“Tell me about your family,” she said softly, toying with the sheet he’d drawn over them both. The comforter had long since hit the floor, and most of the pillows were scattered around the room.

“Not a good time,” he breathed. He wanted to focus on here and now, not on the past, and not on the future.

She eased onto her back. “Why not?”

He gazed down at her incredibly gorgeous face. There were two freckles nearly merged together on the cheekbone below her right eye. He kissed them, loving that he was close enough to observe that and so many other intimate and delightful things about her.

“Alec?” she prompted as his hand slid over her hipbone, wandering down her thigh.

“What?”

“Why not?”

He drew back a few inches. “Let me see…Maybe because I’ve got a beautiful, naked woman in my arms?”

“We already made love.”

“We’re doing it twice, remember? You insisted.”

“I need a rest.”

“Liar.”

She grinned but didn’t give in. “You have to tell me something about your family.”

“I was an only child, and my father was a hard-ass.”

“How so?”

“He was harsh and demanding, with expectations that nobody could ever hope to meet.” Alec kissed her ear, letting his fingertips flutter over her flat stomach.

It blew him away to think of his baby in there. It also blew him away to have her in his bed again. He’d slept with plenty of women, but he’d never felt this close to any of them. And he’d never felt so protective and so completely privileged.

“Did he hurt you?” she asked in a small voice.

Alec drew back again. “You mean physically?”

She nodded.

“Of course he did. But I was a teenager by then, and I could take it.”

Her eyes widened in sympathy, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing tight.

“I love the effect,” he told her, hugging her back. “But I’m not crazy about the motivation.”

“Oh, Alec.”

“Don’t do this, Stephanie. It was a long time ago. It wasn’t that bad, certainly nothing to turn into a movie of the week.”

“Nobody ever hit me,” she told him.

His hug tightened reflexively. “They’d better not have.”

“It’s not fair.”

“Nothing’s fair. But I got the girl in the end, so I win.”

It was her turn to draw back. “You mean me?”

“Who else would I mean? How bad do you think I am at this?”

That coaxed a smile out of her. “You mean pillow talk?”

“Like I’m going to lay in bed with you and talk about some other woman.”

She shrugged. “How should I know?”

Her question brought a warm glow to his chest. “I love it that I was the first.”

“You didn’t seem that thrilled at the time.”

“I was feeling freaking guilty at the time.”

The sympathy was gone from her eyes, and the teasing light was back. “For taking advantage of my innocence?”

“For not having properly appreciated the privilege of being your first lover.”

“What about your mother?” she asked.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“No.”

He hesitated for a long moment. But Stephanie deserved to know the truth. “She died when I was ten.”

Her eyes clouded. “Oh, no. What happened?”

This time, Alec’s hesitation was even longer. “She swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills.”

Stephanie’s eyes went wide. “She killed herself?”

He nodded. “Very few people know that.”

Stephanie shook her head to assure him she’d keep the secret. “Do you know why?”

“My father was a hard-ass,” Alec repeated.

She closed her eyes and drew him close. “Oh, Alec.”

“It was a long time ago.” It truly was. “I don’t even know why I told you.”

“Quid pro quo,” she whispered against his shoulder, kissing him softly. “You know all my secrets.”

“I do.” He skimmed his hand over her belly, along her thighs and around to cup her bottom, feeling so incredibly lucky to be so close to her. “Have I ever told you how grateful I am that you’ll be my baby’s mother?”

She drew back, giving him an astonished gaze. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.” He hesitated.

“Why?” she finally whispered.

He gave in to complete honesty. “Because you’re everything I’m not.”

Her eyes went round, and he bent to kiss her smooth stomach.

“You hear that, kid?” His voice unexpectedly thickened. “You’re going to have the best mother in the world.”

She stroked her fingers through his hair, and he kissed her again, softly and leisurely. Then he pecked and suckled his way over her stomach to her breasts. She gasped as he took one pebbled nipple into his mouth, and his body instantly reacted to her taste and texture. Stephanie arched her back, and a small groan came from her lips.

He slipped an arm beneath the small of her back, moving to the other breast, while his hand went on an exploration of its own. After long minutes, he kissed his way to her mouth. She tasted sweet, hauntingly familiar, and he battled a dread of letting her go.

