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“No!” She blushed as they walked, the heat climbing up her neck to redden her cheeks. “I couldn’t be that impulsive.”
“For God’s sake, Nikki, why would I make this up?”
“I…I don’t know,” she admitted, wishing the holes in her memory would heal. “I realize I’m stubborn. ‘Strongwilled,’ I think my mother used to say, but I’m also somewhat methodical and careful, and I wouldn’t marry someone I didn’t know well.”
“It felt right, Nikki, so don’t beat it to death.”
“Okay,” she agreed, as they followed stone steps covered with sand. “Then what about you? You don’t exactly seem like the marrying type.”
“I’m not.” He lifted a shoulder. “But with you—” Hesitating, he stopped near a crooked palm tree and his hands slid up her bare arms “—I lost my head.” He said it with a sound of disgust. “Believe me, I tried to fight you, but—” his rough hands surrounded her arms and he pulled her against him “—I lost.” His lips clamped over hers and his arms slid around her. Warning bells went off in her head, but she ignored them and felt the barriers she’d so carefully erected against him begin to erode. His lips were magical and demanding, warm with the promise of passions yet untouched. She trembled slightly, and his arms tightened around her, dragging her close. “You’re a mystery to me, Nikki. I’ve never felt this way before. You make me do things that seem entirely irrational, and yet I do them willingly, eagerly, for you.” His face was a mask of perplexity, as if he couldn’t understand his own motives. “I thought when I met you that I would get you out of my system. We’d have a hot affair and that would be the end of it.”
“Is that your usual relationship with a woman? A ‘hot affair.”’
One side of his mouth lifted. “I don’t have ‘usual’ relationships. In fact, I don’t have any relationships at all.”
“Am I supposed to be flattered?” she asked, not trusting him for a minute. She tried to step backward, to put some space between his body and hers, but the arms around her tightened like iron bands, holding her close, refusing to let her go.
“I’m just answering the questions.”
“So you’re into one-night stands?” she asked, her voice breathless, her gaze searching his face.
“I’m not ‘into’ anything.”
“They’re not safe, you know. Not in today’s day and age.”
“Don’t lecture me, Nikki, ’cause it doesn’t matter. Until I met you, when I saw a woman I was attracted to, I ran like hell. The last thing I wanted in my life was any emotional entanglements.”
That much she accepted. But her heart was thundering and she couldn’t ignore the feel of his body pressed anxiously against hers. Through the soft barrier of their clothing, her flesh was warmed by his. “But you want me to believe we’re married.”
“We are.”
“I don’t believe—”
“Believe,” he commanded before kissing her again, his tongue rimming her lips, prying her mouth open so that he could taste all of her. Deep in a dark corner of her mind, she knew she should stop him, but she couldn’t, not when her skin was on fire, her blood flowing wantonly.
He crushed her to him and her breasts began to ache. His hands moved slowly and sensually up and down her spine, touching the sensitive area at the small of her back.
“This…this can’t happen.”
“It is happening.”
“No, please—”
“Listen, damn it!” he said, jerking his head back long enough to stare deep into her eyes. “I can’t tell you anything else. I can’t explain how it happened. It just did. It’s not as if this was planned, you know. I took one look at you and told myself to make tracks and quick, but for some reason, and I can’t explain why, I ran to you instead of away from you. Maybe it was because you weren’t interested at first.”
“I thought you said I was….how did you so romantically put it? So damned hot, wasn’t that it?”
“That was later.” He grinned, running a hand down her back.
“But not much later.”
“I kept pursuing you. You gave me the cold shoulder at first because of Neumann. You were still licking your wounds over him.”
Dave. Her throat caught. She’d thought she loved him, planned to marry him, but he’d never intended to walk down the aisle with her. She couldn’t remember their breakup, but suddenly felt the emotional abandonment, the pain and humiliation. Her memory teased her, rose to the surface of her consciousness only to submerge and leave her feeling raw and bereft.
“Are you saying I married you on the rebound?” she asked, her emotions electric and jumbled.
“I’m saying you didn’t want to get seriously involved, but I wouldn’t give up, and when things started getting hot and heavy, you insisted on marriage.”
