.

yes,” he said grimly. “Open your eyes and look at me!”

      “Stop swearing!” She blinked open blurry eyes, battling the residual haze shrouding her brain. Gavin was holding her down. She tried to remember why that was all wrong.

      “That’s it, fight back.” One hand let her go. Her head lolled to the side. It was so hard to keep her eyes open. His hand slid beneath the tangle of her hair, cupping the back of her head. The tingling sensations were starting all over. There was something incredibly sensual in the touch of that large hand against her scalp.

      “Sit up, come on. That’s it. Open your eyes, Leigh.”

      She struggled to obey. He was the sexiest man she’d ever seen. “Fantasy man,” she whispered.

      Gavin cursed. “We’ll see how you feel about that tomorrow. Here, swallow this.”

      A bottle of liquid was thrust to her lips. It clicked against her teeth, but he gave her no chance to protest. Warm water dribbled down her chin, but some of the fluid made it down her parched throat. The water had a chemical taste, like bottled water that had been sitting in a hot car too long. She choked. Her stomach roiled in protest. Feebly, she tried to push aside his hand.

      “Drink some more.”

      “I’m going to be sick.”

      “That’s the idea. We need to get that drug out of your system.”

      To her acute mortification, he held her while her stomach made good on the threat. He continued holding her gently even after she was reduced to dry heaves. Almost tenderly, he pulled aside the heavy mass of her hair and rubbed her bare back as if she were a child.

      Weak and spent, she let him. Desperately, her brain tried to make sense of it all.

      “Take another sip.”

      “I’ll throw up again.”

      “Swish it around in your mouth and spit it out. Don’t swallow it. I know it’s warm, but it’s the only water I have with me.”

      She obeyed, totally ashamed as memory played back the things they’d done. He let her go and fished in his pocket. She heard the crinkle of paper as Gavin unwrapped something and handed it to her.

      “It’s okay. It’s a peppermint hard candy. It will take the taste out of your mouth.”

      His expression was so sweet she wanted to cry. The candy had an odd taste on her tongue.

      “Think you can get back on the bike?”

      “Bike?”

      Memory trickled past. A wild ride. Wanton need. Her breasts were bare, the nipples hard, but tender and sore. The rest of her body was equally bare. Moonlight peered through the trees overhead to dapple her skin. She focused on his face, horror growing as images ghosted through her mind.

      “Did we…? Were we…?”

      His features hardened, making her flinch.

      “Were we intimate? Oh, yeah, baby. We were as intimate as it gets.”

      His finger lightly traced her collarbone. She had a memory of his lips doing the same. Leigh trembled—hard.

      “How much do you remember?”

      The knot that formed in her stomach threatened to turn her inside out.

      “I don’t… I’m not sure.”

      Lifting her chin, Gavin forced her to meet his eyes.

      “Tell me you weren’t a virgin.”

      She lost the battle with her stomach once more. He turned her head in time as her insides twisted in an attempt to escape. Dry heaves wracked her. Gavin swore, but he held her until she finally sagged against his chest, utterly spent. His shirt smelled of cigarette smoke and fabric softener. That he was fully dressed while she was naked made it all the worse somehow. His hands were gentle as he wiped her face, tucking her hair behind her ear.

      “Let’s get you dressed.”

      She tried, but her fingers were useless. He skipped the bra and panties and helped her with her sister’s blouse.

      “Can you stand?”

      She wasn’t sure. Gavin didn’t give her a choice. Her body still vibrated in reaction to his touch as he slid the jeans back up her legs. Her stomach fluttered helplessly at the feel of his fingers trying to fasten the snap. She stepped into her brand-new deck shoes while he held her so that she didn’t fall over. Tugging her toward the large black motorcycle, he lifted her up, settling her in place.

      “Hold on to me.”

      A flashback of her hands roaming his bare skin hit her with electric force. Leigh closed her eyes, fighting tears of shame. She didn’t open them until the bike stopped. Helplessly, she gazed at the dark building of Wickert’s garage.

      “What are we doing here?”

      “I have a key and I know the alarm system. I thought you’d want to clean up before I took you home.”

      Home. She had no home. Not anymore. Only an empty house where people waited without hope.

      Her stomach knotted. She wanted to cry. His features were harsh. She swallowed her tears, feeling mortified and ashamed.

      She barely recognized herself in the mirror of the ladies’ room. Her hair hung about her face in tangled strands. Her eyes were huge dark pits against the ghostly white pallor of her skin. Streaks of mascara gave her a raccoon appearance, and there was more than one dark bruise forming on the skin of her neck. Leigh remembered his mouth there and whimpered. The temperature could have been below freezing instead of the high seventies she knew it to be even at this hour of the night.

      Holding the comb he’d thrust into her hand after unlocking the door, she sank onto the dirty tile floor and sobbed until there were no tears left. Shame paralyzed her. How could she go back out there and face him?

      He claimed she’d been drugged, but that didn’t matter. Neither did the fact that she’d had a crush on him since she was fifteen. What mattered was that she’d given her virginity to a man who couldn’t even tell her apart from her sister.

      Given? She’d practically demanded that he take her.

      And that was more demeaning than all the rest.

      His knock on the door brought her scrambling to her feet. She brushed at her tear-stained face.

      “Are you okay in there?”

      “Yes.” It came out as a croak of sound. Her voice was thick from crying. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

      “Do you need anything?”

      Her mother. She would have given anything she possessed to have her mother here beside her right this minute.

      “I’ll be out in a minute,” she repeated.

      Leigh waited until she heard him move away from the door. Splashing water on her face, she used the rough paper towels to rub fiercely at her face, trying to remove all traces of her smeared makeup. Her sister’s blouse was buttoned all wrong and her fingers still didn’t want to cooperate, but finally, she managed that small task. Trying to tame her hair with his comb proved impossible.

      She tried not to think about the marks on her skin or the puffy appearance of her lips, or the strange, small ache between her legs and elsewhere. She could smell him on her skin, and still feel him pulsing inside her. And the shaking started again in earnest, because she still wanted him. It was all she could do to pull herself together and exit the ladies’ room.

      Gavin came away from the dirty wall with a primitive grace she still found compelling. Worse, a part of her longed for him to pull her into his arms and hold her. She needed to hear that things were going to be okay, that he wasn’t disgusted with her. But he made no move to touch her and