"I beg your pardon?" Jed responded.
"I said, it"s not as though I expected you to marry me."
"I heard you. I don"t get the connections you apparently think I should be making." He didn"t move from his chair.
"You know what I"m talking about."
"Do I?"
"Of course you do," she told him through set teeth. "I"d just like to point out that you have no right to act as if everything has changed between us. I"m the same woman I was yesterday and last week. You were more than happy to indulge yourself in a little affair with me then, weren"t you?"
"I sense a loaded question."
Amy was enraged. "This is not a joke."
"No," he agreed, "I can see that." He put down his mechanical pencil and leaned back in his chair to study her. "What is it, exactly?"
"Just tell me the truth, Jed. Does knowing about my past change everything for you?"
"Are you asking me if I still want you now that I know what happened in the caves?"
"It"s not just what happened eight months ago, is it? There"s also the small matter of a murder that took place twenty-five years ago. Then there"s the issue of a few emeralds. And maybe some espionage. We mustn"t forget that. Who knows what else is involved? The point is, I"m not exactly a sweet, innocent little ex-cheerleader, am I?"
Jed got to his feet now and walked toward the stairs. His eyes never left hers. "Amy, believe me. I was never under the impression that you were a sweet, innocent little ex-cheerleader." He started up the steps. "From the beginning I knew you were a sweet, innocent little science fiction writer who has an imagination about three sizes too big for her brain. I always knew it was the imagination that would get you into trouble."
"What"s that supposed to mean?" Uneasily Amy backed a step or two. Jed didn"t slow his ascent.
"It means you think too much."
"Jed, wait, we have to talk about this..."
He reached for her, catching hold of her wrist before she could escape. Slowly, inexorably he drew her close. "I don"t think this is the time for talking. Sometimes a man has to act."
"Don"t go all macho on me. I want to know the truth. I want to know what you really think of me."
"I"m going to show you what I really think of you."
He used his grasp on her wrist to tug her closer and then, before Amy could protest, Jed scooped her up in his arms. The movement was accompanied by a barely stifled groan. Amy heard it and was instantly alarmed.
"Jed, your ribs."
"Forget my ribs." He carried her down the hall to her room.
"You shouldn"t be carrying me like this. You"ll hurt yourself."
"I"ll survive. You can fuss over me later."
"Oh, Jed, I didn"t mean you had to... That is, I only wanted to find out if anything had changed between us because of what you know about me now."
"Nothing has changed between us." He walked through the bedroom door and tossed her lightly down on the bed. "We"ll get that part clear first and then we"ll talk." He started unfastening the b.u.t.tons of his shirt.
"Jed, are you sure? I only want to know the truth. Just tell me the truth."
"The truth about how I feel about you? Open your arms and I"ll show you the truth, Amy." He stepped out of his clothes and eased down beside her, his body strong and warm and powerful in the tropical moonlight. "Turn off that overactive imagination for a while and concentrate on how you feel, not what you think."
With a sigh of feminine surrender, Amy opened her arms and took his advice.
"But, Jed..."
He reached for her, shutting off the uncertain protest with a rough, hot kiss. Amy sighed softly, and Jed acknowledged his victory with a groan. He sprawled along the length of her, his weight crushing her gently into the bedding. She felt his knee edging between her legs and her thighs parted.
"You aren"t going to have any doubts about how much I want you," Jed muttered. His hands moved over her, exciting, probing, possessing. He was lying between her legs, his throbbing shaft pressed against her inner thigh. He reached down to moisten himself in the dew that was forming at the entrance of her soft sheath. "And there aren"t going to be any doubts about how much you want me, either, are there?"
"No, Jed." She arched against him, shivering when he used his fingers to stretch the opening and prepare the way for his penetration. "Please."
"G.o.d, Amy, I want you so much. Sometimes I think I"ll explode with wanting." His voice was a ragged whisper of need as he guided himself to the secret channel between her legs. He hesitated a moment longer, stroking the blunt end of his manhood through her dampness until he was wet and slick with the evidence of her desire and then, as if he could wait no longer, he drove himself into her.
Amy clutched at him, the muscles in her thighs straining as she wrapped herself around his body. Jed filled her completely, pushing out all the fears and uncertainties that had been plaguing her all evening.
There was nothing left but Jed"s undeniable desire. It flowed into her, mingling with her own and setting a torch to the already smoldering flames.
Amy gave herself up to the blaze, satisfied with the knowledge that on this level at least, nothing had changed between herself and Jed.
A long time later Amy stirred in Jed"s arms. A balmy ocean breeze caressed her relaxed, nude body, evaporating the last of the sensual dampness from her skin. Jed lay sprawled in luxurious splendor beside her, his leg over one of hers, his arm cuddling her close. "Jed?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you awake?"
He chuckled softly. "I"m awake."
She ignored whatever was amusing him. "There"s something I want to ask you."
"Ask."
"How long have you worked for the government?"
Whatever he had been expecting in the way of questions, apparently it wasn"t that. Amy felt him grow alert.
"Eight years, give or take a few months," he finally replied. "Why?"
"That"s a long time to be doing such dangerous work."
"It isn"t always dangerous. It"s just that once in a while things go wrong."
Amy took her courage in both hands. "Is that how you got into this job in the first place? Because something went wrong eight years ago? Did it have anything to do with your brother getting killed?"
