She liked that he still had his same old truck after all these years. It suggested things about his character that were all good. Except, of course, genuinely liking him would make the whole revenge thing a bit more difficult.

Lorelei bit her lip and pushed that thought out of her head as they turned off of her street and drove along the coast, with the ocean outside her window.

They traveled along the coastal road toward the hot springs, chatting about mutual acquaintances and who had done what or gone where or married whom since high school. Ryan, having stayed here in town, knew a lot more about such matters than Lorelei did.

When they reached the Linden Rock resort, he parked and turned to her. “I hope you don’t mind taking a little detour before we go for a soak.”

“Sure, what’s the detour?”

“It’s a secret.”

Lorelei was intrigued. And when she saw him get out of the truck, reach into the rear and pull out a guitar case, she was even more intrigued.

“There’s a little spot down this path I was hoping we could check out,” he said, nodding in the direction of the gardens.

Lorelei followed him, and a moment later, they were standing in a gazebo draped with bougainvillea.

“Have a seat,” Ryan said, as he removed the guitar from its case.

Her throat went dry. He wasn’t really going to play music, was he? Right here? Right now? The thought made her nauseous, because it was just too romantic to be real. Where was the callous jerk she’d known fifteen years ago?

He began strumming a slow, bluesy tune on the guitar, as Lorelei settled on the bench seat across from him and watched. She’d never had a guy play music for her personally before. Then he began humming along with the tune, his voice deliciously sexy and low, and the breath whooshed out of her lungs. By the time he was singing the first bar of the song, Lorelei could feel sweat trickling down her chest between her breasts in spite of the cold, damp night air.

She watched, mesmerized as he sang about lost chances and lonely nights, about broken hearts and longing for redemption. It took her well over a minute to realize what he was singing about and she could hardly believe her ears.

She strained to hear every word and make sense of it. Maybe she was mistaken. No way could he have composed this beautiful, soulful, melody in only one day.

But when he reached the lines about her virgin skin in hot water, heat rising around them, and being sorry for the silence, she knew.

This song…he had written it.

For her.

8

RYAN HELD the guitar until the final sound vibration had settled in it, and there was silence. Then he placed the instrument back in its case and looked up to see Lorelei staring at him, dumbstruck.

She tried to compose herself, perhaps arrange her features to suggest she wasn’t moved by the song, but he knew that look. She’d felt what he’d intended her to feel.

And he could not help being satisfied knowing it.

“Wow,” she said quietly. “You wrote that.”

“It’s a work in progress. That was my first time playing it through without any major screwups.”

“You wrote that,” she repeated, as if awestruck.

“Yesterday after I left your place.”

“I’m…stunned. And flattered. Thank you.”

He closed the distance between them and took her hand, pulling her up to a standing position in front of him. When he could see clearly into her eyes, he said, “I wanted you to understand how truly sorry I am for what happened the last time we were here together.”

She nodded, averting her gaze for a moment, then looking back at him with an expression that seemed like determination.

“I accept,” she said. “Now how about we go for a dip?”

“You don’t have to twist my arm.”

After he’d put the guitar back in its case and taken it to the truck, they went to the spa registration desk and checked in. They were given a map of the grounds and facilities, and they followed a path outside toward the ocean, to the hot springs, which were now dimly lit for the evening and equipped with chairs and meditation platforms nearby.

The place was, miraculously, deserted. Ryan said a silent thank-you to the universe. He had no preconceived notions of how he wanted the night to go-okay, maybe he had a few, and he’d reserved a room at the spa hotel just in case-but he did at least want them to be alone the way they had been fifteen years ago. It wouldn’t have been the same with other people there to spoil the mood.

“Looks like we have the springs all to ourselves,” Lorelei said, echoing his thoughts. “Nice, huh?”

“I don’t suppose a cold Wednesday night five days before Christmas is all that popular a time to go spa-hopping.”

“Have you been here…since, um…?”

“No,” Ryan said quickly, which was true. “I think I’d lose some of my cred as a firefighter if I was caught contemplating my navel at a place as frou-frou as this.”

She laughed. “I forgot you have to consider such things.”

Ryan tried not to stare as she casually began taking off her clothes without even turning away. This he remembered from their first time here together, as well. He’d been awestruck by her lack of inhibition, especially when his experience with teenage girls had been dominated by awkwardness and self-conciousness.

Her ability to strip naked without a care in the world, both then and now, gave her an air of raw sexuality that was incredibly arousing to him. It was all he could do not to walk right over to her and take her in his arms.

And it presented him with another problem. He had a raging erection that was going to announce what he wanted to do whether he spoke a word or not, so as he undressed himself, he turned his back to Lorelei, then had to chuckle at himself over the ridiculousness of the situation.

Where was his lack of inhibition? What was wrong with her knowing that she turned him on? Wasn’t that what he wanted anyway?

With a deep breath, he tossed his pants aside and turned to get in the water, consequences be damned. Lorelei’s gaze landed immediately on his stiff cock, but instead of looking away, she simply stared up at him, her eyes half-lidded, as if in a sexy challenge.

Damn, she was bold.

And he loved it. He’d never met a woman so at ease with herself as Lorelei was.

He lowered himself into the water and sighed at its heat, a heavenly contrast to the cold air around them. They could hear waves crashing against the beach down below.

