She felt the arousing, passionate sensations take her beyond the edge of reasoning thought All that mattered was Rand. She wondered how she could ever have survived without knowing this powerful emotion again. In the back of her mind, Kalinda acknowledged the truth. She would have eventually gone back to the mountains looking for him.

„I would have come back, Rand,“ she confessed huskily. „I told myself I had to get over you, that there was no future for us. But I know now I would have come back.“

Gently he turned her on her back, his leg thrown heavily across hers. „I couldn’t wait, sweetheart I had to follow you. I had to know if I could make you need me as badly as I needed you!“

He strung fiery little kisses all down her throat, across her soft breasts and along the curve of her stomach. She surged beneath his questing hands, unable to hide her desire.

„Do you have any idea what it does to me when you ignite like this in my arms? I couldn’t stand the thought of you coming back to Denver and finding someone else! You’re mine, Kalinda. I made you mine last weekend. I swear you’ll find me worthy of your sweet surrender.“

Kalinda gasped at his progressively intimate demands, her eyes tightly shut as her head fell back over his outstretched arm. „Such a risk, it’s such a risk--“

„No,“ he whispered forcefully. „I’ll take care of everything. You don’t have to worry about getting pregnant!“

And Kalinda, who had been too far gone in the dazzling world of sensation he had created to even think about that particular risk, gave up trying to tell him her real fears.

He soothed her body with his hands and lips, finding the secret places he had discovered once before and reforging the bond he’d created then. Even as he made love to her, tuning her body to his, Kalinda realized the strength of the link he had bound her with that morning in the mountains.

He knew her so well, she thought wonderingly. She had called him perceptive, but even she hadn’t realized the depths of that perception. He had known he could show up on her doorstep tonight and reweave the magic they had found once before.

Her own instincts had been more confused on the issue but under the impact of his desire they homed in on the truth.

When she thought she could stand no more of the teasing, exhilarating lovemaking, when she thought it must surely drive her insane if he didn’t stake the final claim, Rand came to her with a fierce and gentle power that left her no option but to respond in kind.

In the darkness she clung to him as she had that morning by the lake, knowing an almost violent satisfaction at the knowledge that this time she couldn’t run away when it was over.

The driving force of his need took them both into a timeless world of sensuality that left no room for the unbidden questions a portion of Kalinda’s mind still asked.

7

Kalinda awoke the next morning with a curious sense of expectancy. She sensed the missing weight beside her in the bed and turned her tousled head on the pillow. At the same moment that she registered the empty place where Rand had been she realized the shower was going full blast.

She lay perfectly still for a moment, letting the memories of last night’s passion and intimacy wash over her. Again and again in the darkness Rand had reached for her, pulling her close, telling her of his need.

And she had gone to him, refusing to think of the future, allowing only her woman’s need to satisfy and be satisfied to guide her.

In the morning light, Kalinda lay gazing across the expanse of apricot carpet and asked herself the question she hadn’t wanted to ask during the night.

Why had Rand followed her back to Denver? It was hard to believe that he wanted an affair so badly he felt obliged to „prove“ himself worthy of her regard. He didn’t strike her as the sort of man who had ever felt it necessary to prove himself to anyone.

He must have met and probably seduced any number of tourists, she thought wretchedly, flinging back the covers. But how many had he followed back to Denver, seeking an affair?

But if it was routine for him, it was not routine for her. Kalinda had not been seriously interested in anyone after David Hutton had taken back his ring. There had been two reasons for maintaining the most casual of relationships. One had been the necessity for almost complete attention to Brady Data Processing. She had always been a hard worker, but the effort to save the company had required a ceaseless effort for the first couple of years. And memories of the fool she had been for trusting in David had constituted the second reason for extreme caution in her associations with men.

Yet within two days of knowing Rand Alastair she had gone to bed with him, and when he had shown up on her doorstep last night, she had known the probable result Known it and put up very little argument against it.

Kalinda got to her feet and winced at the unexpected soreness in her muscles. The evidence of the intensity of Rand’s lovemaking was going to be undeniable for a day or two, she thought dryly, reaching for a soft velour robe and belting it firmly around her waist.

She took a deep, steadying breath and headed for the bathroom where it sounded as if Rand was going through her hot water in record time. It was as she tentatively opened the door, the steam hitting her full in the face, that she realized she didn’t know exactly what she was going to say.

But something had to be said, she told herself resolutely. Last night had been only the beginning of an affair as far as Rand was concerned, but for her it had brought the blinding realization that she was in love with the man.

She didn’t want to be. Kalinda had no real desire to be in love with anyone. The last time she had allowed her emotions to become vulnerable she had been made to look a fool. Yet two years later she found herself swept into a far more passionate situation than she had ever known with David and with a man she barely knew.

How even as she stood there in the bathroom doorway letting the steam escape Kalinda recognized the depths of her feelings for the man standing complacently under her shower. She had let him in last night because she had taken one look at him and realized the strength of the bonds he had forged that morning in the mountains. She had gone to bed with him last night and let him strengthen those intimate bonds until by morning she had no alternative but to acknowledge them.

„Come on in and close the door, you’re letting all the heat out!“ Rand called from behind the shower curtain. „About time you got up. I was just about to come in and wake you!“ He stuck his head around the curtain, water plastering the chestnut hair to his head, the hazel eyes gleaming with remembered satisfaction as he took in her robe-covered figure.

Kalinda found herself responding to his obvious good mood in spite of her newfound resolution to have a serious talk. „Were you going to wait until you’d used all the hot water before you called me?“

„I’ve been saving some for you,“ he retorted imperturbably. „Come on in.“

„I’ll wait,“ she declared firmly. „Rand, I want to talk to you…“

„Come a little closer, it’s hard to hear over the noise of the water,“ he remarked innocently, ducking back behind the shower.

Uncertainly Kalinda moved forward. „I suppose it can wait until you’re finished,“ she began and then belatedly tried to step backward as a long, wet arm darted out to snag her wrist An instant later he reappeared from behind the curtain, a teasing grin slashing his tanned face.

„Come on in, honey. The water’s fine.“

‘ ‘Rand, this is serious,’’ she began earnestly and then had to stop her argument in order to push away his fingers as they reached for the belt on the robe. „I need to talk to you.“