His hands grasped the sheets, bunching them up tight. In his dream, he had to hold on to the arm of one of his comrades as they sailed into the air in a helicopter after a quick dust-off from Tikrit. Grappling to hold on, losing strength, he woke from the nightmare to find himself alone and gripping sheets.

Logan caught his breath and rolled over. No, he wasn’t alone. It wasn’t the man he eventually pulled into the helicopter and saved. And it wasn’t the medic who eventually saved Logan. It was the woman who had already saved him in so many ways in the past. But never here. Never in this apartment, in this bed, and in the pale light of an outside billboard lighting up the soft outline of her face.

Maybe it was a new dream, rolling straight into the next one after the helicopter rescue. He felt dreamlike and slow, his body almost numb and sedated with sleep. And with something else. Another kind of warmth. A memory of just a few hours ago. The sofa. Him on top of her.

Holly . . .

He whispered her name again, but she didn’t move.

That sweet, sleeping face.

He lay still and listened to her breathing.

He watched in her in the half-light reflection through his window, not knowing what time it was, not remembering what tasks he’d have to tackle the next day. Not caring about any of it. All he cared about was Holly.

And then, as if she could hear his thoughts, her eyes flickered open. Slowly at first, half opened so he could see the tiniest slit of light reflecting back at him. And then a shocked full open, her head jerking back in almost as much shock as he felt to find her there.

A second later, she relaxed back into him. Holly moved closer to him, under the covers, their bodies meeting there, warm with sleep. The full memories of the night came rushing back as her soft curves pressed against him.

He felt her breath along his neck and to his face, where she placed her lips on his in a smooth, wet lock.

Her kiss tasted of sleep, but it made him want more. He wanted the real Holly, every aspect of her. He wanted her again, under these blankets, right in his arms. He wanted to take her again. But then a wave of guilt flashed across him. He wanted her. Of course he wanted her. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t been a complete ass.

His mind spoiled with all the possibilities of how he’d taken advantage of a trauma-weakened Holly. How he’d lured her back to his apartment. How he’d forced himself upon her, starting with the hair. His hands combing through. He knew what he was doing, and what it would lead to.

“What’s wrong?” Holly said after he pulled away from her next kiss. She stared at him, eyes wide in the dark. “Logan?”

“What?”

“Are we okay?”

“We’re okay,” he said. “I know we’re okay.”

“Yeah.”

He said, “We’re safe.”

“Yeah . . . but what’s wrong? Besides the obvious?”

“What’s the obvious?”

Without missing a beat, Holly said, “My cousin is kidnapped and perhaps sold as a sex slave.”

He felt a gap between them open up. And then Holly pulling back in close, saying, “So what else is it? Awkward, weird? Unprofessional?”

“How about unethical?” Logan said.

“No. Why unethical?”

“I’m trying to convince myself that I didn’t just take advantage of you.”

“You didn’t.”

“I shouldn’t have. Not now, when you’re . . .”

“Logan, I’m a grown woman and can make my own decisions, especially about who I want to fuck.”

His eyes widened a little, and then he chuckled quietly. Holly could always surprise him.

“What’s so funny? You’re suddenly realizing that you don’t have some sort of magical power to convince a woman to have sex with you?”

He smiled. “I’m trying to get accustomed to being used.”

“Used?”

“Especially this way, I don’t mind it,” he said. “I don’t. If this is what you need to help forget about things for a while.”

She frowned. “It was never about forgetting, Logan. It’s about remembering things,” Holly looked at him close up. She held her face only inches away, looking hard to see if he really knew what she meant. “Remembering things with you.”

“I feel like it’s better than remembering,” he said.

“It was,” she said. “It is.”

“It’s making new memories. New things to remember.” But at the same time, it was a little sad to think that they’d just become another line of events to remember. Was that all it was?

Logan tried to see it in her face, if it was escapism she needed, a good fucking, or his arms wrapped tightly around her, for tonight, and for other nights. As if to answer, she leaned in to kiss him again, this time, her body folding close around his. This time, her breathing speeding up. This time, no break for conversation, for air between them, for memories.

It was just that moment, her hand brushing against his cock, his mouth tasting hers like it was the beginning of a last meal. It was all perfect with her, the stars aligning to place them together again. Her in his bed. A wonderful surprise despite the backdrop of tragedy that hung over them. A surprise, a slice of heaven, but perhaps a fleeting one.

Holly rolled on top of him, taking her time, teasing him, grinding her hips over his stiffening cock. But he was happy to be teased, happy to take his time. Their initial hunger had subsided into something more authentic, something that might translate beyond the bed sheets. He wanted it again, but not as a reaction or an impulse. He wanted it to be an expression of something greater.

An expression that ended in two wonderful orgasms, of course. It couldn’t be denied how wonderfully her body fit him and squeezed and worked a climax out of him. He couldn’t think too far ahead beyond that.

She whispered, “You want it so bad, don’t you? You want it so—”

He wrapped his arms around her back as he raised his hips up, trying his hardest for it.

Holly held her body away from him, teasing him with her finger in his mouth, saying, “No . . .”

Logan said, “Yes,” around her finger, lifting his hips, the tip of his hard cock sliding inside her. “Yes,” he said, “Yeah,” breathing a little heavier and sliding in deeper.

This time she did not—and perhaps could not—resist. Instead, she worked with him, finding a rhythm together. Finding a harmony that he’d only known since beyond last night. Beyond seven years. Beyond what he’d experienced with anyone.

She groaned against him as she rocked, leaning back on her palms, taking him deeper and fuller. There was a sensation deep inside him, an ache in his balls that he’d needed to release. He felt an ache somewhere else, too. In his heart, burning there. It was a stronger need, and it clung to his every breath. It almost pained him. Suffocating. Scared.

He had never felt so desperate for someone. So vulnerable and open with emotion. Yes, he’d been in love with Holly before. But he had moved on. Or so he’d thought. Both of them would be moving on, relegating this current activity to nothing more but casual fun, Holly sliding back and forth on top of him, grinding him until he felt weakened and heavy with cum. He couldn’t help but moan, the way she’d made him feel. Moaning and gripping her bare ass, plunging himself deeper into the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. Wanting her again, but wanting for far more than a night. For far more than seven years.

It was the sex that was driving him crazy and irrational. No doubt it was, like a chemical imbalance brought about by the most swollen areas of his manhood. He’d need to clear that away and rethink this current conundrum of real feelings. Real emotions. It was simple: just clear it away and make a rational decision.

Logan focused on his task, opening his eyes to see the light coming in from outside, shining on the wet tips of Holly’s nipples where he’d suckled her. When her face came back into the light, he could see the strain across it, Holly trying for her own release. He loved watching her so much he almost forgot about his own needs. He watched her lean forward, her hands coming hard down on his chest as she rode him, her face dipping close to his. Logan arched his head up to taste her mouth, their kiss moving sloppily and full-tongued. Hungry. Hot. Her teeth grazing his lip. And then biting it harder than he expected, holding on to him as her body shook and squeezed around his hard cock. When she backed off from her animalistic bite, her eyes opened wide and rolled back, the whites gleaming through the dim light as she rode out the last waves of her orgasm.

Logan could feel her slowing breath against his bare skin, her hot exhales traveling down, her hair caressing his chest as she made her way down his body. She took him into her mouth, hot and full. But she barely had to do anything. He was so aroused and sensitive, Logan could have probably found his ending without even so much as a glancing touch. When the subtle suction of her mouth throbbed up and down over the swollen head of his cock, his hips thrust up as he came.