The sound of the wind and rain whipping at the windows might have sounded ominous or threatening, but to Nina, the crackling fire and glass of wine were comforting enough to chase away anything frightening about the night. It was Ewan, too, she had to admit to herself as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He’d gotten up to adjust the fire, and as he leaned over to tinker with the controls, she couldn’t stop herself from admiring the way his soft pajama pants clung to that hard, muscled butt.

What the hell were they doing?

They’d spent the day exactly as she’d suggested. On the couch, watching movies, although they’d now made their way through more than one bottle of wine. They were taking a break from viddies to read. She kept waiting to be drunk, but so far all she felt was warm, cozy, and cared for. Lazy, too, since she had dressed in a nightgown after her post-workout shower.

They’d cuddled on and off all day. Kissed a few times, but had not been making out or anything like that. She thought he was holding off because of their earlier conversation. Giving her room. Respecting her. She liked that about him, but she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the night before. The press of her mouth on his. The way he tasted. Nina had no idea how long it had been since the last time she’d been kissed or hugged, much less ravished the way Ewan had ravished her last night. Or she had ravished him, she wasn’t sure there was a difference.

He was in love with another woman, she reminded herself. He’d already tried resisting her, so maybe she ought to feel guilty about ogling him. But how could there be guilt when there was a fire and wine and a gorgeous man in front of her? It wasn’t like he could read her mind, she told herself as she cut her gaze quickly before he could turn around and catch her staring. She focused on her tablet, but she’d already read this page at least twice without being able to retain anything. She set it aside as he turned.

“No good?” he asked. “The book, I mean.”

Nina pressed her lips together for a second. “Oh, it’s fine. I just can’t seem to concentrate.”

The glass in the windows rattled as a gust of wind spattered hard rain against them. Ewan glanced in that direction, then crossed the room to stand near her as he looked out. Oh, stars and galaxies, she could smell him. Breathing deeply, Nina drew in Ewan’s scent with a shiver of delight.

She had no idea if she’d always been so attuned to the subtle but distinct odors that made up every person, most particularly the man standing next to her, but there was no denying it right now. Every breath sent a wave of rising arousal through her, until her throat and cheeks heated with a blush she desperately hoped he couldn’t see.

From outside, bright white light lit the window. In the next moment, the lamps went out. The fire went out, too, plunging them into darkness. Nina gave a low, startled cry, then bit it back in embarrassment. It wasn’t like she was really scared. Not of the dark, not of a storm. Still, she set her tablet carefully aside and got to her feet to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ewan so she could look out the window.

“The generators need to run through a reset cycle,” Ewan said as he leaned forward to peer through the glass. “The lights will come back on soon.”

They did, faster than they had the first time. Ewan put an arm around her, staring through the glass. The rain showed no signs of letting up. His fingers drifted along her arm, slowly. His touch sent shivers through her.

“Another movie?” He turned his head slightly to look down at her. “Game of cards?”

“No,” she said.

He made a questioning noise. Nina couldn’t stop herself. She pressed against him, one hand curling behind his neck and drawing his mouth to hers. The kiss was hard, bruising, electric. When Ewan’s lips parted to release a moan, Nina slipped her tongue between them. He cried out louder when she took the tip of it between her teeth. His body pushed hers. Her hand went between his legs to cup his growing hardness.

The lights went out again. It was easier in the dark, she told herself and knew it was a lie. Once this started, it could have been as bright as daylight, and she would not have stopped.

“Been going crazy, wanting you all day,” she said into his kiss.

He backed her up to the couch so quickly that she let out a low cry. Her hands clutched the back of the sofa as he half-lifted her. Ewan’s hands gripped her hips. Nina shuddered as waves of desire rippled up through her. Ewan stepped between her legs, and she hooked her calves over the back of his thighs to hold him closer.

“ . . . Are you sure . . .” He said this against her neck, his teeth pressing for a moment. He pulled away. His face lit in a flash of lightning, his mouth thin and grim and his gaze intense.

She was the one who should be asking him that. Nina grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her mouth, holding him close but not touching. “Are you really going to ask me that, after last night?”

“Yes,” he said as the tip of his tongue teased the center of her bottom lip. “I promise I won’t ask you every time, but I need to know right now.”

Every time. The idea of it, that there would be more than this, sent desire boiling through her. “I’m sure. Now. Here. I want you, Ewan. Please . . . touch me. Make me feel good.”

She did not expect him to drop to his knees in front of her, to push up the hem of her flannel gown and press his face between her legs. He breathed in with a shudder and a moan, and the heat of his breath on the bare skin of her thighs was enough to send a heady, dizzy rush all through her. Ewan’s mouth pressed the soft fabric of her panties, and before she could so much as murmur an assent, he’d hooked them to the side to get at her bare flesh beneath.

