"Since what happened?"

"A number of years ago I found myself thrown by a revolutionary group into a sod hut about the size of a postage stamp in the middle of the desert. It was six months before Clancy blew the group and got me out. My nerves were in pretty bad shape, so I left Sedikhan for a few years. I batted around the world for a while as captain of a schooner and then came back to work

for Clancy."

"You were a sea captain?" Zilah's eyes were wide with curiosity.

"There weren't any walls," he said simply. "I needed that."

She felt a rush of sympathy so strong that she couldn't prevent helpless tears from forming in her eyes, and she couldn't speak for a moment without revealing the pity she felt. She hated pity herself and she could see that he detested revealing his weakness. Despite his offhand explanation, those few words had drawn a graphic picture that made her shudder. How terrible it must have been for a man of Daniel's temperament to be caged for that length of time. It was clear he was still feeling the effects even after all these years. Yet he hadn't hesitated to undergo an experience that he knew would be excruciatingly painful just to make life safer for her. "I can see how you would," she said huskily. "But what an idiotic man you are, Daniel Seifert," Her arms tightened instinctively around him. He had stopped shaking, but the muscles of his back and shoulders were rock-hard with tension. Her hands moved over them, trying to massage and release the tautness. "It's all right now. Go to sleep. I won't let you go. I'll hold you until morning."

"Will you?" His laugh held a touch of desperation. "I don't think that would be a very good idea. Not now." She could hear the leaping cadence of his heart beneath her ear, and the hard flesh of his chest was burning her cheek. "I'm not in control at the moment."

"None of us is in control all of the time. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Let me help you," she said softly. "You've done so much for me. I need to give to you too. Let me comfort you, Daniel."

"The kind of comfort I need now isn't the kind you have in mind." His words were muffled in her hair. She could feel his warm breath feathering her ear. "And you don't owe me anything, dammit. How many times do I have to tell you?" His chest was moving unevenly with the heaviness of his breathing.

"Let me go, Zilah."

"No, I want to help you," she said calmly. "Tell me how I can best do that."

"Zilah, for God's sake, shut up," he gritted out through his teeth. "Do I have to spell it out for you? If you don't get away from me in about two minutes I'm going to have your clothes off and be inside you." His hands suddenly cupped her buttocks and brought her forcefully against his hard arousal. "I went to sleep wanting you and woke up with all the barriers down." His words were coming in little gasps as he rubbed her against him with a slow, sensual tempo that caused a hot flowering deep within her. "All I can think of is how you'd feel around me, the way your nipples hardened when my tongue touched them." his hands were clenching and releasing her buttocks as he spoke. She could feel her naked breasts swelling and firming against the hard wall of his chest as if on command. It was a command, she realized hazily, the most basic known to male and female. The soft pelt of hair on his chest was moving against her bare skin with the ragged tempo of his breathing, teasing,

inciting, readying her for the next intimacy. "I want to feel you naked against me, to open your thighs and touch you. I want to make you melt and flow." His teeth suddenly clamped down on the lobe of her ear with a force that was almost painful. "Stop me, dammit," he growled desperately. "Because, God knows, I can't stop myself."

The darkness was swimming around her like ebony waters of forgetfulness where nothing existed but touch and sensation and Daniel's need crying out to her. And not only Daniel's need, she realized with a little shock. She needed him with a fierceness that was as primitive as that first instinctive maternal craving to give comfort. How could that be when . . . The doubts and questions flowed away into the darkness as she felt Daniel tremble against her. Not with fear but with desire. It was like being caught in the funnel of a tornado and being swept away from everything she had ever known. The only things that were real were the sensations Daniel was provoking with every word, every touch.

"I don't think I can stop you either," she said faintly. "I don't think I even want to."

He went still. "Oh, Lord, I wish you hadn't said that."

She hadn't thought the muscles beneath her hands could become harder, but they did. His entire body was gathering charges of tension like lightning about to strike. "I didn't want it to be like this. I wanted to show you that I could be something besides a roughneck who knows only how to take." His hands were suddenly working swiftly, feverishly, at the zipper of her jeans. "I don't even know if I can be gentle with you."

"You don't have to be gentle." It wouldn't matter. Not with Daniel. She wanted to give him whatever he wanted. Fill every need before he asked. He was

stripping away her jeans and the panties beneath them with frantic urgency, and then she was naked in the darkness. His hands were running over her body as if he couldn't get enough of the textures of her. He squeezed the softness of her breasts in his two big hands, then moved down her rib cage in a long, lingering caress. His fingers were hard and cal-lused as they brushed against her softness. Sandpaper and silk. She felt every nerve and pore come alive in a tingling rush as he touched her and then moved on, lingering on her navel to playfully insert a finger while he patted her stomach with the other hand. Then his hand was tangling in the curls that guarded her womanhood, tugging gently. "Open for me," he said thickly. "Please, Zilah. I can't wait anymore. Let me come in."

She didn't think she could wait either. How could darkness so intense hold fingers of flames and curling blossoms of fire that took her breath and made her mindless with pleasure? Her thighs opened with languid invitation that was purely instinctive. Command, response, reward.

Reward. She inhaled sharply as she received a blindingly sensual reward for obedience when his hands touched her with a probing intimacy that sent a shock of desire twisting through her.

"You're so warm and sweet down here," Daniel muttered. "I wish I could see you. I'd light the lantern but I don't think I can wait a minute longer." His finger suddenly found the soft sensual trigger he'd been seeking, and he began a rotating massage that brought a soft cry from her.

Her hips lifted in an offering that was as old as time. His husky laugh held an element of satisfaction. "You want me? Now, Zilah?"

"Now." She could barely get the words past the tightness in her throat. She was on fire. Every breath was difficult to the point of pain. Her head was thrashing back and forth on the slickness of the silver sheet in mindless aching need. Darkness, touch, flame.

"Good." The word held a guttural urgency that was totally male. She was vaguely aware that the touch was gone. Only the darkness, and the throbbing, flaming need remained as Daniel moved with frantic swiftness to strip off the remainder of his clothes.

She was shivering with hunger. Aching with emptiness. She could feel the muscles of her stomach clench and knot, pleading for the touch she had known so briefly.