Wildfire Encounter

  'And now?' she teased.

  'Minx!' he said gently, giving her a slight shake, then he bent to bestow a lingering kiss on her softly parted mouth before reaching for the zip fastening at the back of her dress. 'I should punish you until you weep for the pretty dance you've led me!'

  Sara felt his fingers unclasp her bra, and she lifted her arms and wound them round his neck, revelling in the taut hard lines of his muscular frame as she clung to him. 'Love me, Rafael,' she whispered unashamedly. 'I need you.'

  His response was swift and fierce as his mouth covered hers with bruising intensity, then he lifted his head to regard her, and she felt herself drown in the wealth of emotion in those dark eyes. 'Never again will you have reason to leave me, Sara,' he vowed gently. 'That I can promise you.'

  A deep heartfelt sigh left her lips, and she reached for him, then she rapidly became swept up in the tide of his passion as he led her unerringly towards the heights of sensual ecstasy, and it was a long time before she lay drowsily at peace in the circle of his arms, secure in the knowledge that she had at last come home.

  Harlequin Plus

  A WORD ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Helen Bianchin confesses that she is torn between her allegiance to New Zealand and her fondness for Australia. She was born in New Zealand, where she lives today. But it was during an extended "working holiday" in Australia that she met her husband-to-be, Danilo.

  Helen and her traveling companion had made Cairns, in northern Queensland, one of their stops. And it was while she was working for the Tobacco Association fifty miles away that she met Danilo, an Italian immigrant employed on a tobacco farm. He spoke little English. Helen's Italian was nil. But eight weeks after they met, he proposed.

  It was after the birth of her third child that Helen thought seriously about writing. Her first try produced a romance novel that was too short; her second version was too long. "So," she says, "I took a deep breath, began pruning, and once again the typewriter came out and I began retyping."

  Helen Bianchin's first Harlequin was Bewildered Haven (Romance #2010). It was published in 1976, and her typewriter has not been put away since.