Chapter 37

Before he could reply, she took the lead and softly kissed his cheek, letting the kiss linger. She moved from his cheek to his neck and then to his earlobe, unbuttoning his shirt one by one as she continued kissing him. Overwhelmed by her passion, he found himself falling onto the bed with her. Normally a man of discipline and restraint, not prone to excess in such affairs, he became a creature of instinctual desire when he felt her soft touch and inhaled her distinctive fragrance. The recent days of emotional turmoil had left him raw, and now, the fervor of reclaiming something precious drove him to madness. He longed to have her by his side, to possess her for days without end. During the brief period she had been missing after escaping from the lake, he had endured the most harrowing five days of his life. From the moment the police had informed him of her supposed death, he rushed to the site of the car accident. He watched as her car was retrieved from the river, saw her ID