The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy by Jayne Ann Krentz Page A

until it hung open and then she pushed it off entirely. The garment fell to the sand, and she stroked Jared's sleek shoulders, loving the feel of the strong, muscled flesh.

    Jared finished undressing her carefully, his hands gliding down over her hips, taking the dress and her panties with them. Then he was stroking her bare, rounded buttocks, cupping her and lifting her up against him. She felt rough denim and the cold metal fastening of his jeans against her stomach. The heaviness of his manhood thrust against the fabric. The fullness of his arousal was almost shocking.

    "You feel so good," Jared whispered as he eased her down onto her back on the blanket. He knelt beside her and stroked the length of her bare leg. "Warm and soft and sexy."

    "Not prickly?"

    "Not prickly at all." He bent his head and kissed the hollow of her stomach. "I should have guessed all the prickliness was designed to protect something very special."

    Unable to help herself, Kate arched sensuously under his touch, closing her eyes and moaning softly. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders and she urged him closer. He was hard all over, the contours of his back defining his physical strength.

    Jared came down on top of her, his bare chest crushing her gently. So much crisp, dark hair on that chest, Kate thought.

    He was still wearing his jeans, and Kate found the texture of the cloth against her naked leg strangely exciting. It became almost unbearably so when Jared slid down the length of her. His mouth was all over, tasting her, exploring her body, covering her with hot, damp kisses. She gasped and her head tipped back over his arm when she felt his teeth lightly graze her breast. Then she felt his tongue curl around her nipple and she laughed in soft delight, lightheaded with the thrill of it all.

    When he moved lower still, she thought she would fly apart into a million glittering pieces.

    "Jared."

    "I'm not going anywhere. You taste like the sea."

    "I can't stand…Jared, wait. Come here. Please." She coiled one leg around his thigh and tightened her grip on him, pulling him upward again. Her hands slid down his back. "Your jeans."

    "I know. I'll get rid of them." He rolled to one side, unfastened his denims and slid out of the last of his clothing. He paused long enough to draw a small packet from one pocket, fumbled with it for a few seconds and then he came back to her in a hot, enveloping rush.

    "This is so perfect," Kate said, looking up at him through half-closed lashes. His body was lean, hard and beautifully male. "Maybe too perfect." The strength in him was controlled and all the more powerful because of that control. "You're so perfect."

    His smile was slow and deeply sensual as he bent over her. "Remember that in the morning. Promise?"

    "I promise."

    He caught his breath as he put his heavy thigh over one of her twisting, restless legs, pinning her gently. "Now put your arms around me and open yourself for me. I want you more than I can ever remember wanting anything in my life."

    "I want you, too." She was stunned at the depths of her own need. Such incredible passion would have a high price. Nothing came free in this world. She looked up at Jared, studying his shadowed face.

    "I'm glad you want me. I need you to want me. Lord, how I need it," he said fiercely. His expression was stark in the moonlight; the desire in him unmistakable. His eyes glittered with it. The hand that covered her stomach shook with it.

    Jared slid his warm palm down to the soft hair above her thighs. Kate parted her legs for him, lifting herself helplessly against his hand. She felt his fingers slip down into her softness and search out the growing dampness between her legs. Slowly he explored her secrets with roughened fingers, coaxing more of the liquid heat from her until she could not think of anything except the mind-spinning passion. He kissed her, filling her mouth and then withdrawing in a tantalizing rhythm that set up the more