Now and Forever by Diana Palmer

“My God, I’ve fought this until my nerves are raw, do you know that? I saw you sitting there so proud anddefiant at the supper table, until you looked up into my eyes, and then I could see the melting start, I could feel the pain. Don’t you think I know how much I hurt you? I did it deliberately, I had to…Oh, God, Tish, I want you the way I want air to breathe…turn around!”
    He whipped her up against his hard body as his mouth found hers in one smooth, perfect motion. The hard, smoky warmth of his kiss drugged her and the close contact of their bodies and the strength of the big, powerful arms that held her, caused her senses to swim. He forced her stunned, bruised lips apart with a gruff murmur. His hand, tangling in her long hair, pulled her head back against his shoulder while he tasted her mouth slowly, roughly, hungrily….
    â€œPoison,” he whispered against her lips, “damn you, like poison in my bloodstream until I can’t breathe! Eyes like November rain, and I see them in my sleep….” He nipped at her mouth, soft, smoky, biting kisses that made her moan in token protest as he tormented her. He drew back to look into her misty eyes. “My God, I could make you give me anything I wanted, and I’m noteven trying. Madness, all of it, almost fourteen years between us and you’ll never catch up. No, don’t talk,” he said when she tried to speak, to ask him what he was saying because her mind was too cloudy to comprehend. “Don’t say anything, just stand still and let me taste that sweet, soft mouth. Kiss me, sweet…kiss me.”
    She obeyed him blindly, her arms reaching up under his jacket and around his waist, her blood surging at the closeness, her breath gasping as it mingled with his, her mouth hurting from his ardor.
    The floor seemed to drop out from under her, and she realized suddenly that it had. He was holding her clear off the floor in his hard arms, carrying her.
    â€œW…where?” she managed in a shaky whisper.
    â€œMy God, where do you think?” he growled huskily, heading straight for the back stairs.
    â€œNo,” she protested weakly. “Oh, Russ, no…” she murmured just as another voice merged with hers.
    â€œTish, where are you?” Eileen came in the door laughing, and suddenly froze at thesight that met her widening, unbelieving eyes. Tish’s legs felt like rubber as Russell set her back down, and she could only imagine how she looked with her mouth swollen, her hair tangled by Russell’s hard fingers, her whole look wild and frightened…
    â€œI…uh…that is…” Eileen stumbled as curiosity turned to puzzled certainty in her round face. “Have you…seen Frank?” she added weakly, with a smile that trembled.
    â€œWhere are you, Tish?” Belle called in a honeyed voice.
    â€œUh…Grand Central, isn’t it?” Eileen cleared her throat and made a beeline for the door, intercepting Belle before she could get to it. “Hi, Belle, she’s outside, I’ll show you,” she said gaily and half dragged the woman away.
    â€œTish…” Russell began, his deep voice edged with regret.
    â€œIt’s…it’s all right,” she whispered, avoiding his dark, steady gaze. “I didn’t mean to push you…”
    â€œYou didn’t do anything. I did,” he replied. “Eileen’s not blind, little one,” he added softly. “I bruised your mouth enough so that it shows, and it was obvious even toa novice that it wasn’t one affectionate kiss we were sharing.”
    â€œHaven’t you shamed me enough?” she whispered shakenly.
    â€œThere was nothing shameful in it,” he told her, pausing to light a cigarette. “There wouldn’t have been anything shameful if I’d made it up those stairs with you, for all that you knew I was taking you to my bedroom. In