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alone, when there's no need.' Her voice quivered. 'Oh, Rourke, can you guess what I've been through this past year, with nothing but letters for company? It's such a long time to be separated from someone you love.' She let her lip tremble slightly. 'But you wouldn't understand. You probably find it quite easy to be totally self-sufficient.'
    'I wouldn't say that,' he said slowly, after a pause. 'I have the same needs as any other human being.'
    'Then you must know how I feel tonight. I've been lonely long enough, and you're the only person who can help. I don't want to have to wait any longer. Don't close your mind to me again. I'm desperate. Say you'll do what I want—please…'
    'It will be my pleasure.' He rose to his feet, and lifted the intervening table and its remaining contents out of the way as if it had been a featherweight. Then he reached down and took Leigh's hand, pulling her out of her chair. Off-balance, she half fell against him, seeing the dark face swim before her startled gaze, the topaz eyes alight with mockery, and something altogether less easy to define.
    Then she was in his arms, swept quite literally off her feet, imprisoned against his body, and she was being carried—into the bedroom, her dazed brain realised.
    'What the hell are you doing?' The words emerged in a hoarse croak of disbelief.
    'Only what you ask.' He put her down on the bed, and came down beside her on the yielding surface, his hands pinning her effortlessly to the mattress. 'You're quite right,
querida
. Why should either of us have to spend the night alone?'
    He bent his head, and she felt the shock of his mouth on hers, warm and explicitly demanding. Too demanding. No one had ever kissed her like that before. No one had ever dared…
    His lips moved down to her throat, where the little pulse throbbed wildly.
    She said breathlessly, 'Stop this! You must be insane…' Her voice tailed away in a gasp of shock, as she felt his hand move caressingly at the nape of her neck. Realising what he was doing, she tried to pull away. '
No
!'
    But he had already accomplished his task. As she moved, the unfastened halter of her dress came totally loose, and the bodice slipped down, baring her to the waist before she could prevent it.
    The topaz eyes burned on her. 'You're exquisite,' he muttered. His hand lifted, cupped one small round breast, his thumb brushing almost lazily across its rosy peak, sending a signal her inexperienced flesh responded to with frightening urgency.
    Leigh screamed then, a small high, terrified sound. She flung herself away from him across the wide bed, rolling on to her stomach in a desperate attempt to conceal herself, dragging the bedcover round her body.
    'You're mad!' she hurled at him, her voice cracking. 'Leave me alone—do you hear? Get out of here!'
    'Playing hard to get,
querida
?' Shattered as she was, Leigh could hear the thinly veiled mockery in his voice. 'But there's no need, and certainly no time. I've already told you I have to be off early in the morning.'
    He was making no attempt to touch her again. Slowly, Leigh sat up, still clutching the bedcover rigidly against her naked breasts. She looked at him, trying to steady her tumultuous breathing. He was lounging on the bed, very much at his ease. His face was straight, but she could hear the grin in his voice as he said, 'Don't be coy, my beautiful Leigh. I can't make love to you through a coverlet.'
    She said on a snarl, 'You won't make love to me at all. How dare you lay a finger on me, you swine! Come anywhere near me again, and I'll have you arrested for rape!'
    'I wonder how you'd get on,' Rourke said thoughtfully. 'You invite me up here, for an intimate dinner for two. You persuade me to stay longer than I intend. You tell me a sad story of how long it is since you had a man, and insist I am the only one who can solve your problem.' He shrugged. 'I wonder what the authorities would make of that.'
    Leigh was almost crying with rage. 'I didn't