Wanting to get closer, she arched her back as he cupped the damp vee between her legs with his palm. She gasped, involuntarily pushing her mound into his hand. The heel of his palm rocked against her and, again, she was so close, right on the edge of exploding.

Her limbs felt like melted butter and she wanted to spend hours tasting every inch of his body, but the truth was that she needed him too badly to take that kind of time or have that much patience. Not when she couldn’t resist the urge to wrap her fingers around his shaft. He twitched several times in succession in her hand, so hard and big that she wondered for the hundredth time if she was dreaming.

No other lover had ever matched him in size or skill, but, again, memories did nothing to live up to the reality of the man she now held in the palm of her hands. Moving her hand slowly up and down his hard length, he groaned—a sound that was half pain, half pleasure—and she smiled as she planted soft kisses against his shoulder, his chest, finally finding his nipple with her tongue.

She wasn’t surprised when he removed her fingers and pushed her back into the bed. A spring in the bed pushed into a sore spot in her ribs and she winced.

Sam stilled. “I’m not being gentle enough.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “Better than fine. I’ve never felt so good in all my life.”

To make sure he didn’t try to play the hero again by pleasuring her and then walking away unsatisfied, she wrapped her legs tightly around him. She was so ready for him—had been dreaming of him for ten long years late at night when she was unable to control her subconscious self—that all it took was one thrust to send her reeling into another orgasm.

He drove her higher and higher, covering her scream of pleasure with a passionate kiss as her muscles squeezed him, pulling him back in with every plunge. Closing her eyes tight, she gloried in every last second of ecstasy.

When she finally came down off the incredibly high peak, she realized that he was still huge within her. Looking into his eyes, she whispered, “Sam,” unable to keep everything she was feeling for him from wrapping around his name.

He didn’t say a word, but she already knew what he was feeling from what she read in his eyes, on his face, in the way he touched her.

And then, he started moving again, slower this time, his hands moving from her hips, to her waist, then over her br**sts, and she gasped as brand-new waves of pleasure ran through her, all the way to the tips of her toes.

She was burning up in his arms, goose bumps moving over her skin as he kissed her gently. As he rolled her ni**les between his thumb and forefinger, a moan fell from her lips at the amazing sensations he continued to evoke in her. All the while, he slowly moved in, then out of her, holding off on his own completion so that she could be right there with him when he came.

She wrapped her legs even tighter around his waist and put her hands on his shoulders, pulling his head down. Their lips touched and they both careened over the edge, their hips bucking in perfect rhythm, their hands and mouths grasping at each other.

Later, as she lay against his chest, breathing hard while he stroked her hair and kissed her forehead, she no longer tried to hold back the truth of what was in her heart.

“I love you, Sam.”

He couldn’t believe she was giving him a chance to finally get things right, especially after he’d done so many things wrong. Not only had he screwed up by leaving her alone for so many weeks on end after the miscarriage, but when she fled to San Francisco, why hadn’t he gotten down on his goddamned knees and begged her to come home?

He couldn’t screw it up this time. She deserved the fairy tale this time. She deserved to be romanced.

She deserved to know without a doubt that she could count on him to be there for her. Forever.

Misunderstanding his silence, Dianna came up on one elbow and smiled at him.

“It’s okay, Sam,” she said softly. “I’m not in any rush. And I don’t want to pressure you into anything. I just wanted to tell you what I’m feeling, that I’ve fallen in love with you all over again. And nothing you say or don’t say is going to change my mind.”

Her beautiful skin was flushed and rosy as she took his hand and placed it in the center of her chest. “Nothing is going to change what’s in my heart.”

Slowly stroking the pulse point in her neck with the tips of his fingers, he knew he’d never tire of looking at her, kissing her, laughing with her.

“What if I’m the one who’s in a rush?” he asked in a husky voice.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and when her long limbs shifted against his, the sensual friction of their bodies amped up yet another level.

“I love you, too,” he said. “I never stopped loving you, Dianna. I just tried to convince myself that I had.”

“You were pretty convincing,” she teased, but he hated to hear the lingering doubts behind her words.

“No, I was an idiot. And I only hope I can be the man you need me to be the second time around.”

Her lips pressed gently to his. “You’ll never run out of chances with me, Sam. I’m yours from here on out, whether you want me or not.”

He grasped her perfectly shaped rear end and pulled her against him so that his growing hard-on was nestled between her soft thighs.

“You have no idea how much I want you. I’ve wanted you every single second, even when you were in that hospital bed telling me to get the hell out.”

He brushed his fingers across her flat stomach and she sucked in a breath as he slowly trailed his fingertips over her midsection, the soft swell of her br**sts, until goose bumps covered her skin. Wanting to touch every inch of her, he moved his hands to cup her br**sts with his palms, then rubbed his thumbs across her tight ni**les.

“Sam,” she gasped, “it feels so good. You feel so good.”

He brought his mouth down over one perfect, erect nipple and she arched into his mouth, trying to get even closer to him, and he marveled at how responsive she was to the slightest nip of his teeth on her sensitive flesh.

“How could I have possibly lived without you for so long?” he asked as he ran his mouth down her torso, aiming for the soft flesh on the undersides of her perfect br**sts, her smooth stomach, then farther still, down to the shadowed vee between her thighs.

His fingers found her first, wet and slick, and then she was opening her legs for him and pushing her pelvic bone against his hand. Knowing what she wanted, he slid one finger inside her heat at the exact moment that he covered her mound with his mouth.