"I'm not?" Ten's hand flexed again and he groaned quietly at Diana's helpless response to his touch. "Baby, I'm sure as hell teasing one of us."

He felt her hand moving, heard the soft slide of a zipper and sensed the sudden looseness of her shorts. His hand bunched, catching cloth between his fingers, pulling it away from the hot secrets he longed to explore.

When Diana felt her remaining clothes being tugged down her legs, felt the powerful, cloth-covered male legs rubbing against hers, a shaft of panic went through her, memories of another time, another place, pain. Her legs clamped together and her body jack-knifed in an instinctive effort to protect herself.

Instantly Ten let go, leaving Diana's shorts and panties around her knees. Grateful that she couldn't see the tension in his body, Ten brushed a butterfly kiss on her shoulder.

"It's all right, Diana. It stops right here."

Gently Ten began to ease his left arm from beneath Diana's head. She grabbed his left hand and held it against her breast once more.

"Don't leave," she said raggedly. "I didn't mean to react like that. It was just when I felt the zipper scrape down my leg and felt your legs and you were still dressed-but it's all right now. I know where I am, who I'm with."

Ten kissed Diana's shoulder again but made no move to reclaim the soft curves he had already made his own, much less the shadowed heat that lay newly revealed to his touch.

"Would it make you feel better if I weren't wearing my jeans?" Ten asked.

She laughed a little wildly. "Yes. I know it sounds crazy but-yes."

With a silent prayer that his self-control was as good as he thought it was, Ten rolled over, removed his clothes and returned to his former spoon position with Diana. The feel of her bare bottom nestled deeply into his lap made him clench against a savage thrust of need.

Diana and I could be dead naked together and she could still say no and that would be that. So cool off, cowboy. This one is for Diana, not me. As much as she wants, when she wants it, however she wants it. That's what I promised.

I must have been out of my mind.

The sweet heat and feminine curves of Diana's body called out to Ten in a siren song as old as man and woman and desire, making Ten want to curse his stupidity for promising not to coax or beg or demand from Diana what he had never needed so much before in his life.

He lay motionless, his left arm pillowing Diana's head, his right hand clenched into a fist that rested on his equally clenched thigh.

"Ten," Diana whispered. "Please touch me again. It's all right. I trust you. I won't panic again. And I like-I like the feel of you without your jeans."

Slowly Ten's right hand loosened. He took a deep, secret breath, then another, relaxing himself in a ritual that was almost as old as desire itself.

"Are you sure?" he asked, not knowing of whom he asked the question.

Diana answered it for both of them. Without warning she took both of Ten's hands and rubbed her breasts against his palms, letting him feel the hardness of her nipples and at the same time easing some of the wild ache in her body. His strong fingers closed around her, plucking at the tight velvet peaks, coaxing a ripple of sound from her. After a moment the smooth heat of his right hand caressed her belly, her waist, the small of her back; then a single finger traced the shadow cleft between her hips.

If Diana had thought to conceal herself by locking her knees together and jackknifing her body, she had failed. Ten found her softness unshielded, defenseless, and he traced it lovingly. A sudden shudder took her whole body, surprising her. Her husky cry was matched by Ten's groan of discovery as her heat and pleasure spilled over him.

"Ten," Diana cried, feeling another of the strange, tiny convulsions building in her. "I-"

The word became a gasp and another shudder and then another as she felt his touch glide into her body, retreat, return, only to retreat once more, leaving her dazed and empty, aching. He skimmed the edges of her softness, probing sweetly, discovering the aching nub hidden between sleek, silken folds, rubbing it slowly, hotly, stripping away her breath, her thoughts, her restraint.

Diana twisted sinuously, trying to know more of the pleasure that was greater than any she had ever felt but still not enough; it was driving her mad. Ten was driving her mad, stealing into her so gently, retreating, always retreating when what she wanted, what she must have, was his own flesh filling the emptiness she had never known existed within her own body.

"So soft," Ten said, his deep voice a rumbling purr. He teased Diana slowly, loving the wild tremors of her response when he slid unerringly into her softness, groaning as he touched as much of her as he could. "So damned hot."

Ten's name broke on Diana's lips, a strained sound that could have been either fear or passion. Slowly, reluctantly, he began withdrawing from her body. Her hand locked over his, holding him in place.

"Are you sure you want this?" Ten said hoarsely, rubbing his cheek along her bare hip.

"Yes."

"And this? Do you want this, too?"

His hand shifted. The sensuous pressure within Diana increased. The glittering sensation that had haunted her body condensed into a network of wild lightning. The sound she made was as involuntary as the tightening of her body around him. Afraid that he had hurt her, Ten withdrew before she could stop him.

"Baby? Was that pleasure or pain? You're so tight…"

Diana looked over her shoulder at Ten with sapphire eyes that burned in the aftermath of sensual lightning. Slowly she turned her whole body until she was facing him. When she spoke, her voice was low. smoky, as helplessly sensual as her response to him. She guided his hand from her shoulder to the dark triangle at the base of her torso. When he accepted her wordless invitation and returned to her body, a shaft of pleasure made her gasp and tremble even as she instinctively sought more of Ten's touch. His hand shifted and she felt herself gently stretched. Sensual lightning came again, as unexpected and ravishing as it had been the first time.

"You were right," Diana said when she could speak.

"About what?"

"This. It's as much pleasure as your senses can stand."

Ten laughed softly, then groaned as Diana's mouth caressed his bare chest. "We've just skimmed the surface," he said, bringing her mouth up to his. "But I'm glad you're enjoying it."

She smiled hesitantly. "Are you enjoying it, too?"

"Baby, I'd have to be dead and buried not to enjoy touching you."

Ten felt Diana's slender ringers searching restlessly over his chest, pausing to tease the flat male nipples, then moving on to his back. She probed the line of his spine between ridges of muscle, stroking him, learning what it felt like to hold a man in her arms. Closing her eyes, sighing, half-smiling, she kneaded the long, heavy muscles of Ten's back, openly savoring the heat and power of his body.

Seeing Diana's enjoyment at touching him was as arousing as anything a woman had ever done to Ten. The tips of Diana's breasts were like tight pink rosebuds pressing against him with each movement of her hands. When he could no longer bear looking at her breasts without caressing them, he bent his head to her. A startled gasp became a moan as he circled one bud with his tongue, then took her deeply into his mouth, tasting her, tugging softly on her, making her shudder with each soft stab of his tongue, each exquisitely restrained caress of his teeth, each movement of his fingers within the clinging heat of her body.

Sounds rippled from Diana, the elemental huskiness of passion combined with rising notes of feminine surprise. The hot movements of Ten's mouth and hands increased, deepened, quickened, and she called his name with every rapid breath she took, every stroke of sweet lightning scoring her, shaking her, until finally she shimmered and burned in his arms, her body consumed by the pleasure he had given to her.