He hadn’t talked a lot during dinner. Becca wanted to believe it was because he’d had to say goodbye to his buddies, friends he hadn’t seen in a while and wouldn’t see again until who knew when. After the way he acted last night, all restless and having a hard time sleeping, she had started to worry that he’d had serious second thoughts about being stuck with her for another week.

It was typical of her to be direct, to come right out with her concerns or questions. But there was one thing she remembered about her former relationship with Denny—she couldn’t ask him what was wrong more than twice at the very most.

So she let it ride, even when he escorted her home at around eight o’clock, then went back to Jack’s to help out until closing.

With a heavy sigh, she treated herself to a bath, unplugged Denny’s phone just in case, then crawled into bed with her borrowed book. By the time Denny came back at a little after ten, she had nodded off, light still lit, opened book in her lap. She snapped awake at the sound of the closing door.

“Sorry,” he said. “I woke you.”

“It’s all right. I just fell asleep reading. You can turn the light off if you want to. Or leave it on, I don’t care.”

He just shuffled inside the door for a moment. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. He took off his jacket and hung it on the peg just inside the door. Then he sat in the only chair in the room, rested his elbows on his knees, clasped his hands together and hung his head.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” she said suddenly. “What is bugging you? You want me to sleep on the air mattress? Because I’d be happy to!”

He lifted his head instantly. “No, no. We’re good.” He stood, went to his storage chest and reached inside to pull out some clothes. Then he headed for the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

She heard the shower running and she sank down in the bed. “Maybe he’s got a girlfriend,” she muttered to herself. “Maybe that’s it. I’m in the way.” She put her book on the table beside the bed and turned over, presenting her back toward the bathroom door. It was a very long shower. Yes, she thought. Very likely there was a girl around here somewhere and now that his friends were gone, he’d like to get back to her. Just because things hadn’t worked out for Becca didn’t mean Denny’s life had been standing still. She’d sent him packing and he had been trying to jump-start a new life up here in the mountains.

It seemed a long time before he was back in the room, and she purposely didn’t turn to look at him.

“Becca?” he asked softly.

“Hmm?”

“You ready for the light to be off now?”

“Sure,” she said. Tomorrow I am going to find the right moment to bring it up, to talk to him about whatever it is that is making him act so uncomfortable around me.

He rummaged around, putting his clothes away, turning off the light beside her bed, crawling onto his air-mattress bed, then flopping around like a fish on the dock. She sighed heavily, not sure she was going to make it till the right moment tomorrow. She listened to his mattress gymnastics for another ten minutes, when the light beside her bed suddenly flicked on. Startled, she rolled over to look up at him.

“Look, I think I’m just going to head out to Jack’s. If you think you’ll be all right here by yourself.”

She raised up in bed. “Jack’s?”

“His guesthouse. You could probably, ah, use the privacy….”

“What the hell is going on with you? We didn’t have a problem all week and all of a sudden something is eating you. And it’s not letting you sleep! And it’s about me! Is there a girlfriend? Do you have a girlfriend and you can’t find a way to just tell me you want to spend time with her?”

He frowned in complete confusion, those beautiful expressive brows drawing together. “Girlfriend?”

“Well, I can’t for my life figure out what’s wrong with you!”

“Girlfriend?” he said again. He sat very gently on the edge of her bed. “Becca, there’s no girlfriend. I’m finding it kind of… Well, it’s hard to be alone with you.”

“You were alone with me all week!”

“Yeah, but the guys were all here. Once I knew they’d all be gone, that I wouldn’t have to look Rich in the eye in the morning… That’s when it started to get really…hard,” he said, emphasizing the word with agony.

“What’s hard?” she asked. She reached out and touched his arm. “My God, you’re freezing!”

He took a deep breath. “Cold shower, Becca.”

“What for?” she asked, genuinely stumped. He rolled his eyes and she realized exactly what was hard. “Oh! But why?”

“Because, Becca… Are you going to make me say it?”

She pushed herself up in the bed a little bit. “I think you’d better, because I had myself convinced you had a girlfriend and you were feeling guilty about spending all this time with me.”

“It’s you, Becca. I’m miserable being alone with you and your broken ankle and knowing I can’t get too close or I might just lose my mind. Knowing I’d have to face the guys every morning—that kind of kept my head on straight. But they’re gone, it’s just you and me. You, me and your boyfriend! And I don’t think I can be alone here with you. Okay?”

Her blue eyes were wide and her lips parted slightly as she stared at him. Finally she said, “Seriously?”

He glanced away. “I’ll just go out to Jack’s,” he said, standing.

She grabbed his ice-cold hand. “You don’t have to go to Jack’s.”

“Yeah, I do. Because I’m afraid even if I can fall asleep, I’ll walk in my sleep and you’ll have your hands full in the middle of the night.”

She laughed softly. “I don’t want you to leave. Especially for that reason.”

