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cheek.
    â€œI’m sure Andrew knows you’re fine,” he said, desperate to say anything that would halt the uncharacteristic tears. “He and Richard are probably back at your place now, playing video games and having a wonderful time. And if I know the two of them, they’re probably having way too much fun to worry about us.”
    â€œYou really think so?” Her eyes shone with the light of hope.
    â€œI’m positive,” he said firmly. He sent a prayer heavenward that Richard indeed had Andrew back home and they were both safe and sound. “They’ve probably ordered a pizza for supper and are scarfing it down. If we cross their mind at all, they’re probably wondering if we’ve been abducted by aliens.”
    To his relief, the tears disappeared from her eyes and she laughed. “I’m sure you’re right,” she said.
    As with the night before, a large tree trunk servedas a backrest as they settled in for the long night ahead. And as with the night before, as the shadows deepened, eventually disappearing into complete and total darkness, Elizabeth inched close to Talbot, so close he was enveloped in her warmth, her scent.
    Both played havoc with his senses, stirring him in a way that was both wonderful and terrible. He steeled himself against the sensual assault, hating himself for wanting her…hating her for making him want her.
    He leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes, wondering what in hell he’d done in his life to deserve the current situation.
    Even though Richard and Elizabeth were no longer married, Talbot knew that pursuing any kind of relationship with her was out of the question. The whole thing would feel just…wrong.
    Besides, for all he knew Richard had been plotting a way to get Elizabeth back all week, to reunite the family he’d lost. Talbot would never get in the way of a family.
    As always, thoughts of Richard filled him with a combination of emotions. Love and protectiveness battled with worry and the vague sense that he hadn’t done enough, hadn’t been enough to make Richard a mature, well-adjusted man.
    â€œWant to know why I’m afraid of the dark?” Elizabeth broke the silence.
    He wanted to tell her no, to say that the last thinghe wanted was an invitation into the secret places of her soul. And yet he couldn’t help the curiosity that ripped through him. “Okay. Why?”
    â€œWhen I was five, my parents went out for the evening and left me with a baby-sitter. That night, while I slept, my parents were killed in a car accident.” She paused a moment and drew a deep breath.
    â€œI was awakened by a stranger taking me from my bed and was driven to a foster home. When I woke up the next morning, everything I had known and loved was gone. Somehow in my mind, that night the darkness of it and incredible loss became hopelessly entangled.”
    Although her words had been spoken matter-of-factly, Talbot heard the undertone of profound sadness, the whisper of residual fear.
    Despite his resolve to the contrary, it was impossible for him not to be moved. He knew what it was like to lie in the shadows of night and be afraid of what morning might bring. However, when his parents had died, he’d been old enough to hang on to his home, their belongings and his own sense of identity. She had not been.
    Unable to stop the impulse that drove him, he placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her more firmly against him. She pressed her face against the front of his shirt, and he knew her eyeswere squeezed tightly shut against the darkness that surrounded them.
    â€œYou’re safe for the night,” he said softly against the sweet fragrance of her hair. “Just go to sleep and tomorrow we’ll get out of here.”
    A helpless resignation swept through him, and he found himself wondering how somebody who was so wrong for him could feel so right in his