He was silent for a moment and then slowly turned his head to look at her. "So. You"ve put that together all by yourself, have you?"
She couldn"t tell if he was angry or merely thoughtful. "You said things changed for you eight years ago.
Your engagement ended. Your brother died. And that"s when you started working for the government.
I just wondered-"
"Lord preserve me from a woman"s mind."
"You don"t have to tell me, Jed."
"The h.e.l.l I don"t. After all the secrets you"ve told me? You have a right to some more of mine."
"If you"d rather not talk about it..." She let the sentence trail off.
"I can talk about it." He paused. "To you." There was another long pause while he collected his thoughts.
"Andy was a government agent, though I didn"t know it at the time. My brother was a fine engineer and he used his work as a cover. It got him into a lot of hot spots without a lot of questions. He never came back from his last a.s.signment. I was told he was dead, killed by terrorists while he was shopping for souvenirs in the town near the construction site. I spent a few days looking for the bottom of a few bottles. When the government man showed up at my door I was not in a good mood. He took advantage of the fact and I let him."
"What do you mean?"
"He told me what Andy had really been doing and how he"d been killed by one of the men he"d been sent overseas to investigate. Then this nice man from the agency which had employed my brother offered me a chance at a little revenge. All I had to do was take Andy"s place at the construction site and make contact with the crowd Andy had been chasing."
Amy was appalled. "But you had no training in that sort of thing. You could have been killed. That agency had no business sending you in cold on an a.s.signment like that."
"The agency was desperate. As for me, I was more than willing to go."
"Because you wanted to avenge Andy"s death."
Jed nodded in the shadows. Then he said dryly, "As it turned out, I had a certain, uh, apt.i.tude for the work. Things went like clockwork. The agency got the information it needed and I got what I wanted out of the deal."
Amy shivered and touched him. There was no need to ask what form the revenge had taken. "And when you came home?"
"When I came home Elaine announced she had found someone else. I never told her the real reason I"d gone out on that a.s.signment. I postponed the wedding plans and let her think it was just another construction site job. But I think she knew or guessed that there was more to it than that. The way she looked at me when I came home..." Jed shook his head. "All I know for certain is that by the time I returned there was another man. I couldn"t blame her. I didn"t think I"d make a very good husband or father after what I"d done."
"You just made that decision all by yourself? Or did you get a second opinion?"
"No, I didn"t get a second opinion." Jed"s voice roughened. "I figured it out by myself. After Elaine handed me back the ring I was at loose ends for a while. I couldn"t seem to settle down. I kept thinking about what had happened to Andy and what I"d done because of it. Then one day the agency man was standing on my front step again. There was a little matter he thought I could handle for his employer.
Something for which my engineering background would make a first rate cover. It wouldn"t take long, he said. In and out. Very quick. Very neat. I went."
"And after that there was another a.s.signment and then another, right?"
Jed shrugged. "I told you. I seemed to have a talent for it. And..."
"And what?"
"And, in the beginning at least, I was naive enough to think I was needed. That I was fighting a small war that had to be fought."
"Of course you believed in what you were doing," Amy said promptly. "You"re not the kind of man who would do such things unless you thought they were necessary."
There was a gleam of interest in his eyes. "You seem very sure of that."
"I am sure of it. But eight years is a long time to do such things, Jed."
"I know. A lifetime."
Amy raised herself up so she could look into his face. "I know the feeling, even though for me it"s only been eight months. Maybe you and I need new lifetimes."
Before he could respond to that she leaned down to kiss him. Her fingertips trailed slowly down his chest and stomach to the softened shaft of his manhood. She felt him stir under her touch and then he was no longer soft.
"When you touch me like that," Jed muttered thickly, "the only lifetime I"m interested in living is this one.
You make my head spin, lady."
"I"m glad." She trailed her fingertips over him, teasing his hard, pulsing masculine flesh. She brushed her mouth against his throat. "I"m very glad I can make your head spin a little, Jed. It"s only fair, considering the effect you have on me."
He groaned as she drew a tiny circle on the inside of his heavy thigh. Then Jed reached for her, pulling her down and pushing her onto her back. He loomed over her for a moment, his eyes glittering with desire as he watched the mysterious feminine pa.s.sion take hold of her. With deliberate provocation Amy ran the sole of her foot down his calf. She clenched her fingers around his hard, muscled b.u.t.tock.
"Playing games?" Jed asked in a husky voice.
"Games you taught me."
"You"ve got the makings of a born tease."
"Possibly." Her eyes were brilliant as she moved enticingly under him.
"You"re not the only one who can play this game." Jed moved slightly and Amy sighed. He was just barely inside her.
When he didn"t go farther, she wriggled invitingly and tried to pull him closer. Jed ignored the summons, nibbling appreciatively at her ear. When he withdrew himself Amy clutched him.
"Jed, please." She lifted herself and Jed obligingly entered her once more. But he didn"t make any attempt to finish the job. Amy"s grip tightened demandingly. "Come here," she whispered.
"I want to watch you go wild." He repeated the teasing, tantalizing movements.
"I won"t go wild, I"ll go insane."
"Even better."
"Oh, Jed..." She grabbed him, wrapping her legs around him, sinking her nails into him, calling him to her with fierce, husky pleas.
"Wild," Jed muttered as he slowly and completely filled her. "Soft and wild." He stopped playing lovers"
games and let the pa.s.sion take hold.