Eve

CHAPTER 5

IT WAS ALMOST DAWN WHEN they left the reservoir.

“You’re quiet.” John shot her a glance. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“Why?” She looked at him. “It would be a little late, wouldn’t it?” She didn’t know how many times they’d come together in ways that she hadn’t even known existed. “And it was my choice.”

“I could have left you alone.”

“You said it was going to happen sometime, and it might as well be you. You were right.” She gazed out the window. “You were right about a lot of things.”

“What things?”

“Chemistry. You said it didn’t happen very often like this. I don’t see how it could. Too intense. But that’s good in a way. Because it can’t happen like this very often. I’m not going to have to worry about being pulled into another… situation like this. Once you go away, I’ll be able to go back to the way things were.”

“Will you?”

“Yes, and so will you. That’s what we both want. That way this won’t hurt us, it won’t interfere.”

He didn’t speak for a moment. “You have it all worked out.”

“You exploded into my life like an atom bomb. I had to find a way to make sure that I wouldn’t be destroyed by it. How do you expect me to behave?” She looked him in the eye. “You’re the one who was hunting me, telling me how we deserved it. Well, you convinced me. As long as we don’t hurt anyone else or ourselves, then this could be a good thing. I’m going to make sure that we don’t.”

“I guess I wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

“Did you think that I was going to give you some kind of guilt trip? That I was going to beg you to tell me you loved me?” She shook her head. “That isn’t what this is about. I don’t even know what love is all about.” She shrugged. “I don’t even know if there is such a thing. I’ve never seen it. There’s a lot of talk, but it seems to go away pretty fast; and then there’s a lot of arguing. Maybe it’s only something in the movies. What do you think?”

“I think maybe there could be a lot of different kinds of love. And there are people we’re supposed to love and people we do love. I couldn’t stand my mom and dad. I love my uncle. As for the movie kind of love…” He smiled. “I’m a guy. Sometimes we think with our dicks.” He met her gaze. “There were a few moments back there that if you’d asked me, I would have said I loved you.”

And there were a few moments that he had been the giver of a pleasure so intense that she had loved everything about him, his body, his skill, the way he had made her feel part of him. She had wanted to keep him with her forever. “But I didn’t ask you. I promise I’ll never ask you.”

“I suppose I should feel relieved. I guess I do.” He glanced back at the road leading to the reservoir. “Sure I do. You’ve just made me a little dizzy. You’re right, this is what’s going to work for us.” He paused. “As often as possible. When?”

“Tonight.” She looked at him. “Every night. Until we decide we don’t want it anymore.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“It might.” But it didn’t seem possible to Eve, either. She had thought she was satiated when they had left the reservoir, but she could feel a stirring as she gazed at him. She knew his body so well now. It was a beautiful body, sleek and tough and strong. He could lift her, move her, hold her, with no effort. Yet he didn’t make her feel helpless. She’d learned she could stop him with a touch, make him shudder just by a movement. She hadn’t realized she’d have that power. He’d always been so dominant and forceful that it had amazed her that she didn’t have to take power, it had been given.

He pulled up in front of the development. “You’ll only have a few hours to sleep. Are you going to go to school today?”

“Of course.” She got out of the car. “School is important. I told you, I can’t let this hurt me.” She started across the street. “It probably won’t be like this every night.”

“No?” She heard the car pull away from the curb. “Don’t count on it.”

She couldn’t count on anything, she thought as she unlocked the door of the apartment. Everything was new territory. She just had to keep on with her usual routine and try to keep her head straight.

Shower, first. Then set the alarm.

Even the drops of warm water falling on her body felt different. Her breasts were taut, and there was a tiny mark. A bruise? Strange. She hadn’t been aware of any roughness. But at times they’d been like two wild animals. She remembered his mouth… It could have happened then.

Don’t think about it. Her breasts were swelling, and she was feeling her body tingling, readying. All it had taken was the memory, and the heat was returning.

She wanted him again.

She leaned her forehead against the wall of the shower. It was all crazy and mysterious and sometimes a little frightening. If this was what sex was like, what would it have been if there had been love between them?

But she understood love even less, and its potential could be even more dangerous. Hadn’t both she and John agreed that it could be deceptive and was to be avoided? She didn’t know enough about John Gallo even to explore the possibilities. Yet when they had been talking, she had felt a curious sadness.

No, she did not love him. She would not love him. The only thing of which she could be both certain and secure was that she loved his body.

