TWO

IT SEEMED TO Mallory the limousine had been traveling for hours since they left the outskirts of Marasef when she finally saw the large white stucco structure looming like a desert mirage against the scarlet and lavender of the sunset sky.

It was all one would have expected of this Oriental wonderland, she thought. More a palace than a house, with rounded archways, long narrow windows shuttered in lacy fretwork, and a mosaic tiled courtyard that would have done justice to an Arabian nights flick. She leaned forward and tapped the mustached driver on the shoulder. “Is that the location, Omar?”

He smiled and nodded. “Kandrahan.”

“Why aren’t there any other vehicles around?

Is there another site other—” Mallory broke off when she met the driver’s bewildered gaze in the mirror. She was being a complete idiot. Omar spoke only a few words of English as she had discovered immediately after she’d cleared customs at the airport. The man had held a sign with her name and Global Cinema on it, and by sign language had indicated his name was Omar and he was to take her … somewhere. She had gotten only a blank stare when she had mentioned Carey Litzke’s name and had finally given up in discouragement. Evidently, there had been a snafu and Carey had been unable to pick her up. It happened all the time on location, and she had been too jet-lagged to fuss about it.

And it was only jet lag, she assured herself quickly. Everyone experienced this chilling lassitude after long flights.

“Kandrahan,” the driver repeated as he drove into the courtyard and stopped before the double front door.

“I understood that,” Mallory said, again wishing for the comforting presence of Carey Litzke. The palace seemed alien, and the stark desert both enclosed and isolated it all at the same time.

Chattering cheerfully in a tongue she presumed was Sedikhan, Omar opened the car door, then helped her out. At least the chauffeur wasn’t intimidating.

She was probably being foolish, she thought suddenly. If her nerves had not been strained from the past weeks’ ordeal she would have been amused and curious now, not afraid. She watched Omar take her suitcases out of the trunk and set them on the tiles of the courtyard.

No one came out of the palace to greet her. Surely there were servants or secretaries or …

“Kandrahan,” Omar said again as he got back into the driver’s seat and started the car.

“Wait!” She took a hurried step forward. “Where are you going? Why—”

“Kandrahan.” Omar stepped on the accelerator, and the limousine shot across the courtyard and in minutes was speeding down the road toward Marasef.

Mallory stared at the car helplessly until it was out of sight.

“Won’t you come in?”

She whirled to face the front door.

Sabin Wyatt stood silhouetted against the lighted doorway.

Shock streaked through her, and she could feel the muscles of her spine arch like a cat sensing danger.

His Richard Burton-type voice, deep, rich, each word beautifully enunciated, affected her immediately. Not at all the kind of voice she expected after seeing Sabin Wyatt’s tough exterior.

“I’d come in if I were you. The desert gets pretty cool once the sun goes down.”

She took one step forward and then another. “I presume this is no coincidence, Mr. Wyatt.”

“There are few coincidences in this world.” He smiled sardonically. “And this is certainly not one.”

“No Global Cinema? No brand-new start?”

“Oh, there’s definitely a Global Cinema. It’s a new acquisition of mine. And there may still be a role for you in Breakaway. We can discuss that at a later time.” His smile faded. “As you can see, I went to a great deal of trouble to have you at my disposal.”

“Is disposal the key word?” Mallory glanced out at the barren dunes surrounding the palace. “You could drop a body out there and no one would ever find it.”

“You seem to be taking that possibility very calmly.”

“I’m not calm at all.” She moistened her lips with her tongue. “I’m tired and I’m frightened and I’m so disappointed I could howl. But I’ve never found any situation made better by avoiding its more unpleasant aspects.”

He stood looking at her for a long moment and then stepped to one side. “Get in here and sit down before you fall down,” he said roughly. “I have no intention of murdering you within the foreseeable future.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” She climbed the steps and entered the foyer. “I wasn’t sure for a moment. You practically glared a hole in me in the courtroom.”

“I wasn’t glaring.”

“No? It looked like it to me.” She turned to face him and forgot for a moment what she’d been about to say. Without the civilized elegance of the suits he’d worn in the courtroom, he looked different. Soft, faded jeans hugged his powerful thighs and tight buttocks. The two top buttons of his navy blue cotton shirt had been left carelessly open to reveal the virile brown hair thatching his chest. She forced her gaze away from his body and lifted it to his face. “Okay, let’s get it over with. You think I killed Ben?”

“No.” He closed the door. “I know you didn’t kill Ben.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Then why am I here?”

“Because you owe me.”

“What?”

His lips curved in a mocking smile. “You’re a very good actress, but you know exactly what I mean, Mallory.”

“I don’t owe you anything. I don’t even know you.”

“We’ve never met before, but we had a mutual contact in Ben. You might even call him a go-between.”

Her hands slowly clenched into fists at her sides. “Look, I’m very tired. I’m not capable of playing games at the moment. I’d appreciate it if you’d just speak out and tell me why you’ve brought me here.”

His gray-blue eyes glittered with a flicker of anger. “I’m growing a little weary of the charade myself. All right, let’s be frank. You’re here because you’re to occupy my bed for the next six months.”

She gazed at him, stunned. “You’re crazy.”

“No, I believe in the integrity of a deal.” He paused. “Even if you don’t.”

She shook her head dazedly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He frowned impatiently. “My bed. Anyway I want you, for six months.” When she continued to look at him blankly, he turned away with leashed violence. “If you still won’t be honest with me, I can’t force you.” He yanked a bellrope. “I’ll have Nilar take you to your suite. I’ll expect you in the salon in one hour for drinks before dinner. Don’t bother to try to communicate with any of the servants. I made quite sure none of the staff speaks English.”

