Always - Iris Johansen [19]
“I won’t push you. I’ll give you the time you need to adjust to the idea,” he said quietly. “I just thought I’d better get everything out in the open. This situation is complicated enough without your misunderstanding my intentions.” He smiled with surprising sweetness. “My intention is to marry you and love you for the rest of our lives. Is that clear enough?”
Lisa shook her head. “I won’t marry you, Clancy. Not if you wait a hundred years.” She met his eyes directly. “And I don’t love you.”
“I didn’t expect you to love me. It would have been too much to hope that we’d both succumb to the same insanity.” His warm, wet tongue suddenly stroked her palm. “But you do want me. I’m experienced enough to recognize those particular signs. I’ll start with that and work my way up.”
“No! I won’t let you—” She broke off. His teeth were gently nibbling at the smooth tips of her fingers. She felt her heart jerk and then start to pound wildly. “Clancy, stop. I’m not like this. I don’t fall into bed with every man who crooks his finger.”
“I know that. It was all in your dossier. You haven’t been with a man since you divorced Baldwin. After I realized the exact nature of my affliction, I found that very comforting reading.”
“That damn dossier.” His tongue was licking the hollows at the base of her fingers, and she had to concentrate to bring her thoughts back to the subject. “It’s practically indecent to pry into a woman’s personal life like that.”
“I’ll ask Alex to send you mine. It must still be around somewhere. Then we’ll be even.”
She could see the drumming of the pulse in his temple and felt a sudden urge to reach out and touch that vital life force.
“Okay?”
“What?” He was so warm and alive that she could feel the heat and vitality radiating from his big body, surrounding her, nearly overpowering her.
He grinned. “Why do I feel you aren’t paying proper attention to my soulful declaration? Which isn’t at all kind, considering that I’ve never told a woman I was mad about her before.”
“You’re mad, period. Love at first sight is something out of a storybook. Sexual attraction at first sight I can accept. But love …” She shook her head. “It’s too far-fetched. In a few days you’ll be glad I didn’t take you seriously.”
“Not that far-fetched. I’ve seen it happen before, but I’ve always been on the outside looking in. I’m familiar enough with the phenomenon to recognize it when it appears on my horizon.” He gently touched her lips with his fingertips. “I never thought it would happen to me. I thought I would just go on forever, doing my job and hovering on the edge of relationships, but never really being involved. Do you know what a miracle this is for me?”
She felt her throat tighten painfully. “I’m the wrong woman,” she said huskily. “I won’t let myself get involved with any man. Find someone else, Clancy.”
“I can’t. You may be the wrong woman, but you’re the only woman.”
“I’ll hurt you.” There was a note of desperation in her voice. “Give it up. I don’t want to cause anyone pain, Clancy. There’s too much of that in the world already.”
“I’ll take my chances.” His index finger traced the curve of her lower lip. “You have a beautiful mouth. I love to see you smile. It lights up the whole world. You don’t do it often enough, though.”
“Clancy, for God’s sake, listen to me.”
“I’m listening.” His eyes met hers. “Thank you for the warning, acushla, but it’s too late. I don’t have a choice any longer. I have to try.” He smiled faintly. “I must warn you that I can be a fairly tough customer when I go after something, and there will be no holds barred this time. It’s a battle I’ve got to win.”
“You can’t win, dammit! It’s a no-win situation.” Her lower lip was throbbing and felt swollen and satin soft beneath the light caress of his finger. That throbbing seemed to be sending out shock waves to every nerve ending in her body. “Let me go.”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t, even if I wanted to now. We have to finish what we’ve started.”
“We haven’t started anything. Now