That would be enough.

“I LIKE THE RESERVOIR BETTER.” Eve turned over in bed and gazed at the sheets of rain pounding the window. “I felt strange coming here.”

“I couldn’t control the weather.” John drew her closer. “And this isn’t a bad motel. It’s clean and not seedy. I made sure of that.”

“It just made me think of-” She broke off and pushed away from him. “I have to go to the bathroom.” She swung her legs to the floor and stood up. “I’ll be back.”

“You sound like Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. ” He put his arm behind his head, watching her as she went toward the bathroom. “Though you don’t look anything like him.”

“Thank heavens.” She closed the bathroom door. A few minutes later she was washing her face and hands and stopped to stare into the mirror. She was naked, her cheeks were flushed and her hair tousled, her body ripe and glowing. She looked like she’d been doing exactly what she had been doing.

She turned and went back into the motel room but didn’t go right back to bed. She went over to the picture window and drew back the curtains and looked out onto the parking lot. “I can’t see anything. It’s raining rivers…”

“What’s wrong?” John asked quietly. “Did I do something you didn’t like?”

“No.” She always loved everything he did to her. Even though she had been a little uneasy when they’d come there, it hadn’t changed her response. She was wondering if anything could. For the past three weeks, they had been together every night and every other spare moment they could steal. Those hours had been as sensual and hazy as a harem dream. She had only been aware of touch and scent and coming together. Her body had become so attuned to his that all he had to do was look at her, hold out his hand, touch her hair, and it started. “It was kind of… exotic. Where did you learn to do all that?”

“That’s a question you shouldn’t ask.” He stood up and walked toward her. “I figured if I liked sex, I should do it well. And I didn’t wait until I was sixteen like you to start.” He grinned. “I was trying to avoid coming home as much as I could, and I had to have something to keep me busy.” He pushed her hair aside and pressed his lips to the back of her neck. “And then I found the Kama Sutra. ”

She shivered and whispered, “I think you wrote the Kama Sutra. ”

“At any rate, I thought you were ready for a little distraction. You were acting pretty stiff when I mentioned the motel.” He slipped his arm around her waist. “You’re never stiff. You bend.” He delicately licked her ear. “You open…”

“And I did. Again and again.”

“Yes.” He went still. “But not right now.” He pushed her away from him. “I think we’ll have a little downtime.” He crossed the room to his duffel on the floor. “I brought you a present.”

“What?” She stared at him in astonishment. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to do it. You must have noticed that’s all the reason I need.” He reached in the duffel and brought out a tissue-wrapped object. “My uncle brought it back from Japan years and years ago. He meant to give it to his girlfriend, but she jilted him. So he gave it to me and told me to make a kite of it. I never got around to it.” He tore off the tissue and unfurled a length of gold silk. “I was thinking how pretty it would be against your hair.”

She put out a tentative finger and touched the silk. “It’s beautiful, but it’s not a scarf, John.”

“It is if I say it is.” He draped it over her hair. “Beautiful. Sun on fire.” Then he arranged the rest of the cloth over her shoulders and breasts. “There, you look like a harem girl.”

She smiled. “That’s odd. I was just thinking that these past weeks have been like a harem dream.”

“Is that good?”

“It’s… erotic.” She slipped the length of gold off her hair to pool around her shoulders. “Thank you. But it’s not really my style. I’m too…” She remembered Teresa’s description. “Serious.”

“I like serious.” He was drawing her over to the easy chair in front of the window. “But I like erotic better.” He dropped down in the chair. “It’s a good thing it’s raining so hard that no one can make out anything through this glass. The office would be getting complaints about those shameless nude people in 2A.” He reached up a hand to pull her down on his lap.

Instead, she dropped down on the carpet in front of the chair and linked her arms around her knees. “Why did your uncle’s girl jilt him?”

“Another guy. He was overseas a lot on missions. He didn’t blame her.”

“But you did.”

“Yeah, I wanted to kill her. But I was only twelve, so that would have been difficult.” He leaned forward and began to rub her shoulders beneath the silk. “And I got over it. Why were you stiff tonight?”

She was silent. “Motels remind me-Sandra spends a lot of time at hotels and motels.”

He cursed softly. “Why didn’t you say no? I knew you didn’t want to have me come to your apartment. You’ve made that clear. But I’d have found somewhere else.”