Nina let out a cry, her head lolling back as her fingers dug deep into the back of the couch. Ewan pushed her thighs apart. His tongue stroked her clit, then lower to slip between her folds with delicate precision. She cried out and found the thick softness of his hair, gripped tight in her fingers, as she held him against her. Her hips bucked, pushing herself against his mouth harder. She was already so close to the edge, every muscle tight and tense and fairly vibrating with the intensity of her desire. Had it always been so easy for her to climax? She didn’t know or care. It was this easy with Ewan, and that’s what mattered right now.

“I love the way you taste.” Ewan’s mutter gusted more hot breath against her.

She could no longer hold back. She didn’t want to. This, all of it, his mouth, his voice, the pressure of his hands on the backs of her knees, everything sent her tumbling toward climax. It wracked her.

Nina cried out his name, or tried to. She gasped. Moaned. The sound of her own pleasure in her voice sent another wash of it over her. She was still shaking when she tangled her fingers deeper into his hair and pulled him to his feet. She could taste herself on his kiss. She wanted more. More of him, of this, of everything.

Her hands dove inside his pajama bottoms and pushed them over his hips. His cock, hard and straining against his briefs, throbbed in her grasp as she stroked him through the material. It took only a moment longer and he was freed from the confines of his clothes. Nina guided Ewan inside her, no hesitation or holding back. Both cried out when he was seated inside her.

His voice broke on the syllables of her name. He moved, at first slowly as though he meant to draw this out, but Nina couldn’t wait. Already, desire was rising inside her again. She pulled him closer, urging him to go faster. Desperate for it.

She had been a desert, and he was the rain. Beneath his kisses and the smooth, sliding caress of his hands, she bloomed. Fierce passion ripped through her with every thrust, until all she could do was beg for release.

Harder.

Faster.

Please, oh, please, don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.

I love this.

I love.

I love you.

Nina’s eyes widened as her second orgasm left her plundered and spent. Her fingers hurt from how tightly she’d gripped the front of Ewan’s shirt. He kissed her, and she opened for the delicious swipe of his tongue on hers. He shuddered, moaning into her mouth, then buried his face against her neck and went still.

She had to move. This position on the couch was twisting her into an achy pretzel. She was surprised they both hadn’t tumbled head over heels over the back of it. Gently, she pushed him up. Her gown fell around her thighs as he pulled up the pajama bottoms he hadn’t even kicked all the way off.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Ewan asked, voice full of concern, his brow furrowed.

Nina opened her mouth to protest the endearment. They weren’t there yet, were they? In a place of pet names and love words? Yet the flash of memory had stolen her voice, and all she could manage to do was shake her head. She forced a laugh. Found her words.

“Just a little cramped,” she told him. “I’m limber, but not that acrobatic.”

He laughed and pulled her up and close to him for a sweet kiss. “I disagree.”

“This feels right,” Nina said into another kiss.

Ewan pulled away to look into her eyes. His expression solemn, he nodded. “Yes. It does.”

She thought of him being in love with someone else. It shouldn’t matter. She’d been in love with someone else, at least once. It didn’t stop her from wanting this with him, right now. People went to bed with each other all the time without falling for each other. None of this had to be anything more than a good time.

Except she was falling for Ewan. She didn’t need a head full of memories to know this was different from anything she’d had before. She felt it, deep as her bones, strong as the beat of her heart.

This would be shiny fine for now, she thought as they untangled themselves from each other and went around to the couch’s other side to sit on the cushions, still entangled with each other. They could do this here, on the island. But what about when she left it?

As always when she imagined leaving, a series of tremors ran through her, electric like shocks. The wine that had not made her drunk now seemed to slosh unpleasantly in her belly. Nina swallowed hard against the rush of nausea. She breathed through her nose, slowly, trying to push it away. She saw his worried expression and tried to act like nothing was wrong, but Ewan saw through that charade like it was made of lace. He knew her, she thought. She didn’t understand how, but he did, and she was as grateful for that as she’d been for everything else he’d done for her.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he said.

She didn’t want to, but she did. “Every time I think of leaving here, it makes me sick. I don’t mean just in my head, but all over. In my guts.”

“Well,” he answered with a small smile that warmed her and chased away the ill feeling circulating through her. “Then don’t think about leaving.”

* * *

Two days. That was all it had been since Aggie and Jerome had left. The airtranspo was schedule to make an automatic return tomorrow, bringing Zulik so he could check Nina out and be there in case of an emergency. Ewan didn’t want the doc to come. He didn’t want to hide what he and Nina had begun. The past couple of days had been idyllic. Lazy hours of cuddling on the couch, scavenging meals from the food Aggie had cooked before she left, and making love all night long . . . and all over the house. They fell into each other with little more than a heated glance or the brush of one body against the next.

