Iris Johansen - Across the River of Yesterday

He made a face. "You're not going to like it."

"I'm sure I'm not. I haven't liked one thing that's happened to me since I arrived here."

His expression betrayed mischievous thoughts. "I could work at changing that impression. I'm always ready to oblige a lady."

Then, as he saw her expression darken stormily, he sighed. "Oh, all right, I lured your brother from Monte Carlo to Mariba, and bribed the local guardia to arrest him on fake drug charges. It was the only way I could think to get you here."

"Is that all?"

"Well, I did make sure you wouldn't be able to leave by air or sea until I gave the word." He smiled crookedly. "The officials here are very easy to impress with bills of high denominations."

"I can't believe this. It's utterly outrageous. Why, for heaven's sake?"

"I didn't think you'd come if I invited you," he said simply. "I didn't find you until two years ago, but you could have found me anytime." He paused. "If you'd wanted to find me. But you didn't want to see me again, did you, Serena? Even after your husband died five years ago, you still didn't come back to me."

She felt an unreasonable surge of guilt. "There was no reason to come back. We were strangers, ships passing in the night. There was nothing to come back for."

He nodded. "And you would have given me that same bull if I'd come up to New York. It would have been a hell of a lot harder for me to pry you out of the pretty little foxhole you'd dug for yourself on your home ground." He smiled gently. "And I've always been one for the easy way."

"You won't find this way easy." Her eyes were blazing. "What makes you think you can do something like this? Did you grow bored with your little island chickadees and decide you wanted something new?"

"You're not new." His brown eyes twinkled. "Our relationship is over a decade old."

"This is not funny."

"I didn't say it was." He shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't seem to stop smiling. I'm so damn happy to see you."

She felt a melting sensation deep within her and instinctively braced against it, letting her exasperation and frustration smother it before it could damage the barriers she was frantically erecting between them. "I'm not glad to see you. I was grateful for your help that night but…"

"Easy," he said quietly. "Don't fight so hard. There's no use your tearing yourself apart like this. I knew you would shy away from me. I thought about it a long time before I decided this was the best way for us. If I'd found you right away, we wouldn't be having this problem. You wouldn't have had time to convince yourself that we didn't mean anything to each other."

"We don't mean anything to each other. We don't even know each other."

"That's why you're here, to finish what we started ten years ago. Do you remember what I said about the way we belong together? Well, that will be the core and we'll see if we can start a chain reaction.

Friendship, sex, learning all about each other- we've got it all ahead of us."

She drew a deep breath. "Listen, I'm going into town, and you're going to call that colonel and tell him to release Dane. Then Dane and I are going to leave Mariba."

He slowly shook his head. "Not until you give me my chance. I'll make a bargain with you. Give me a week. Not so much to ask, is it? Spend a week with me and I'll promise to let you and Dane leave Castellano."

She eyed him warily. "And that will be the end of it?"

He grinned. "No, then I'll follow you back to your foxhole and dig in beside you, but at least you'll be in your own backyard."

She threw up her hands. "What kind of bargain is that?"

"The only one I'm about to offer you." His smile faded. "Take it or leave it. Otherwise, Dane will continue to whoop it up at the Hotel Cartagena until he has a long gray beard, and you'll stay here as my guest until you change your mind." His expression was suddenly hard as flint. "I don't bluff, Serena. I don't like using muscle, but I know how to." He turned away. "Make yourself comfortable. Dinner is at eight. I'll see you then."

"I want dinner in my room," she said jerkily. "Prisoners aren't required to observe the social amenities."

He turned at the door. "Then we'll have dinner in your room," he said quietly. "The two of us. I thought you'd prefer to use Ross as a buffer, but I'd like nothing better than to be with you one-on- one." He suddenly chuckled and tapped his chest. "In fact, I can't imagine anyone this one would rather be on. Do you have any idea how much I wanted you that night?"

Her eyes widened. "No. You acted-"

"Like a damn eunuch?" His mouth tilted in a lopsided grin. "I didn't think you were capable of coping with my libido as well as whatever was tearing you apart. Besides, you were just a kid." His voice lowered. "But you're not a child now, so you'd better start thinking about coping."

"And you're threatening to rape me?"

"Not on your life. You're going to want it as much as I do. Sex is going to be a hell of a lot of fun, once we get over our first anger and resentment."

"We? I'm the one who should be resentful. You have no right to be angry."

"Maybe I don't have the right, but I do." His lips tightened and something wild and primitive flared in his eyes. "I resent your marriage, I resent your belonging to another man, and I resent the fact that you did your damnedest to forget me. I've tried to reason it away, but it's still there. I've waited for a long time, and for most of that time I was as angry and frustrated with you as you are with me right now. I've been close to exploding so many times, it's become practically second nature with me. I deserve my chance, dammit." He opened the door with barely controlled violence. "And I'll do anything on earth to get it. I can't-" He broke off and drew a deep breath. "Cripes, I didn't mean to say any of that. I was just going to play it nice and easy. It's been too long."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Serena's voice was shaking slightly. Gideon's intensity had been electrifying, blazing out at her, enveloping her. Her memory of him had always been of gentle, glowing tenderness, not this fiery sensuality. "It's been too long. I'm not the same person."

He studied her thoughtfully. "I know you've changed, but that doesn't mean we can't be good together. It might even be…" He stopped and then asked abruptly, "Do you still paint?"

"Occasionally," she answered, surprised. "I don't have much time these days."

"You wanted to be an artist, yet you became a fashion designer." His eyes were narrowed on her face. "Why?"

"It was necessary." She shrugged. "I had a commercial talent that could be exploited. I'm very successful at what I do."

"I know. I'm just curious why the daughter of Countess Mara de Lancombe and the stepdaughter of one of the richest men in England felt the need to make such a compromise." His gaze held her own and his lips curved in a bitter smile. "Your Italian husband had nothing to offer besides the title, from what I understand, but surely your mama and papa were willing to help."

"You know a great deal about me." Her gaze slid away from his.

"Not enough. That's one of the reasons you're here. Why didn't you ask them for help?"

"That's none of your business." Her now defiant gaze returned to him. "It's my life, and you have no part in it. Everyone has to make compromises. I just grew up."

"I see." There was a touch of sadness on his face. "You did it quite beautifully. I just wish I'd been around to watch you and help you out now and then. I would have liked that very much."

That same poignant melting occurred within her again, even stronger now. Just when she thought her resentment of his actions had drowned any spark of softness, he said something like this. "Gideon, don't- Let me go. None of this is going to do any good."