“Because I’m not Sandra, and I’ve got to get over letting things like that bother me.” She was silent a moment, then said jerkily, “She’s not really a prostitute, you know. She just likes to have a good time and is willing to be paid for it. I think she has a good heart. When I was little, she acted as if she cared about me… when she wasn’t stoned.”

“How kind. And did you care about her?”

“Yes, she was pretty and she laughed a lot. Later things changed…” She shook her head. “I was confused, then I guess I changed. She stayed the same.” She was gazing out at the rain. “You said you couldn’t stand your parents. Was it always like that, or did it come later?”

“Always. They never wanted a kid. I was in their way. When I got too much in their way, I ended up with burning cigarettes being put out on my back. My father particularly liked that form of discipline.”

“That’s terrible.”

“I thought so, too. I tried to push him down the steps once. I didn’t do it right, and he only fell against the wall. He beat the hell out of me. After that, I just tried to stay away. Unless my uncle was home from overseas. Uncle Ted took the heat off.” He smiled. “Unintentional pun.”

How could he joke? “I can see why you’d love your uncle.”

“I was lucky. If I hadn’t had him around, I would have ended up in reform school. I’ve always been pretty wild, but he taught me to channel the violence. Thanks to him, I’m going to have a good life.”

“In the Army.”

“Only a means to an end.” His hands slipped down and began to slowly rub her breasts beneath the silk. She gasped. It was unbearably erotic to feel the rough warmth of his palms alternating with the cool texture of the silk against her nipples. “I’m always going after the big score.”

The sensation was causing her to lean her head back against him and arch beneath his hands. “Is that… what you’re after now?”

“With your cooperation.” He tore the silk away from her and tossed it aside. “And I believe I’m going to get it.” He lifted her onto his lap and made the adjustment. “Aren’t I?”

She groaned, and her nails bit into his shoulders as he started to move. She couldn’t breathe. Fullness. Heat. The sensation was building quickly to an indescribable pitch.

She closed her eyes and let it take her over the top.

“EVE.”

She was being shaken.

Then lips were on her nipple.

She knew those lips, that tongue…

She opened her eyes to see him above her in bed. He was dressed already.

“It’s time we left,” John said. “You said that you wanted to be back by five.” He used his teeth in a last teasing kiss and lifted his head. “Now or never.”

She sat up and shook her head to clear it of sleep. “I must have been sleeping hard.”

“It was the rain.” He smiled. “And other things.” He pulled her from the bed and sent her to the bathroom with a slap on her derriere. “Ten minutes.”

She was out in seven and carefully packed the silk wrap in her bag. “Thank you again for this.”

“Oh, I enjoyed it.”

She remembered the feel of the silk against her breasts. “So did I.” She moved toward the door. “Let’s go.”

The rain had stopped, but it was still misty as they reached the car.

She cast a look back at the motel.

“It wasn’t so bad, was it?” John asked as he intercepted her glance. “It’s just a place. We made what we wanted of it.”

And what they had made was a wild and unforgettable sensual memory. “Not bad at all.” She got into the passenger seat. “But I still like the reservoir better. Maybe it won’t rain tonight.”

He got into the car. “It had better not. I want it right. We don’t have that much time left.”

She stiffened, her gaze flying to his face. “How long? When do you have to report for basic training?”

“Four days.” He started the car. “We both knew it was coming.”

Yes, but she must have blocked out the approach of the inevitable ending. “Where are they sending you?”

“I’m not sure. I signed up in Milwaukee, so I have to go back there. They’ll probably send me to a camp in Wisconsin.” He frowned. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it.”

“But you are thinking about it, or you wouldn’t have mentioned it.” She drew her sweater closer to her body. “And we should think about it. It’s going to take a little time to get used to the idea. It feels… different than it did when we first talked about it.”

“Then you think about it,” he said roughly. “Tear it apart and tell yourself how smart and practical we’re being. All I can think about right now is that next week I’m not going to be making love to you.”

“It isn’t making love.”

“Whatever. Screwing you. Any word you want to use. It’s the same result.” He was silent a moment. “What if it is making love? Neither of us knows what that’s like. What if this is it?”

“Just because it seems different? It has to be because we just know each other better.”

“Maybe.” His hands were tightening on the steering wheel. “Yeah, but it does feel different. And I don’t like it.”

She didn’t know how she would feel after he was gone, either. Her body had become so accustomed to him that it he seemed part of her. “We have four days.”

