Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

“We’ve been spending time together.” At her pointed look, he winced. “Amelia—”

“Don’t Amelia me,” she interrupted. “I know what I want.” She leaned forward, cupped his face. “Kiss me, Cole.”

His jaw tightened beneath her fingertips. “I can’t kiss you. Not tonight. Not when we’re both at our wit’s end with need.”

Part of her registered that he spoke sense, that she should heed his warning. But another, bigger part feared never knowing what it felt like to make love to him.

“You kissed me up on the steel beach prior to Singapore,” she reminded him. “And a hundred times since.”

“I shouldn’t have. Anything that happens between us needs to wait until we’re in San Diego. No more kisses until then, Amelia.”

He made sense, yet she wasn’t satisfied with his answer. Wasn’t satisfied period.

“Who knows what’s going to happen once we dock? We’ll be given new assignments and may never see each other again.” She couldn’t imagine her life without seeing him and knew in her heart that she’d find a way to him, would ensure thei

r paths crossed in the future. “Kiss me, Cole.” When he didn’t move, she sighed in frustration. “Fine, you just stand there and I’ll do all the work myself.”

She placed her lips against his. She half expected him to push her away, to tell her she was crazy again.

He didn’t.

“What are you doing to me?” he groaned. He kissed her back, pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her next to him. “Don’t you realize I’ve fought to keep from doing this for fear of what it would lead to? That I won’t risk your career? Won’t risk hurting you in any way? We can’t do this. I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough to kiss you and walk away, Amelia. Not tonight. I want more.”

His anguished words were all it took for love to burst free in her chest, leaving no doubt in her mind exactly how she felt about him, leaving no doubt about exactly what she wanted. God bless him, he thought pulling away from her was the right thing to do.

It wasn’t. Not by a long shot. Not for her. Not for him.

“I don’t want you to walk away, Cole. I want you. I feel as if I’ve always wanted you.” She sank against him, opened her heart and soul to his plundering.

With an agonized moan, he did plunder.

With his mouth, his teeth, his hands. Amelia plundered right back. She kissed him with all her heart, all her soul, with all the passion she’d felt for him for years. She touched his face, the strong lines of his neck, his broad shoulders, the sinewy contours of his back.

He touched her, too. With his hands. With his mouth. His lips were everywhere. Her throat, her clavicle, her breasts.

“Cole,” she breathed, pulling him back to her mouth. “Oh, please.”

She didn’t want him to stop, ever.

She ran her hands down the front of his uniform, moved her hips against his hard groin.

She wanted him so much.

She hadn’t planned this. She hadn’t come looking for him, but now that she was kissing Cole, she didn’t want to stop.

Not ever.

She tugged his shirt from his pants and slid her fingers under the material to the sculpted flesh.

At her touch, his stomach sucked in, his breath catching. “Amelia,” he said on a warning note.

A warning she had no intention of heeding.

Her hands caressed his body, moved low, cupping him through his pants as his mouth ravaged hers in a conquering of spirits.

It wasn’t enough, didn’t satisfy the ache within her, and she fumbled for his zipper.

He broke the kiss, his head lifting as he stared down at her, his eyes a hazy, drugged blue. “Amelia?”