If Winter Comes by Diana Palmer

a torch.” He brushed his open mouth against her
forehead. “You can talk about morality from now until hell freezes over, but if
I pressed you, you’d let me have you, Carla. Not because of an uncontrollable
desire, but beause you’re in love with me.”
     
    She felt the shock run
through her body as if she’d touched a live wire. He knew! But how could he,
when she’d only just discovered it herself?
     
    He felt the sudden
stiffening of her body in his arms and drew back to study her. “Don’t panic.”
     
    She swallowed hard. It
was unnerving to meet that level, intense gaze. “I…I didn’t realize…it showed,”
she said weakly.
     
    “You have a very
expressive face, little one. It was flashing like a neon sign tonight, even
through that burst of temper.” He locked his hands behind her back and swung
her lazily back and forth. “I walked around the block twice, muttering to
myself, until it suddenly occurred to me that the only reason you were so angry
was because you wanted me as much as I wanted you.” He smiled wryly. “Then it
stood to reason that you cared too much for a casual fling, and all the puzzle
pieces just fell into place. I came back to see if I was right.”
     
    The embarrassment was
like a living thing. She felt weighed down by it. “I…it’s still an impasse,”
she said quietly. “I know you could force me, but I’d hate you.”
     
    He shook his head.
“You’d love me,” he corrected. His eyes looked deep into hers. “It would be
everything either of us could want, for the rest of our lives.”
     
    “But, desire isn’t
enough….” she protested weakly.
     
    A corner of his
chiseled mouth went up. “Did I neglect to mention that I’m in love with you?”
     
    Tears burned in her
eyes, hot and overflowing down onto her flushed cheeks in a tiny flood. He
blurred above her.
     
    “Don’t,” he whispered.
His fingers lightly brushed away the tears.
     
    “It’s like coming to
life all over again,” she murmured shakily, “after being dead inside.
Sunlight…”
     
    “I know.” His lips
brushed her wet eyes. “You taste of wine,” he whispered at her mouth. “Trying
to drink me out of your system?”
     
    “Umhum,” she murmured.
She smiled wistfully. “It didn’t work.”
     
    “Liquor won’t do it,”
he whispered, kissing her softly, possessively. “But a few weeks behind closed
doors might. We’ll go on the way we have for a little while longer,” he added
seriously. “Until you’re very sure. But I don’t have a doubt in my mind how
it’s going to end.”
     
    “Neither do I,” she
murmured. Her eyes studied the strong, hard lines of his face.
     
    “What are you looking
at?” he asked.
     
    “You never seem to
really relax, to let go,” she said gently. “I was wondering if you ever do,
even with a woman.”
     
    He smiled gently at the
expression on her face. “Oh, I let go, all right,” he laughed softly. “Would
you like me to show you?”
     
    She lowered her eyes
shyly. “I think you’d better go home.”
     
    “I think so, too.” He
studied the caftan. “I can’t feel anything except skin under that flowing
thing, and I’m getting ideas right and left.”
     
    “I wasn’t expecting
company.”
     
    “But you were hoping,
weren’t you?” he asked perceptively.
     
    “Yes,” she admitted,
her heart in her eyes. “Oh, yes, I was.”
     
    He stopped the words
with his hard mouth, kissing her roughly, briefly. “Sleep well. Meet me at the
office around twelve, and I’ll take you to lunch.”
     
    She blanched,
remembering her meeting with Brown, the accusations…but she put them all out of
her mind for the time being. She smiled. “I’ll be there.”
     
    She didn’t sleep for a
long time, thinking about the night that had ended so unexpectedly. It was hard
to believe that a man like Bryan Moreland could actually be in love with her.
She had so little; he had so much. But between them, they seemed to