«Don’t you want to kiss me?» Eve whispered.

«Do you want to kiss me?» Reno countered.

She nodded her head.

Golden strands slid forward over his hands, caressing him with a cool fire. His suddenly indrawn breath filled his throat.

«Then do it, gata. Do it now.»

Eve saw the banked fire in Reno’s eyes, heard it in his low voice, felt it in the tension of his arms. Knowing how much he wanted her kiss made a strange heat coil deeply within her.

«Do you want to taste me?» she whispered. «Is that how you want it?»

But Reno couldn’t answer, for Eve had matched her mouth to his. The delicate explorations of her tongue made him groan.

She lifted her head.

«More,» he said huskily.

Eve gave Reno what he asked for, because it was what she wanted, too. The taste of him was familiar, her own mouth and his combined. His textures lured her, making her feel both dizzy and strangely powerful. She strained against him, needing an even deeper tasting of him. She wanted to hold him so tightly that she became a part of him, never to be wholly separate again.

With an urgency Eve didn’t understand, her hands stroked from Reno’s head to his shoulders as she leaned closer and closer to him. He neither advanced nor retreated, letting her come to him. Restlessly her arms tightened around his neck.

An exquisite sensation shot through Eve as her breasts met the muscular warmth of Reno’s chest. She hadn’t known how she ached for that contact until she felt it. Instinctively she began to twist slowly against him, dragging the hardening peaks of her breasts over the tense muscles of his chest.

The sound Reno made was both encouragement and sensual demand. She sank her nails into the tightly corded muscles of his back, wanting to feel his powerful arms around her, wanting to be held against him more tightly than her arms alone could manage.

When he didn’t respond as she wished, she made a frustrated noise.

«What?» Reno asked in a low voice.

Eve tried to draw his mouth down to hers once more, but he was far stronger than she was. He held his lips just above hers, teasing her with the kiss he withheld just as he was withholding his strength from her passionate demands.

«What do you want?» he whispered.

«To kiss you.»

He brushed her mouth with his lips.

«Like that?» he asked.

«No. Yes.»

«No and yes?»

The tip of Reno’s tongue teased Eve’s lips while she struggled to be closer.

«Yes,» she said, shivering at the touch of his tongue.

And then he withdrew.

«No,» she said quickly.

«Yes and no. Make up your mind, sweetgata.»

«Reno,» Eve said urgently. «I want…more.»

His breath came in as though she had flicked him with a whip.

«Open your mouth,» Reno said in a deep voice. «Kiss me that way. Let me see that you want it as much as I do.»

Sunlight glistened on Eve’s lips and on the tip of her tongue. Reno made a low sound and tightened his arms, lifting her face up to his.

«More,» he said, brushing his parted lips over hers.

Eve trembled and did as he asked.

Reno’s mouth closed over hers, and his tongue slid into the warmth that had opened for him. He took her mouth as he meant to take her body, completely, a seamless melding of flesh and honeyed heat.

The feathering touch of air across Eve’s skin when Reno unlaced her camisole was like the edge of his teeth, an exciting contrast to the satin heat of desire.

Eve didn’t know how much her breasts ached to be stroked until Reno’s hands cupped and his thumbs prodded nipples into proud peaks. She didn’t know he was lying half over her until his fingers plucked the taut nipples and streamer after streamer of fire shot through her, making her arch into unexpected contact with his body.

She would have cried out at the sensual pleasure of her body against his, but the only cries the deep mating of mouths allowed were small noises from the back of her throat. He drank the passionate whimpers and silently demanded more, teasing and kneading her sensitive breasts. Long fingers stroked and shaped and tugged until she twisted almost wildly beneath him.

Only then did Reno shift again, flowing completely over Eve, giving her what she had needed without knowing it. His hips pressed against hers, sinking into her until she moved her legs apart in an instinctive effort to match the aching softness between her thighs with the rigid proof of Reno’s hunger.

Eve didn’t know who made the hoarse sound of discovery when Reno fitted himself against her. She knew only that fire spiraled wildly, burning her. Her nails dug heedlessly into the flexed muscles of his back as she gasped, in the grip of a pleasure that burned.

Reno didn’t object to her nails. He simply groaned his response and dragged his hips over her in passionate reflex. The liquid fire of her response spread between their straining bodies.

Surprise froze Eve until Reno’s hips moved again, sending wildfire racing through her body in a burst of heat she could neither deny nor conceal. When he repeated the movement, his tongue shot into her mouth in a possession that was total yet so tantalizing in its lack of completion that Eve wept.

One of Reno’s hands moved between their bodies. The sound of his pants coming undone was lost in the passionate protests that came from Eve when he lifted his weight from her hips.

«It’s all right, gata,» Reno said thickly as he eased himself from the confinement of cloth. «I’m not going anywhere.»

Eve barely heard the words. She knew only that Reno’s weight was settling back on her, but just missing the part of her that ached for the pressure of his body. She twisted against him, wanting more than he was giving her. No matter how she moved, he managed to evade her.

«Reno,» she said raggedly.

«What?» he asked when she said no more.

As he spoke, he raked his teeth lightly over her neck.

Eve had no words to answer him, for she had never felt as she did now, wild for something she couldn’t name.

Reno smiled darkly, for he knew just what she was missing.

«What is it?» he asked again.

Then he listened to the splintering of Eve’s voice as his teeth closed with more force on her smooth skin.

