"Funny how that theme has run through today." He smiled wryly. "I was asked to use the door earlier by a group of friends. I guess I need more finesse."

"I'll say. Now get off me."

"I apologized, now you need to calm down. Next time I won't pop into your room like this. But I needed to see you, to talk to you."

"How did you...how did you get in this room if you didn't use the door?" She heard her voice trembling and hated the fear plain in her tone.

"Trade secret. I'll tell you later."

"Oh, and that's supposed to placate me?"

"I doubt much would appease you, beautiful one."

His compliment spoken in that husky, sexy voice made her toes curl with forbidden delight. This guy screamed sex and secrets.

I'm pleased you think I'm sexy.His exotic voice trickled into her mind.

Fascinated and discomfited all over again, she stared up at him in awe. "You're a mind reader of some sort?"

With a dry tone he said, "Of a sort. But then so are you."

She sighed. Nothing like being obtuse, the bastard.

His hot breath tickled her ear and he pressed a tender kiss to her cheek. His expression went harder, cooler. "I saw that redheaded man come to your door earlier."

He almost sounded jealous. She frowned in disbelief. "You've been spying on me?"

"Watching out for you. I don't trust that biped."

"Biped?"

"He's not to be trusted. Stay clear of him."

She wanted to kick him in the nuts for his presumptuous manner. "Why you-this is ridiculous. I know Jim and he wouldn't hurt me. I don't know you from Adam."

His eyes danced with returning amusement. "Of course you know me. And you're going to get to know me a lot better." Before she could make another indignant comment, he said, "I entered your room to make sure you were all right."

"What were you doing?" She almost barked the question. "Listening at my door?"

"I have very good hearing."

She could see from the gleam in his eyes that he wouldn't give a better explanation. "It was just a bad dream."

"I saw it. You dreamed of a dark tunnel."

"What?" Shock made her pause. "How could you?"

"A secret for now. I'll tell you later."

His partial revelation compounded her belief that Ronan Kieran wasn't your average, run-of-the-mill man. Frustration made her cheeky. "Tell me now, or Iwill scream."

"No, you won't." His lips caressed the side of her jaw. "Or I shall do more than just this and give you a reason to scream?"

"You said you wouldn't hurt me."

"I wouldn't. But there are other screams."

Another flush filled her face, and she tried to remember the last time she'd felt this out of control and excited. "Such as?"

His smoldering gaze coasted over her body in caressing assessment. "I could make love to you until you quaked in ecstasy."

Wild thrills darted into her belly and moisture trickled between her thighs. "OhGod."

"You feel it, don't you? It is relentless between us."

She shook her head, and his lips stopped torturing her jaw. "You said you wouldn't hurt me and here you're restraining me and kissing me against my will."

"I would never take a woman against her will. But I could make your will mine." His eyes went lambent. "I know you want me. I can feel it in the way you move, the way your pupils dilate, your skin heats, the scent of your arousal."

Shaken by his blatant description, she couldn't say a word. She shuddered against his big body, the heat and power tantalizing beyond reason. Apprehension and disbelief threatened to overwhelm her senses. She closed her eyes to avoid his intense gaze.

With this man, though, it didn't seem to matter.

"Your feelings are open to me now with us so close together," he said. "Sure, and I can understand your worry. You think I can read your mind all the time, don't you?"

She kept her eyes closed. "What's to stop you?"

A long pause almost made her open her eyes again, but she resisted. Maybe if she didn't look into his strange, exciting gaze he couldn't read her thoughts.

"I can read your mind when I wish, closed eyes or no." His accent purred across her senses, seducing. "Most of the time I choose not to. Sometimes your mind is shouting it and I can't help it."

Indignant, she opened her eyes. "Oh, so now it's my fault?"

"It is somet imes."

Perturbed, she tried looking tough. Her actions drew another one of those scarcely there grins to his lips that disappeared like fog in a wind seconds later.

Ronan's gaze left her face and moved with hungry attention down to her breasts and lower to her hips. When his attention found the area between her legs, a tingle built and grew. An ache pulsed, pulled and tugged at her loins. Her vagina throbbed and widened as if to prepare for a deep thrust.

"No," she said to her traitorous imagination.I've lost my mind. I can't feel this way.

When she gazed into the shimmering, continual fire in his eyes, Clarissa knew an intoxicating awakening that grew more intimate by the minute. Fighting against it didn't seem to make a difference. Desperate, she pushed against his shoulders. He didn't budge, his solidity like rock.

"Do you think desire and sex are impure?" he asked out of the blue.

"Of course not. But I don't jump in bed with men I've just met."

"Except, perhaps, me."

Righteous anger threatened to override lust. She stuttered. "You-I can't believe you."

"Believe me. I'm real."