“He couldn’t wait—not one second more—and entered her with one long hard thrust. He was so careful with her, always, but this time he couldn’t be careful, couldn’t be gentle; he needed to possess her the way he needed to breathe.”

“The danger wasn’t over.Rolling her around so that she floated on her back, he swam her to shore. A much easier proposition than on the way out. Reaching the safety of the beach, he lifted her in his arms, wrenching her from the steel jaws of the sea that had tried to claim her.He carried her a few feet up the beach and set her down carefully, kneeling beside her.“Flora.” He shook her shoulders gently. “Wake up.”She looked so still. So horribly still. “Flora.” He shook her gently, his chest squeezing painfully.“Please wake up. I need you to wake up.” I need you.Her eyes fluttered again and then—blissfully—opened. And he found himself looking into the achinglyfamiliar fathomless depths. He felt a rush of relief so strong, he could have wept. Instead he kissed her.He knew there wasn’t time, that he had to get her back, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to know that she was alive.His mouth covered hers in a searing kiss, as if he could warm the cold from her lips with the heat of his passion. He kissed her with a raw desperation born of fear. With all the intensity of the emotions she’d exposed inside him. He told her with his lips what he couldn’t admit to himself.In that one brief instant, he told her so much.”

“He captured her wrists and pinned them to the tree before covering her mouth with his.This was no gentle kiss, but one filled with hunger long denied, lips crushing, tongue sliding deep, as if he couldn’t get enough of the taste of her.”

“Don’t stop,” she whispered. “I want to feel you inside me.”“I couldn’t stop now, even if I wanted.” He kissed her, marking her with all the passion and yearning she had felt for so long. “I need this. Damn it, I need you.”And then he plunged into her with one deep stroke.”

“It hardly mattered. She was tired of waiting for him to acknowledge who he was. Tired of donning a false mask of gaiety when she was so much more—felt so much more—beneath. No one had ever noticed her mask. No one but him. If he couldn’t or wouldn’t make the first move, then damn it, she would.”

“But as attractive as a tropical island alone with Eve might be, Beckett knew he could never go. He couldn’t be that far from his brothers. What if one of them needed him? What if Eve’s dad needed her? Family was family.”