“Big deal.” Then he grimaced. “I’m acting like a kid. Like I said, I didn’t expect to feel like this.” He looked at her. “Chemistry is supposed to wear away. It didn’t do it. We need more time.”

“Well, we don’t have it.”

He was silent. “Maybe you could come with me and stay near the camp.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “So I could put my life on hold and make myself available to you? Hell, no.”

“Okay, I know I was out of line. I’m not thinking too clear.”

She wasn’t thinking clearly, either. For an instant, she had actually considered it. No, not considered. There wasn’t anything that resembled cool consideration in the way she was feeling. “And I’d be interfering in your life, too. I won’t do that, and I won’t give up my plans to follow you around and be your private whore.” She was shaking. “Someday you’d leave me, and I’d end up somewhere in another development like the one where I grew up. That’s not for me. We do what we said we’d do. It’s over when you get on that plane and go off to basic training.”

He muttered a curse and didn’t speak for a long moment. Finally, he said quietly, “Okay. I know I’m not being fair. I’m reaching out and grabbing what I want. I told you once that you couldn’t trust me if I wanted something bad enough.” He glanced away from her. “I’m even tempted to try to persuade you to do what I want. I might be able to do it. I have those four days, and I have some pretty potent weapons on my side. You love what we do together as much as I do. It could be enough to tip the balance.”

“No way.”

“Don’t challenge me.” He smiled recklessly. “I’m trying to overcome my darker side. I know you’re right.” He parked in front of the development. “It’s just hard for me to care.”

She got out of the car. “I care enough for both of us.”

“Tonight?”

She should say no. He was behaving with a volatility that made her uneasy, and her response was equally unsettling.

“I’ll make it special for you,” he said softly.

She could feel the melting begin. Special? He meant erotic, wild, and possibly wicked. And he always kept his promises. Why should she cheat herself? “Tonight.” She started across the street. “Four more days.”

EVE SAT UP IN BED AND BRUSHED her hair out of her eyes. “What time is your flight?”

“We’ve got time.” He pulled her back over him. “Ten tonight.”

“An hour before I get off work.” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s three now.”

“We’ve got time,” he repeated. “You don’t have to be at work until six. I’m packed and ready to go.”

She stopped arguing. She didn’t want him to leave. Their coming together in the motel room had been hot and frantic, and yet the hunger was still there.

She lay against him, feeling the male hardness and strength of him. She was breathing hard, and she could hear his heartbeat pounding beneath her ear.

His hands were moving over her body. “I know every curve and crevice of you,” he whispered. “I’ve memorized every single part of you. I know your smell, your taste, your texture. If I were blind, I’d be able to recognize you.”

And she’d be able to recognize him, she thought. But she wasn’t sure that she wanted to remember John Gallo once he passed out of her life. The experience had been too intense, and the emotions she had felt had been confusing. Not only passion, but there had been surprising moments when there had been tenderness.

“They’ll probably send me somewhere else after basic training, but I might be able to come back here for a week or so.” He was stroking her hair. “I’ll call and let you know.”

“And after you’re away for a while, you might decide that it’s better to keep your distance. I won’t expect anything from you.”

“Because you don’t want me to expect anything, either.” He tangled his fingers in her hair and lifted her head to meet her eyes. “I’ve got the message. But I’m not sure that I’m going to pay any attention to it. Are you afraid of me, Eve?”

She was afraid. Afraid of the sex, which was a stronger drug than anything Sandra took, afraid of the way she was beginning to reach out to him in ways that weren’t sexual. She liked to watch him, liked his flashes of wry humor, even his silences. “I think we’ve gone too far.”

“Maybe. But that’s not going to stop me.” He was kissing her, rolling her over on the bed. “Tell me that two minutes from now.”

She wasn’t able to talk at all after that two minutes. All she could do was to move with him and try to keep from screaming with pleasure. This time she felt totally powerless. He was controlling the pleasure, demanding the response.

And she was giving it to him, giving whatever he asked. She couldn’t help herself.

It was only later, when she lay panting and shaking from the aftereffect of that storm, that she realized what that helplessness meant. He had made her feel weak, and that was the true danger.

And it was good that John Gallo was leaving that night.

IT WAS ELEVEN THIRTY, EVE realized as she climbed the steps to the apartment. John would have been in the air over an hour and a half. It had been strange not to see his Chevy parked in front of the restaurant when she’d left work. Stranger still to come straight home instead of going with John to the reservoir.

