Iris Johansen - Always

"See the battlements. I don't want you to think I'm rushing you off to the sack. And I suppose a stroll in the moonlight would be romantic."

She gazed at him with exasperation and enormous tenderness. "Clancy, you've done your duty. You've provided me with all the romance a woman could possibly want. Now for God's sake, will you take me to bed?"

A slow smile lit his face. "Did I ever tell you how much I admire an aggressive woman? You're damn right I will."

He rushed her up the second flight of stairs with a speed that had her choking with laughter. Then he swung her up in his arms and strode down the hall. "One last romantic gesture. I was tempted to carry you up the stairs like Rhett Butler did Scarlett, but I thought you'd prefer to have me able to function when we got to the top."

He opened the door of a room at the end of the corridor and carried her into a large bedroom much like her own. Several crystal candelabra bearing long white tapers were scattered about the room, and the flames cast dancing shadows on the walls. Lisa was vaguely aware of tapestries in muted hues covering those walls, Aubusson area rugs on the stone floors, and a huge canopied four-poster bed across the room.

"Romance isn't everything." He set her on her feet and kicked the door shut behind him. "In a situation like this, stamina counts for a hell of a lot, too."

"Clancy…" She gazed up at him helplessly. Why didn't he realize how wonderful he was? "Don't you know you don't have to act romantic? You are romantic. You're handsome, brave, and intelligent."

"And sexy?" he suggested solemnly.

"And sexy." She nodded. "Oh, yes, very sexy."

"Just testing. I wanted to be sure you appreciated all my attributes." Suddenly he put his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. "Oh, God, I didn't think I'd ever make it." His hands moved feverishly on her back. His lips were on her ear, her temple, her cheek in soft, hot kisses. "It seems as if I've been aching for this for at least a decade or so."

Lisa could feel the hardness of his rigid muscles against her, but he wasn't close enough. She cuddled nearer, rotating in a sinuous little movement into the cradle of his hips. He inhaled sharply. His heart was pounding so hard she could detect the movement through his white dress shirt.

His tongue darted in her ear and she moaned deep in her throat, arching against him as if he'd jerked a hidden string.

"Naked," he muttered. "I've got to get you naked." His unsteady hands were unfastening the barrette that held back her hair and then combing through the loosened tresses until they fell in a shimmering cloud down her back.

"Clancy, that barrette wasn't exactly a significant body covering." Lia laughed shakily. "If you'lllet me go for a minute, I'll see if I can improve on what you started."

His hips moved slowly against her, rotating, stroking her sensuously, his hands cupping her buttocks to bring her in closer contact. Their lower bodies were pressed so close that she could feel the heat of his arousal with every breath. "I don't want to let you go," he said. She could hear his ragged breathing as he pressed his fevered cheek against her temple. Then he was pushing her away. "Quick. For God's sake, be quick."

He didn't need to urge her to speed. When he had pushed her away she'd felt an aching sense of loss, as if they had been joined and were now severed by a surgeon's scalpel. She needed that joining.

She moved swiftly, pulling the caftan over her head and then dispensing with her slippers and underthings with equal speed. Then she was back in his arms and was aware of the shock of naked flesh against her own. Clancy had stripped with the same frantic urgency she had.

"Clancy…" Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she rubbed her body against him with exquisite sensuous pleasure.

The cloud of hair on his chest was teasing her sensitive breasts, the hard muscles and bones of his thighs were locked and rigid with a leashed threat that was deliciously exciting. With every movement of her body he gave a little gasp that was almost a groan. She was gasping, too. Each breath was a shock of sensation as it brought her flesh in fresh contact with his. His left thigh Insinuated itself between hers, and she could feel the thickmuscles, lightly dusted with hair, pressing against her softness.

Her teeth clenched to suppress a cry that could well have turned into a scream. Heat. Wanting. His thigh moved with soft abrasiveness against her womanhood in an urgent, mindless rhythm that was making her mindless as well. "No more," she whispered. "No more, Clancy."

He nodded jerkily. "No more," he agreed. His chest was heaving with the force of his breathing. "Come on." He half pulled her across the room to the bed. Once there, he didn't wait to jerk down the spread but pushed her down on the cool satin surface. His eyes were glazed and almost blind as he followed her down and settled himself between her thighs. "Are you ready for me? I hope to heaven you're ready." He didn't wait for an answer but plunged deep with a low groan that was almost painful. Fire, fullness, hunger. So much hunger surrounded them. She felt it in him even as he took, feasted, filled. Her own hunger, too, seemed completely insatiable.

She arched upward helplessly as he thrust with a force and passion that sent shudder after shudder through her body. Hot, slick, driving. Her nails dug into his shoulders with unconscious force. His face above her was heavy with the same hunger and a pleasure that was primitive and exciting as the act itself. The muscles of his torso were strained with unbearable tension.

She didn't know how long that mindless rapture continued. The tension mounted constantly, spi-raling, sparking, until she didn't think she could stand it for one more minute. Her head thrashedback and forth on the satin spread, her hair splaying in wild abandon. She felt abandoned and wild and…

He was moving more forcefully within her. Plunging, rotating, thrusting deeper when she hadn't thought there was a deeper. A cry escaped from her as the tension broke and then splintered into a thousand sharp, glittering prisms of splendor.

She heard a low, harsh groan above her that sounded as if it had been torn from him, and then she was caught close to Clancy's big body. Her arms closed around him fiercely, protectively, with a loving possession that she had never known before. She had brought him this wild, mindless pleasure. It had been her body that had assuaged his hunger and then made him tremble with satisfaction. That knowledge was almost as wonderful as the passionate glory that had gone before.

His heart was slowing now, though his chest was still laboring with the force of his breathing.

"Lisa…"His voice was oddly choked. "Lord, I'm sorry."

Shock jolted through the euphoria she was feeling. "Sorry? Why on earth are you sorry?"

"You know why," he said with self-disgust as he shifted off her to one side. "I did just what I said I wouldn't do. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. Just as if you were some call girl I'd ordered for a one-night stand."

Oh, dear, if Clancy didn't get over these romantic illusions of what she was due as his lady, they were going to have a difficult time of it. She sat up and brushed the hair from her face, then turned to lookat him. "Do you know what a truly romantic man does, Clancy? He gives a woman what she wants." She grinned down at him. "And I assure you, that's exactly what you did just now. I wanted wham and bam, and a sincerely expressed thank-you wouldn't be far off the mark, either. I certainly feel fervently grateful to you." Her voice lowered to a whisper of tenderness. "It was beautiful. Thank you, Clancy Donahue."

He looked at her searchingly, then pulled her down to kiss her with an exquisite sweetness that caused her throat to tighten with tears. "You're welcome," he said gruffly, then fell silent again. "There aren't any words, you know. What happened was…" He shrugged helplessly and repeated, "There just aren't any words."