"It doesn't come with obligations."

"They're implied."

"Not to me."

"Tome."

"Please."

"I said no."

A small, strangled sob escaped her.

Judd's head snapped around. He saw her tears, saw the pleading in her eyes. Apparently they touched him in a way her temper tantrums could not. The resolution keeping his lips compressed and uncompromising deserted him. His features softened.

He lay down beside her again and drew her against him. "Don't cry, Stevie. Don't." Typically a cynic where women's tears were concerned, he held her close and kissed her brow with commiseration.

She nuzzled his naked chest, rubbing her face against the pelt of crinkling hair. "Please, Judd, make love to me while I'm still whole. I want it to be you."

Why?"

"Sentiment, maybe. Even though you doubt it, I know it would have happened in Stockholm if Presley hadn't stopped us." She touched his nipple with the tip of her tongue, licking it deftly, and pressed her palm against his hot, swollen flesh.

"Oh, baby," he moaned, threading his fingers up through her hair. "Stop."

"I don't want to stop."

"You've got to, or- "

"I want to be a complete woman once. Just once, Judd, please."

She dusted his chest with soft, airy kisses, swinging her head back and forth as she worked her way down. She kissed his stomach, then his belly, which was rapidly rising and falling. Her lips tracked the satiny stripe of hair that fanned out denser and coarser on his lower body. He was in a state of supreme agitation and had almost reached the point of no return when he closed his fingers around her head and raised it.

He rolled her to her back and leaned over her.

"Okay," he rasped breathlessly, "if you're sure."

"Absolutely sure." He nodded grimly.

Laughing, she touched the corners of his mouth.

"Your frown is death to my ego. You could look a little happier about it."

"I'm worried."

"I told you not to be. There are no strings attached."

"It isn't that."

"Then what?" Her eyes rounded and she gasped. "You do know how, don't you?" she asked teasingly.

"Yeah, I know how," he said, his intensity unchanged. "And hard and fast isn't the way to do it the first time. If you keep doing stuff like that…" He blew out a breath and shook his head as though to clear it. "I'm going to set the tempo.

Got that?"

She nodded obediently, though she wasn't sure she could keep such a rash promise when her blood was surging through her veins with a mix of want and wonder. She wasn't sure Judd could stick with the plan, either. His breathing wasn't any steadier than hers and his face was ruddy with arousal.

"Alright, kiss me," he instructed her huskily.

"Forget everything you've ever heard about technique. Kiss me the way you think a 'bad girl' would and we'll both have a much better time."

Taking his advice as a challenge, Stevie linked her arms around his neck and drew his head down. His open mouth met hers, and it was a melding of dual passions. His tongue probed the soft, wet heat of her mouth, sliding in and out, mating with her tongue, which then returned the favor to him, apparently to his satisfaction, for he groaned with pleasure and drew it deeper into his mouth.

His hands rubbed her back, then gradually pulled the bedspread from between them until they were lying naked face to face again. She felt the warm, smooth tip of his shaft against her belly. His thighs pressed against hers. Her breasts lay lush and full against his hard chest; her nipples nestled in the dark, curly hair.

All the sensations were exquisite. The contact with his raw masculinity made her feel wholly female. She wondered how she had survived this long without being intimately acquainted with his body.

And she realized at that moment that she was falling madly in love with her enemy.

Asking him to make love to her had little or nothing to do with Stockholm or with sentiment, or any other excuse she could have conjured up. She wanted to be with Judd, be a part of him, entirely, without reservation or inhibition.

It was as simple as that.

Though, actually, it wasn't simple at all. It was very complex. Too complex to muddle through while his mouth was inching down her throat.

He scooped her breast toward his descending mouth and sucked on the tip with strong, urgent tugging motions that touched off responsive chords in her womb. "Ah, Judd," she cried in ecstasy.

"You're sweet, Stevie. Very sweet." He moved to her other breast while his fingers caressed the nipple he'd just left wet and erect.

"Please," she gasped moments later as his tongue feathered one stiff crest. She thrust her hips forward, grinding them against his rigid manhood.

Moaning low, he smoothed one hand down her body and between her thighs. He caressed her gently, moving his fingers between the velvety folds. "Almost, but not quite," he told her, smiling gently into her face before lowering his head and kissing her stomach.

His hands stroked the insides of her thighs, urging them to separate, though without any hint of threat, coercion or violation. He nipped her skin lightly with his teeth and bathed her navel with his tongue.

She cried his name sharply when he kissed the cluster of pale curls between her thighs. Then his tongue, soft and inquisitive and agile, entered her. He kissed her deeply, again and again, until her head was thrashing on the pillow and her body was quickening to the strokes of his tongue.

Rapturously she submitted to the spirals of sensation that were winding her being tighter and tighter. At the height of her release, she clutched handfuls of his hair and gasped his name.

A film of perspiration had broken out on her face when he raised himself above her. He sipped at it while he positioned himself between her thighs and lifted her hips against his.

Holding her there, he pressed into her by slow degrees, letting her body gradually adjust to his hard length, so that by the time he was buried snugly inside her, the only difficulty either had experienced was in holding back the passion that demanded immediate fulfillment.

"You feel wonderful surrounding me," he whispered, softly kissing the lips she had bruised with her own teeth. He swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, reveling in the ecstasy of being inside her. "You feel sensational."

She murmured his name in a breathy voice while her fingers ghosted lovingly over his face.

She was unaware of the tears that glistened in her eyes, but he saw them.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded her head quickly. "Yes, yes, yes."

"Well, I'm not," he said, baring his teeth.

"I'm about to die. But, God, it's a helluva way to go."

He began moving inside her, stroking her until they were both senseless and all that mattered was succumbing to the tumult of emotion that seized them. When they did, he pressed his forehead upon hers and chanted her name.

"Want me to-"

"No."

Judd chuckled. "You didn't let me finish.

"Whatever it is, I don't want you to do it because you'd have to move. And if you move, I'll have to," she said, yawning listlessly, "and I don't think I can."

Judd did move, but only to pull her into the circle of his arms and prop his chin on the top of her head. Stevie moved, too, curving her arm around his waist.

"Why did you taunt me on the tennis court this afternoon?" she asked.

"Because you were playing poorly, and the reason you were was that you didn't consider me a worthy opponent and, therefore, weren't putting forth any effort."

"I was playing poorly, yes, but not because I didn't consider you a worthy opponent."

"Then why?"

"My head wasn't in the game."