It was not the way it had been with her before, not even the way it had been at the very beginning, when they’d been giving in to their physical desire but had not yet been in love. Except it was possible that he’d fallen in love with Nina Bronson the first time he’d met her, Ewan told himself now as he watched her over the top of his tablet. And he’d kept falling harder and harder, ever since.

She hadn’t asked him again about the woman he was in love with, and she hadn’t brought up again that this was something only physical between them, but he thought she must be thinking about it. While he’d slipped up and called her the pet name she’d mocked him for in the past, she didn’t tell him not to call her “baby.” She, however, had been very careful not to return that intimacy. It was impossible not to notice.

“The weather isn’t clearing,” she said now from her place at the den’s window. “I thought it rained a lot before, but this is insane.”

Ewan hadn’t been bothering to check the weather app, but a quick glance now showed him swirling currents, wind patterns, and a bunch of other stuff he didn’t understand. Another quick check of the weather tempering system showed that it was still working . . . at least theoretically. From what he could discern with a few quick looks, the constant rain and storms were in direct response to the system dealing with the outside weather influences. Well, shit. It was a weather tempering system, that didn’t mean it was supposed to guarantee good weather all the time. Just protect against extreme temperature changes to prevent ice and snow or, in the opposite direction, brutal heat.

“I want to go for a run,” she continued, pacing. “I’m going stir crazy.”

“I can help you work off some of that excess energy,” Ewan offered.

Nina turned, eyebrows raised. “Again?”

“Always again,” he said.

They smiled at each other from across the room. So much shared with that look. No words necessary. There would never be another woman like her for him. He was going to love her until the end of time, no matter what it took.

“That’s a truly tempting offer, and I have a feeling I’m going to take you up on it, later. But now, I’m . . . well. I’m not anxious. But I feel cooped up. Pent in. I need fresh air. It’s nothing personal,” she added, perhaps at the sight of his expression. “I’ve been enjoying the . . . company.”

Ewan laughed. “I get it.”

“It’s not lightning or thundering. I’m going outside to at least get in a quick workout,” she told him.

“You’re going to get soaked,” he protested. “You’ll catch a cold.”

Nina shook her head. “I might be imagining this, but I feel like that’s been proven so, so wrong. The worst that will happen is I will feel cold, and that will be a really good excuse for you to help me get warmed up, after.”

She wiggled her eyebrows at him and gave such a leer that he had to laugh. Ewan didn’t like the idea of Nina going outside in the rain, but he knew better than to tell her she wasn’t allowed. That was a sure way to end up in an argument, and the past few days had gone by without any of those. He didn’t need to start one that could be so easily avoided if he just didn’t act like a patronizing dick.

When he said so out loud, Nina barked some surprised laughter. “What the . . . ? I mean, yes, that’s so true, but I’m interested in knowing what prompted you to that conclusion?”

“I’ve been accused of it in the past,” he told her.

Nina snorted and shook her head. “I can’t say I’m surprised, but I am impressed at your self-awareness. It’s a real turn-on.”

“Yeah?” he asked with a grin.

Nina grinned, too. “Oh. Definitely yeah.”

She crossed the room to straddle his lap and take his face in her hands. She kissed him. Soft, not sweet. An instant heat rose between them. When she sucked his tongue, Ewan groaned and ground her onto his lap. He offered it again, and this time she nipped at it. He bucked upward.

“Oh, how I love when I make you do that,” she whispered into his open mouth.

But when he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss, Nina laughed and pushed herself away from him. She danced out of his grasp as he swiped at her. He sat back against the couch with a purposefully disgruntled groan.

“I need a workout!” she cried, hands on her hips. When he made as though to come after her again she leaped back in an attack posture, but with so much laughter he knew she wasn’t serious about defending herself. “And not that kind!”

“Are you sure? I could convince you.”

She laughed, but her eyes were fond and gleaming. She shook her head. “Later. It’s not like we won’t have anything else to do.”

“Ouch.” He put a hand over his heart. “No bro likes to know he’s just an antidote to boredom.”

He’d been teasing, but her expression went solemn. She returned to him and slid again onto his lap. She took his face once more in her palms and tipped it up to brush a kiss across his lips. He breathed in the warmth of her breath. He breathed in her.

“Hush,” she said.

Ewan put his hands on her hips and closed his eyes. Her next kiss was a bit harder. The press of teeth. She caught his lower lip between them and tugged, not enough to hurt, but the anticipation of the pain sent a surge of arousal straight to his cock. He let out a small hiss.

