His hand caressed her breast, then slipped down one buttock and stroked it deftly before moving to the warm hollow behind her knee.

"Why should we stop?"

"Because it's the most sensible thing to do. Because I've only been a widow for a few months. Because our motives may be strictly carnal. Because if we start something it could get to be a habit," she recited in a rush against his neck, willing herself to believe it.

"I believe, Rachel"-he kissed her eyelid-"it's already started"-and her nose-"and out of our hands."

When his mouth opened hotly over hers she found herself clinging, kissing him back with nothing held in reserve. His hand caressed her hip, then sought her flat stomach before moving in one unerring swipe to cup the yearning warmth between her legs, pressing her skirt against the damp curve of femininity, tracing arousing circles on her flesh until she murmured inarticulately into his mouth.

"We have to stop…" she tried to say, but the words were muffled beneath his lips.

"You feel so good… so tiny… just as I remember…"

"It's too tempting."

"Just like the old days."

His hands moved over her freely while she lay across his lap, her heart pounding so hard it seemed to make the magnolia leaves tremble above them. His fingers curved-contouring, pressing, stirring, kindling, while she lifted and drifted, thinking, Just a little more, just a little…

Then her dress rustled up and his hand sent fire-flashes dancing up her thighs and stomach as he sought naked skin.

When he reached her waist she stopped him.

His head rose. His eyes questioned.

"Don't, Tommy Lee… please," she whispered urgently. To her surprise, he immediately complied, but took up the idle rhythm through her clothing again.

"Rachel, remember the first time?" he whispered.

"Yes. It was out by the quarries, and I was very scared."

"So was I."

"You were? I never knew that before. You seemed so confident, as if you knew everything about it."

"I didn't know any more than you did." He bit her lower lip, adding persuasively, "But I've learned some new things since then."

She chuckled throatily. "So have I. Like how disastrous it would be to get caught like this if a policeman came by in a prowl car and shone his spotlight on us."

He laughed softly, caressing her stomach. "It wouldn't be the first time, would it?"

"No, but it would be a lot more embarrassing at our age. Why don't we take a walk and cool off?"

"So you're teasing again, Rachel?" he questioned, but without rancor.

"Again?"

"Yes, again."

"When have I ever teased you?"

"You teased me plenty back then, before you finally let me make love to you."

"Oh, back then. Well… I was scared I'd get pregnant. And besides, it was forbidden."

"And what about now? Is that what's holding you back?"

She considered for a moment, then ran the tip of an index finger along his lips. The nail skimmed his teeth until they opened and suckled the fingertip, then clamped down lightly upon it. "Will you understand if I say maybe that's partly true? You're that… that naughty Tommy Lee Gentry," she whispered. "And there's something inside every woman that's drawn to a bad boy. I'll admit I'm shamelessly attracted to the forbidden side of you. But no matter how many times I analyze it, there's still a part of you that's my Tommy Lee, the one who gave me my first kiss in the break of the boxwood hedge. That's the Tommy Lee who keeps crowding my mind when I can't sleep at night."

"You mean I've kept you awake, too?"

"Ceaselessly. Thinking about what we're doing now. Which is why one of us needs to be sensible and get us out of this car so we can cool off."

He sighed as if put upon, but obediently released her and pushed her up. "All right. A walk it is," he obliged, then opened the door and got out, watching her slide beneath the wheel, hair tousled, lips swollen, dress twisted at the waist. When the door slammed he dropped his hands to her hips and adjusted the disheveled dress until it hung properly again. "What an untidy little mess you are," he teased. Automatically she reached up to smooth her hair. "No, don't. Leave it." He pulled her hands down. "I love it that way. You look like you used to after we'd been out parking. Not a trace of lipstick left on your mouth, and your lips all red and puffy." He caressed them lightly with a thumb, weakening her resolve again. And when his hips pressed her back against the car, she looped her arms around his neck, unable to stop herself from inviting his warm kiss or the capture of her breasts in his wide palms.

After several tempting minutes, she drew away and reminded him shakily, "I thought we were going to take a walk and cool off."

"Yes, dammit, we were." He draped a wrist over her shoulder and she entwined her fingers with his, their joined hands bumping her collarbone with each step. They ambled aimlessly along the darkened street, talking of their past. He told of the dreams he'd had of coming back to Russellville after college and succeeding in business, of achieving that success but finding it hollow as relationship after relationship failed and he had no one to share it with. She confessed how badly she'd wanted a child to replace the one they'd lost, and of the slow death of that dream, and how devastated she was to learn she could not conceive again. They walked then in silence, nothing but the night chorus of crickets and peepers accompanying their lazy footsteps along the somnolent avenue where shadows were deep. They returned at last to her familiar magnolia, crossed the night-damp grass, which wet her nylons through her open-toed shoes, then passed beneath a hickory tree, blacker than black, and wandered thoughtlessly toward her backyard. They moved beyond the soft hum of the filtering equipment. Then all was silent but for the burble of water circulating somewhere in the pool, and their own matched, lazy footsteps clicking on concrete.

It was very late, and they were both tired, but unwilling to call an end to the night as they stopped, Rachel with her back to Tommy Lee and his hands resting on her shoulders. They looked up at the myriad lights burning across the night sky. The moon was at its apex, a lopsided blue-white smile amid the winking eyes of the stars. From the dew-laden juniper bushes along the brick wall came the thick scent of evergreen, and somewhere crickets sang in unison.

