Iris Johansen - Always

"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 makingmy 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 hadwielded 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, the reigning head at that time, wanted a man of my particular qualifications."

"Qualifications?"

"I'd batted around the world a bit and been everything from a roughneck on an oil rig in Texas to a mai tai fighter in Malaya. I wasn't much more than a kid myself, but I could handle myself in practically any situation going. In an oil-rich country like Sedikhan, where border skirmishes are a fact of life, that was a blue-chip recommendation."

"I can see how it would be. "It was difficult to visualize that wild, tough boy taking on a responsibility that would make a mature man flinch. No wonder he carried his authority so effortlessly. "So Sedikhan is your home now?"

"Yes, as much as any place can be. My job hasn't permitted me to put down any firm roots. Sedikhan is an economically strategic country, and that means there's no way we could remain isolated. In the past I've traveled at least six months of the year." He paused. "That doesn't mean I have to continue to do so. I have some good men in key spots around the world. I can learn to delegate."

She looked out at the water. "You'd probably miss it terribly after all these years. I don't think you should be in a hurry to change your life-style."

"I would miss it, but there are people I love in Sedikhan. It would be nice to have time to spend with them again."

"Alex?"

"Alex and Sabrina, Lance and Honey, David and Billie, Karim…" He smiled faintly. "And so many others. Really wonderful people, Lisa. I want you to meet and know all of them."

There was such warmth and affection radiating from his face that suddenly she wanted that, too. She shook her head sadly. "I'm sure they're as wonderful as you say they are, but I doubt if we will ever meet. Sedikhan is a long way from New York City."

"Not that far. I could order the jet and we'd be there in six hours. Shall I do it?"

She laughed. "Just like that?"

"Yes." He stopped her by placing a.hand on her arm. His eyes were warmly intent. "I want to take you home with me. I guess I'm a little old-fashioned. I want you to meet my people. Will you come?"

She shook her head, her expression troubled. "I can't do that. It wouldn't work, Clancy."

"It will work." His tone was so rough it startled her. He was silent for a moment, as if trying to get that violence under control. "Look, would it help if I told you I'm a very rich man? Alex has always been very generous with the people he cares about. It's never meant anything to me before, but now I like the idea of being able to give you things. To hell with the ivory tower. I can give you a palace, if that's what you want."

"You'd buy me?"

"I'd buy you in any way I could. Money, personal freedom, fame." He smiled a little recklessly. "Doyou want to be the next Streisand? I'll get that for you."

She shook her head. "I've outgrown wanting everything served on a silver platter, remember?"

He tightened his hold on her arm. "There must be something in life you want enough to strike a bargain for. I just have to find out what that is, Lisa."

Her eyes widened. "You'd want me that way?"

"No," he said. "I want you as crazily in love with me as I am with you, but I'll take what I can get."

"I think you'd better let me go," she said softly. "I'm very much afraid I'm beginning to like you, Clancy Donahue, but I'll never love you."

He let his breath out in a rush. "Well, that's progress, anyway. At least you don't want to draw and quarter me anymore." He grinned. "Why should I give up now? I never expected it to be easy. Just give me a few days and you'll see that even gruff security men have their charming side,"

That was exactly what she was afraid of. She was already finding it difficult to separate her physical and emotional responses where Clancy was concerned. She raised a brow. "You're planning to dazzle me?"

His smile faded. "No, just love you, acushla," he said quietly. "And try to make you love me."

She felt her throat tighten helplessly as she gazed up at him. How could you reply to a man who made statements like that? Particularly when he clearly meant every single word.

His fingers reached up to touch her cheekbone with a featherlike caress. "Never mind. You'll become accustomed to it in time. I am." His handdropped to her arm and he began to propel her toward the bridge enclosure only a few yards away. "Come on, let's get you back to the villa and out of the sun. We'll have to find something to do indoors for the next day or two. I think you're definitely going to have a sunburn." He grinned down at her with sudden mischief, his white teeth flashing in his dark face. "How are you at checkers?"

Clancy Donahue was a master at the game of checkers.

Lisa soon found out why that smile had been charged with elfin humor. The predicted sunburn had duly appeared by the time she'd showered after they had returned to the villa. Though not particularly painful, it was enough to keep her from wanting to expose herself unnecessarily for a time. In the next two days she found that Donahue was an expert not only at checkers and chess, but at poker and gin rummy as well. He played with a quiet concentration and a boyish zest that made it a pleasure to compete with him even when she lost-something that happened with depressing frequency.

At the end of the second evening of this cruel and unusual punishment, Lisa pushed back her chair and shook her head ruefully. "Skunked again. Where did you learn to play so damned well? I'm not at all sure you haven't lied to me, Clancy. You couldn't have had time to learn all these skills and have a career, too."