting her shaky hands into fists,Bethanysucked in several deep breaths, then turned around and glanced out the window. She watched Morgan's big, muscular body cut through the water, forcing onward as if battling his aqueous surroundings. Instinctively she knew that he was hurting, just as she was

… frustrated by their unfulfilled desire. And he was angry, too. Angry that she had denied him.

An almost uncontrollable urge to go to him overwhelmed her. It would be so easy to open the door, walk across the patio and dive into the pool with him. As she watched him trying to exhaust himself, she laid her hand on the window frame and pressed her forehead against the pane. She could strip off her bikini and dive into the water, naked and ready for his possession. He would come to her, pull her into his arms and devour her with his mouth.

Bethany's body throbbed. Her breathing quickened. Closing her eyes to shut out the sight of him, she covered her lips with her clenched fist and moaned silently.

Pulling herself away from the window, she eased backward, her vision still focused on the man in the pool. Don't do this to yourself! Don't tempt and punish! Don't long for something that can never be yours.

Morgan doesn't love you. He never did.

She raced up the back stairs and into her room, leaving her door slightly ajar. Once safely inside the privacy of her bathroom, she stripped off her bathing suit, turned on the shower and stepped beneath the needle-sharp spray. Lathering her hair, she washed and rinsed it hurriedly, then squirted scented liquid soap into a net sponge and ran it over her arms and across her breasts. Her nipples hardened to diamond points, and for one brief moment she could feel Morgan's mouth on her breast. Sensual quivers spread from her breasts to her feminine core. The desire she was trying so hard to wash away consumed her.

* * *

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Morgan dragged himself out of the pool. He had hoped to exhaust himself, to drive the desire from his body and the anger from his heart. Anger turned inward on himself. But it wouldtake many more laps in the pool to tire him enough to sleep, toenable him to rest.

He picked up his discarded clothes, lifted his gun holster from the table and went inside the house. After checking the security, he opened the refrigerator and retrieved the half-full bottle of wine left over from dinner. Even ifBethanykept anything stronger in the house, which she didn't, it would be off limits to him.

He could function well enough to protectBethanyafter finishing off the wine, but he wouldn't be worth a damn if he got really soused.

When he passed her room, he noticed the partially open door. If he were a gentleman, he'd knock on the door and when sheresponded, he would apologize for trying to ravish her. Hestopped outside her room, one hand gripping the wine bottle, the other reaching for the doorknob. Easing open the door, he peered inside and drew in a deep breath at the sight of Bethanyemerging from the bathroom, totally naked, her long, damp hairclinging to her shoulders.

His sex hardened instantly, and it was all he could do not to storm into the room, grab her, throw her on the bed and bury himself deeply and completely inside her.

Her full, round breasts beckoned his mouth. Her curvaceous hips and buttocks begged for his touch.

And the dark triangle of curls that pointed the way to her femininity tempted his throbbing sex.

He turned and walked across the hall, his body tense and aching, his mind calling him a fool. He left the door open, but didn't turn on the light. Dumping his clothes in a heap on the floor, he swallowed hard, willing himself under control. He set the wine bottle on his nightstand, then went into the bathroom, stripped off his swim briefs and turned on the shower. As the lukewarm spray hit his aroused body, he shuddered, memories ofBethany's nakedness exciting his senses. Lathering his body, he scrubbed his skin, all the while wishing the hands cleansing his body were Bethany's and not his own. He lingered over the lower part of his body, thinking ofBethany, of thrusting, pumping, exploding. Shuddering from head to toe, he spread out his hands and pressed his palms against the ceramic wall.

What he wanted wasBethany, crying out her pleasure, calling out his name. And sooner or later he would have her again.Even if it had to be on her terms!

* * *

Bethanyslept fitfully all night. Tossing and turning for hours, she finally got out of bed before daybreak.

After freshening up, applying her makeup and dressing, she started downstairs, but stopped abruptly when she heard Morgan stirring about in his room. Spread out on the floor, he lifted and lowered his big body as he did push-ups. The muscles in his arms bulged as he repeated the exercise again and again, not even breathing hard.

She stood there, immobilized, watching him, mesmerized by the beauty of his perfect physique. He was naked except for his black cotton briefs that hugged his lean hips and round buttocks. Fine swirls of light brown hair dusted his legs and arms.

He'd always been a big man, long and lean and muscular, but the twenty-two-year-old she'd known and loved so long ago was gone, replaced by this prime physical specimen with a body honed by a warrior's endurance.

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If he saw her watching him, he didn't let on in any way. Perhaps he was too engrossed in his exercise to notice a voyeur. She shouldn't punish herself this way, watching when she knew it would be deadly to touch.

She walked downstairs quietly, feeling her way through the dark house until she reached the kitchen.

Flipping on a light switch, she crossed the room and immediately prepared the coffee machine. Checking the wall clock with her watch, she groaned when both timepieces agreed that it was5:45.The
Birmingham News
should have run by now. She just hoped there wasn't another article about Jimmy's murder or one about her awaiting a grand jury date.