Tender Savage by Iris Johansen Page B

of it all.”
    “But you still go on with it.”
    “As you’d go on if something threatened your brother.”
    “He’s my family, all I’ve got.”
    “And Saint Pierre is my family, and the people fighting for it are all I’ve got.” He met her gaze. “You love your brother very much?”
    She nodded. “We’re twins and sometimes I feel as if we’re one person. Oh, we have character differences, but we usually are alike on most major issues.”
    He smiled. “Except me.”
    “Except you.”
    A silence fell between them before Ricardo changed the subject. “Juan Salazar told me today you’ve been working in the infirmary.”
    “Not to help your revolution,” she said quickly. “I just can’t stand doing nothing.”
    “I’m not foolish enough to think I have a convert,” he said softly. “I only want you to take it easy. Have you been sleeping well?”
    “Yes.” She made a face. “As well as possiblewith all these stalactites hovering over me. I feel as if I’m a victim in the
Pit and the Pendulum.”
    “I’ve felt like that myself at times.” He rose to his feet. “But you haven’t had dreams about what happened to you in prison? No sudden depressions or periods when you get the shakes?”
    She shook her head. “Dr. Salazar asked me that too. I think I’m a little insulted that you both think I’m such a wimp.”
    He suddenly grinned. “I wouldn’t presume. We just know that sometimes you don’t get rid of the psychological baggage with the situation.”
    “You seem to have survived considerably worse than I went through with no aftereffects.”
    “I put on a good front.” His grin vanished. “If you start having problems, tell me.”
    “I’ll handle it.”
    He swore under his breath. “Why the hell should you? What happened to you is my responsibility.”
    “The devil it is. I came down here to your little tropical paradise of my own free will. If you want to play Atlas and carry the entire island of SaintPierre on your shoulders, go ahead. But leave me out of it. I’ll take care of myself, thank you.”
    His frown vanished and a reluctant smile curved his lips. “Okay. I won’t carry you on my shoulders. That isn’t the portion of my anatomy I want close to you anyway.” His smile became blatantly sensual as his voice lowered to a seductive murmur. “Do you know how I’d like to carry you? I’d like to be deep inside you, with those lovely legs wound around my hips.”
    Heat tingled through her as she looked up at him. During the past hour she had been filled with a multitude of strong emotions toward him varying from poignant sympathy to indignation. She had thought she had her physical responses to him firmly under control, but now she realized it had been Ricardo who had damped down that powerful chemical attraction between them.
    “Yes.” He met her gaze. “It’s still there and it won’t go away. I think about it every night before I go to sleep. Do you?”
    She moistened her lips with her tongue. “No, I don’t let myself.”
    “It hurts me, too, but I let you in anyway,” hesaid softly. “I could no more close you out than I could my own thoughts.”
    “Ricardo, it’s no use.”
    “Do you remember what you said about your brother and the way you sometimes thought of the two of you as one person? Well, we’re like that, Lara. Sometimes I feel so close to you that I can read your thoughts.”
    She laughed shakily. “I’ve noticed. But then everyone knows you’re some kind of mind reader and magician. It has nothing to do with us. I certainly can’t tell what you’re thinking.”
    “You could if you wanted to,” he continued urgently. “Look at me, Lara. What am I thinking now?”
    Pain. Desire. Tenderness. Love.
    No, not love. He couldn’t love her, just as she couldn’t love him. She hurriedly looked away from him. “I don’t know and I don’t want to know. I won’t let you hypnotize me into believing what you want me to believe. You’re