Tommy Lee turned Rachel to face him, leaving his palms in an undemanding parenthesis about her neck. He drew a shaky breath but spoke with uncommon steadiness.

"I told you this once in anger, but that's no way to say it-I love you, Rachel. There. I've wanted to tell you for so many, many years."

"Oh, Tommy Lee…"

She found herself near tears. What am I going to do with this man? How long can I fight him? Her arms circled his neck and she kissed his left cheek, then his right, wondering if she loved him, too, in the way he loved her. But to say so without being sure would be cheating them both. She meant her kisses to express affection without commitment, but when she would have backed away he suddenly pulled her flush against him, lifting her on tiptoe, matching her curves to his. Tongues, hips, and hands soon began taking an active part in the kiss, and by the time it ended, both Rachel and Tommy Lee were breathing as if winded.

"Rachel, this is silly. You want it, too. Let me come in with you."

She managed to shake her head and back away.

He studied her for a moment, wondering just what it would take to make her break down. "All right, have it your way. We'll cool off again." Then, calm as you please, he began removing his suit jacket. Her first impression was to giggle, but when she realized his intent, she grabbed his lapels.

"Oh, no, you don't, not in the pool!"

"Why not in the pool?"

"Because that's the oldest ploy in the history of seduction, and I'm not about to fall for it."

He nuzzled her ear. "Come on, Rachel, it could be fun."

"And dangerous."

"Have you ever done it before? Shucked down in the dark and gone in with nothing on?"

"No, and I'm not going to start now."

Suddenly there came a snap as he whipped off his tie. "Mind if I do?"

"And what do you expect me to do? Stand here and watch?"

"Mmm… it could be interesting." He leaned close and bit her earlobe.

"You haven't changed a bit!"

He chuckled and moved away toward the pale shadow of the patio table, and before her astonished eyes he went on undressing, slipping off his shoes, then hanging his jacket neatly on the back of a chair before reaching for his belt.

"Tommy Lee, don't you dare!"

"Ain't no damn way I'm ruining another suit." She watched in utter helplessness as his trousers came off and were laid across the table, followed by his socks. Panic and excitement turned her skin hot.

"If you take off one more stitch, I swear I'll go in the house and lock the door and call the police to tell them there's a naked man using my pool without permission."

Her threats bounced off him like the moon's reflection from the surface of the pool. His fingers lazily worked their way down his shirt buttons, and she sensed him grinning at her out of the deep shadows. She had a flashing thought about the wisdom of occasional tumult, but if Tommy Lee continued what he was doing, it would be more tumult than was advisable. He'd already half shrugged out of the shirt when she appealed in a desperate voice, "Please… please, don't."

He stopped in mid-motion and flipped his palms up. "Okay, you win. I'll leave the rest on." But he casually removed the cigarettes from his shirt pocket and set them aside, then strode lazily toward her. As he advanced she sensed the feral gleam in his eye and retreated.

"Tommy Lee…" she warned.

But he kept coming, deliberately, unrelentingly.

"You're the one who said you wanted to cool off."

"Tommy Lee, you wouldn't."

"Oh, wouldn't I?" He was a mere foot in front of her when she reached out a hand to fend him off. In the blue-white smile of the moon she saw his devilish grin a second before he lunged.

"Tommy Lee Gentry, don't you dare!" she squealed, but he clasped her beneath her knees and armpits and headed for the steps of the pool.

"Kick your shoes off, Rachel, if you don't want them to get wet."

"Gentry, you hellion, put me down!" She was still squirming as his feet splashed into the water.

"The choice was yours-with our clothes on, you insisted." The water touched Rachel's derriere. Her hips bucked, and she squealed and grabbed his neck. "Mmm… nice. Do that again," he teased, lowering her again until the water soaked six more inches of underwear and her toes went under.

"My shoes!" Her knees straightened like a switchblade, sending a spray of droplets scintillating across the surface of the pool.

"Too late now. You should have taken them off when you had a chance."

Down she went again, deeper this time, until the water's cold fingers slipped between her thighs. A shudder pelted across her skin, bringing a chuckle from Tommy Lee as he nuzzled her neck. Then he licked her skin with his warm tongue while bobbing her lower and lower and lower into the water.

"The chlorine's going to ruin my dress," she insisted, but with waning urgency.

Against her neck he mumbled, "Send me a bill."

She stopped fighting him then, hanging suspended and helpless in his tight grip, feeling the water lick up and down her thighs with a faint suction and slap each time she was drawn free, then plunged beneath the surface. The shivers were steady now. Goose bumps sprouted up and down her arms and across her bare shoulders. Her breasts-dry though they were-had puckered up like a pair of gum drops.

"Tommy Lee, you're crazy… crazy." But the words came out in a breathless murmur as her knees relaxed and her shoes trailed in the water.

"I know-crazy white boy who builds crazy houses, and dreams crazy dreams, doing crazy things because he's got his woman in his arms at last and he doesn't want to let her go."

He kissed her fiercely, the contact so warm when contrasted against the cool seeking water swashing between her thighs. Her arms twined about his neck as she went pliant and welcomed his probing tongue, which sent a new, different set of shivers up her spine. He started nipping her-sharp, enticing tugs between teeth that knew exactly how hard to bite, and where.