“That’s not your problem.” But one way or another, he was going to convince this woman to share his bed.

“But you do want to have sex with me?”

“That’s been well and truly established. The question is, will you let me?”

Oh, yeah. That had been real smooth. Ask a woman in the middle of a park path to have sex with him. And don’t bother to dress it up at all. Just call it an obsession you want to feed. Right. That should do the trick.

Every virgin dreamt of having her first experience with a guy who offered sex and no finer emotions.

If he could have reached his own ass, he would have kicked it into next Tuesday. He couldn’t have messed this up worse if he’d been trying.

She licked her lips again, her moss green eyes focused on his mouth. “I think I’d like you to kiss me again before I decide.” She peeked up at him like a child admitting to getting into the cookie jar. “The first time I was so busy trying to keep it professional that I missed out on a lot of the finer points of what I was feeling.”

He felt drunk, but he hadn’t had a drop of alcohol since breaking up a bar in Lubbock, Texas, after one too many beers and insults to his heritage. “You want me to kiss you?”

“If you don’t mind.”

He didn’t wait for her to change her mind, but pulled her body into immediate full-press contact. “Oh, I don’t mind, Josette. Not at all.”

Her expression turned wary at his predatory tone, but she didn’t pull away.

Smiling at that reality, he lowered his mouth to cover hers, and everything inside him went still. She tasted like Christmas, his birthday, and a successful mission all rolled into one. Sweet and delicious, warm and soft, her mouth was everything he remembered it being and more.

He ate at her lips as if he’d been starving to death and she was the only food available. She made a sexy little noise and pressed her body into his while encouraging him to keep feasting with lips that molded to his in total surrender.

He’d never worried about being overly gentle before, but he didn’t want to bruise Josie’s lips; he wanted to savor them.

And he did, carefully controlling the desire raging through him, so every nuance of the kiss was designed to give her pleasure and a lot of it.

Josie couldn’t believe the tenderness of Nitro’s mouth moving against hers. She hadn’t expected him to kiss her right then, not in full view of anyone going by the park. Even less had she anticipated the leashed force of his passion vibrating from his body to hers combined with a kiss so caring and gentle, she was ready to melt in a puddle of devastating emotion right there on the footpath.

Every nerve center in her body went on hyper alert, while her sense of time and space became hazy and indistinct. She rubbed her body against his, shocked at how tight and tingly her nipples grew. And things happened inside her, too, things that made her press her thighs together in shivery sensation.

His big hand moved down to cup her bottom, and she gasped from the pleasure of the unfamiliar contact. His tongue slid into her mouth, taking possession with unrelenting intimacy.

He tasted so intoxicating that if he were a bottle of wine, she would have been over the legal limit within seconds.

A growl sounded low in his throat as he explored every centimeter of her mouth, making it his.

She looped her arms around his neck, holding on tight and finally understanding why women kissed this way. They wouldn’t be able to stand otherwise.

Her knees had turned to rubber, and her insides were melting with lavalike heat. He lifted her, and she let her legs spread without thought, wanting him to do something about the shivery stuff happening between her legs.

Oh, yes…just like that. The hard-on he’d been so preoccupied with earlier was rubbing against the apex of her thighs, pleasuring and tormenting her at the same time. She wanted, no needed more, but she couldn’t make herself stop kissing him long enough to say so. She had to settle for making whimpering noises against his lips and trying to climb into his skin.

His other hand came up between them and cupped her small breast, rotating his palm over her tight nipple. Her tongue tangled with his, inviting him to higher levels of pleasure, and despite her lack of experience, he reacted to her efforts with extreme masculine enthusiasm.

The fact it was Nitro, the man she wanted and admired above all others, doing these things to her increased her sense of excitement and anticipation a hundredfold. For right now, his status as a soldier, his preoccupation with a life she wanted to leave behind, had no impact on her conscious mind.

He was giving her too much pleasure to think about anything else.

Pressing her rigid nipple between his thumb and forefinger, he tugged in a way that sent pleasure skyrocketing through her body. She locked her legs around his hips and pressed herself as intimately as possible against his erection.

And still it was not enough.

Tears seeped out of her eyes as her pleasure and frustration built in tandem.

His mouth broke from hers. “Josette? Josie, what’s wrong?”

She looked up at him, too dazed to really focus. “Hmm?”

“Why are you crying?”

“I never cry.”

His tongue traced the path of wetness up her cheek to the corner of her eye. “It sure tastes like tears to me.”

“Do that again.”

He tasted her other cheek in the same way, kissing her temple when he’d reached the source of her tears.

“I like that,” she said with a sigh as she melted farther into him.

“But why are you crying?”

“How should I know? I’ve never done this before. You’re the expert.” She was getting annoyed by the interruption. Who cared why her tear ducts were engaging? “It’s not because I’m sad, all right?”

She squeezed her thigh muscles, and his big body convulsed.

He frowned down at her. “Don’t do that.”

“Why not?” She liked it.

“I’m on the edge of taking you here and now.”

“Taking me where?” Then it clicked what he meant. “Oh, that. Okay.” She didn’t care where they made love; she just wanted to feel his body completely naked against hers.

His bark of laughter surprised her. “We’re in the middle of the park, Josette. I’m not into exhibitionism, and I’m pretty sure you aren’t either.”

She looked around her, her gaze focusing finally. A family of ducks waddled along the edge of the pond. Small children swung on the play equipment across the green expanse, and a jogger was on the path, headed their way.

“Oh, my gosh,” she choked, unlocking her legs from behind him and vainly reaching for the ground with her feet. “Um, Daniel…”

“What?” He was looking predatory again.

“You need to let me down.”

He did, and she took a quick step backward, needing distance from that Adonis-like body. But her muscles weren’t cooperating, and she fell flat on her bottom.

He laughed again, and this time, it made her mad.

This was all his fault. He was the one with all the experience. He’d seduced her into total wantonness with his lips and body and had the nerve to laugh about it.

She swept out with her foot and brought him down to the ground with her. Rather than abating, his laughter just increased, the amusement in his brown eyes immobilizing her. She’d never seen Nitro like this.

He rolled toward her, and she had to maneuver quickly to avoid letting him pin her like he had in her hallway. She was on to his tricks now and willing to try a few of her own.

With a two-step execution he clearly had not anticipated, she had him facedown under her in a position most men would have found impossible to get out of. Anticipation thrilled through her at the prospect he wasn’t one of them.

“Say uncle,” she demanded.