Cole had said they shouldn't worry about words. As he drew her close and his mouth took hers, Taryn couldn't help but agree. The time for talk and gibes and delays was over. When she'd said she hadn't thought this would happen, she'd lied, and not only to Cole. She'd lied to herself.

All barriers needed to be lifted. No matter the reason for them being here, neither of them was able to escape the fact that they were attracted to each other - sexually, intellectually. On every level she could think of, she found Cole...intriguing.

Make that irresistible.

And as she pressed into his heat and accepted his kiss, that was all her mind could grasp and hold on to. He may be mulish; there were times she'd like to grab his shoulders and shake. He could irritate her. Goad her. At the same time, he stimulated her so often and so deeply, there was a part of her that had begun to crave the sound of his laugh, the slant of his smile. The incredible way he made her feel inside and out.

She drove her hands up through his hair, letting him know he didn't have to stop. He could kiss her harder, if he wanted. The physical flesh-on-flesh pleasure he stirred up within her...the heady, almost desperate feelings that followed... People may have been making love since the dawn of time, but never like this. If the world were to end in an hour, she wouldn't care, as long as she spent these last moments here, with Cole, like this.

Cole had flicked open his shirt buttons and was rolling out one shoulder and then angling while he shucked out of the other. When the rock-hard breadth of his chest brushed her bodice, her body instantly responded, her breasts swelling and nipples hardening to tight aching points.

Running out of air, she broke their kiss long enough to suck down a breath then clutch the hem of her dress. His gaze dark and hungry, Cole reached to help. While he grabbed the fabric rumpled around her thighs, she lifted up and raised both arms. She wiggled, he wrenched, and a moment later she was naked from her panties up.

His gaze filling hers, he crowded her back until she lay against the blanket-covered dune again. Then his head lowered, his mouth covered the peak of one breast and his tongue began to twirl. When his teeth nipped twice quickly, a bolt of shimmering lightning ripped through her veins.

Groaning in her throat, she held on to his head as her own rocked to one side and she arched up to soak in as much of this heaven as she could. His palm had molded over her other exposed breast, tracing and tickling the bead in an expert, mind-bending way. As her hands knotted in his hair then trailed to knead either side of his broad steamy back, she trembled with an overwhelming carnal need. She had to discover all of him. Every inch. Every shape and line.

He was kissing her again, his palm ironing down her belly, in beneath the elastic of her panties. When he reached the feminine crease between her legs, he sighed into her mouth. It felt as if his every muscle relaxed and then contracted extra tight. As he murmured something against her lips, a phrase about how beautiful she was - how much he'd looked forward to this moment - a more cynical Taryn might think that those were the kinds of things men said when they made love to a woman. But in a place she trusted more, she knew that he meant it. And right now she felt beautiful. Beautiful and about to go up in flames!

She fumbled to grip the waistband of his jeans. Grinning against her mouth, he let her struggle while his fingertip rose up and down her swollen cleft. The crotch of her panties was soaked and he seemed intent on only making her wetter. Dabbing soft moist kisses on her chin, her cheek, on each side of her mouth, he drove a slow, burning circle around and over her clit. She couldn't contain the tremors...the soul-deep sighs. She wanted that smoldering bliss to go on and on, but she also wanted to feel and experience him.

"Take off your jeans," she told him.

He stole another penetrating kiss then assured her, "Soon, sweetheart, soon."

He shifted down, his lips trailing the slope of her neck, the aching mounds of her breasts then over her ribs and her ticklish belly. When he reached her navel, his tongue rode the same captivating circle his finger now drew. In her mind's eye, she saw his head working in a tight deliberate ring while the circling down below grew tighter, too.

Her shoulders hunching up, she reflexively pushed his head down. The next moment, the pressure of his finger was replaced by the adoring swirl of his tongue. Taryn gasped back a breath and when the precursor rain of stars settled, she began to move, her hips coaxed by his rhythm, her heart pounding in time to that constant pulsing beat.

Bit by bit, the factions of light building in every quadrant of her body began to glow brighter, and the heat condensing at her core smoldered to a point where any moment, she would catch on fire. Absorbing it all, she pressed down and into herself, her eyes clamped shut, her breathing labored. She thought he might back off a little, stop and start as a way of drawing her out. One half of her wanted him to do precisely that, while the other half dug in her claws and worked harder to find release.

Her hips moved faster. Biting her lip, she willed the looming orgasm to peak and break. Then, at the same time his mouth covered her completely and he began to lightly suck, she felt her lips eased apart and a long strong finger slip inside of her. When he applied the right amount of pressure to precisely the right place, a whirlpool of sensations flew together and magically fused. For a heartbeat, all feeling and thought were suspended, hovering in some far-off twilight universe. Then the explosion hit, shards flew out and a series of high fierce waves rocked every cell in her body.

* * *

Cole wasn't surprised her climax had come so quickly, that it was so intense. As much as he'd been driven by pure instinct these past few minutes, so had she, and the reward was complete immersion. Total release.

He'd loved the feel of his lips covering hers. He'd hardened to a brick when he'd tasted her breasts. But when his tongue had come in contact with this private slice of heaven, he hadn't known if he'd be able to hold off from ripping her panties completely off and, without patience or apology, driving his erection home. Given all the signals, she had wanted him inside of her that way, too.

But he'd held off, enjoying beyond belief giving her this pleasure. Now that it had come, he wanted to prolong her peak as long as possible. If his shaft hadn't been pounding away, he'd have happily stayed here all night doing only this. And as he withdrew his finger and felt just how intense her orgasm must have been, it was natural that he'd want to enjoy that, too. He nudged her thighs wider apart and settled his lips an inch or so lower. Her scent, mixed with that flavor, was wonderfully earthy yet intoxicatingly sweet.

Enjoying her this way, he felt the last of her contractions squeeze and pulse until, reaching to rub her fingers through his hair, Taryn hummed in her throat and urged him up.

Face-to-face again, she looked into his eyes and her slumberous gaze said it all. His lips wet with the taste of her, he traced them over hers then kissed her, at first very softly then more and more deeply. At the same time, he maneuvered until he was free of the rest of his clothes.

He always carried his wallet in his back pocket. Now he broke the kiss only long enough to find one of the foil wraps he kept inside the zipped section.

Spread out on their blanket, she reached her arms to him at the same time he moved to position himself. As her thighs wrapped around the back of his, he kissed her again and the engorged head of his erection pierced and at last entered her. Her head went back as she sucked in a breath while he clenched his jaw and every tendon in his body locked tight.

When he had the pressure under control, he began to move, his mind drifting, floating, as he filled more and more of her and his own sensations climbed.

He pushed up onto elbows and, eyes closed, drilled ever deeper while Taryn's fingers fanned over his chest and the bulging cords in his neck. Even though he knew there would definitely be a next time, and soon, he wanted this to last...the throbbing, pushing burn, the heavenly slide of her body beneath his. But the fire was too hot. His need for release too great. As he craned his neck toward the moon, she held on to his arms and he pumped a final mind-blowing time.