Always

need something to wake me up. I must have been sleeping for hours. Where's Clancy?'

'In the cockpit radioing instructions to Mara-sef.' Galbraith dropped into the seat beside her. 'We should be arriving there within the hour.'

Then she had been sleeping for almost five hours. It wasn't really surprising. In spite of Clancy's excellent advice, she had been unable to get to sleep immediately. Once she'd gone to bed she had found herself wide awake, her mind zinging and hyperactive. Yet as soon as they'dboarded this luxurious private jet and were airborne, she had fallen asleep as suddenly as if she'd been hit by a sledgehammer. 'Do you live in Sedikhan?' she asked Galbraith as she took a sip of her coffee.

'I live where Clancy tells me to live,' he said with a shrug. 'It's a job that requires a good bit of traveling.'

'That's what Clancy said.' He had also said he could cut out a good deal of that traveling, she remembered with relief. Perhaps she would be able to travel with him at least some of the time when he did have to go. 'Does Clancy have an apartment in Sedikhan, too?'

Galbraith shook his head. 'He has quarters at the palace. He usually finds it more convenient to be close to Sheikh Ben Raschid.'

Oh, dear, she had never considered where they would live. She wasn't sure she'd like living in a royal palace.

'Go up front with the pilot, John.' Clancy was standing beside them. There was an air of leashed tension about him that was nearly palpable. She'd been aware of that edginess during their preparations for departure but hadn't thought it strange. It was a big step for both of them, and she was nervous about this trip, too.

Galbraith got to his feet with a grin. 'I have the distinct feeling that I'm not wanted. I always was quick on the uptake.' He sauntered down the aisle toward the cockpit.

'Is something wrong?' She set the coffee cup on the table beside her. 'Yes.' He sat down in the chair Galbraith hadjust vacated. 'There's something definitely wrong.'

'What?'

'What the devil do you think?' he asked. 'Last night you told me you were going to have my child. Now to have a child it's necessary to perform certain anatomical functions. I couldn't think of anything but those functions after you left me this morning. Not that it was different from any other night since I've met you. Then we get on board the plane and you proceed to fall asleep.'

She felt the breath catch in her throat. 'You wanted to make love to me on the plane?'

'I want to make love to you anywhere I can,' he said harshly. 'I'm hurting, damn it. I've never wanted a woman like this before.' He distractedly ran a hand through his hair. 'And now you're going to think that all I said last night was just to get you into bed. It's not true, but I'm… What are you doing?' His eyes were on her fingers, which had moved to the front of her blouse and were calmly unfastening the buttons.

'You want to make love,' she said as she undid the last button. 'We don't have much time, but I'm quite willing. No one will disturb us, will they? You were sharp enough with John to guarantee he won't come back until he's called.'

'No one will disturb us,' he said thickly. His eyes were fixed on the front of her opened blouse. He could see tempting glimpses of her smooth, pale stomach and the upper swells of her breasts encased in a lacy bra.

'That's good.' Her hands were on the front clasp of the bra. Suddenly it was loose and her breaststumbled free, veiled only by the silk blouse. She smiled at him mischievously. 'Well, shall we make a baby, Mr. Donahue?'

His eyes were hot and smoky as they clung to the full mounds thrusting against the silk. 'You'd let me love you now?'

'Anytime,' she said softly. 'Anywhere, any way. Why not? I want you, too, Clancy, and there's no reason you should be uncomfortable when I can fix it so easily.' She leaned forward and began unfastening the buttons of his pin-striped shirt. 'You should have wakened me earlier.'

'Lord, I wish I had,' he muttered. He closed his eyes as the tips of her fingers brushed against the naked flesh of his chest. Lisa could see the pulse leap in the hollow of his throat and then drum wildly. She felt a primitive delight that she could bring him so much pleasure. Her fingers tangled in the soft fleece matting his chest and tugged gently. 'Clancy, come.' She took his big hands and put them on her breasts. Feeling their warmth through the silk she began to tremble. 'Love me.'