Don’t think of the reservoir and what we did there. She had kept busy and had been fine all evening. She had allowed herself no time to remember all the erotic games they’d played in the motel this afternoon. Only they hadn’t been games. Everything she’d done with John had been done with searing intensity.

She unlocked the apartment door and went inside. She turned on the light and kicked off her shoes. Empty as usual. Her mother hadn’t been home at all that week. She’d shower and go to bed. She hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last month, and she might be able to doze off.

Maybe.

She didn’t feel sleepy. Every nerve was keyed, and the effort to keep from thinking about John Gallo was added stress. Homework? She’d gotten behind in that, too, but there was nothing urgent. She’d get back in the routine now that she had no distractions.

Distractions?

That was a tame word for John Gallo. Oh, yes, he had distracted her and seduced her and taught her a hundred ways to enjoy her body… and his.

But that last time at the motel had revealed that pleasure could be as much a trap as the one she was trying to escape. He was too good, and he had warned her that he would do anything to get what he wanted.

Right now he wanted her.

It might change with time and distance, but that might be too late if he persuaded her to do what he wanted. Even now she could feel her body flush, ready, as she remembered what he had done this-

The doorbell rang, startling her.

No one came to the door at that time of night.

Unless her mother had lost her key again. She misplaced it at least once or twice every few months.

She slid back the viewer in the door. “Again, Sandra? We’re keeping that locksmith-”

It wasn’t Sandra.

John Gallo.

Eve slid back the bolt and threw open the door. “What’s wrong? Why are you-”

She was crushed against him, his mouth on hers, hard, frantic.

And she was frantic, too. Her arms slid around him, and she was making sounds deep in her throat. “Why?” she gasped. “I thought you were gone. Why are-”

“This is why.” His voice was guttural; his hands ripping open the buttons of her shirt. “I was sitting at that gate at the airport, and I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I had to have you one more time.” He was tearing off her bra, his lips on her breast. “Don’t say no, Eve.”

No? She was as wild as he was. The shock of his appearance had sent her hurtling back into the sensual storm she always experienced when she was with him. She could scarcely breathe. Her hands were running up and down his back, bringing him closer as his tongue sent sensation after sensation through her. “The plane…”

“I can catch one at three. I’ll still be there on time.” He’d backed her against the kitchen table and was pulling down her jeans. “I don’t give a damn…”

And she didn’t either. “The couch…”

He wasn’t paying any attention to her. She didn’t know if he even heard her. He’d lifted her onto the kitchen table, and he was suddenly over her, in her, with one movement. She inhaled sharply. Fullness.

Hardness all around her. The table against her buttocks, his belly pressing down on hers, the stroking…

The stroking!

His breath was harsh, his chest rising and falling against her with every thrust. “I knew you… wouldn’t want it here. This is your space, and you don’t want me in it.” Another deep thrust. “You don’t want to… remember me here. You don’t want to remember me at all, do you?” He sank deep and rotated. “Do you?”

She gasped as her hands clutched wildly at his shoulders. “It’s not-” She shuddered as the pace quickened. “You told me-”

“I said a lot of things, didn’t I?” His face above her was flushed, fierce, completely sensual. “But all I can think about right now is that you have-to-remember me. I won’t let you forget me. Every time you look around you, you’re going to remember me here, doing this to you.” He suddenly slid back off the table, taking her with him.

Her legs instinctively curled around his hips.

He was walking, pausing to stroke, then walking again.

Then they were on the couch. “Do you know how many times I thought about doing it with you here?” he whispered. “You liked the reservoir because it was neutral territory, and I’d give you anything you wanted. But toward the end I didn’t want neutral.” He was moving fast, hard. “I wanted this. Because I won’t-be-forgotten, Eve.”

Wildness. Hunger. Heat.

Madness.

She had to have more.

Arching, clasping, taking…

And then there was no more to take.

It was beyond…

She screamed.

He was still moving. “That’s right.” He was gasping, “Again, Eve. You can do it. I’ll just do this…” His eyes were glittering, wild. “More…”

Again.

“I want to make you-but I can’t-wait.” The tempo grew harder, more intense. “Can’t-” He groaned, his spine arched, his head thrown back, his face a mask of pleasure so intense it looked like pain. “Eve!”

He collapsed on top of her.

