They parked the car on the street and headed for Nora’s building. She was on her way to the stairs when he grabbed her hand. It was instinctual, his desire to keep her with him elemental.

“Let’s walk.”

It wasn’t the voice he would use with a coworker. Not the courteous suggestion he would have issued asking if she wanted to grab lunch or if she had the files from a case they were working together.

This was something else. He heard it in his own voice.

Felt it in his bones.

She nodded, let him lead her to the little walk street leading to the beach. It was dark, the street lamps casting orbs of light onto the concrete. The water was all sound from the street. The crash of the waves breaking, the gentle rush of water onto the sand filling his ears even as it hid in the darkness beyond the beach.

Or was that the rush of blood in his veins? The pounding of his heart and the need that flooded his body at the softness of her skin against his?

It was hard to tell.

She was so lovely, both delicate and strong, although she wouldn’t like anyone to think she was fragile. That was something he knew about her, something he admired; she valued strength. In herself and others. It stood in contrast to the porcelain skin, the fine features that might have belonged to a Scandinavian princess, the curves that somehow managed to convey her strength while also making him want to take her to bed. To feel her strong thighs wrapped around him while he drove into her.

He shifted a little while he walked, trying to tamp down the hard-on that had been taunting him most of the night. It hadn’t been easy watching her across the candlelit table, seeing her in the dress that was so different from the stuff she wore to work, knowing he was just a few tiny buttons away from her naked skin.

The biggest barrier between them had fallen, but there would be others and he had to resist the urge to barrel into the window of opportunity.

She deserved better than that.

Besides, he’d promised himself he would be smart. That he would wait until after his meeting tomorrow before deciding what to do about Nora.

It had made a lot more sense when he’d been alone. Now that she was walking next to him, her hair lifting in the ocean breeze, her body only inches from his, he didn’t give a damn about anything but her and the possibilities that were momentarily wide open between them.

He stopped at the end of the walk street and pulled off his jacket, stepping behind her and setting the blazer gently on her shoulders. His face was so close to her hair that he smelled her shampoo. It was earthy, musky. It made him want to run his fingers through her hair, see it falling across her bare shoulders.

“Thank you.” Her voice was low and a little ragged.

His cock lurched to attention again and he stepped away, took her hand and led her across the Strand.

“Shoes off?” he asked when they stepped onto the sand.

She nodded, and they stopped at the knee wall. She was trying to balance on one foot when he knelt at her feet.

He placed a hand on one of her shapely calves. “Hold onto me and lift.”

The command was full of innuendo and he had a flash of her body, naked under his, her hands on his back as she lifted her hips to meet him.

She placed her hands on his shoulders and lifted her leg, let him slip off the heel. When she set her bare foot into the sand, the pale pink polish on her toenails shimmered in the light from the street lamps.

Nora Murphy, he thought. Not just one of the guys after all.

It didn’t surprise him — but it did make him wonder what else she was hiding.

He removed the second shoe. “Good?” he asked.

She nodded, and he had to force himself to his feet. Had to force himself not to slide his hands up her bare calves. To bury his face in the mound between her legs.

Goddamn it.

He got to his feet with difficulty, thankful for the darkness illuminated occasionally by the street lights, hoping she couldn’t see his arousal.

He took her hand and they made their way toward the water. It was the first silence between them that had ever been uncomfortable. They’d been alone more times then he could count, but there had always been work: cases and evidence and coworkers and office politics to fill the void.

They didn’t have that as a fallback now, and euphoria warred with uncertainty inside him. He felt liberated.

Free.

But another part of his mind screamed danger.

They passed through the light and into the darkness near the water, then turned toward Manhattan Beach. She squealed a little when the water rushed up over her feet.

The sound of her laughter was somehow both childish and sexy. “Cold?”

She looked up at him with a smile and her expression was transformed. Maybe it was just the water, the visceral shock of the cold, but her face looked naked, the mask she wore at work folded up and set aside.

“Aren’t you going to take off your shoes?” she asked.

He lifted his hand, holding her heels. “Then I won’t be able to hold your hand.”

She laughed. “I can carry my own shoes!”

“I’m good,” he said.

“Don’t you want to put your feet in?” she asked.

He looked down at her, his smile spreading all the way from his heart up to his lips. “Truthfully?”

She nodded.

“I’d rather hold your hand.” He hesitated, holding her gaze as years of unspoken feelings fought to make themselves known. “I think I’ve been waiting years to hold your hand.”

“I’ve been waiting, too.”

He dropped her shoes in the sand and lifted his hands to her face. There was a distant voice urging him to be careful. To take it slow. To wait and see what came of his meeting in La Jolla tomorrow.

But that voice was no match for the one telling him he was finally home.

“Nora…” He slipped his hands into the hair at the back of her head, savored the feel of the silken strands between his fingers. “Do you know what it’s like to be so close to something so beautiful and have to pretend it’s nothing?”

She nodded, bit her lower lip. “Yes,” she said. “I do.”

There was a split second when the waves were silent, the wind still. There was only her. Only her face in his hands, her eyes a pool of blue fire, her lips full and parted. Waiting.

For him.

Then his mouth was on hers, his lips sinking into the pillowy softness of her. He held still at first, wanting to remember the arch of her neck in his hands, the exhale of her breath breathing life into his long-dead soul. A moment later she opened to him and there was no room for coherent thought. There was only the exploration of her satiny mouth as her tongue parried with his, every moment a burst of new sensation.

Not because he hadn’t been with many women. On the contrary; he’d kissed more women than he could count.

But not like this. Never like this.

His body flooded with desire so powerful it swarmed his mind like a shot of pure adrenaline. He was on fire for her, barely able to drag the breath in and out of his lungs as his cock strained against his pants.

But it wasn’t just that he wanted to fuck her senseless. It was a feeling of completion, like the perfect click of a final puzzle piece. It was one he hadn’t known he’d been missing, but now that she was here in his arms, he knew the picture of his life would never have been complete without her.

He angled her head and took their kiss deeper, sweeping her mouth slowly, relishing every inch of sweet warmth. She tasted like wine and strawberries, like the sea and the wind.

Her arms came around him and he pulled her closer, pressing her against his body, her exquisite softness molding to the hard planes of his body, filling all the empty places he hadn't known existed.

He meant to take it easy. To take it slow. Both admirable notions that were thrown to the wind when she sighed into his mouth, pressed closer against him, her breasts crushed against his chest.

Then there was no more caution. Only his hands on her body, mapping the fullness of her breasts, the taper of her waist, the swell of her hips, painfully close under the thin fabric of her dress. He was aching to strip her bare. To learn her body in the moonlight and make her his.

“Braden…” she gasped, pulling away, then coming back in to kiss him again. “Can we…”

He pulled back, looked into her eyes.

“Can we take this slow?” she asked.

He held her face between his hands. “We can do anything you want, Nora.”

Her smile was so pure and so true it almost brought him to his knees. “It’s not that I don’t want to…” She laughed, the hidden meaning in it setting his blood on fire all over again. “I want to.”

He looked into her eyes. “Looking at you is all I need.”

“You’ve been looking at me a long time, Kane. You’re not sick of me yet?”

“I’m just getting started.” It came out more intense than he’d intended, all his pent-up feelings spilling over into his words.

“Sounds intriguing,” she said.

“I’m nothing if not intriguing.” He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, bent his head, kissed her softly. “Now let’s get you home before my ungentlemanly instincts take over again.”

He took her hand and felt like he was holding the moon.