Especially if the step involved getting into the bathtub with a man whose eyes were promising her such incredible pleasure.

“Run the bath, Gabe.”

He continued to hold tightly to her with one hand while he reached for the taps with the other. While the tub was filling with warm water, Megan turned to stare in wonder at the man holding her on his lap and had to reach up to run her fingertips over the slightly raised scar on his forehead.

“I wish you hadn’t been hurt.” His eyes closed for a moment as she feathered her fingers over his forehead.

“That day in the hospital—” He looked at her, the depth of emotion in his eyes shaking her, all the way through to her core. “I’m sorry I was such a jerk.” He reached for her hand, pulled it to his lips, and pressed a soft kiss into her palm. “That moment when you walked in and I saw you without all the smoke, without the flames, I knew you were special.”

“You nearly died saving us,” she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. “You had the right to behave however you wanted.”

He shook his head. “I was stunned by how strong my feelings for you already were. But that was no excuse for my behavior.”

Megan had warmed up in his house, but now that he was talking about feelings and fear, she felt herself go cold again, shivering at all the things she didn’t want to face. Not yet, anyway.

Knowing he must be able to see how uncomfortable their conversation was making her, she could feel Gabe shift gears as he lifted her palm to his mouth again and nipped gently at the sensitive flesh. “I didn’t take the time to undress you properly up there,” he said as he began to peel back the blanket.

“I’d say you did just fine,” she murmured as she leaned forward to press a kiss to the top of his sinfully gorgeous chest. She was half relieved at the way he was letting her stay out of the deep end of emotion, but, strangely, half disappointed, too.

“Only fine?” His voice was husky as he curved his palm around her breast and skimmed over the tip of one nipple with his thumb. The same thumb she’d been sucking and biting up on the roof.

“Mmm,” was all she could manage by way of a response, and then he was pushing the blanket all the way off and stepping into the tub with her in his arms.

Nothing had ever felt so romantic, so sexy, as this shared bath. They’d done exciting and risky outside beneath the fireworks, but as she sank into the warm water and rested her back and head against Gabe’s chest, she sighed at the pleasure of getting to fulfill all the sides of her desires in one sweet night.

He cupped his hands so they filled with water and poured them over her skin, wetting every inch of her body, even her hair. It felt so luxurious to be pampered like this, felt like more than just sex, more than just need.

He’d just had her, and had to know he didn’t need to do all this to have her again. But he was doing it anyway.

She had to nuzzle into his bicep, had to press a kiss against it as he moved to pick up the soap.

“Trying to distract me, sweetheart?”

“No,” she replied honestly. “I just had to kiss you.”

Using her hair wrapped around his fist, he gently but firmly turned her face to his and captured her lips in a shockingly sweet kiss.

It was a long while before he let her up for air.

“Same here.”

The soap had slipped from his fingers during the kiss and he had to search for it under the water, his hands moving along the outside of her hips.

“It’s not here.” He moved his feet at the bottom of the tub searching for the soap. “Not here, either.”

“I think I know where it is.”

His eyes were on her mouth as he asked, “Where?”

She picked up one of his hands and put it on her stomach. “You’re getting closer.” He slid down only a little bit, teasing her. “Almost there.”

She held her breath as he shifted his hand over her curls, and then he was cupping her sex, his broad palm covering every inch of her slick heat, and her breath was coming out in a rush of pleasure as she tilted her head back against his shoulder.

There was no stopping her hips from pushing into his fingers, and thank God, she knew he was done teasing her when two thick fingers spread her tender flesh and his other hand moved to concentrate on her clitoris.

His tongue and then his teeth found her earlobe and despite the warm water, despite the heat of his body behind her, she was wracked with shivers.

“You’re so beautiful, sweetheart. So damn beautiful.” His tongue licked out just at that sensitive spot beneath her earlobe a split second before he urged her, “Come for me. I need to see it. Need to feel it.”

But she was already there, already panting and bucking into his hands as the tremors inside her belly turned into a full-fledged, unstoppable earthquake.

“Gabe!”

He helped her ride out her climax, never letting up for one single second with both his hands, and when she finally came back to earth in the bathtub, she realized just how big, how hard he was against her lower back.

Fortunately, he was well prepared as she spotted a condom wrapper on top of the blanket. Not caring at all that he’d known what a sure thing she was going to be tonight, she leaned over the tub to pick it up. She ripped it open—with her hands this time, instead of her teeth, although that had been fun and more than a little crazy—and he silently lifted her hips up out of the water so that she could slide it onto his gloriously erect shaft.

“I know we agreed no what-ifs tonight, but I can’t help but wonder, what if—” She paused, licked her lips. “—you helped me live out a fantasy?”

She suddenly wanted a chance to reclaim not just the bathtub, but also her hope for the future, rather than always going forward holding onto fear.

His hands moved over her thighs, her kneecaps in the water. “What kind of fantasy?” The raw tenor of his words nearly had her giving up the fantasy and climbing onto his lap, instead.

“I’ve never taken a bath with a man before tonight.”

“Good.”

She had to smile at his jealous pleasure over being her first. She was glad, too, glad that she could experience these fantasies for the first time with Gabe.

“But sometimes when I’m alone and I’m—” She paused on the words she wasn’t used to speaking aloud.

“Touching yourself?”

She nodded. “Sometimes I like to think about being in a tub like this and having my—”