She didn’t want it to stop. On and on and on… She clasped him to her with all her strength, as she tried to get her breath.

He lifted his head and kissed her lingeringly. “Beautiful…”

“You always say that. I’m not…”

“You are. Like a flame…” He kissed her breast. “And you feel like a flame curling around me. When I was at that gate, I kept thinking of the way you felt. I thought I’d go crazy if I didn’t have you one more time.”

“You did go crazy.” And so had she. All he’d had to do was explode through that door, and she had been ready for him. Ready? She’d been wild for him. Everything she’d been telling herself about how good a thing it was that they were separating had vanished the minute he’d touched her. Which meant that everything she had told herself was true. “And you’re going to miss that second flight if you don’t leave soon. It’s after midnight.”

“I won’t miss it.” His tongue traced her lower lip. “I want to stay, but I’ve done what I had to do.” He got to his feet. “I have to go shower. Stay here. I want to see you like this when I come back.” He vanished into the bathroom.

She didn’t know if she could have moved if she’d wanted to. Every muscle felt limp, and she was lying there in a warm haze. He’d said he was going. There was no reason to stir right now. She didn’t have to think or worry. Everything was the same as it had been that afternoon. This had just been a wild, unexpected epilogue.

She heard the shower. He would be gone soon. The wrenching pain she was feeling was all part of the confusion their togetherness had begun to foster lately. She would be fine. It would go away when he went away.

He came out of the shower ten minutes later. “Good.” He smiled. “You stayed there. I wasn’t sure if you’d do anything I told you to do. Resistance should be kicking in about now.”

“I didn’t want to move.” She met his gaze. “And you’re leaving. Maybe I wanted to please you.”

“You did.” He dropped to his knees in front of the couch. “And I pleased you, didn’t I?” He put his palm on her belly. “It’s a wonder. I was so hot I could only think about myself and how fast I could have you.” He traced the outline of her navel. “I’m lucky you didn’t kick me out.”

“You knew that wouldn’t happen. And you said you’d been wanting it to be here. So I don’t think it was as mindless as you say.”

He was silent. “Oh, I was mindless. The other was just instinct.” He bent and kissed her nipple. “I’ve got to get out of here, or I’ll have to have you again. I can’t miss another plane.” His teeth tugged gently at her earlobe. “I’ve got to do what I promised my uncle I’d do. I won’t mess up my chance.”

“No, that would be a mistake.”

“So that may mean I won’t be able to get back here for a while. And you won’t come to me.”

“No.”

“But I will come back, Eve.” He lifted her up and put his cheek against her belly. It felt rough and hard against her bare flesh. “And you will remember me. Say it.”

“You’d be hard to forget.”

“That’s not good enough.” He lifted his head, and his eyes were glittering, burning, as they held her own. “Tell me. You’ll remember everything we did, everything we are together. No matter how long. You won’t forget me.”

She couldn’t pull her gaze away. His intensity was overpowering and hypnotic, enveloping her, binding her.

“Tell me,” he said softly. “You know it’s the truth. You’re part of me. You’ll always be with me. You’ll remember.”

How could she help it? No matter how their paths parted or intertwined, he’d been the first in so many ways, and the power of his personality had stunned and beguiled her. Even at that moment, she couldn’t imagine the days or years to come without him.

“I’ll remember you,” she whispered.

“That didn’t hurt, did it?” He smiled brilliantly. His arms closed tighter, and he kissed her. “The only thing that will hurt will be the waiting.” Then he put her back on the couch and got to his feet. “And I’ll cut that down to as little as possible.”

“I’m not going to wait for you. That’s a trap, too. And you won’t want to wait for me after you’ve been gone for a while.”

“I didn’t think I would, either. But things are changing. I’ll have to see.” He moved toward the door. “But one thing I do know. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before you. I’m not sure that I’ll ever feel like this again. I want to reach out and grab and hold on.” He opened the door. “But that’s my nature. Good-bye, Eve.”

“Good-bye, John.”

He was standing framed in the doorway as he had been framed by the elevator doors that first night. He was the same, yet not the same. Muscular thighs outlined in denim jeans, same face that was hard yet beautiful in its sensuality. But now she knew that body, that face, in a thousand different positions and expressions. She knew his toughness, his bluntness, his seductiveness, the bitterness that he seldom spoke about, the driving passion that could be as explosive as a lightning flash.

He wanted her to remember him?

This was how she’d remember John Gallo.