Magnificent Folly - Iris Johansen [49]
“From which they received telepathic talents.”
“That was only the offshoot. I thought you realized that. The drug also opened approximately another thirty percent more of their brains for use.”
“You … forgot to mention that,” Lily said blankly.
“It doesn’t make us superbrains. It only allows us to learn more.”
“A colony of bloody geniuses,” Lily said dazedly. “No wonder Said Ababa wants the Clanad back.”
Andrew looked embarrassed. “It doesn’t make us any different from anyone else.”
“The hell it doesn’t.” She was thinking quickly. “Cassie. It was perfectly natural that Cassie turned out to be a child prodigy, wasn’t it? Are the other children born from donors equally talented?”
“More or less.”
She shook her head. “I feel like Alice in Wonderland.”
“I don’t know why you’re so upset. I tell you, it’s only a change in capacity. We’re still very human. We make stupid blunders. We charge in where we shouldn’t.” He touched her cheek with his fingers with infinite gentleness. “We fall in love with women who refuse to love us back.”
“Andrew …” She gazed at him helplessly. The additional information should have frightened and repelled her, but somehow it didn’t. There was nothing frightening about Andrew, Gunner, or any of the people she had met since she had come to Sedikhan. Andrew was perhaps more vulnerable and human than anyone she had ever met. Just looking at that lean, gentle face she felt as if something inside her were breaking up, dissolving, melting. “I should go inside.”
“In a minute.” His finger moved down her cheek, and then her throat. “It seems as if I haven’t touched you for a hundred years. Does it seem like that to you too?”
“Yes.” His touch was gossamer-light, yet left a trail of tingling electricity in its wake. He placed one finger in the hollow of her throat, and she felt the betraying pulse leap in response.
“Do you remember that first night you came to me?” A flush mantled his cheekbones, and his eyes glittered fever-bright. “You were so tight, I was sure I was hurting you.” He smiled as he felt the throb of her heart against the pad of his finger. “But then you held me tighter and tighter, until I thought you’d drive me out of my mind.”
His touch, the erotic memories the words evoked, the sheer sensual presence of him were making her dizzy and weak. She could feel the muscles of her stomach clench as a tingling heat stabbed through her.
“I want it again. Now.”
“No. Cassie …”
“Tonight, then. Are you in the master bedroom?”
She nodded dumbly.
“I’ll come to you at eleven. Okay?”
Her lips were trembling as she tried to smile. “I think I’m being seduced again.”
“I’m doing my damnedest.” Andrew grinned with sudden boyishness. “A real bed, Lily. And time to lie in that bed with you and play and hold you all night if I want. Doesn’t that sound great?”
A surge of maternal tenderness banished the last of her defenses. Sweet heaven, he was so dear. “Just great,” she said shakily. “If Mrs. Muggins permits.”
“Mrs. Muggins likes me to have what’s good for me.” He leaned forward and kissed her hard and sweet. “And you’re very good for me. I’ll send her to baby-sit Cassie.” He opened the door behind her and gave her a little push into the foyer. “Eat dinner and then have a nice restful evening. You won’t get much rest later.”
“And will you be resting too?”
He hesitated. “I have to go over to the hospital for an hour or so.”
“Therapy?” She frowned in concern. “Are you doing what you did with Cassie?”
He shook his head. “Nothing in depth. I’m just checking up on someone.” His eyes twinkled. “But I promise I’ll save plenty of energy.”
He kissed her again, turned, and strolled down the path toward the car.
• • •
Lily gazed at her reflection in the bathroom mirror with dissatisfaction. Was she too pale? Perhaps she should put on a little more makeup. The emerald green of the satin robe went well with her chestnut hair, but it made her look surprisingly flamboyant. Perhaps she should change before Andrew