He paused and grasped her behind her knees, pulling both her legs over his shoulders. “More, baby, need more of you,” he groaned in her ear.

“Then take all of me.”

His breath rasped as he began to thrust, each stroke pushing farther, forcing the breath from her lungs, whimpers from her throat. “That’s it. Oh, God, Kelsey.”

She wished wildly in that moment for mirrored walls. She wanted to see it as she felt it and heard it, wanted to feast her eyes on the sight of his ass flexing as he thrust into her, wanted to see herself practically folded in half before him and taking his entire magnificent length. The thought of it alone had her teetering on the edge of climax. She reached up and grasped his face between her hands.

“Evan!”

His fingers slid over her clit, rubbing deliciously. “Are you going to come for me again?”

“Yes yes yes…”

“Jesus, you’re perfect.” He reached up and grasped the headboard, trapping her that way with her legs over his arms. Anchoring himself, he gave her everything. Hard and fast the way she wanted it. And his angle…oh God, it was hitting the right spot, wrenching a cry from her each time he brushed it. He smiled down at her in pure male triumph, adjusting his speed and depth so that he struck it again, over and over, and then she was lost in another orgasm so severe it didn’t occur to her to do anything but grasp his hair and show him every way she could just how shattered she was. No hiding.

Somewhere in the middle of it, she felt him throb inside her, heard the growl tear from his throat, imagined him filling her up. It was sweet, so sweet, too sweet. It was something she wanted every night for the rest of her life. Him inside her. Leaving a part of him with her. She wanted to tell him she loved him so badly the words were like a monster in her chest trying to claw its way out.

They came down together, muscles relaxing and falling limp. Her knees slipped from his shoulders and she cradled his weight against her, stroking his sweat-slick back as he pressed gentle kisses to her lips, her cheeks. Her closed eyes. Gently, he withdrew from her and gathered her back into his arms, still prowling her body tenderly with one hand. She loved how he did that. It was so soothing after such a firestorm.

“It only keeps getting better,” she whispered into his chest.

He smoothed his palm over the curve of her hip. “I know.”

“It’s scary to think that…it can.”

“That it can keep getting better? Why is that scary, baby?”

She paused before answering. “It just is.”

And her heart ached, not with emptiness, but with the fullness he gave her. She was so confused. He’d promised to be her friend, to be there for her…but it wasn’t enough. She’d learned long ago that as beautiful as her feelings for him were, they were nothing if he didn’t feel the same.

The last thing she needed was another humiliation in her life. Which was the very thing she would be left with, if this didn’t progress. If it went no further, if it ended. At least if it ended now, before they went home, the humiliation would be limited to their intimate circle of two. If they braved the questions from friends and family, and endured the likely outbreak of scandal they would cause back home, and then it ended… Hell, she would just have to move back to her hometown. Married the groom, had sex with the best man…what next? Thank God Todd didn’t have a brother the vicious tongue-waggers could link her with. She could hear it now.

And it would end, wouldn’t it? She was sleeping with Evan Ross. She knew the consequences, knew the likely outcome, had seen it many times in the past…and still she’d done it. Why think she was any different than all the others? He claimed she’d been a fantasy of his and it had taken him ten years to realize it, but now that he’d had her, the mystique would wear off. Bumping their status from “friends” to “friends with benefits” was unacceptable to her now, even if there was a time she would have welcomed it, welcomed anything, any change.

She really could use a dose of his optimism right now, but his breathing was deepening and she wasn’t sleepy at all. Sighing, she kissed his cheek and rolled from the bed, thinking she would walk out on the lanai and watch the waves for a while. Maybe some sudden wisdom would come from the sounds and the power of the ocean…or maybe sleep would come, at the very least. Their vacation would be over before she knew it, and she needed to get her circadian rhythms back on some semblance of a normal track.

She slipped into her robe and padded into the silence of the living room, heading toward the sliding glass doors. The sudden chirping of her cell phone lying on the coffee table made her jump mid-stride.

A call at 10:30 p.m. was usually nothing to get in an uproar over, but when she considered the fact that it was 2:30 a.m. back home, her heart skipped a beat. She scampered over to grab her phone and checked the display, shaken by the thought of Lisa or her baby having complications. The number was not one she recognized, but bore the familiar area code and prefix of Mannville, their home. She answered with a clipped, half-panicked “Hello?”

“Kelsey?”

It took her a moment to place the quivering female voice on the other end. When she did, ice flooded her veins. It was Todd’s mother. “Sandra?”

“Honey, can you come to the hospital?”

Oh, God… “I’m out of town… Why? What’s happened?”

“Todd has been in a car accident.”

“Is he all right?”

“I don’t know—” She broke into sobs for a moment while Kelsey concentrated on keeping her own heart beating, her blood flowing. She’d cursed the man, hated him for what he’d done to her, but she’d never wanted something like this to happen to him.

Though she supposed it had sounded that way when she’d screamed at him that she wished he were dead. For the past few months she’d tried to forget his face, but it was vivid in her mind then, so clear he could almost be standing in the room with her. Smiling, laughing, full of life. And he did have a beautiful smile, an infectious laugh. Those were the first things she’d noticed about him. His manner with her had always been gentle and loving until he’d turned indifferent and unconcerned. Until she’d stopped making him happy.

Oh, Todd, what’s happened to you?

Sandra sniffled one last time and seemed to regain some of her usual composure. She’d lost her husband, Todd’s stepfather, to an accident just five years ago. She must be so scared…

“He’s still in surgery. He has internal bleeding. And I just…I’m all alone here.”

She would be, Kelsey thought. Todd was an only child. Grandparents were dead. Sandra had brothers and sisters, but they were scattered across the country. She sounded like she was in shock. “Sandra, I would come in a heartbeat, but I…I’m…” Out of town. Way, way out.

“That’s right, you said you were away. I’m sorry to bother you. I know things didn’t end well with you and Todd, but honey, I know he still cares about you, and I still consider you part of this family.”

“I know that. No matter what happened with us, I still care about him, too.” She cast a glance toward the bedroom, where Evan lay sleeping. Did he share that sentiment?