“Nothing. I can’t remember. Can’t think when you touch me like that.”

“Good, don’t think. Feel me.” Reese lowered her head as she pushed Tory’s blouse higher and circled Tory’s nipple with her tongue. It hardened at the caress, and she sucked it in, scraping the edges carefully with her teeth before soothing the tingling spots with her lips. She was aware of Tory fumbling with her belt and she lifted her hips, giving her room to release it. “Don’t distract me.”

Tory laughed and held Reese’s head more tightly to her breast. “No chance. You started it. Now you have to finish.”

Reese bit down and Tory cried out. The sound made Reese’s mind swirl, pulsing red with the rush of hot blood and thick lust through her limbs. She moved from one breast to the other, licking, sucking, biting, while she unbuttoned Tory’s blouse, pausing only long enough to strip off the offending garment. She leaned away and absorbed the sight of Tory, her head thrown back, her breasts…heavier now after Reggie…flushed and swollen with desire. Tory’s chest rose and fell rapidly as her lips parted with the silent pleas only a lover could hear. Touch me, take me, claim what is yours.

“I love you,” Reese murmured.

Tory opened her eyes, her vision hazy, her body ripe and ready. “No one else ever has…not like you. Never wi…” She jerked and lost her breath as Reese cupped a hand between her legs. “Oh!”

Reese shifted until she was kneeling on the deck by Tory’s side. “I always will.” She opened Tory’s jeans. Slid the zipper down. “You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted.” She curled her fingers around the waistband, waiting for Tory to rise up so she could ease them over her hips and down her legs. “All I’ve ever needed.”

“Reese,” Tory whispered. Reese’s face was in shadow, her body curved over Tory’s like the blade of a knife, hypnotically dangerous. “Sweetheart, what…”

“I live for you, for this.” Reese leaned down, kissed the curve of Tory’s thigh where it blended into the soft folds of her sex. “And Reggie.” She brushed her fingertips through silky wetness and Tory whimpered. “Our life.”

Reese cupped Tory’s buttocks and guided her down the chaise, opening her thighs with gentle insistence. “You see the stars up there?”

Tory’s hand trembled in Reese’s hair as Reese lowered her head and kissed between her legs again. It was so hard to think.

“Yes.”

Tory’s voice was high and thin, tremulous with need.

“When I see them…” Reese caught the crystal droplets of Tory’s passion on the tip of her tongue “…I think of you.” She eased her fingers along the path her tongue had taken, sliding smoothly inside. “Of the beauty and peace you bring into my heart.”

Tory braced her arms on the sides of the lounge and pushed up so she could watch Reese make love to her. She strained against Reese’s hand, taking her deeper than she ever had. “Go inside me more. Fill me up.” Her head fell back as Reese pushed slowly forward. Her arms shook and her voice broke on a sob. “Oh God.”

“More?”

“Yes. Yes.”

Sweat drenched Reese’s back and her stomach tensed as she fought back her own aching need. She focused every ounce of concentration on Tory’s breathing, Tory’s body, Tory’s small sounds of pleasure. She pushed, Tory opened, and she pushed higher. “Oh Jesus, Tor, you’re so hot inside. You feel so amazing.”

Tory wrapped her arms around Reese’s shoulders and pressed her face to Reese’s neck. Panting, she gasped, “I want you all the way inside. Keep going. Oh, more.”

“Sure?”

“Uh-huh. Uh-huh.”

Reese slowed, waiting for the tense tissues to relax. “All right?”

“Good,” Tory groaned. “So good.” She took a long breath and willed her body to soften even as the pressure spiraled in her depths. “Do it. Let me feel you make me come.”

Reese supported Tory with an arm around her waist and steadily, carefully, relentlessly worked her hand within the slick, hot muscles. “Hold on to me,” she whispered. “Hold on, baby.”

