Charlotte’s mouth softened and opened under his. He felt her fingers tighten on his shoulders. A shiver swept through her. The knowledge that she was responding to him was making him reckless.
He eased his hands down her sleek back until his palms rested on the enticing curve of her hips. He cradled her snugly against his thighs. He heard Charlotte’s sharp breath when she felt his erection through the fabric of his jeans.
“What’s the matter?” he asked into her ear. “Didn’t you realize how much I want you?”
Her fingers clenched tighter around his shoulders. “It’s not that,” she said tightly. “It’s just . . . never mind.”
She kissed his throat and then he felt her teeth on his earlobe. There was a sense of urgency about her now, as if she was suddenly desperate to leap off an unseen cliff. He almost laughed.
“It’s okay,” he said. “We’ve got all night.”
“No,” she said. “We don’t. We need to do this now. Before I—Never mind.”
“Before you what?”
“It’s not important now.”
“Whatever you say. Maybe we should find a bed, first?”
“There’s one in my cottage.”
He scooped her into his arms and carried her up the front porch steps. She managed to find the key where she’d dropped it, fumbled, got the lock opened, and then they were inside.
“The lights,” she whispered. “On the wall.”
“Don’t need them,” he said.
“Oh, yeah, right, the night-vision thing. Wow, that’s handy.”
“Oh, yeah.”
He got her up the stairs to the second floor and down a short hall to a bedroom. There he fell with her onto the bed. He managed to sit up long enough to get her shoes and his boots off and then they were locked in sensual combat on the quilt.
She twisted into his body. He found the sweet, vulnerable skin of her throat. He was playing with fire but he was satisfied that he was still in control.
He removed her glasses and set them carefully on the nightstand. Without the crystalline armor of the lenses, she suddenly looked more innocent and vulnerable. It brought back a vivid memory of how she had looked that night fifteen years earlier. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“Ack.” She turned her head aside, batting at his shoulders with both hands. “Don’t do that. I promised myself you wouldn’t kiss me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you did that night. As if I were your kid sister.”
He grinned. “Trust me, I never thought of you as a sister, not fifteen years ago, not tonight.”
“You’re sure?”
“There are some things a man knows with absolute certainty.”
“Okay, then. If you’re sure.”
He kissed her on the mouth, letting the heat rebuild. When she groaned and shuddered beneath him he unfastened her sweater and peeled it off. He slid his hands under her blue pullover. The fine bones of her rib cage felt bird-light and bird-delicate under his big hands. Her breasts were small, full, firm, and ripe, the nipples like berries between his fingers. He squeezed gently and Charlotte seemed to levitate off the bed.
“Ah,” she gasped. “Yes.”
She got his shirt open, got her hands inside. When he felt her palms on his bare skin another wave of heat rolled through him.
He raised his head to look down at her. Charlotte’s eyes burned with passion. He knew that his own eyes were equally hot. The scent of her body acted like a drug on his senses, threatening to suppress what remained of his control.
He’d thought he could handle this, but things were getting out of control fast.
He could not resist moving one palm down to the crotch of her pants. He could feel her heat even through the fabric. He cupped her and pressed hard.
“Yes.” She clutched at him.
There was more than urgency in her hoarse voice now, he thought. There was an element of desperation. He did not understand it but the desire to sink into her was so strong now that he did not want to take the time to ask questions.
It wasn’t until he started to undo the fastenings of her jeans that he realized that his fingers were trembling and his mind was clouded with need. Shock slammed through him. The atmosphere in the small, shadowed room was too hot, way too hot.
His senses flared higher and suddenly he was far out on the spectrum, heading into the red zone, staring into the dark storm of psychic oblivion that awaited him.
He had to crank it down a few notches, he told himself. He could do that. Grimly he reached for and found his control. He was still rock hard, still ready to explode, but he was able to partially close down his senses. The dark storm receded.
He went back to work undressing Charlotte but he discovered she had gone very still beneath him. Her fingers wrapped around his wrists. She stared at him with wide, unfocused eyes.
“No,” she said. “No, that’s enough. Please.”
A flicker of raw panic shot through him. Had he hurt her?
“Are you all right?” he said.
“Yes, I’m okay. I’m sorry. It’s just that things are moving too fast here. I mean, we haven’t seen each other for fifteen years and now here we are in bed together.”
“I got the feeling a few minutes ago that you didn’t think that was a problem.”
“I’m really sorry. This is my fault. I know that.”
She sounded miserable. He leaned over her, resting on his elbows so that he could frame her face with his hands. “I’m not trying to assign blame here. I just want to know what’s going on. You went cold on me like a de-rezzed light. Something I did?”
“No, of course not. It’s me. My problem. I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing and tell me what the hell went wrong with the two-talents-stranded-together-on-an-island concept?”
“I thought that logic would work,” she admitted sadly. “I should have known better. I made a mistake. You’re not an easy man to read.”
“Care to explain?”
“Think about it, Slade,” she said earnestly. “This is a small community and you are the chief of police. That makes you a very high-profile person in town. For the next six months or however long you’re here, we’ll be running into each other at the post office, the grocery store, the coffee shop, the bookstore. You know how it is.”
“No. Explain.”
“It would be extremely awkward for both of us if we sleep together tonight and then in the morning one of us concludes that it was all a mistake,” she said.
“You suddenly decided that one of us would regret it tomorrow?”
She cleared her throat. “I’m not one hundred percent certain, but yes, I think there is a strong likelihood of that.”
“And you went with the worst-case scenario?”
She sighed. “Better to be safe than sorry. I think.”
“Which one of us did you decide was going to regret having sex tonight?”
“Does it matter?” She sounded anxious.
“It matters.”
She drew a deep breath. “Okay, then. You. You’re the one who would have regretted it. I think. Like I said, it’s a little unclear.”
For an instant he was too shocked to speak. After a couple of seconds he pulled himself together, pushed away from her, and sat up on the edge of the bed. He looked down at her.
“How the hell do you know that?” he asked.
She levered herself up on her elbows. “You’re sure you want to go into this?”
“Yes, damn it,” he said through his teeth. “Not like the mood hasn’t already been ruined.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess I owe you an explanation.”
“Yes.”
“A few minutes ago when you were running hot?”
“What about it?” he said. “You were pretty damn hot yourself, as I recall.”