He chose his favorite path, the one that meandered up toward the mesa. All went well until they startled a doe and a fawn. Bursting out of a clearing in front of them, the deer flashed past them on a mad run to safety.
“Oh!” Jewel wrenched from his grasp and, snarling, dropped to all fours. She began to convulse on the dirt path in front of him, growling low in her throat.
“Jewel!” he told her, going to his knees in front of her and trying to gather her close. “Hang in there. It’s another seizure. You can make it through this.”
Though no doubt it was due to the effects of the attack, she bared her teeth at him and snarled a warning.
Ignoring this, he stroked her hair as another violent spasm racked her slender body. “Come on, honey. You’ll be okay. Relax, and it will pass.”
“Pass?” She gasped, writhing and clawing at the air. “I’m trying to control this, really trying. Damn!”
“Control this?” His ex had used a similar expression when she’d been struggling against her addiction. “Areyou using?”
“What?” She began to pant, short huffs of breath that reminded him of a woman in labor.
“Drugs. Are you using drugs?”
Doubled over, she groaned. “That again. Hell, no. For the last time, I am not on any type of drug. I only wish it were that simple.”
He held her—and his tongue—as she continued to struggle. Gradually, the tremors subsided and her breathing became normal.
Supporting her back, he helped her sit up. “Are you all right?”
“All right?” A single tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m about as far from being all right as I can be.” She buried her head in her hands, shaking. “God help me. I don’t know what to do anymore.” Her enlarged pupils and quickened breathing told him she battled the urgent desire that always plagued her after an episode.
“Let me help.”
Firsts clenched, she didn’t look up. “You can’t.” Her breathy voice belied her words and tugged at his own rising need.
“You’d be surprised.”
It was a measure of her desperate attempt to maintain control that she didn’t immediately take him up on his offer. Instead, her emerald gaze searched his face, as though trying to discern the hidden meaning of his words, while her chest rose and fell.
He wanted her to kiss him. Damn it, he craved her passion and her need and her body.
Forcing himself to hold still, he tried to wait. Surprisingly—or maybe not—he lost his battle for control before she did.
“Come here,” he growled, slanting his mouth over hers and kissing her hard, the way he knew she needed. She met him halfway, growling low in her throat as she tore at his clothes.
Cloth tearing didn’t matter. All that mattered was skin, his against hers, hers next to him. When he entered her, she was ready. She met him thrust for thrust, cry for cry.
When she clenched around him, he cried out her name. Their release came together, building until they shattered.
After, they held each other without speaking. One heartbeat, two, and he realized he wanted to hold her like that the rest of his life.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, her face against his chest.
Flabbergasted, for a moment he didn’t know what to say. Finally, he chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “No, thankyou.Jewel, I want us to be together.”
She went utterly still and, just as he had begun to curse his lack of eloquence, she shifted out of his embrace. She looked down at her hands, then back at his face. “You don’t know what you’re getting into.”
“Hey.” He brushed a wayward strand of red hair away from her cheek. “I’m a reporter. I’ve seen just about everything. I’ll take that chance.”
At the wordreporter,her eyes widened. “You can’t report on me, on this.”
“Not if you don’t want me to.”
She moved away again, and he saw she trembled. Had he frightened her? Wanting to soothe, he stroked her arm.
