Always - Iris Johansen [20]
His blue eyes were dancing. “I have to show you that it’s already begun, don’t I?” His big hands gently framed her face. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to attack. I just want to make a point.” His head lowered slowly until his warm breath feathered her lips. He was barely touching her and she could feel the tremors begin to sear through her. He chuckled. “That’s not the only thing I want to make, of course, but it will do for a start.” His lips touched hers with the greatest delicacy, tasting, brushing, moving, giving her only enough to tantalize without satisfying. His broad chest brushed against her breasts as he shifted position to angle her lips to meet his. She inhaled sharply and felt him hesitate for the fraction of an instant before his lips closed on hers once more. He lifted his head. “Your breasts are exquisitely sensitive, aren’t they?” he murmured. “I thought they were.” He rubbed his upper body against her with a slow, sinuous movement. She couldn’t breathe, and the tremors had centered to become a pulsating ache between her thighs. Her breasts were firming, swelling, and she could feel the hard crest of her nipples thrust against the knit of her sweater. Her eyes closed as she reached for his shoulders to keep herself from swaying. “Earlier, on the beach, I wanted to do this,” he said thickly. “And so much more. I wanted to take that satin top off you and just look at you. I wanted to take your nipples in my fingers and make them come alive for me.” His hands dropped away from her face to the hollow of her back, arching her up against him. The sound she made deep in her throat was a half moan. “I wanted to use my tongue, my lips, and my teeth.” Lisa could hear the heavy pounding of his heart against her breasts, and it triggered a melting somewhere deep within her. She swayed and knew if his hands hadn’t been supporting her, her knees would have given way. “I wanted to touch you with every part of me. I still do.”
“Please. This is crazy.” For heaven’s sake, it was the lightest of foreplay and she was about to go up in smoke. She had never before experienced anything even remotely resembling this emotional tempest. “Clancy, this has got to stop.”
“I know.” His chest labored with the harshness of his breathing as he tightened his arms around her. “It’s getting out of hand. Give me a minute.”
That was easy to say. The muscles of his chest were still pressed against her, and she could sense his sexual arousal as a living force, swirling in waves around her. There was no aphrodisiac stronger than the knowledge of that arousal. Her hands pressed against his chest. It was a mistake, for now she could feel the heated thunder of his heart against her palms. “Now,” she said desperately, opening her eyes to gaze up at him. “Right now!”
He drew a shuddering breath, then his arms dropped away from her and he sat back on his heels. “Okay.” The skin was pulled taut over his cheekbones. There was a heavy sensuality curving his lips, and his nostrils were flaring slightly. He looked hungry.… Oh, did she look like that, too? He smiled with an obvious effort. “I think the point’s been made, anyway. We want each other.” His breath released in an explosive rush. “How we want each other!”
“Yes.” She raised a trembling hand to brush back a lock of hair from her eyes. “But it doesn’t change anything. I’m not about to mistake lust for love. And I’m not about to tumble happily into your bed just because I have a yen for you. I have an idea you’d use that to your advantage.”
“Smart lady. I’d do just that.” His eyes were twinkling. “But I’d make sure that our advantages were so closely entwined that you wouldn’t realize who was using whom.”
A wave of heat suddenly rushed over her as she had a sudden mental image of that “entwining.” She jumped to her feet. “I think I’d better go to my room. It’s time we resumed our roles of prisoner and jailer.”
For a fleeting moment she thought she saw a shadow of pain in Clancy’s face. It