Free Always by Iris Johansen

emotions. “It was my fault, too,” she said huskily. “I guess I was caught off guard. I don’t usually behave so—” She broke off. She mustn’t tell him that she had never had such an explosive physical response to any other man. She couldn’t afford to encourage him in any way. “Let’s forget it, shall we? Blame it on this gorgeous tropical sun.”
    “I don’t want to forget it. I fully intend to remember it.” He was staring straight ahead, his expression set in lines of grim determination. “Because someday you’re not going to have to be caught off guard. Someday you’re going to welcome me with joy, Lisa. You’re going to be lying naked on the deck in the sunlight and you’re going to hold out your arms to me.”
    She smiled with an effort. “You saw it in your crystal ball, I suppose?”
    “No, in my imagination. I’m very good at making my visions come true. It’s all a matter of holding a goal firmly in mind and not giving up.”
    He shrugged into his shirt but didn’t bother to button it. She wished that he had. The sight of those powerful muscles and that cloud of crisp hair was still having a disturbing effect on her pulse rate.
    “And I have no intention of giving up,” he said, low and firmly.
    “Neither do I. So we’re at an impasse.” She shot him a glance that glinted with a hint of humor. “Besides, I’m not enough of anexhibitionist to enjoy the kind of scenario you’ve set up for me. This yacht has quite a large crew, doesn’t it?”
    “Only twelve. But I wasn’t thinking of this ship. It’s just one of the launches owned by Sedikhan Petroleum. I have a twenty-footer moored at Marasef harbor that can be run by a two-man crew. I thought you’d realize I wouldn’t allow any lascivious peepshows. I’m much too possessive to put you on display for the crew’s delectation.”
    She looked away, searching desperately for a safe, impersonal subject. Fat chance. There didn’t seem to be such a thing as impersonality between the two of them.
“One
of the launches? Does Sedikhan put many luxury yachts like this at your disposal?”
    He nodded. “We keep our own launches and helicopters on most of our permanent possessions. Otherwise, we usually lease what we need. Naturally I have access to anything Sedikhan Petroleum controls.”
    “Naturally,” she echoed. Clancy’s statement had been perfectly matter-of-fact. Obviously hehad wielded an almost limitless power for so long that it had become commonplace to him. “How long have you been head of security for Sedikhan?”
    “Practically all my adult life.” He grimaced. “Though I started out as a cross between a tutor and bodyguard for Alex Ben Raschid and his cousin, Lance, when they were teenagers. Old Karim, the reigning head at that time, wanted a man of my particular qualifications.”
    “Qualifications?”
    “I’d batted around the world a bit and been everything from a roughneck on an oil rig in Texas to a mai tai fighter in Malaya. I wasn’t much more than a kid myself, but I could handle myself in practically any situation going. In an oil-rich country like Sedikhan, where border skirmishes are a fact of life, that was a blue-chip recommendation.”
    “I can see how it would be.” It was difficult to visualize that wild, tough boy taking on a responsibility that would make a mature man flinch. No wonder he carried his authority so effortlessly. “So Sedikhan is your home now?”
    “Yes, as much as any place can be. My job hasn’t permitted me to put down any firm roots. Sedikhan is an economically strategic country, and that means there’s no way we could remain isolated. In the past I’ve traveled at least six months of the year.” He paused. “That doesn’t mean I have to continue to do so. I have some good men in key spots around the world. I can learn to delegate.”
    She looked out at the water. “You’d probably miss it terribly after all these years. I don’t think you should be in a