It 's been six months since Bernadette flew to Baltimore for a two-day visit to find out the real cause of her sister's death, and she is back in San Diego frustrated and depressed with the reaction of her family. ''Leave the past alone,'' they all warn her, ''and be glad for what you have''...but how can she when she’s been told her sister was murdered. Why don’t they care the way I do? She wonders and that alone keeps her up nights as she continues to piece together her sister’s last days and who would hurt her. Slowly her phenomenal success at her job begins to slip, and she ignores the signs that her superiors are no longer in awe of her computing skills or her next promotion, which she has been promised. She doesn’t even see trouble coming until she realizes she's been deliberately left out of an important developmental meeting and, paralyzed with worry, demands an impromptu meeting with her boss. When he tries to force his way with her in his office, she is near her breaking point, and not knowing whom to trust, she calls the one person she believes will help her. It's just that this person is also the one person whose glance ignites a flame in her body, whose smile she can picture for days afterward and whose voice caresses her name every time it rolls from his lips...Reggie Taylor.

                                 

After she explains her encounter with her boss to Reggie, she knows right away that she may be in bigger trouble than she imagined. Reggie is an enlisted soldier. She is an officer. They can not fraternize. She has known this since a year ago when she first met him through a mutual fiend who was not military, but she knows right away, the chemistry that shoots between the two of them is taking over, and almost as though she isn't in enough trouble, her body reacts with a will of its own, and she feels a shift begin...

 

She watched his lips, and something strange happened. Everything around them seemed to fade, and all she was aware of was him. First, his lips. When they stopped, his eyes, which stayed fixed on her.

 

He reached his hand out to her, and she reached out to place hers in his, thinking once again, now was her chance. She could take his hand and pull him into the living room to safely watch the game. But when he stood, he pulled her up from the seat and into his arms. His eyes never left hers as he bent his head down and she moved her face to meet his. He pressed her lips gently in a long, sweet kiss. Feeling those tender, full, succulent lips cover hers sent her heart racing madly. He pulled back a moment to look at her, then pulled her tighter and kissed her again on her arms wrapped automatically around his neck. He ran his long fingers through her thick hair and she pressed herself to him until their bodies molded together. They kissed again and again and the last traces of uncertainty gave way to raw hunger as Reggie awakened something in her she had never felt.

 

He rubbed his face in her hair, holding her tightly against him as they caught their breaths. Then he let his arms drop to her small waist. He held her in both his large hands as he looked in her eyes.

 

“I want you, Bernadette. I want to get to know you, I've been trying to get to know you, and 1 want you to know me. I want you to give me a try.''

 

Bernadette, longing for his lips on hers couldn't even remember what she murmured, but it got them into the bedroom, and she started to undress, regretting she had on her plain white jockeys from JC Penney. Suddenly Reggie stopped her. He continued to undress her himself, and instead of wanting to go through the floor, she felt herself heating up at the way his breath come out harder, and quicker as he looked at her. He bent his head to her, and this time when their lips touched, he let his tongue meet hers, causing her insides to quiver.

 

When he paused to undress himself, she laughed at how quickly he moved. Then she jumped under the comforter. In a minute, he joined her, and they came together again, the flames igniting in her as he kissed her intently. Reggie kissed her neck, her eyes, her nose, her lips, her breasts, stopping to knead them gently, then moved his hands slowly down the curves of her body stroking the roundness of her buttocks, and her long shapely legs, before they came back to stroke her stomach.

 

His tongue in her mouth was like a torch, setting her ablaze. When he licked her slowly and sensuously sorting from her lips, he went down her neck, tantalizingly slow over her chest, stopping to rest on each breast and then very gently to touch them with the tip of his tongue before moving in circles over each one. She moaned deep in her throat. He nipped them lightly between his teeth, as his magic fingers lit her body everywhere he touched. Everywhere his hand and mouth roamed on her body set her on fire until she heard herself moaning out loud, almost shaking by the time he took his mouth off her.

The pleasure was exquisite.

 

“Your body is so beautiful,'' he whispered. “You don't know how hard it was for me to stay away from you the night of the wedding. But guess what? No matter when you said yes, I was going to be here.''

She sighed her response and heard the announcer on the TV in the living room build up the seconds before tip-off. The clouds outside the window looked ominous, she thought fleetingly, as she pressed her lips together and then slowly opened them when he bent his head to give her another kiss.

 

When their lips slowly parted, he held up one finger, and leaned down to his pants on the floor beside the bed. She watched him slip on a condom, then smiled back at his lust-filled eyes as he moved her under him and pressed his body down on hers moving slowly. He continued to look directly into her eyes as he pushed his way slowly, gently into her softness, bending down to her face and running his tongue across her lips, which, along with everything else, quivered in passion. He rotated his hips slowly to help ease his way inside, and she realized the man was huge.

 

She dug her nails in his back, biting her bottom lip as he lifted her buttocks slightly and completed the merging of their bodies, then he paused to kiss her passionately.

 

“Relax,'' he whispered as his body began to move.

 

What in the world, she thought as he started slowly inside her, and wave after wave of pure pleasure rocketed through her body with each of his movements. What was she thinking to have waited so long? Everything fled her mind but this moment, and being here with hic. His firm belly met her softness, and she could hear him suck in air as his movements began to pick up rhythm. She had never experienced this level of pleasure before, it was just plain delicious. His slow, easy strokes rocked her gently, building the tension inside her ever so slowly. "I could say like this forever,'' she thought as she hugged him tightly around his shoulders.

 

Then his movements picked up speed, became faster and faster, and she felt the tightness moving deep inside her and building. She knew she had to be careful. This man had her number.

 

She squeezed her eyes tightly as she felt her juices flow and spastic release sweep down over her. Wave after wave of pleasure hit, and when she felt his back stiffen under her hands, and felt his beautiful lips press into her neck, his sweat dripping onto her face, she held him tightly looking up at the ceiling and giving up a silent prayer. She stared transfixed on the little Japanese lantern Nancy had left her, the one that gave off the faintest glow at night when she couldn't sleep. She would never let that lantern go, no matter where she went from this moment on. It would always remind her of Reggie. He was a missing piece of her existence that she didn't even know should have been there.

 

He was better than wonderful. She couldn’t have guessed he would be this good. And she closed her eyes and felt herself falling…