Strangers In The Night. Kristin Gabriel

vanish into the mist. Instead, she pressed something into his palm.

      “I brought this,” she whispered.

      He breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the familiar shape of the foil package. He smiled into the darkness. His dream girl had come prepared.

      Adam shed his boxer shorts, then sat up on the edge of the bed. As he ripped the package open, he felt her body tense behind him. A moment later, he turned back to her, pressing tender kisses against her mouth and throat. She breathed a soft sigh against his ear, relaxing now as his lips moved lower. She moaned, leaning back against the feather pillows, her fingers threading through his hair.

      His lips slid over her collarbone to the bodice of the negligee, where his tongue teased her nipple through the sheer fabric. When the tiny peak pebbled beneath his tongue, he lifted his head just far enough to pull the negligee off of her, then he bent down to tenderly suck the other nipple into his mouth.

      “Please,” she implored, her body arching under him.

      “Hmm,” he murmured under his breath, sharing her need but taking his time anyway, savoring this feast of the senses. Her wanton pleas in his ears. Her skin hot and dewy against his hands. The scent of jasmine in his nostrils. The unique taste of her heated kisses. Now what he wanted most was to see her when she came apart in his arms.

      Adam shifted to turn on the bedside lamp, but she rolled on top of him before he got the chance. She straddled his hips with her thighs, her hair brushing his chest as she bent down to kiss him. First his mouth, then his chin, then she flicked her tongue over one flat nipple. She shackled his wrists with her hands, raising his arms above his head.

      Adam forced himself to relinquish all control, letting her set the pace. Hell, he’d let her do anything as long as she didn’t stop touching him. He didn’t know if it was making love to an anonymous woman in the dark, or the woman herself, but he was on fire for her.

      She drove him to the brink with her hands and her mouth, inflaming every inch of him until Adam couldn’t take it anymore. He grasped her hips, positioning her above him, then thrust into her with one long, hard stroke. A low grunt of satisfaction ripped from his chest.

      “Yes,” she breathed on a whispered sigh, taking him deeper.

      He closed his eyes, almost dizzy with wanting her. He couldn’t remember her name or the last time he’d felt this way—if he’d ever felt this way. Then he couldn’t remember his own name when she began to move on him.

      His dream girl morphed into a wild woman, now rocking against him with an abandon that shattered his control. He matched her primitive rhythm, stroke for delicious stroke, both of them hurtling toward the precipice, helpless to stop or even slow down.

      “Adam,” she gasped, grabbing on to his shoulders, her fingers digging into his flesh.

      She was so close. He braced her hips with his hands, pressing himself even deeper inside of her. The movement made her breath catch in her throat. Then her head lolled back and she shouted his name into the night. He followed her, free-falling into the abyss with a hoarse cry of satisfaction.

      When he came to himself again, he found her cuddled against his chest. Adam wrapped his arms around her, neither one of them saying a word. In that moment, he felt as if their souls were as connected as their bodies.

      A ridiculous reaction, since he didn’t even remember her name. No doubt he’d come to his senses in the morning, he thought, his eyelids drifting shut.

      But for now, he’d just enjoy the dream.

      JOSIE WOKE UP SMILING.

      She lay wrapped in Adam’s arms, her back pressing against his chest and his chin resting on top of her head. Muted sunlight shone through the bedroom drapes, casting golden shadows over the bed as morning dawned in Denver. Her smile widened as she burrowed even closer against his warm, naked body. Last night had been more wonderful than she’d ever imagined. Adam was the perfect lover. Tender. Giving. Sensational.

      A blush warmed her all the way down to her toes when she thought of all the things he’d done to her. He’d taken the time to arouse her in ways she hadn’t thought possible. Then Josie remembered everything she’d done to him and her blush deepened. She’d never acted that way with a man before. Never let herself go like that. But at least she had her answer—they were definitely compatible.

      Their night together made her feel closer to Adam than ever before. Close enough to tell him everything about her life. To share her most painful secret. But how did she find the right words?

      I sent my father to prison.

      The last thing she wanted to do was bring her past into their relationship. But Adam deserved to know the truth. How her mother had left her husband for another man, taking twelve-year-old Josie with her. How her father, Glenn Sinclair, had snapped at the double loss and done something extreme. Something Josie still didn’t completely understand.

      Glenn had picked up his daughter for a weekend visit shortly after the bitter divorce, asking her to go with him on a grand adventure. She’d agreed, ready to do anything to see her father smile again. Not realizing her mother would be frantic when she didn’t return at the designated time. Not knowing a little girl couldn’t fix a broken heart.

      They’d spent the next month and a half traveling from state to state, never staying in one place for long. Her father had continued to call their life on the road a grand adventure, but Josie had missed her mother—something she couldn’t tell her father without making him cry.

      Josie had come to believe her father needed her more than her mother did, but she couldn’t help calling home late one night, just to hear her mother’s voice again, and to assure her mother that she was all right.

      The authorities had traced the call and tracked them down in Missouri. They were transported back to Colorado, where, to her horror, her father was sentenced to one year in prison on child abduction charges. Their grand adventure had turned into a grand disaster.

      Josie closed her eyes and swallowed a sigh, knowing she couldn’t keep evading her boyfriend’s questions about her family. The sooner she told him the truth, the sooner they could move on with their own lives. Last night had shown her they were meant to be together. That she could trust him.

      Adam stirred behind her and Josie felt a funny little quiver deep in her belly at the thought of making love to him again. She couldn’t wait. Judging by the growing arousal pressed against her backside, neither could he.

      She turned around to kiss him…and saw a stranger staring back at her!

      Josie screamed in horror, scrambling out of the bed and dragging the black satin sheet with her. She clutched it to her chest, her heart pounding like a jackhammer. “Who are you?”

      The man arched a dark brow as he sat up on one elbow. “I was about to ask you the same question.”

      He didn’t seem to mind the fact that he was completely naked. Powerful muscles flexed in his broad shoulders and she couldn’t help but notice the deep tan lines at his waist and thighs, not to mention his impressive erection. She jerked her gaze up again, heat flooding her face.

      This couldn’t be happening to her. She’d planned everything so carefully—taken every precaution. But something had gone terribly wrong. This man was not Adam. Her boyfriend had blond hair and light-blue eyes. This stranger was dark everywhere, with thick brown hair and keen brown eyes that seemed to penetrate the sheet in front of her.

      Tender areas of her body reminded her just what this man had done to her last night—what they’d done together. She met his gaze and knew he was thinking the same thing. She gulped hard and retreated farther from the bed, until her back hit the wall.

      “Is something wrong?” he asked, concern and confusion furrowing his brow.

      She sucked in a deep breath. “There’s been a horrible mistake.”

      He blinked at her words, then sat up and turned his back to her