and the pleasure was mind-shattering.
And then, suddenly, the heat and the tension peaked to \ flash point and erupted, convulsing Kay la as her senses exploded in rapturous white-hot waves that shook her with : pleasure.
Matt felt her climax beneath him and exultandy found his ; own release, emptying his virile strength into her.
And it happened again and again during the long, dark magical night. They came together, in a frenzy of excitement or in a drowsy, sweet surge of tenderness. Satiated to the point of exhaustion, they slept for intervals, then awakened with a hunger and need that demanded fulfillment.
They couldn't get enough of each other, they couldn't give enough of themselves. All night long there was just the two of them in their own private universe, merging again and again, separating and then fusing in a never-ending spiral of desire and satisfaction.
Kay la opened her eyes a crack. She was aware of a fierce 3 pounding in her head, as if some merciless fiend were inside it, relentlessly striking her skull with a sharp-edged mallet. And the light...it was blindingly bright. Gingerly ' she closed her eyes again, aware that even her eyelids were aching. Her mouth was dry, her tongue felt swollen. When she tried to move, muscles she'd previously been unaware of seemed to come screaming to life, making her moan with 1 discomfort.
Matt turned his head on the pillow toward the sound of the muffled cry. He'd awakened moments ago to the worst headache of his life and his mouth felt as if he'd slept with a wad of wool stuffed inside it. When he swallowed, a sick-
ening wave of nausea tore through him. The symptoms alarmed him. Had he contracted a swift, virulent case of the flu?
The small noise sounded again and through slitted eyes he saw a mane of long, li^t brown curls spread over the pillow beside him. The woman's face was very pretty but very pale. Wasn't she feeling well, either? He considered the possibility of food poisoning and tried to remember if last night's chicken had tasted odd, then realized he could barely remember eating dinner at all.
But he most definitely remembered making love with a beautiful, sexy woman. Matt tried to take a deep, calming breath. So it hadn't been a dream, it had been real. Just as the beautiful, sexy woman lying next to him was real and not a fantasy produced by an overheated imagination, inspired by a sexually deprived body. He was not sexually deprived now, not after last night
Memories tumbled through his head, too vivid and far too intense for him to cope with in his current weakened state. He relegated them to back-burner status in his mind; right now he had other things to deal with. Like what to say to the woman who was lying beside him.
What did one say in a situation like this? Matt realized how unprqjared he was, how much he was dreading the moment. He cleared his throat, a definite mistake. Just that small internal motion nauseated him.
The sound had a startling effect on the woman. Gasping, she sat up abruptly, clutching the sheet around her. ''Oh God!" It was more a desperate prayer than an exclamation. "I thought I'd dreamed it, but it's true."
Matt closed his eyes for a moment. He'd been right to dread this. It was going to turn into an emotional scene, and he was not good at emotional scenes. All the ones he'd endured with Debra had proven that. As feminine hysteria mounted, he became taciturn, withdrawn and remote. He
couldn't help it; something about melodrama made him stoic.
But he wasn't with Debra now, Matt reminded himself. Maybe things would be different today. Determinedly, he turned on his side to face his lover from last night. The mattress seemed to pitch and roll like a boat on a stormy sea. At least it felt that way to his queasy stomach.
*'I just want you to know that I don't do this sort of thing all the time," he gritted out. Each word reverberated inside his head like a gunshot. ''In fact, I've never done it before. I mean, I've