Because the look in her eyes from the moment he’d entered the room told him she was going to serve herself up to him on a platter tonight. She wanted him and he was desperate to see if fireworks shot off when he touched her.

If dy***ite exploded.

If the inferno still raged.

Which meant the last thing he needed to do was come on too strong. He knew Emma better than anyone else, knew it wouldn’t take much for her to run from him back to the safety of her boring, perfect little life. And then he would have lost his chance.

To take all that she’d withheld from him in college.

And then, hopefully, to forget all about her. Something he should have done ten years ago.

Standing on the edge of the lake where they’d shared so much, Emma had made her choice. “Now,” she’d said, but still he waited. He waited for her to make the first move that would seal her fate.

And he would keep waiting, even if it killed him. Because when all was said and done, he didn’t want to give Emma any cause to blame him for ripping apart her perfect little world.

He wanted her to know thatshe had destroyed her life all by herself.

Four

Emma stood as still as a statue, waiting for Jason to do something. Anything. Why wasn’t he kissing her?

Touching her?

A small tick at the corner of his jaw—the same one that she used to kiss away before a big test—was the only indication that he was the least bit on edge. The seconds ticked away and Emma held her breath.

Waiting, still waiting. And then Jason began to move away from her—it couldn’t have been more than a millimeter—but loss hammered her across the chest

She suddenly understood.Now wasn’t good enough unless she made it happen. She reached for him and then she was in his arms, held so tightly that she finally knew what safety felt like.

She was sick of waiting. Now or never was what he had said and he was right. It was time to leap into the unknown.

“Now,” she breathed again as she pressed her mouth to his. A shudder ran through her as his heart beat against her lips. And then he was slipping his tongue inside her mouth and Emma felt as if she were being devoured whole.

As Jason’s tongue found the sensitive corner where her lips came together, Emma threaded her hands through his thick hair and boldly pulled him down onto the damp sand. His weight settled hard over her and she arched her pelvis into the thick bulge between his legs.

He tasted like summer and wine and joy.

His hands worked up the front of her dress. Finally, God it wasn’t soon enough, he cupped her breast in his hand. Her nipple, already painfully aroused from their kiss, arched up into his palm. Jason’s thumb ran over the tight bud and pleasure overtook her. She rocked her pelvis against his thighs and knowing what she needed, Jason joined her rhythm, bucking against her.

And then his hands found the zipper on the back of her dress, and her shoulders and br**sts were bared.

“Touch me,” she begged, possessed by an inner wild woman who would stop at nothing in her quest for sexual satisfaction, but it was as if he couldn’t hear her, so intent was Jason’s focus on her nearly naked skin.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “So damn beautiful.” Emma had never felt so cherished before.

Never felt so lovely. Even though she didn’t believe him. She knew she wasn’t beautiful. But she still loved hearing her lover say it. Who wouldn’t?

But when the heat of his mouth covered one breast, his hand stroking the other, Emma stopped thinking.

Stopped second-guessing. She simply felt.

Felt his moist tongue through the sheer lace of her bra as he teased her beyond sanity.

Felt his large, magical hands—one cupping her breast, the other against her bottom—pulling her closer to him.

Instinctively, Emma wrapped her legs around his waist, unable to get close enough. Something was building up inside of her, something much more powerful than an orgasm.

Something more like an explosion that had the power to change her life forever.

Silently, Jason pledged allegiance to taking what Emma so freely offered with no strings attached. To sticking to his plan to show her what she’d missed out on and then getting the hell out of Dodge before the paint had a chance to dry.

But right now all he could concentrate on was the incredible woman who was coming apart in his arms.

The woman who made him feel things he had sworn to never let himself feel again.

After having spent the past decade steering clear of women like Emma, he now knew that it hadn’t mattered that he’d searched out plump, full women who were generous with not just their flesh, but their appetites as well. It hadn’t mattered that these women came from nothing like he had. It didn’t matter that they had said they loved him. Two called-off engagements said a heck of a lot more than words.

The truth was that Emma was the blueprint. And no one had ever come close to comparing to her

memory.

And now, Emma in the flesh.

Because during all the years that he had imagined what being with Emma again would feel like, the reality was above and beyond anything he could have ever dreamed up.

His hands curved over her small, perfect br**sts, and as he rubbed the taut peaks of her ni**les against his palms Jason couldn’t believe how good her curves felt in his hands. Her legs wrapped around him and he was lost, drowning in a violent need that he had never been able to transcend.

Her sweet tongue did crazy things to his insides, things he had never felt with anyone else, no matter how talented they were with their mouths and their bodies.

Erotic memories returned along with renewed desire.

“Remember how it used to be?”

His fingers began their slow descent from the center of her br**sts, past the small clasp at the front of her bra, and Emma’s eyes changed color as heightened awareness infused her.

“Remember how slow we went?” he said, letting his finger play down the center of her rib cage, around her neatly indented belly button. In college she’d never let him get very far, but he’d finally worn her down enough to let him pleasure her with his fingers. He’d promised her that she was still a virgin even if he fondled her, stroked her, made her cry out in his mouth. Jason had always prided himself on being a convincing guy.

Especially when he’d known just how bad Emma wanted it back then, how badly she’d craved those

stolen, secret orgasms.

Just like she craved one right now.

But he wanted to hear her say it. Admit how hot she was. For him.

“Do you want me, Emma?”