Reasons Of the Heart

home when Beth called, in a panic because she hadn't

been able to get hold of me and thought she was cutting

it too fine—'

'She wasn't suppose to tell you at all.'

'Wasn't she?' he asked drily, and smiled as Fran's eyes flickered. Had she been setting some kind of test for him as well, without realising it? If so, he had passed with flying colours. 'Anyway, that's why I over-reacted so violently back there. I was shattered by nerves before we even got in sight of the drop zone. Beth said she'd told you about my jumps and you'd closed up and gone "all quiet and fanatical" about doing it yourself. I didn't know what to think. Add to that two speeding tickets and a near-miss with a roadside goat, and that "Mae West" was just a match to the powder keg. It was either beat you or kiss you senseless, and I couldn't do either I was shaking so much.'

Fran cleared her throat. 'The jumpmaster told us that lots of wives and girlfriends of the male jumpers often help as judges in sky-diving competitions. Perhaps I could do that... if I'm not up there myself, of course,' she added bravely to herself, making his mouth twitch.

'Of course,' he murmured. 'We'll wait and see, shall we?' He paused. 'As wife or girlfriend?'

She looked at him and he smiled reassuringly, but he forgot to guard his eyes, which had taken on that steely look again. 'Is that a choice?' asked Fran innocently.

'Yes.' And just as quickly, 'No.' He frowned, and looked unseeingly out at the passing fields. 'Yes. I don't know.' He shrugged impatiently and looked at her with brooding resentment. 'What do you want it to be?'

'What happened to the strong, decisive man I fell in love with?' she mourned gleefully. 'Who is this wishy-washy substitute?'

'Wishy-washy?' Suddenly she was flat on her back

against the cool leather seat, laughingly pushing at his

wide shoulders. 'You want decisive, Princess? I'll give

you decisive—'

And he was kissing her, devouring her with lips and teeth and tongue, and while she was dealing with the erotic shock of his mouth on hers his hands were busily unzipping her flight suit and burrowing eagerly under the tracksuit she wore underneath. The purring hum of the powerful car beneath her, and the tigerish growl of the big man on top of her combined in an exquisite inner vibration that burned from her belly to her brain. He swore roughly at the tangle her clothing created and rolled sideways the better to deal with it, so that they both lay slanted on the seat, their legs entwining, feet jammed against the panelled wood of the door.

'Ross, wait ' Fran shuddered as he found the hard

peak of her breast and stroked it lovingly through her silky, seamless bra, making it swell and harden even further.

'I've done nothing else but, since I met you, and if

you get pregnant you'll have to damned well marry

me—'

'I only wanted to say yes.'

'Yes what?' he muttered vaguely, tasting her skin with a connoisseur's appreciation and a starving man's fervour.

'Yes, I'll marry you, even if I don't get pregnant.'

'Of course you will,' he purred, moving his hand down her body, pushing under the soft waistband of her tracksuit pants and touching her with mind-bending gentleness and intimacy. 'Your compassionate heart couldn't bear to condemn me to a lifetime of painful frustration. God—' his hips flexed involuntarily as her thigh dragged against his swollen hardness with a convulsive jerk of pleasure, '—you're so hot and sweet and ready for me...how in the hell are we going to work this?' He groaned as he rubbed himself against her, building the pressure for release as he tried to wrestle her out of the restricting jumpsuit.

'Ross, you do remember where we are, don't you?'

'How could I forget?' He cursed as he realised he had no chance of getting the suit off while she still had her boots on.

'Don't you think we should wait for a more appropriate time and place?' Fran asked, quivering with love and laughter at his passionate antics.

'What could be more appropriate, Princess?' he growled. 'We've come full circle. Here we are again, trying to make love in the back seat of a car... except this time we know precisely what we're doing, and why, and nothing and no one is going to separate us again...'

Full circle. A circle of love without beginning or end, and large enough to encompass every dream that Francesca could ever wish for. She began to help him, eagerly...