“You like that,” she murmured against his mouth. Her lips drew a line from his lips to his jaw, then to his neck. She bit, again not hard enough to hurt but there was a promise of torment and it was enough to get him as hard as he could get within the confines of his jeans.

“Yes.”

She moved back to his mouth. “How did I know that, Ewan?”

He did not answer her. Could not. His words were swallowed by her kisses, his breath stolen when she drew it in quickly. She rubbed herself against his lap. Her breathing quickened. She took his tongue into her mouth and sucked; he braced himself for the sting of her teeth on that tender flesh.

She didn’t bite him. “How?”

“I don’t . . .” He couldn’t finish the lie. “You just do. You always have.”

“How do you know exactly where and how to touch me?” she asked into the kiss.

Ewan groaned. Nina rocked on his lap. His cock strained, so hard it ached. He’d gone without release other than by his own hand for so many months, but his body had been reminded all too deliciously of how much better it was with Nina than by himself. It didn’t matter that they’d made love that morning, and the night before, and twice the day before that, too. Every touch, each stroke of her tongue, every time she nibbled his skin, he was lost to her.

“How do you know exactly what I need from you, Ewan?”

When he didn’t answer her again, Nina gripped his face and waited until he’d opened his eyes. Her gaze searched his. Her lips, glistening wet from kissing him, pressed together. She was waiting for an answer, for real. Not hypothetical.

“How does anyone know?”

She shook her head. Her body moved on his. She knew what she was doing, sending thrills all through him. Centered in his cock but moving up and out and everywhere else.

“Why does this feel so familiar and so right?” she asked him.

Ewan went still. Looking into Nina’s eyes, there was no way he could continue to pretend. “Because it is, Nina. All of this. It’s right.”

“You didn’t think so a few days ago.”

He sighed. “That’s not true.”

“You told me we shouldn’t do this. You made it really clear that you thought it was a bad idea. What changed your mind?” Her voice wasn’t sultry or seductive. She sounded genuinely curious.

“What difference does it make?” The words came out clipped.

Nina’s mouth thinned. She got off his lap. “You’re right. It doesn’t make any difference. I’m going to get some fresh air.”

Ewan didn’t try to call her back. He leaned into the couch cushions, eyes closed, feeling his arousal dimming. It took a few selfish, self-involved minutes to get himself under control, but then he was up and off the couch and ready to head outside after Nina. Not to stop her, but to be there in case something happened.

The ping from his personal comm gave him pause. When he saw that it was Zulik, he took the call. The doc’s face swam into view, then went fuzzy. Cleared, then blurred again.

“ . . . canceled . . .”

Frustrated, Ewan wanted to shake the device in his hand, not that it would do any good. “What?”

“The weather,” Zulik said. “What’s going on over there?”

“Rain. Storms. Why?” Frowning, Ewan went to the front door to look out the side window. No sign of Nina.

“You haven’t been paying any attention to the outside world at all, have you?”

Ewan looked at the screen. “Not much, no. Why?”

“Three category seven hurricanes, two earthquakes, and a tsunami,” Zulik told him.

No wonder the weather on the island had been so bad. Ewan grimaced. “I didn’t know.”

“I won’t be able to get to you tomorrow, obviously. Even your private airtranspo won’t be allowed to travel through the path of a hurricane, no matter if I could get to where it launches from. Sorry, Donahue.” Zulik paused. “How’s everything with Nina?”

“No problems.” Ewan moved toward the kitchen to look out the back window into the garden.

“Where is she?”

Ewan didn’t look at the screen. No sign of her out back. “She went outside to get some exercise. We’ve been cooped up here for the past couple days.”

“You let her go out there alone?” Zulik demanded.

Ewan shot the other man a dark look. “You don’t ‘let’ Nina Bronson do anything.”

“You’ve been warned, repeatedly, about what could happen—”

“I get it, all right?” Ewan snapped. “We can’t nudge her memories, we can’t simply tell her the truth about what happened, because she might have a catastrophic mental failure. I get it, Zulik! You think I don’t want the best for her? You think I’m not fucking terrified that something’s going to go wrong and I won’t be able to help her?”

“I know you care,” Zulik began, but the screen fuzzed out again. “ . . . Two more enhanced.”

“What?”

“Two more soldiers have died,” Zulik said.

“Suicide?”

That was it. Zulik disappeared. Ewan swiped at the screen, but that’s all there was, static and then darkness. Outside, thunder boomed. He opened the back door to find the rain still hurtling from the sky. A flash of lightning lit everything with the starkness of a photo flash.

Across the garden, he saw her.