Lisa looked up swiftly and felt a wild tremor run through her. His eyes held the same smoky intensity they had such a short time ago. She felt a slow languid melting sensation in the pit of her stomach. She knew she should look away, but it seemed impossible when the world had narrowed to contain only the two of them. She continued to gaze helplessly across the room at him.
It was Donahue who finally looked away. 'You're not eating,' he growled as he turned to pour her a fresh cup of coffee. 'No more talk until you're finished.'
They hadn't really been talking in the last moment or two, but the bands of communication had been loud and crystal clear. Too clear. Lisa immediately grasped the excuse to avoid a confrontation with the exact nature of that communication. 'Okay.' She took a bite of her sandwich. 'Later.'
Her throat was so tight she found it difficult to swallow. She managed to finish the sandwich and a little of the salad. She didn't taste much, however, with Donohue leaning lazily against the cabinet and watching her with narrowed eyes. She pushed away the plates. 'I don't want any more.'
'Good.' He straightened. 'We can take your coffee into the study. Come on.' He crossed the room and lifted her from the stool. She felt a tiny shock of sensation as his hands grasped her waist. She inhaled sharply and hoped desperately he hadn't noticed. She glanced up at him.
He nodded gravely. 'I felt it, too. Pretty explosive, isn't it?' He released her and picked up her cup and saucer. 'I think we'd better avoid physical contact for the time being. The study is down the hall and to your left.'
'All right.' Lisa avoided his eyes as she hurried ahead of him down the hall. She was losing confidence by the moment. When she reached the study she chose a wing chair beside the huge mahogany desk and tried to look as businesslike as the room itself. That impersonality was immediately nullified when Donahue handed her coffee to her, then dropped down on the carpet at her feet, leaning against the desk, and linked his hands loosely about his knees.
He stared at her. 'I want to go to bed with you,' he said softly.
She almost dropped the coffee cup. 'That wasn't what I wanted to talk about, Donahue.'
'It's the only thing I'm interested in discussing, but we'll touch on the item that's your primary interest first. I can't let you go until Baldwin shows up.' He smiled with beguiling warmth. 'Discussion closed. Now let's talk about going to bed.'
She drew a deep, exasperated breath. 'Donahue, I won't deny there's a certain chemical attraction betw-'
'Clancy,' he corrected. His eyes were fixed on her face. 'I want to hear you say my name.' His voice dropped to a velvet whisper. 'Say it, Lisa.'
She would
She was rewarded by that same rare smile. 'I like that. Thank you, acushla.' The faint brogue was more pronounced now and so was the appealing Gaelic charm she'd noticed so fleetingly in the dressing room.
She looked down at the cup in her hands. 'I won't let you dismiss the subject so lightly. You behaved outrageously and-'
He suddenly sat upright, kneeling by her chair. 'Look, you don't understand.' He took the cup from her hands and put it on the floor beside the chair. Then he gathered her hands in his big, warm clasp. 'It's not important anymore. Even if I didn't have a reason for using you to lure Baldwin here, we'd have to deal with him anyway. First, because he's making you so damn miserable, and second, because he's a part of your life I have to face and eliminate.'
Her eyes widened in shock. 'Eliminate? You mean…'
He shook his head. 'I wish I could, but I know it's not that simple now. There'd always be a cloud hanging over our life if I conveniently 'removed' your first husband.'
'First,' she repeated dazedly.
He smiled. 'First. I'm going to be your next and your last husband. We're going to be married, you know.'
'No, I didn't know. This is utterly insane.'
'I agree completely.'
'We don't even know each other.'
'That's definitely a stumbling block, but one that can be easily remedied in this situation.'
'You have to be joking.' Her eyes were wide in her pale face.
He shook his head. 'If I am, the joke's on me. I'm not a boy any longer. I suppose it must seem a little ludicrous to you that a man of my age could fall in love as violently as any teenager, but that's what I've done.' He lifted her left palm to his lips and pressed a warm kiss on the soft skin. Holding her gaze with his own, he said softly, 'I've fallen in lovewith you, Lisa Landon. Wildly, passionately, romantically, and with all the accompanying uncomfortable symptoms. I'm jealous as hell, possessive, and miserably uncertain.' He shook his head. 'You can laugh if you like. I know I must be funny as the devil.'
'I don't feel like laughing.' Her palm was tingling, burning beneath his lips, and she felt panic racing within her. 'You actually mean it, don't you?'
'I told you I didn't lie. Of course I mean it.'
She moistened her lips. 'I'm not ever going to be married again. Not ever.'
'I won't push you. I'll give you the time you need to adjust to the idea,' he said quietly. 'I just thought I'd better get everything out in the open. This situation is complicated enough without your misunderstanding my intentions.' He smiled with surprising sweetness. 'My intention is to marry you and love you for the rest of our lives. Is that clear enough?'
Lisa shook her head. 'I won't marry you, Clancy. Not if you wait a hundred years.' She met his eyes directly. 'And I don't love you.'
'I didn't expect you to love me. It would have been too much to hope that we'd both succumb to the same insanity.' His warm, wet tongue suddenly stroked her palm. 'But you do want me. I'm experienced enough to recognize those particular signs. I'll start with that and work my way up.'
'No! I won't let you-' She broke off. His teeth were gently nibbling at the smooth tips of her fingers. She felt her heart jerk and then start to pound wildly. 'Clancy, stop. I'm not like this. Idon't fall into bed with every man who crooks his finger.'
'I know that. It was all in your dossier. You haven't been with a man since you divorced Baldwin. After I realized the exact nature of my affliction, I found that very comforting reading.'
'That damn dossier.' His tongue was licking the hollows at the base of her fingers, and she had to concentrate to bring her thoughts back to the subject. 'It's practically indecent to pry into a woman's personal life like that.'
'I'll ask Alex to send you mine. It must still be around somewhere. Then we'll be even.'
She could see the drumming of the pulse in his temple and felt a sudden urge to reach out and touch that vital life force.
'Okay?'
'What?' He was so warm and alive that she could feel the heat and vitality radiating from his big body, surrounding her, nearly overpowering her.
He grinned. 'Why do I feel you aren't paying proper attention to my soulful declaration? Which isn't at all kind, considering that I've never told a woman I was mad about her before.'
'You're mad, period. Love at first sight is something out of a storybook. Sexual attraction at first sight I can accept. But love…' She shook her head. 'It's too farfetched. In a few days you'll be glad I didn't take you seriously.'
'Not that farfetched. I've seen it happen before, but I've always been on the outside looking in. I'm familiar enough with the phenomenon to recognize it when it appears on my horizon.' He gently touched her lips with his fingertips. 'I neverthought it would happen to me. I thought I would just go on forever, doing my job and hovering on the edge of relationships, but never really being involved. Do you know what a miracle this is for me?'
She felt her throat tighten painfully. 'I'm the wrong woman,' she said huskily. 'I won't let myself get involved with any man. Find someone else, Clancy.'
'I can't. You may be the wrong woman, but you're the only woman.'
'I'll hurt you.' There was a note of desperation in her voice. 'Give it up. I don't want to cause anyone pain, Clancy. There's too much of that in the world already.'
