Tori wanted to run to Sean, to collapse in his arms, but that was just substituting one problem with another. She was so scared of the escalating situation that she was about to do something she promised herself she wouldn’t do. She was certain her fear was what was driving her to his arms. Well, that and the great sex, of course. No denying that chemistry they shared.But the sex wasn’t a relationship, and wouldn’t be the reason for their relationship. She’d studied this in college, couples who got together at a particularly low point in their lives, and later, when they healed, when they grew up, they couldn’t keep it together. They grew apart.No. She wanted a relationship with someone when she was healed. When she was whole. Besides, she needed to get her life back on track. This delicious detour was just that, a detour. Although his kisses were scorchingly hot, his moves made her bones turn to rubber, she knew better than to think a relatio

Tori’s dad closed the front door behind their insurance adjuster. That left them alone with Detective Dole. All the other police and fire crews were gone. A pungent burnt smell permeated the house. Even with the opened windows and fans, provided by the adjuster’s emergency crew, the house smelled unbearably toxic.The family waited while Aaron Hoades slowly walked across the living room to sit beside his wife on the couch. Dole sat on a cranberry overstuffed chair, identical to the one Tori sat on, with a coffee table between them. She was holding her breath, until she realized it. No matter how much she scolded herself, she couldn’t escape the fact that she was afraid, and she was very much alone.It was a scene right out of a horror movie, Tori thought. Black streaks of smoke covering one wall in the foyer giving off a thick acrid smell. Water and large quilted moving blankets to sop it up were strewn all over the entryway. And her parents sat

sean played with pencils on a vacant sales associate’s desk at the Patterson Realty office while Joanne Kane worked with Luca and Alex in the conference room, leaving him alone with Duke. bunny had taken off to oversee the close-up of his gym. The european soldier was swinging his short torso around on a wheeled office chair, testing and adjusting the height and angle of the back until the thing flipped over on top of him when he landed on the floor.sean gave a hand to his best friend, who was sputtering a string of curses in Spanish. The back of the chair had become dislodged from the frame and parts had scattered all over the floor. As if on cue, both Team guys kneeled and began collecting items scattered around before them. Without saying a word, they located the screws, levers and other parts and began to put the chair back together again. They guessed at the height and back tilt and set about adjusting the finished project accordingly. Once it was compl

It didn’t take them long to make it back through the narrow hallways, brushing past tourists, sports teams and retirees in walkers and wheelchairs, past the espresso stand, the valet parking desk and the housekeeping station to the large green, dented doors of the staff elevator. Protected by bumpers of cotton-stuffed canvas, Sean and Tori were finally alone. It was not a logical place to make love, but their urgency for each other was so great it almost happened anyway.Sean had hitched up her top, and peeled her pants down nearly to her knees, his hands roaming over Tori’s smooth, satiny backside. He would have hesitated, but there wasn’t anything from her that indicated she wanted to wait even one minute before getting him to mount her.But then the doors opened. He was standing there in his shorts, with his lady wrapped around his groin, his tee shirt hanging off one shoulder as she pressed herself against him, showing breasts bursting out f

Tori lay on the soft peach rug in the middle of the bridal suite living room at the Huge hotel. Although she didn’t have a ring and a date, it was definitely a honeymoon glow that tingled all over her body. The man who snored against her chest and whose legs still pinned her down, whose hands encircled her wrists and wouldn’t let her move—this man owned every part of her body and soul.She should have felt tied down, restricted, and with any of her other lovers she would have been moving their limp body off her so she could breathe. Not so with Sean. Her shortness of breath because his massive chest pressed against hers was welcomed.Her parents would be returning soon, so Tori knew she’d have to get them to the bedroom. She let her fingers lace down his muscular back and she felt his body jerk, then shudder.He rose up on one elbow, but still kept her pinned beneath his thighs. “Hi,” he said as he brushed hair from her forehead, a