Tory closed her eyes and gave herself over to Reese’s embrace, her legs around Reese’s hips as Reese rocked her arm between her thighs. Every thrust drove her a little bit closer to the edge, but she held back, wanting the sensation to go on forever. Wanting Reese so far inside of her that nothing could ever come between them. They were one, and nothing had ever felt so right.

Reese felt it, the first spasm, before Tory jerked in her arms and cried out, “I’m coming.”

Reese covered Tory’s mouth with hers, drinking her passion, swallowing her cries of pleasure as she curled her fingers forward and pressed the spot that always made Tory explode. She wasn’t prepared for the force of Tory’s orgasm and cried out in surprise as Tory stiffened in her arms, clamping down around her hand and dragging her to the brink of coming.

“Oh Tory,” Reese moaned. “You’re so beautiful.”

Tory couldn’t speak, she could barely breathe. She’d never come this way before, with Reese inside every cell of her body, every molecule of her consciousness. She hadn’t thought they could be any closer. But somehow they were. She pulled her hips back and then pushed down hard on Reese’s hand, and came again.

“Oh my God,” Tory gasped when she caught her breath. She laughed weakly. “What did you do?”

“Me?” Reese flung her head back, spraying sweat into the air like tears. “Me?” She slowly inched her fingers from within Tory’s body. “Jesus Christ…you said more.” She kissed Tory hard, a possessive, hungry kiss.

“True.” Tory stroked Reese’s face, then began to unbutton her shirt. “More is never enough.” She pushed the material aside and kissed Reese’s chest, then slipped her hand inside to caress her breast. “But that was damn close.”

Reese shivered.

“Cold?”

“No.”

“You didn’t come then, did you?” Tory kissed Reese’s throat and toyed with her nipple. “I can usually tell but I was so…so gone, I couldn’t tell up from down.”

“I’m okay. It was amazing.”

Tory sucked on Reese’s lip, then bit it gently. “Okay? Okay? Oh, that is just not good enough.” She pushed against Reese’s chest. “Help me stand up. I’m not sure I can walk.”

“What…”

“I want to make love to you. Inside. On a bed.”

“Oh. Well.” Reese stood and guided Tory up into her arms. She pulled a blanket from the neighboring chaise and draped it around Tory’s shoulders. “I’ll carry the wine.”

“Tory, Tory. stop,” Reese groaned. She tried to roll onto her side, but Tory held her firmly in place. “I’m done, baby.”

“That’s what you said the last time. And the time before that.” With a smug smile, Tory caught Reese’s clitoris between her teeth and tugged gently. When it hardened instantly, she sucked slowly.

Reese’s hips jerked and she tightened her fist in Tory’s hair, pulling her more tightly to her center. She couldn’t tell where she ended and Tory began, where her heartbeat stopped and Tory’s took over. She only knew she wanted, needed, never to leave this place. This sanctuary she had found, this bright shining focus of all that mattered in her life. “Tory,” she breathed as she slipped into orgasm, surrendering with total trust.

Tory felt the change in her breathing first, beneath her hand where it lay between Reese’s breasts. There was a subtle shift in the cadence, signaling not pleasure, but pain. She lifted her eyes to Reese’s face and gasped when she saw tears. Reese so very rarely cried.

“Sweetheart,” Tory exclaimed, crawling quickly up the bed and gathering Reese into her arms. She kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her mouth. “What is it? What is it?”

“Nothing.” Reese managed to keep her voice steady though her throat threatened to close around more tears. “Just love you. So much.”

Tory pulled a sheet over them and pillowed Reese’s head against her breast. “I love you too. With all my heart.”

Reese closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to come. She wanted these moments, these impossibly perfect moments when they were as close as they could ever be, to remain untarnished by what was to come. No matter where she was, she would never be far from this moment when Tory filled her heart and her body. Filled her until there was no room for fear or sadness.

