Always - Iris Johansen [24]
“I like this,” he said as he stroked the ultra-sensitive skin with gossamer gentleness. She gasped as his finger slid beneath the edge of her shorts to the apex of her thighs. His finger halted as he heard the tiny sound, and his eyes lifted to meet hers. “I’m rushing you, aren’t I?”
He drew a deep, shuddering breath and withdrew his hand, the tips of his fingers lingering reluctantly before he forced them to leave her flesh. “Sorry. I meant to be a perfect gentleman today. I should have known I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I want you too much.” There was a flicker of frustration in his eyes as he glanced at her legs, still spread in voluptuous abandon. “But you don’t have to be so damn willing, either. How do you expect me to keep my hands off you when you do whatever I ask?”
Her eyes widened in shock and she closed her legs hurriedly.
“Oh, damn, I did it again,” he said with supreme self-disgust, and stood up. “For heaven’s sake, don’t look so stricken. It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I’m one big ache and I’m striking out like the bastard I am. Come on. Let’s get you out of the sun.” He reached down and pulled her to her feet.
Lisa cast him a bewildered glance as she fell into step beside him. She had been moved from pain to sensuality to guilt in the space of minutes. Now, incredibly, she was feeling sympathy for the man who had inspired all of those emotions. “It was my fault, too,” she said huskily. “I guess I was caught off guard. I don’t usually behave so—” She broke off. She mustn’t tell him that she had never had such an explosive physical response to any other man. She couldn’t afford to encourage him in any way. “Let’s forget it, shall we? Blame it on this gorgeous tropical sun.”
“I don’t want to forget it. I fully intend to remember it.” He was staring straight ahead, his expression set in lines of grim determination. “Because someday you’re not going to have to be caught off guard. Someday you’re going to welcome me with joy, Lisa. You’re going to be lying naked on the deck in the sunlight and you’re going to hold out your arms to me.”
She smiled with an effort. “You saw it in your crystal ball, I suppose?”
“No, in my imagination. I’m very good at making my visions come true. It’s all a matter of holding a goal firmly in mind and not giving up.”
He shrugged into his shirt but didn’t bother to button it. She wished that he had. The sight of those powerful muscles and that cloud of crisp hair was still having a disturbing effect on her pulse rate.
“And I have no intention of giving up,” he said, low and firmly.
“Neither do I. So we’re at an impasse.” She shot him a glance that glinted with a hint of humor. “Besides, I’m not enough of an exhibitionist to enjoy the kind of scenario you’ve set up for me. This yacht has quite a large crew, doesn’t it?”
“Only twelve. But I wasn’t thinking of this ship. It’s just one of the launches owned by Sedikhan Petroleum. I have a twenty-footer moored at Marasef harbor that can be run by a two-man crew. I thought you’d realize I wouldn’t allow any lascivious peepshows. I’m much too possessive to put you on display for the crew’s delectation.”
She looked away, searching desperately for a safe, impersonal subject. Fat chance. There didn’t seem to be such a thing as impersonality between the two of them. “One of the launches? Does Sedikhan put many luxury yachts like this at your disposal?”
He nodded. “We keep our own launches and helicopters on most of our permanent possessions. Otherwise, we usually lease what we need. Naturally I have access to anything Sedikhan Petroleum controls.”
“Naturally,” she echoed. Clancy’s statement had been perfectly matter-of-fact. Obviously he had wielded an almost limitless power for so long that it had become commonplace to him. “How long have you been head of security for Sedikhan?”
“Practically all my adult life.” He grimaced. “Though I started out as a cross between a tutor and bodyguard for Alex Ben Raschid and his cousin, Lance, when they were teenagers. Old Karim,