A laugh rumbled, rolling free and joining hers. Leave it to Julia to know he needed to laugh.
He opened his eyes. "Thanks, Jules."
"Not yet." Her hand skimmed over his eyes again. "This is my fantasy, and I'm not done with you."
Her voice shifted from soothing to sultry, upping the temperature by at least twenty degrees.
"Finally, we tuck our children in bed and we're alone." She canted closer, velvety-encased warmth molding to his side. "I'm more than ready to give you the rest of a hero's welcome home, the best part."
His heart rate kicked into mach speed. "The best part?"
"Very best." Her breath caressed his neck. "I kiss you, or maybe you kiss me. Who can tell? We're both so hungry for each other we're stumbling down the hall to our room. I've missed you so damned much. Waiting all through dinner has me ready to jump out of my skin and finally I have you to myself."
The past blended with the present in her words, in her touch.
"I've been scared and confused, but it's okay because you're here and we're going to put everything else aside. We need each other and somehow that's all that matters right now.
We deserve this moment. Just us."
She tugged his tie until it came free. He forced himself to listen when he really wanted to flip her onto her back and plunge into her.
Her fingers walked along his collar, dipping to stroke his neck. "You shut the door, and we can't even make it to the bed. You flatten me against the door, and you feel so good and warm and hard." She grasped his wrist and slid it inside the slit of her dress to rest on her knee. "You touch me and I want to touch you, but I'm not sure I can move because you have me so hot for you I'm shaking."
She urged his hand up her stocking-clad leg until he reached...ah, hell.
The snap of a garter hooked along the top of her stocking.
Julia inched his hand farther to the bare skin of her thigh. "I lean into you and whisper my little secret that I've carried with me all night long." Her mouth brushed his ear, her words breathy and full of promise. "I don't have on any underwear."
Inching back to stare into Zach's narrowed eyes, Julia I waited for his reaction to a declaration she still couldn't believe she'd made. She didn't have to wait long.
One broad hand palmed her back, the other lay still warm against her bare upper thigh as he flipped her onto her back.
The air wooshing from her lungs had nothing to do with the fluid change of position and everything to do with the mesmerizing man looming over her. Her night of fantasies promised to reach new heights that far outstripped the Harley ride or her dream seduction.
And speaking of outstripped... Julia reached for the silver chain holding his uniform jacket together.
Zach's hands closed over hers. "No, ma'am. It's my turn now."
His husky Texas drawl slid over her skin and along her every heightened nerve.
"Your turn to do what?" She invited him with a slow arch of the back, a gentle glide of her foot along his calf.
His hand snaked down to stop her progress, then tunneled inside her dress again and up the slit to stroke her leg. "You've had your way with me, and I intend to return the favor. I have some ideas of my own about how I want to play out this homecoming."
Bold, callused fingers snagged along her stockinged leg, higher, rasping along her bare hip. Julia shivered, waited, yearned. "Please, haven't we waited long enough?"
"Too long, and that's why we're not rushing."
His arrogant assumption of control might have irritated her if she hadn't been so very certain he would make the agonizing wait worth her while. "I'm all yours, then."
His eyes never once leaving her face, he continued, "All the way across the ocean, I thought of doing this."
Zach cradled the back of her neck and lifted slightly, baring her throat for his mouth.
"And all through dinner, I imagined doing this." His words warmed skin already on fire, his fingers finding the top of her zipper.
She bowed to accommodate him, her br**sts pressing against the solid wall of his chest.