When the bathroom door opened again, Caroline cut a glance to the doorway. There was just enough moonlight for her to get a tempting glimpse of his bare chest and the way the low-fitting jeans hugged his hips. Her throat suddenly dry, she swallowed hard as he approached her, unable to look away.

"You go ahead and take the bed. I'll sleep on the floor," Nick offered, his voice gruff. He reached for the blanket and pillow in her hands and looked away–but not before she recognized the hungry gleam in his eyes.

Caroline held onto the blanket and pillow and he lifted his gaze to hers. For a long moment she simply stood there. When his eyes moved over her face, down her throat to her breasts, her heart beat faster. Desire fisted in her belly. She thought about all that she and Nick had been through during the past few days–Paul's death and funeral, the attempt on her life, the truck driver trying to run them off the road. What if the killer found them tomorrow morning? What if this was her last night alive? She knew that if it was, she didn't want to spend it in bed alone. "I don't want you to sleep on the floor," she told him. "I want you to sleep in the bed–with me."

Nick tensed. In the faint light filtering through the window, she could see the sharp angles of his face, the flare of his nostrils, the narrowing of his eyes. "If I get in that bed with you, it won't be to sleep."

"I know," she whispered. After toeing off her shoes, she pulled off her T-shirt and jeans, tossed them to the floor. He didn't move a muscle. But his eyes, those piercing blue eyes tracked her every movement. Still, he said nothing. He simply stood there, watching her, waiting. With trembling fingers, she reached for the snap on his jeans.

Nick caught her hand. "Be sure this is what you want, Caroline. I want you more than I want my next breath. But tomorrow when we leave here and when this mess is behind us, nothing will have changed. I still can't offer you any future."

She tipped up her chin, met his gaze. "I'm not asking you for anything beyond tonight. No commitments, no promises. Just tonight. Tonight I need to feel alive. I need to remember what it feels like to be wanted. Make love to me, Nick."