Free Intimate Strangers by Denise Mathews Page A

I am, but I guess I didn't do a very good job of it." His lips touched her forehead. "I'm sorry, Sara." His voice was husky. "I never meant to hurt you so much. I never meant to make you feel like a prisoner. Sara, you don't know how I have to force myself to stay away from your room at night. I stand by your door, listening for any sound, any excuse to come in to you."
    "Why haven't you told me this before? Can't you see how much I need you? Haven't I begged you for answers?" She tried to twist out of the steel arms that held her snugly pressed against his broad chest.
    "I know you need me, Sara, but I'm not talking about that kind of need. I'm talking about my need to hold you close, to love you. It drives me crazy knowing you're sleeping across the hall, so near yet so far away from me." He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers.
    She jerked her face away. "I know that need, Roarke, I'm very familiar with it. I'm confused by my mixed feelings about you though, my reactions when you touch me. It's like my body remembers you while my mind doesn't. But how can you expect me to give into that instinct when I feel as though you've built a wall between us? You're the one who put me across the hall from you. I didn't."
    Roarke tilted her face up. She saw the passion and hurt in his eyes. Her heart picked up its beat and the blood roared in her ears as he said softly, "Let me love you, Sara. Let me show you how I feel, I need you so much."
    Roarke pulled her still more tightly against him and Sara hesitantly slid her arms around his waist, lured by his words. Bringing his face close to hers, he placed soft lingering kisses on her cheeks, and Sara could feel her face becoming warm wherever his lips touched her skin. Then his lips tenderly sought hers. He kissed her gently at first but soon hungrily entwined their bodies in a passionate embrace. His lips were soft but firm and tasted sweet. The pressure slowly parted her lips and Roarke's questing tongue invited hers to join his, and as their tongues tentatively touched, she found herself, surprisingly, responding with equal fervor. His hand slipped around and caressed her throat, then she could feel it slide downward to her breasts.
    Sara's awakened passion surged through her body. She molded herself to him; the need to have him make love to her overpowered her defenses. Clinging to him, her hands clutching his back, she tried to draw him even closer to her. The familiarity of his kiss, his body, and her response to him shook her to the depth of her soul.
    Slowly he moved her jacket off her shoulders and she dropped her arms to let it slide to the floor. Urgently she grasped his body with her hands again, digging her nails into the silky material of his shirt. He kissed the hollow of her throat and ran his tongue along her shoulder. His lips left a trail of fire that ended at her mouth, and his hand slipped the strap of her dress along the soft skin of her upper arm. Stroking her bared breast with his fingertips, he ran kisses down the valley between them and then his lips softly caressed the mounds of silken flesh. Sara didn't want him to stop. She could feel the warmth from his touch rising, slowly, insistently, within her. Her need for him was uppermost in her mind, and she knew her submission to him was absolute.
    Roarke's searching lips ceased their exploration and he drew away from her slightly. For one aching moment Sara thought Roarke had decided to blind himself to her needs as he had since she had awakened in the hospital. His eyes questioned hers and she knew her consuming desire to be close to him glowed from her eyes and the answer to his unspoken question was there for him to see. He gently slipped the other strap off her shoulder and his lips lightly touched the skin where the strap had lain, as his hand played with the zipper in the back. The dress slithered down her body and curled around her feet, lying like a blue shadow on the carpet.
    "Sara, it's been