Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

Heaven, she decided. Making love with him would be out of this world. Had to be since just thinking about making love with him had her on the brink of orgasm.

“You’re not getting sleepy, are you?” Cole leaned in near her ear. His breath tickled, sending shivers over her flesh.

Lifting her glass and taking a small sip, she shook her head. “No way. I have plans for tonight.”

“Oh?” He sounded intrigued, his breath warm, moist against her ear. “What kind of plans?”

“Ones involving being captured by a pirate and staying awake long into the night.”

He glanced down at his shirt and frowned. “I’m no pirate, Amelia, and I won’t capture you. Either you’ll come to me of your own free will or nothing will happen. Not tonight. Not ever. That’s how it has to be between us. No games. No lies. Just you and me together because it’s what we both want.”

Amelia blinked.

He’d pursued her. She’d just told him a fantasy. And he’d changed tactics? He wanted her to come to him? Did he want her to beg again, too? But knowing how she held a grudge for past actions, maybe he was right to insist on her being the one to initiate their physical relationship.

Actually, she knew he was.

She didn’t like him for doing so, but she understood.

He was giving her no wiggle room to blame him for seducing her or to say that she hadn’t wanted whatever happened between them.

No room for guilt afterwards. Either she made the conscious decision to make love with him or they didn’t make love. The choice was hers.

Whether he meant to or not, he was seducing her, though.

With his eyes, his smiles, his little “accidental” touches. And then there was his leg rubbing against hers.

Unlike the night before, he hadn’t attempted to push up her dress and touch her thigh, hadn’t stroked her flesh into a tortured mass of nerves that cried for release. No, all he was doing was pressing his leg next to hers. That was enough to fry her brain cells.

“I will come to you, Cole. Tonight.” Admitting as much wasn’t easy, but with so many other issues between them, communication was of paramount importance. “But I’m not going to beg, do you hear?”

“I hear.” Oblivious to the others at the table, he brushed a lock of hair off her cheek, tucking the strand behind her ear. “I’ll be the one begging tonight, Amelia.”

His husky promise caught her off guard, melted her to her seat.

“I want you, Cole.” Heat flushed her cheeks. “I’m not going to make you beg.”

“But I will,” he whispered. “I’ll beg for mercy, because you wield power over who I am and I want you that much. More.”

His words sank in and she tried them on for size.

Maybe there was a reason they couldn’t stay away from each other despite all the reasons they should. Maybe he’d fallen for her just as she’d fallen for him.

Even as she thought it, she knew she could never trust Cole, that at some point he’d walk away from her just as he’d done two years ago. But for the moment it was nice to bask in the glow of the magic of the promise in his eyes, in the fact that for now she was who he wanted, and they were together.

“I want to go back to the hotel,” she admitted, not willing to wait another second. Afraid that if she did, reality would sink in and rob her of the warm feelings rushing through her.

His brow shot up. “Now?”

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

They said their goodbyes to their colleagues, most of whom were enthralled in a tale Richard was telling with great animation. Amelia didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, didn’t care. All that mattered was the burning desire in Cole’s eyes.

Desire for her.

His palm pressed against her low back possessively, he led her across the dance floor toward the front of the bar so they could make their exit.

Unfortunately they were only halfway across the crowded room when a fight broke out.