Free The Midnight Hour by Brenda Jackson Page B

have to carry to the grave with her. He would never know that the woman standing before him was the same woman he had planned to marry after that Haiti assignment. The same woman he had asked to share his life and have his children. The only woman he'd ever let steal a way into his heart.
    He was a man who'd been known to be hard as steel in most situations, inhumanly controlled in combat and relentless of his pursuit of anyone who threatened the country he loved. But when it had come to Sandy Carroll, he had loved her with such an intensity, a tenderness that was so unlike the giant of a man that he was, mat even now remembering those nights he'd held her in his arms after making love to her, Tori wanted to weep at the thought of all she'd lost. All they'd lost.
    As natural as the breeze flowing beyond the cabin window on the sea, she took a step forward at the same time that he did, and he gently pulled her into his arms. Immediately she melted with his touch when he tilted her chin up,* bringing her gaze level with his.
    "I don't understand it, but something is going on between us and damn it, I don't like it," he whispered hoarsely, as the ferocity of his emotions began shattering) his ironclad control. "I feel like I've met you before, but I know that's not possible. There's something about you that reminds me of someone that I-"
     
    Before he could finish what he was about to say, Tori placed her arms around his neck and brought his mouth down to hers, silencing his words. She knew that she shouldn't, but for just this one time she wanted to taste him again, love him again. She wanted to know how it felt to be held in his arms once more, making love with him. The heat of his body caused a slow sizzle to radiate up her spine and a stirring of desire ran rampant through her when she remembered how making love with him used to be. And how it felt when he would lower her to the bed and ease his hot body into hers.
    At this moment, she wanted take what she could get and have her memories to add to all the others. Her mind turned to full concentration on his kiss and was lulled into a state of total awareness of him. Her senses came fully alive under the intense onslaught of his mouth as her body trembled from the pleasure he was giving her.
    She arched shamelessly against him and heard the animal growl that emitted from deep within his throat. She wanted to breathe in the scent of him; she wanted to forever know the taste of him on her lips. And she wanted to pretend that time meant nothing and there hadn't been five years that had invaded their lives, keeping them apart. She knew at that moment she loved him with a ferociousness that had not faded. If anything, knowing about him, with him not knowing about her, only increased the amount of love and desire she felt for him.
    Slowly, he broke off their kiss, pulled back and looked deeply into her eyes. She fought the urge to tell him the truth, to let him know who she was but knew that as long as Solomon Cross lived, Drake could never know. She fought the tears she was holding back and prayed that he didn't see them. She couldn't let him know what this moment meant to her, the beauty of them being together again this way, something she never thought would be possible.
     
    "That was just a taste," he said almost in a growl. "I want more, Tori."
    She felt herself being pulled closer into his arms and could feel the deep hardening of his body against her. The thought that she could still bring him to such an aroused state almost made her breathless. Special memories from the past claimed her senses when they had kissed, but she desperately needed to make new memories; memories to keep long after he walked out of that door. She had missed him so much and hadn't been aware just how much until this very moment.
    She lifted her chin and met his gaze, and her body stirred even more from the dark desire she saw in his eyes. A sigh rippled from her throat just moments before the words