Tory awakened from a sound sleep with the sense that something was terribly wrong. She sat up quickly and felt for Reese beside her. The bed was empty. She threw back the covers, pulled her robe from the back of the bedroom door, and put it on as she hurried down the hallway toward the stairs. She stopped when she realized a light was burning in Reggie’s room. She pushed the door open and looked in to see Reese, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and sitting alone in the rocking chair they used to coax Reggie back to sleep in the middle of the night.

“It’s time for you to tell me what’s wrong,” Tory said gently. She wrapped her arms around herself, beneath her breasts, as if that could keep the bitter chill from stealing into her heart. She leaned against the door and watched an agony of emotion play across Reese’s handsome face. “Now. I can’t stand waiting, knowing you’re hurting so much.”

Reese looked into Tory’s eyes, hers filled with apology. “My father called tonight.”

Tory’s grip tightened on the material of her robe until her fingers were white.

“My unit has been activated. I’m sorry, baby. I have to go.”

“When?” Tory whispered.

Reese glanced at her watch. It was 4 a.m. Friday morning. She should have been on her way.

“This time tomorrow.”

Twenty-four hours. Tory blinked, fighting the dizziness that threatened to take her to her knees. “Oh my God.”

“I’m so sorry, Tor,” Reese murmured. “I…”

Tory held up her hand. “Hush. Come back to bed.”

Wordlessly Reese rose and took Tory’s hand, following her back to the bedroom. She stood by the side of the bed as Tory sat on the edge and unsnapped her jeans. She lifted her T-shirt over her head while Tory skimmed her pants down to the floor. When she was naked, she slid beneath the sheets and opened her arms to Tory. She held Tory, and Tory held her, arms and legs entwined.

“Thank you for tonight,” Tory whispered. “For loving me that way. Thank you for knowing I’d need it.”

“I needed it too.”

Tory kissed Reese’s throat, then the corner of her mouth, then her lips. Tenderly, with infinite care. “I know. But somehow, when you need, you give. I’ve never known anyone so unselfish.”

Reese laughed bitterly. “I’m leaving you and the baby. And you can still say that?”

Tory leaned away, her eyes dark with sorrow as she searched Reese’s face. “There are so many things I love about you. Your honesty, your bravery. Your tenderness. Maybe most of all, I love that I can always trust you to keep your promises.” She pressed her fingers to Reese’s mouth when Reese would have protested. Gently. Every touch was precious and she wanted each one to stay in her memory forever. “We’ve talked about this before, and we both knew what you would do if this happened. You made promises a long time ago, before you made them to us.”

“If I’d known…”

“Maybe it would have been different. Maybe.” Tory drew a shaky breath. It felt like she was breathing crushed glass. Everything inside of her was ripping apart. “But you made a pledge, gave your word. I knew who you were when I fell in love with you.”

“You didn’t bargain on this,” Reese pointed out. She’d do anything in her power to keep Tory and Reggie from being hurt. Do anything, give anything, including her life. And now she was causing Tory pain, and knowing that was torture.

“Reese, my darling,” Tory said quietly, cleaving to Reese along every inch of their bodies, “every day when you leave this house to go to work, I know the risk. I know what I might lose. I knew that when I watched you put yourself between that man trapped out on the jetty and hundreds of pounds of rock. And when you were shot saving a fellow officer…God, when you almost died saving me. I knew and I chose loving you because nothing in my life has ever been as good as being with you.”

“I love you so much, Tor.” Reese framed Tory’s face and kissed her, first softly, just a hint of heat skirting over her lips, then a stroke of her tongue, then the weight of her mouth, claiming her. Tory’s arms came around her, and they reached inside one another until they were breathless. Reese rolled onto her back and drew Tory against her chest. She stroked Tory’s hair, listened to Tory’s soft breathing, and felt their hearts beating close together. “I was going to tell you in the morning.”

“I know.” Tory smoothed her hand over Reese’s chest and down her abdomen, drawing one leg up over Reese’s thighs to keep them connected. “You didn’t want me to be sad when we were making love.”