Free The Traveling Kind by Janet Dailey Page B

landscape did not go on forever. When her gaze swung to Shad, his mouth curved in a smile of silent understanding.
    “If a person ever wondered what it is like to walk on the moon, he’d have his answer here,” he said.
    “It’s eerie, isn’t it? So quiet and so lonely.” She looked around, seeing nothing but more sharp rock formations.
    “There’s the moon.” With a nod of his head he indicated the pale white orb in the daytime sky, its shadowy face barely discernible.
    She moved closer to Shad, their arms brushing against each other as she lifted her gaze to the orbiting object. When he released her hand, she missed the warmth of his touch, but his arm curved itself around the back of her waist, replacing one sensation with another.
    “It makes you feel isolated, doesn’t it?” He turned his head to look at her and Charley felt the first tremor of desire quiver through her at how close they stood. “As if we are the only two people left, marooned here alone.”
    “Yes.” It was a low answer, concealing the disturbance his remark provoked. It was a heady thought to be marooned with him—with no possibility that he could ever leave her.
    “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to make love on the moon?” His question robbed her of speech. At the negative movement of her head, Shad turned slightly to more squarely face her. His dark head blocked out her view of the moon as he slowly gathered her into his arms, fitting her soft curves to his male shape. He rubbed his mouth across her forehead. “I have,” he murmured against her skin, the warmth of his breath stimulating her nerve ends as he dragged his mouth to a temple. “It must be a very unique experience.”
    With soft kisses he closed her eyes to sentence her to a world of sensation. Her fingers curled into the hard muscles of his arms, clinging to him as she felt a strange weightlessness envelop her. While he explored the curve of her cheek and the corner of her lips, his hands roamed in exciting caresses over her shoulders and hips. He seemed to deliberately torment her with the promise of his kiss, but did not offer it.
    The aching need that was building in her eventually forced a soft moan from her throat. In answer to her .wordless plea, his hard lips covered her mouth with bruising possession. The circle of his arms tightened, crushing her breasts, taut with desire, against the unyielding wall of his chest. Yet not even this closeness brought satisfaction and she strained to cross the physical limits of their embrace, to become part of him.
    His mouth broke away from hers, his breathing labored and heavy. She could feel the pounding of his heart, thudding as loudly as her own. His eyes were half-closed with the weight of desire as they ran over her face. He loosened his hold, bringing his hands up to curve them under the hair along her neck while Charley continued to lean against him, her legs too weak to stand without his support. His hands were restless with their caresses, his fingers exploring the curve of her jaw and the pulsing vein in her neck.
    “Your body feels so good against mine,” he murmured on a husky pitch and lowered one hand to cup it to her breast. It swelled beneath his touch. “I want to make love to you, Charley. You know that.”
    His statement pulled away the veil she’d been hiding behind and she could see clearly. The one thing she had been so determined to avoid had happened despite her better judgment. She had fallen irrevocably in love with him.
    “It isn’t fair,” she protested in a faint sob. “I want you so much, Shad.”
    “Charley.” Her name was a caress on his lips as he brought them down hard on her own, stealing what little vestige of control she had left.
    The embrace would have ended in her total surrender if it hadn’t been for the clatter of a pair of feet on the rocky ground. The approach of the intruder stopped the kiss before it reached the point where they both would have been