Temperatures Rising by Brenda Jackson

within her that had been left dormant for the past two years. Her nerve endings tingled at the thought of that happening.
    “I’ve got to go,” she said, moving away toward her parked car.
    “All right. And I hope to see you later. You do have my address, right?”
    She nodded. Although she’d never been to his home, she knew his address. It was within a mile of where she was currently living. “Yes.”
    And then she walked away and forced herself not to look back.
     
    Feeling a sense of impending doom, Terrence stood with his hands deep in his pockets and watched Sherri walk away. Never had any woman’s decision meant so much to him that it had his stomach tied in knots. From the beginning he’d thought that he was the one calling the shots.
    Now he wasn’t so damn sure of that.
    When he’d first seen her he had quickly decided she was someone worth looking at, and there was noharm in looking. Once he’d discovered she was Warrick’s niece, any thoughts of hitting on her vanished, although he’d seen no harm in a little innocent flirtation. But then he discovered looking and flirting weren’t good enough. He wanted to touch and taste her, to join their bodies together. The more he’d seen her, the more he had wanted her. Now he was driven with an impulse to strip her naked each and every time he saw her.
    She affected him like no other woman had. For two weeks they had tried avoiding each other and he’d been fine with it, deciding a woman with marriage on her mind was the last type of woman he needed to get involved with. Yet the moment he had glanced at the glass booth and seen her in it, it was as if a part of her had called out to him, had made his desire for her keener, his obsession with sharing a bed with her even more defined.
    He stood there and continued to watch as the car she’d gotten into drove off and disappeared. Now the waiting would begin. Taking his hands out of his pockets, he walked toward his car, thinking he needed to make love to her like he needed to breathe.
    For him to want any woman that much wasn’t good. But for the time being, he was trapped by his desires and only she held the key for his release.
     
    Sherri walked into the house, thinking that during the drive home her head should have cleared and her senses should have been back in check. But if that was the case, then why was she contemplating taking a shower, changing into something sexy and paying Terrence a visit?
    And why on the drive home had she felt the need to constantly remind herself that she was a forever-after kind of girl, and just because Ben hadn’t appreciated her that didn’t necessarily mean the next guy wouldn’t? On top of all that, she also reminded herself she didn’t have the time to put into an affair, long or short. Her concentration was on her work at the station. She felt good knowing her uncle believed in her capabilities enough to leave her in charge of everything and everyone.
    Including Terrence.
    But only technically, since being in charge of the station included responsibility for anyone associated with it.
    She moved through her living room and headed straight for the kitchen, needing a cup of tea. She always thought better while sipping tea.
    A short while later she was sitting at the kitchen table sipping tea and trying to decide what she shoulddo. Why would a logical person like herself even contemplate doing something so illogical as having an affair, and with of all people, the Keys’ bad boy? A man with a reputation as a ladies’ man. A man who never, ever intended to marry. What was the sense in that? She took a sip of her tea and summed up the answer in five words.
    She needed a memorable experience.
    She was twenty-seven and had yet to experience the big O. At least not a real one. She hadn’t ever told anyone, including Kim, that her time in bed with Ben had always left her so unsatisfied that she had begun wondering what all the hoopla was about regarding sex. Though Ben