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held her so tightly, and her nails began to sink into the dark fabric of his shirt The silvered coral tint at the tips of her fingers was a savage splash of color against the garment
    He must have recognized the passion he had ignited within her because his own seemed to be taking quantum jumps. Rani was certain the kiss had begun as a form of retaliation, but she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were both caught up in it now.
    Dear God, there hadn't been even a fraction of this elemental excitement and need in King's good-night embrace. Rani hadn't known anything like this in her life! Greedily, with the overpowering hunger of a starving woman who has just been presented a banquet, Rani gave herself up to Gage's kiss. She would sort out all the ramifications later. Right now there was only the night and this all-consuming man.
    With great reluctance Gage pulled away from her lips at last, searching out the vulnerable, sensitive line of her throat. "Rani, Rani, what are you doing to me?" he muttered hoarsely.
    She didn't answer. She couldn't answer. In that moment she only wanted to lose herself in the flames he had sparked. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he buried one hand in the knot of her hair and eased her head back. She shivered at the touch of his mouth against her throat, her pulses beginning to hammer. Eyes tightly closed against the thrill of the moment, she moaned softly.
    Then his hands shifted again, finding the upper edge of the strapless maillot
    "Gage," she whispered, shaken, as his fingers slid beneath the tight-fitting silver-gray fabric of the swimsuit But he stopped her faint protest, drinking his name from her lips even as she spoke.
    She gasped as the exciting roughness of his hands slid down the sides of her body, drawing the top half of the suit to her waist in a swift movement. The towel fell away completely to wind up in a pool of gold at their feet Then he was lifting his head, his eyes meeting hers as she looked up at him through lowered lashes. Holding her gaze, he raised his palms with tantalizing slowness up from her waist. She trembled beneath his touch, her lips parted, eyes full of passion and wondrous uncertainty.
    The depths of his own desire blazed back at her from his gray eyes. And in those depths she saw as great a degree of wonder as she felt in herself. Whatever Gage Fletcher had intended when he'd begun the kiss, it was not this ensnaring desire that was claiming them both. Knowing he was as unexpectedly trapped in it as she, Rani was able to enjoy the moment Her fingertips stroked his wide shoulders and then curled deeply into the sable darkness of his hair. The crisp thickness of it was fascinating to her senses.
    The warm palms at her waist had risen almost to the level of her breasts, and she could feel the shudder that went through Gage as he hesitated a fraction longer and then closed his fingers gently around the small curving
    "Oh, Gage!" Rani's breath hissed between her teeth as she shut her eyes once more and leaned into him, hiding her face against his chest. There she inhaled the earthy male scent of him and quivered again.
    "Sweetheart," he growled against the fallen array of her hair, "the feel of you is driving me out of my mind. You have the body of a cat. Slender and so damn sensuous. I can feel your nipples hardening under my hand. Do you know what it's doing to me?"
    "Tell me," she urged breathlessly, needing to hear the exciting words.
    "I want to put you down here on the grass, finish removing this damn swimsuit and then lake you so completely you would never be able to look at another man. God, woman! I want to ravish you, do you realize that?"
    There was so much self-astonishment in his voice that Rani's excitement became tinged with a feminine indulgence she had never experienced before. Gage certainly had never intended the punishing kiss to lead to this!
    "Ravishment isn't quite what I had in mind," she whispered throatily, raising her head to