“Here we are,” he said dumbly. “Can you believe it?”

She eased herself into the water one leg at a time, and his gaze took her in, relishing the sight of her bare skin, the curly dark hair that covered her sex and the dark, erect nipples he so badly wanted in his mouth.

“Barely,” she said. “Mmmmm, this feels amazing.”

He tried to think what else to say, but at the sound of her little moan of pleasure, his mind went blank.

He could only sit there, dumbstruck, wanting so desperately to have her that he couldn’t imagine not reaching for her right then and there.

“What is it?” she asked when she caught the odd expression on his face.

“I…this…um…”

What? What could he say? He’d lost all his words.

She eased herself across the rocks, coming closer to him. Closer, closer, closer still…

Then she was next to him, and before he could say a word…she unexpectedly straddled his lap.

His cock, so suddenly pressed against her, ached like crazy to thrust inside. He could hardly believe his luck.

“I have a condom,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

She. Had. A. Condom.

Hallelujah.

She leaned in and kissed him then, a long, slow, deep kiss that stated her intentions as clearly as any words could have. Ryan’s toes curled into the sediment at the bottom of the spring, and he grasped her hips, rocking against her and savoring the feel of her soft, delicious ass in his palms.

“We should get a room,” he murmured when she broke the kiss.

“No,” she said. “I want you right here, like before.”

Yes, this was exactly like before. Her on his lap, straddling him, kissing him into stunned submission.

She’d been awkward then, unlike now, but clearly into him. And he’d been carried away in the passion of the moment, unsure, in his lame adolescent mind, why he was so turned on by his nerdy, odd lab partner, but unable to stop the forward momentum of passion unhindered by thought.

Now though…Now, he knew why he wanted her, and he knew he’d be lucky to have her. And there wouldn’t be any stopping them this time, either.

When her hand slipped down his chest, between their bodies, and grasped his cock, he let out a ragged moan of pleasure. She began stroking him slowly, her lips slightly parted as she watched his reaction.

“Dammit, woman,” he said. “You sure know how to make a guy feel good.”

She kissed him again, and he shut up. But if she kept stroking him like she was, this was going to be over before it had gotten started, so he reached for her and pulled her hard against him, lifting her as he did so to bring her gorgeous tits to his mouth.

He sucked each one in turn, teasing a nipple with one hand as his mouth took care of the other. Then he slid his free hand down, between her legs, right across her clit, to gently stroke her opening. She was already slippery, ready for him to enter, and he groaned at the feel of her there.

Damn, but he wanted her badly.

Right here in the open, where anyone could see. He didn’t care now. And apparently, neither did she, which made it all the more exciting.

Was this how he intended to show his contrition for past bad behavior? By repeating the same act? No, this time, he’d be the best damn lover she’d ever had, and he wouldn’t ignore her the next day, or the next week-or ever. He’d give her the attention and appreciation and respect she deserved, because the feel of her body against him was all the convincing he needed that she was just as perfect for him as he’d suspected.

And this time, he intended to be remembered, at the very least, as a good lover.

Grasping her hips and lifting her slightly, he held his breath and plunged under the water, sliding down, and down still, until his face was between her legs. He found her sex with his mouth, flicked his tongue gently against her, held tightly to her hips as she writhed against his coaxing tongue. Then he plunged his tongue inside her and tasted her delicious, musky flavor, lingering there pleasuring her until his lungs could stand it no more and he had to come up for air.

When he’d broken the surface, his body between her legs again, he took a deep breath and gazed up at her surprised but aroused expression.

“Where’s that condom?” he said in a ragged voice, and she held out her hand, revealing it on her palm where it must have been since she’d disrobed. So she’d come here knowing they’d get it on. One more thing he found to like about her style.

He took the packet from her and opened it with his teeth, then slid the rubber on and grasped her hips again. He couldn’t wait anymore. He needed to be inside her before he went insane.

Looking into her dark brown eyes, he positioned his cock against her and held her hips tightly and thrust gently, back and forth, back and forth, not quite entering her. The satiny texture of her pussy drove him wild with aching, and he wanted to be in her more than anything he could ever remember, but he also wanted to know she ached for him just as badly.

Her back arched, she grasped his shoulders tightly and shifted her hips so that he could tease her no more, nearly forcing him inside her. The naked arousal in her gaze, in her half-parted lips as her breath quickened, told him what he needed to know, and he slid inside her in one smooth thrust. At the sensation of it, he expelled a ragged gasp of pleasure, and she sighed, letting her eyes fall shut.

Ryan felt himself melting into her as he thrust his hips, again and again, the water buoying them, making their movements effortless. To shield her from the cold air, where her body wasn’t in the water, he wrapped his arms around her and held her chest against him, his short deep thrusts reaching as far into her as he could go. Each movement reverberated through his body like a little earthquake.

He could not remember the last time he’d felt so good, so right, and as his body coiled tighter and tighter, straining for release, he wished this night would never end.

9

IT WAS just like the first time, and it wasn’t anything like it. The place was the same, and the people and the act, but the feelings and sensations were brand-new. Lorelei was not an awkward, love-struck teenager giving up her virginity to someone who didn’t deserve it. She was a sexually confident woman who was well aware of what this act did and didn’t mean, and she was taking back the power she’d lost all those years ago.