“Aren’t you listening? I haven’t felt this out of control in years. I took a twenty-minute cold shower and still…”

Her eyes wandered downward and there it was, the evidence of his misery. A very obvious erection straining against the sweatpants he slept in. “Oh, my,” she said, smiling at him. “You don’t want to go out in the cold with that. You could hurt yourself.”

“Funny,” he said. “You have a broken ankle! Not to mention what’s-his-name.”

She shook her head. “No more what’s-his-name.”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t exactly plan it, but when I called him today, I broke it off.” She shook her head again. “It wasn’t right, Denny. I’m not meant to be with him. And he’s really not meant to be with me.”

“Why?” he asked in a breath.

“To start with, I had way too many doubts.” She shrugged. “Now I realize it never did feel quite right.”

He reached out and smoothed her hair back along her temple. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m better,” she said. “I talked to my brother today. He was surprised, but even Rich said he just couldn’t see me with him… With Doug. Imagine that? Rich.”

Denny laughed briefly. “Rich Timm?” he asked.

“The same. Anyway, that’s that.”

Denny got a kind of bedazzled look in his eyes. “You still have a broken ankle…”

“Yes,” she said, pulling him toward her. She put his hand to her mouth and kissed his palm. “Try to be careful of that, will you?”

He resisted for a second, studying her face. Thinking. Considering. “Whoa boy,” he said. “You’re sure?”

And she nodded.

Ten

Denny put his cold hands on her, framing her face, sliding his fingers into her hair. He leaned down to kiss her, briefly at first. Then his mouth was harder against hers. He tongued open her lips and she opened to him willingly. Oh, God, the taste! That was the taste she remembered and loved. He kissed her senseless for a moment and then one knee came up onto the bed, then the second, then he was straddling her. His lips were on her mouth, her cheek, her ear, her neck. She drank him in; his breathing grew ragged and excited.

She laughed right into his open mouth.

“Funny?” he asked, pulling away a little bit.

“You are soooo cold.”

“That won’t last long…” He went after her again, pulling her mouth hard against his; his tongue explored and he groaned from someplace deep inside.

For her, it felt at once like coming home and a whole new experience.

He felt her small, warm hands slip under his T-shirt and caress his chest and back. “My God, you’re even cold under here.”

“Warm me up,” he said, his voice soft and husky. “You know what to do….”

She lifted up the T-shirt. “I think you’ll warm up faster without this.”

He pulled away from her just long enough to rip his shirt over his head. He was back to devouring her with kisses, but she’d managed a look at him, at his wide chest with that soft mat of hair and his flat belly.

While he kissed her, she caressed his back and slid her small hands under the waistband of his sweats to feel his hard butt. He worked on the buttons of her pajamas, taking his sweet time, and she found herself wishing she’d had the foresight to bring something sexier than warm jammies to Virgin River.

Finally he spread the pajama top and just stared at her. “Becca,” he said in a whisper. “Ah, Becca, you have the most beautiful body in the world.”

Her hands ran over his chest. “See?” she said softly. “You’re warmer already…”

He pulled back the bedcovers and knelt between her legs. His hands were hot now, hot on her br**sts, covering them and pressing them together. He kissed his way down her neck, across her collarbone and onto her chest, finally pulling a nipple into his mouth. The sensation caused her to arch against him, and while he suckled, he pressed himself against her. Her hand slipping around to the front beneath his sweats, she reached for him, grabbing that most proud member in her hand. He shuddered. “God,” he said. “Oh, man… Baby, I’m going to make you feel so good.”

Her moan was music to his ears. She pressed her pelvis against him, hungry. Eager. He sucked harder. His fingers slipped under the waistband of her pj bottoms and he began to slide them down. “You have to help me with this, baby. We have to be careful of your ankle….”

“Nice and slow, Denny. We don’t want to have to explain anything embarrassing to the doctor.”

He chuckled wickedly, happily, slowly pulling down the pajamas. “You embarrassed, honey?”

“Not at all,” she said, lifting her butt and letting them slide. She kicked the good leg out and waited patiently while he pulled the other over her splint.

“Yeah, we can do this.” Then he stopped and concentrated on her face. “You sure, Becca?”

She smiled and nodded. “Are you kidding? Of course I’m sure. You?”

He didn’t answer, he just fell into her kiss again, covering her open mouth with his, pulling her tongue into his mouth and tasting her. His fingers moved lower to tease her, to test her, to see if she was getting ready for him. She was going to drown him; he almost lost it right there. His groan was so deep and low, he felt it rumble through him.

“Becca, baby, I don’t think I can wait for you.”

She tugged his sweats down to his thighs, then urged him toward her.

She was panting, arching, lifting against him. The size of him thrilled her. Then she moved his hand so that he was stroking her in the right place, getting her hotter. Closer. It was all a part of their sexual memory, the things they had learned about each other, not forgotten even after years of separation. And her moan turned into a whimper as she led him to her.