Free The Lady and the Lion by Kay Hooper

again. Could she? Could she find the source of his pain and anger even if he didn't want her to?
    Totally wrapped up in her thoughts, Erin was only dimly aware of finishing the meal, and didn't notice when Keith refused coffee or dessert for them both and signed the check.
    "Will you walk with me on the beach?"
    She looked at him, nodded slowly. So many questions, she thought, and the path to answers so potentially painful.
    Erin remained silent while they walked without touching back through the lobby and took the path to the beach. She paused when they reached the sand to step out of her shoes, and carried them along with her small clutch purse in one hand. The tide was out and turning, and they walked on the hard-packed sand that would be covered with water later. The moon was rising, hanging low and full over the ocean, and the beach was deserted.
    "You haven't said a word," Keith said finally, reaching up to loosen his tie with a jerky movement that belied the calm tone of his voice.
    "What can I say?" Her voice was just loud enough to rise above the steady roar of the ocean. "You've stated your terms very frankly. I suppose I should be grateful for that; at least I know where I'll stand if I don't leave."
    "You're mad as hell, aren't you?"
    She stopped and turned, looking up at his face and glad the moonlight was behind her. "Shouldn't I be? You won't even try to pretend, will you, Keith?"
    "Pretend what?"
    "That you care about me." She didn't want him to pretend, but she wanted to hear what he had to say in response.
    "Is that what you want? Pretense? I told you I wasn't playing games, and I meant it, Erin."
    "So all you're offering is lust?"
    He made a slight movement as if he would have reached out to her, then slid his hands into his pockets. "I want to be with you," he said flatly. "When I can, as often as I can. I want to hear your voice and look into your eyes. I want to touch you, make love to you. If that's lust—then so be it."
    Erin wished he would touch her now. There weren't any questions when he touched her. "Make love? That's a euphemistic way of putting it, don't you think? It hardly describes what two people do when they aren't lovers, aren't emotionally involved with each other, aren't having an affair. They share nothing but a bed. There are better words for that. Ugly words." She was quite deliberately needling him, hoping for some kind of reaction that would prove her instincts about him were right.
    "Don't." The word seemed to come from somewhere deep in his chest with a guttural sound. "Don't say it. Don't think it. If I were looking for nothing but cheap sex I wouldn't come to you, Erin. I don't want only a warm body in my bed, a carnal pill to make it easier for me to sleep. If that's what you believe, then get on the plane tomorrow."
    "I don't know what I believe," she told him, more than a little fierceness creeping into her voice. "More than sex—and less than an affair? What is that? Does it have a name?"
    "Want," he said roughly. "Need. That's all I have to offer you."
    Staring up at a face that stark moonlight painted even harsher and more compelling than normal, Erin wondered suddenly why he didn't touch her, hold her, why he didn't take advantage of a desire they both knew she couldn't handle. If the answer was that he refused to try and sway her in a way she couldn't fight, it did great credit to him as an honest man. And added another layer to his complex personality to baffle her even more.
    Erin was a normal woman, and she had dreamed the normal dreams a woman's heart knows. She had thought of love, of moonlight and roses and a deep voice saying magical things to stir her heart and her blood. She had dreamed of a faceless lover who wanted only her, who was her match and her mate on some basic level they both recognized.
    Keith had sent her roses, and the moonlight was streaming over them both. But.... The words his dark voice uttered were blunt and stark, and even though they