«I can’t…I don’t…» she gasped.

He caught her nipples in his fingers once more and tugged. Her breath came out in a hoarse sound as she arched like a bow. The motion made him settle more deeply onto her legs, yet still not where she wanted him. Her hands clenched in unbearable frustration. She twisted up against him in unknowing demand.

«Open your legs,» he whispered.

As Reno spoke, he moved his hips just enough to brush against Eve’s fire. The caress drew a ragged cry and a rush of heat from her. She shifted, wanting more of the sweet violence he had teased from her.

«More,» he said thickly. «Let me see that you want me.»

Eve shifted again.

«More, gata. You know you’ll like it. Draw your knees up on either side of me.»

She did as Reno asked, opening her legs until he lay easily between her thighs. Slowly he began teasing her nipples, watching her as he plucked the sensitive, rosy peaks.

«Yes,» Reno said when Eve lifted her hips blindly toward him. «Like that. Tell me you want me.»

The sensual torment of his hands on her breasts was no longer enough. Eve’s head moved as restlessly as her hips, seeking release from the vise of need that was closing around her.

«Reno, I…» Eve bit her lip and shivered.

«I know. I can see it.»

The pantalets had no center seam, allowing Reno’s fingertips to flick over her unprotected secrets, touching all but one.

«And I can feel it,» he said in a low voice.

Eve gasped in a combination of fear and passion as she realized that she lay undefended before Reno.

Deliberately he plucked the tender bud that had swelled with desire. The rush of pleasure Eve felt was so intense she cried out sharply and melted over him.

«Again,» Reno said, rubbing his thumb all around her, teasing her with what he was once again withholding.

She made a broken sound.

«Let me feel your pleasure,» he whispered. «Now.»

Then he touched her and she gave him what he had demanded. The hoarse sound of his satisfaction was another light caress, another delicate flick of passion’s whip across her intensely sensitive flesh.

«You’re like a spring welling up at my touch,» Reno said in a low voice.

His fingertip caressed again, drawing forth another rush of pleasure.

«I like that, gata. I like it the way I like to breathe.»

His fingers moved, barely brushing her slick, hot flesh.

Eve wept and writhed with the honeyed teasing that sent savage streamers of fire through her. She didn’t know when Reno’s fingertips were replaced by blunt, satin flesh. She knew only that he wasn’t touching her the one place she must be touched. Her nails raked down his back in a demand she couldn’t help making.

Reno regretted that his shirt kept him from feeling the sharp edges of his cat’s passionate claws. He smiled and teased Eve some more, circling the tender nub without quite touching it. Her hands raked again, and he laughed deep in his throat despite his own unanswered need.

The twisting motion of Eve’s hips beneath Reno made a fine sweat break all over his body. He had never had a woman want him so completely, her whole body crying her need. The slightest brush of his fingers sent her response spilling over again. He enjoyed it with savage intensity, bathing himself in her passionate heat, wanting to take her so much that his body shook with his need.

Yet no matter how hard she twisted and fought to make him touch the hungry bud he had drawn from her softness, he eluded her.

«Why?» Eve asked finally.

«I want to hear you ask for more.»

She made a frustrated sound and twisted again, and again Reno left her barely touched, wholly aching.

«More,» Eve said, trembling.

Reno brushed against her swollen, sultry flesh.

«Harder,» she said raggedly.

Her fist struck his shoulder as she strained toward the unattainable fire that withdrew just as she reached for it.

«That’s not enough,» she said urgently.

«What if I say that’s all there is?»

«No! There has to be more!»

Reno touched her again, drawing his nails with exquisite care over the swollen bud. She gasped and liquid fire overflowed.

Teeth clenched against the need shaking him, Reno took a deep breath, seeking the self-control that was sliding away. The primal scent of Eve’s passion swept through him. It was like breathing fire.

«Reno,» she whispered. «I —»

Her voice broke as she twisted.

«This?» he asked.

Flesh that was both smooth and hard pressed sensually against her, parting her even as she melted over him.

«Yes,» she said brokenly. «Yes.»

With a smooth, powerful motion, Reno drove into Eve, expecting a sleek, seamless ease to the coupling, for there was no doubt of her arousal.

What he found was a barrier that was breached almost the instant it was discovered. Almost, but not quite. The difference was a tearing of flesh and a moisture that owed nothing to passion.

Eve’s eyes flew open as pain rather than pleasure stabbed through her whole body.

«You’re hurting me!» she said hoarsely.

The motions of Eve’s body as she tried to dislodge Reno stripped away his control. He tried to hold her still, but it was too late, he was far too aroused to deny himself the tight satin paradise he had entered. Release swept through him, burning him with pulses of pure fire.

The wild shuddering of Reno’s body moved him within Eve, but there was no pain for her this time. Instead, tongues of fire licked up from the place where their bodies were joined.

The sharp ripples of passion surprised Eve, as did Reno’s hoarse groans and the rhythmic pulses of his flesh deep within her. She closed her eyes, let out a broken breath, and waited for him to release her.

Yet Reno made no move to do so, even when his breathing slowed. The rise and fall of his chest was enough to move him within Eve. Each small motion sent more currents of unwelcome fire through her body. She no longer enjoyed the sensation, for she knew now where it led — to a feeling of pain and edgy despair.

She had been one of those foolish women Donna talked about, the kind who spread their legs in the name of love. But Reno didn’t want a saloon girl’s love. He wanted only her body.