He thrust his tongue into her mouth, feeling a desperation to brand her as his own, wanting the memory of tonight to be seared indelibly into both of their brains.

She kissed him back, deeply and thoroughly, her palms sliding down his back, over his buttocks, along his thighs. He didn’t want to rush her, but the urge to push inside grew stronger and stronger.

Then he felt her thighs twitch. They eased apart, welcoming him. It was all he could do to fight the freight train of desire as instinct took over, and his hips automatically flexed forward.

She bent her knees and rose to meet him, the heat of their bodies searing against each other. He drew his head back, watching her wide eyes as he slowly eased inside. Her cheeks were flushed, her dark lips parted in small gasps, and her pupils dilated as she stared deep into his soul.

He stilled, his voice a rasp. “I could do this forever.”

“Please do.”

“Oh, yeah.”

He watched her intently, while his need built, and the tension in his muscles coiled to painful. Still, he refused to move. A single movement would be the beginning of the end. And he didn’t want this to end. He quite literally wanted to stay right here for the rest of his life.

“Oh, Alec,” she moaned, and a lightning flash of lust shot through him.

“I know.” He held fast.

But her eyes fluttered shut, and her hips flexed forward, and her legs wrapped around him, catapulting his subconscious into action. There was nothing he could do to stop the long strokes of pleasure propelling them forward.

Her nails dug into his back. Her gasps were music to his ears. He inhaled her scent, reveled in her hot, moist core, guiding them both as long and as high as he could manage. Then her cries rocked his world, and her body convulsed against him, and his name on her lips sent him over the edge into rhythmic paradise.

Nine

The scattered showers of the new day made the jump course heavy and less than ideal. But Rosie-Joe had excelled in worse conditions than this.

“Make sure you give her time to get her footing before the triple combination,” Stephanie told Wesley.

He was dressed, pressed, trimmed and ready to go, his round coming up in only minutes.

“The rain won’t spook her,” Stephanie continued. “Keep her balanced, and she should run clean. Just keep your head in the game.”

Wesley nodded, his gaze suddenly focusing on something in the distance. A smile grew on his face that seemed just a little too confident.

“Are you listening to me?” she asked, as horses, grooms and competitors shifted around them. The announcer’s voice was clear on the PA. The crowd applauded as Bill Roauge and Zepher made it cleanly over the water jump.

“You worry too much.”

“Wesley-”

He leaned in close, brushing her arm. “Just wish me luck,” he whispered. Then he brushed something from her cheek and tucked her hair behind one ear.

Suddenly a blur of movement crossed her vision. Alec’s big hand wrapped around Wesley’s arm. Wesley staggered backward, as Alec propelled him ten feet to stop abruptly against the wall.

Stephanie was too stunned to move.

Had Alec lost his mind?

She couldn’t see his face, and she couldn’t hear his words. But she could see the set of his shoulders, and the width of his stance, and his hand was clamped tight around Wesley’s arm. Wesley’s cockiness turned to shock, while most of the blood seemed to drain from his face.

The groom holding Rosie-Jo stared in stupefaction, while Stephanie finally spurred herself to action, marching across the floor.

“Do you understand?” Alec ground out in a harsh voice she’d never heard before.

Wesley gave a rapid nod, and before Stephanie could say anything, he broke away from Alec and brushed past her.

She turned, torn between going after him and demanding answers from Alec. But Wesley was already mounting Rosie-Jo, and she couldn’t think of a single thing to say to him that might help. So, she rounded on Alec.

“What is the matter with you?” she hissed, moving close to face him.

“Not a single thing.”

She gestured to Wesley. “He’s about to ride.”

“So what?”

“You’ve completely blown his concentration.”

Alec pasted her with a hard stare. “He should have thought of that before coming on to another man’s wife.”

“What?” she sputtered. What on earth was Alec’s problem? After last night, how could he possibly think she had any interest in Wesley?

“You going to watch him?” Alec grimly nodded to where Wesley was entering the ring.

She had to watch.

Of course she had to watch.

“We are not through here,” she warned Alec.

“We never are,” he sighed as she turned for the fence.