“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.”

“How could she have reacted like that? She didn’t understand what had come over her. She’d felt his passion and her own. It made her anxious. On edge. For something. Something that made her skin prickle whenever he was in the room with her. Indeed, she found it difficult to concentrate when he wasaround. He was big and strong and smelled incredible. She wanted to curl up against his chest and never leave. She’d never had such strong urges. But then again, she’d never met a man who made her feel so protected simply by his solid presence and his confident command of everything around him. His strength was strangely soothing. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she’d felt so…content.”

“As soon as the man had gone, Caitrina moved to stand before him, her soft feminine scent clouding his senses. Would it always be like this—this clawing need for her? The inability to think when she was near? The feeling that if he didn’t take her in his arms and kiss her, he would surely die?”

“Her eyes heated with the anger and hurt that had been held inside herfor too long. "Your trips to the village have not gone unnoticed."A look of confusion crossed his too-handsome face. "What does mygoing to the village have to do with us?""I know there are women--"He swore and gripped her arm, jerked her up against his chest. "Whoput such nonsense in your head?"She didn't say anything, her throat hot and tight from the ball of tearsconstricting it."Finlay," he said flatly. She looked at him in surprise. " 'Tis no secretthat he despises me, but I am surprised that you listened to his venom.""It's not too difficult to believe. You are a man.""Aye," he said softly. "But I've not had another woman, Elizabeth."Her heart faltered. Her eyes shot to his, not daring to believe ... Hecradled her cheek tenderly in his big hand."How can I when I want someone else?"He hasn't been with a woman ... he wants me.”

“His kiss was brutal, punishing, for making him feel like this. He wasdesperate. Out of control. Never had he experienced this kind of irrationalurgency. He needed her. Like a starving man needed food. Like a dying manneeded salvation. Now. Before everything went to hell. Before she could change her mind.”

“She didn’t know Matt had followed her until he grabbed her shoulder, halting her headlong rush to nowhere. He turned her into his arms, pulled her against his chest, crushed her mouth in a searing kiss.“Shane,” he said when he raised his head from hers. “I love you. I love you.”Her heart opened and the wall inside her trembled as she clung to him. “Burn me up, Matt,” she said, her voice a ragged whisper. “Burn it away. Please, please, burn it all away.”She heard him growl deep in his throat and he lifted her into his arms in one swift movement. As he carried her back across the parking lot and through the door of her room, she rained kisses on his neck and the hard line of his jaw. His skin was warm and damp and tasted of salt and desire.”

“He kissed her as if he couldn't get enough of her.”