Free Forever My Love by Heather Graham

gasping, and she fought to regain her breath, her sanity and her reason.
    She didn’t know what to do or what to say as she lay sheened with sweat, glistening in the moonlight. Hundreds of little things she had seen in the movies swept through her mind, but she knew none of them was right. Was it good for you? It was magnificent for me. No, no, those were things that strangers said, or near strangers, and they were not strangers. But neither was he her husband anymore, nor could this magic last. It had been stolen, a few snatched moments.
    Still it seemed that something should be said, but not the truth. She would babble. My God, I didn’t remember just how sweet, how wonderful, how shattering, how volatile making love with you is. How it could make the entire world seem to disappear, and I wonder, is it because I’m still in love with you, or are you really such an incredible lover?
    And maybe it’s both…
    It wasn’t going to be awkward, and it wasn’t going to be hard, she realized. He wasn’t going to let it be so.
    His arm came around her, pulling her close beside him. He brushed a kiss against her forehead and held her beneath the stars. She stared at the stars as the silence stretched between them, then he spoke. There was a husky trembling to his voice that seemed to reach inside her and squeeze her heart. “Kathy, I remember so much, and yet…God, I’ve missed you.”
    She smiled slightly and buried her face against his ribs, slightly stroking his naked belly. “I’ve missed you,” she admitted softly. Then she sighed, because she was so replete. She didn’t want to move, and she really didn’t want to talk anymore, not that night. She didn’t want the past to intrude, she didn’t want to remember any of the pain. She just wanted to lie there, beneath the stars, secure in his embrace, and remember what it had been like when he had loved her, too, when he had really been hers to love.
    But she inhaled on a shaky breath and said, “We should go.”
    To her surprise and pleasure, she felt him shake his head. “It must be one o’clock by now. Even if we managed to catch up with them in the next few hours, we’d probably wake everyone up and scare them all half to death. We’ll start out at first light.”
    â€œOh,” she murmured. Her heart was thundering. She didn’t want to move. And he didn’t move. She felt his lightest touch, and the touch of the breeze, moving over her naked flesh. She closed her eyes. She had slept so many nights of her life in his arms, just like this. It was all new, and yet it was all so familiar….
    She must have closed her eyes and dozed. She was vaguely aware that he dragged the cushions down from the fiberglass seats and that he laid her upon them. Sometime during the night he must have gone down to one of the cabins, because a sheet was wrapped around them both, a gentle barrier against the slight coolness of the breeze.
    When she awoke, the stars were still in the sky, but the darkness was fading fast. The dawn was coming in curious, soft pastel shades. A filter of pink was stretching across the heavens before any touch of the sun’s gold.
    Brent was still sleeping. His bare back was to her; the sheet had fallen from his shoulders. She stared at the breadth of his muscles, and she felt like smiling just because she liked the way he was built. His back was bronzed from the sun, and it tapered to a narrow waistline. Below that his flesh was a lighter shade, and his buttocks were rounded and hard-muscled and very sexy, she thought. She wanted to reach out and touch him. Despite the fact that so much had been drained from her the night before, that so much desire had exploded with such tremendous force, she wanted to taste his flesh. See if it was salty, if…
    He turned his head suddenly, and she realized that he was awake. His heavy-lidded golden gaze was upon her with