'I do,' he said hoarsely. 'And I will.' His hands contracted on her and she felt herself swell into them. She arched toward him with a little moan. His unsteady hands were pushing aside the blouse and closing on her flesh. A shock of pure desire rocketed through her. She closed her eyes as the tremors started to spread throughout her body.

His thumb and forefinger plucked teasingly at one burgeoning nipple, and he laughed huskily as it hardened and distended to pointed beauty. 'Come here, Lisa.' The blouse was pushed off her shoulders and the bra followed it. Then she wasbeing lifted to straddle him, his hands running up and down her naked spine in a fever of urgency. He arched her forward and his mouth enveloped her breast with a hungry groan.

Her fingers tangled in his hair and she threw back her head with a silent moan. His tongue on her breast was burning, starting little flames of sensation that touched every part of her body.

'You like that?' he muttered. She couldn't answer: her throat had closed and her breath had stopped in her chest. He took her silence for consent and suckled strongly while his hands rhythmically squeezed her breasts. Finally his lips left her. 'I love the taste of you,' he murmured. He rubbed his cheek back and forth against her breasts, and she could feel the faint stubble of his beard scraping her softness. It sent a hot liquid tingling to the apex of her thighs. 'The feel of you.' With each movement his tongue darted out to caress, to tease, to taste. Her hands clenched on his shoulders, her arousal almost unbearable in its intensity. She opened her eyes and watche,d his lips move against the swollen globes of her breasts, his tongue on her nipples.

Then his hands were on the zipper of her slacks. He didn't lift his head as he slid the zipper down with a soft, sibilant hiss. Then his hands were sliding beneath the waistband, cupping her buttocks. Lisa tensed, the muscles of her stomach knotting painfully. His hands were kneading her feverishly while his lips pulled powerfully at her breast. His chest labored harshly with the force of his breathing, and she could feel the hard length of him pressed against her. She nestled closer with a littlemoan. His muscles stiffened and his hands dug into her with unconscious force.

She didn't care. The minute pain was only another element in the cascade of sensations. 'Don't do that,' he said between set teeth. 'I'm trying to be gentle, dammit I want everything to be-' He broke off. 'Oh, my God…'

'What's the matter?' she whispered.

'The matter is that all my brains seem to be located in my groin,' he said with supreme self-disgust. 'All I can think about is laying you down across this seat and driving into you.'

'Sounds good to me,' she said with a faint smile. 'It sounds wonderful to me.'

His hands tightened on her. 'It was a hell of a lot easier to stop when you weren't so willing.' His fingers moved yeafningly over her skin with tactile hunger. 'Say no, Lisa.'

'No?' Her eyes widened. 'I don't want to say no. Why should I do a stupid thing like that? I'm about to turn into an incendiary bomb and you want me to stop?'

'Please. Say no.' His gaze was fastened on the ripe heaviness of her breasts, and he ran his tongue over his lips, remembering the taste of her. 'I can't stop unless you do. And it's important to me.'

'Why?'

'Because you're important to me. All my life sex has been just another appetite to be appeased. ' He smiled crookedly. 'Wham, bam, thank you. ma'am. That's why I automatically behaved like a stud presented with a prize mare when I knewwere going to let me love you. But I don't want that with you. 1 want it to be special.'

Lisa stared at him with a wild mixture of emotions-frustration, desire, exasperation, tenderness. 'Now you tell me,' she said, shaking her head. After a moment her lips began to quirk. 'Lord, how I hate a tease.' She slid off his lap and into the seat next to him. 'All right. I'm saying no. Very reluctantly. But I have an idea you're going to be sorry about this, Clancy.'

'I already am.' His eyes lingered hungrily on her naked breasts. 'You're taking this very well.'

'No, I'm not taking it well at all. At the moment I could murder you. Or rape you. I haven't decided