A small, heavyset woman, dressed in dark green Oriental draperies, appeared in the hall.

Sabin gestured to the woman and said something in a foreign tongue before his gaze shifted to meet Mallory’s. “Your bags will be brought to your suite. I hope you’ll find your accommodations comfortable.”

Mallory shot an involuntary glance at the front door.

“No.” Sabin’s soft voice was layered with steel. “There’s not a village for fifty miles and by the time you reached it, I doubt if you’d be alive. The desert isn’t kind to strangers.”

“Then you have that in common.”

“But we aren’t strangers.” He smiled bitterly. “At least you’re no stranger to me. I’ve wanted you for over three years.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” Mallory said wearily. “We have to talk.”

“We have six months. I’m sure we’ll get around to talking some time or other.” His glance was frankly sexual as it moved over her, lingering on the fullness of her breasts.

Mallory felt a wave of heat tingle through her that was as startling as it was intense. Sexual arousal. Stark, raw, and overwhelming.

He nodded slowly as he met her gaze. “I do believe we understand each other. If you please me, you’ll have an easy six months even though I’m still mad as hell. I don’t like being cheated, Mallory.”

“Cheated?” She pulled her gaze away from his and shook her head. “I’m the one who was cheated. Tell me, did that nice Carey Litzke know what you had in mind when he lured me here?”

His lips tightened. “You liked Carey? He liked you too. That’s why I decided to leave him in Marasef. I find myself very possessive where my time with you is concerned.” He inclined his head. “Until dinner.”

“But we need to—” Mallory stopped. Sabin was walking away from her and was already halfway down the long, gleaming corridor.

He glanced back over his shoulder. “Wear a violet dress. I like you in violet.”

He was gone, leaving her standing looking after him in bewilderment.

Nilar tugged at the sleeve of her blouse, and Mallory turned an abstracted gaze toward the woman to see that she was beckoning. Mallory followed, walking behind Nilar, trying to make some sense of Sabin Wyatt’s words. It was clear she must find the missing pieces to the puzzle before she could understand any of this. Only two facts were clear: Sabin Wyatt believed she had cheated him in some manner; and Ben, as usual, was involved in her misfortune.

The latter shouldn’t have surprised her. Ben had been responsible for most of the unhappiness that had plagued her for the last two years. Why should it stop just because he was dead?

All right, Sabin Wyatt was angry. But he was reputed to be a brilliant man, and she should be able to persuade him there was some kind of misunderstanding.

Brilliant, perhaps, but barbarously, sensually male. She was experienced enough to read that sweeping glance he had given her.

But, according to Ben, Sabin Wyatt changed mistresses as frequently as he did his ties. A man who had his choice among the glamorous women of the world would have little interest in acquiring another one.

Which brought her back to square one and Ben.

Nilar opened the door at the end of the corridor and gestured for Mallory to precede her. The room was lovely, large, and spacious, with white mosaic tile floors that were in exotic contrast to the turquoise velvet drapes and bed coverlet that provided the only color in the room.

Exotic. Mallory found herself shivering as she realized that word also meant alien. She was very much the alien here and more alone than she had ever been in her life.

The lassitude she had suffered on her ride from the airport had been banished with a vengeance, she thought grimly. She had those blasted shakes again. Damn, they couldn’t have come at a worse time. When she next confronted Sabin, she had to be calm and confident. She would be calm. She would just take one of Dr. Blairen’s magic fixer-uppers, and she would be able to face anything.

“You did wear violet.” Sabin rose to his feet as Mallory came into the salon, his gaze traveling over the violet silk lounging pajamas she wore. “I wasn’t sure you’d accommodate me.”

“I thought it foolish to quarrel about such a small matter. We have more important things to discuss.” Mallory stopped just inside the door. “All of this has something to do with Ben, doesn’t it?”

“It has everything to do with Ben.” Sabin held out his hand. “Come here. Do you realize I’ve never touched you?”

Mallory felt the hot color stain her cheeks. The gesture was as arrogantly, sexually male as the man himself. “Listen, I know you and Ben were brothers but—”

“Stepbrothers.” He poured a cocktail into a glass out of the mixer on the tray beside him and came toward her. “And I’m sure he told you he had no fondness for me.”

“He was jealous of you.”

“Not of me. He was jealous of the money. Ben always wanted the power without the work.” He held the glass out to her.

“You’re too hard on him.” Mallory absently took the glass. “He was like a charming little boy who never grew up.”

He reached out and cupped her throat in his big hand. “You loved him?”

Mallory felt the pulse in her throat jump and then begin to pound under his warm, callused palm. “At … the start.”

His gaze narrowed on her face. “What changed the way you felt?”

“I don’t—” She was oddly breathless. His hand was a sensual manacle around her throat, and she felt chained, joined to him. She had to force herself to concentrate on his words, not his touch. “I thought the little boy was only on the surface and there was a man underneath. I found out I was wrong.”

“You would have left him?” The demand came with sudden hard fierceness. “If he hadn’t been killed, you would have left the bastard?”

“Probably.” Mallory tried to step back but Sabin’s grip immediately tightened about her throat, keeping her immobile. “I don’t know. He needed me.”

“Oh, he needed you, all right.” Sabin smiled crookedly. “You were a very valuable commodity.” His grip tightened. “Or were you a team?”

“Let me go, Sabin,” she said quietly.

His hand slowly fell away from her throat. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.” But she still felt branded, manacled to him in some strange way. “I just felt caught.”

“I know the sensation. I’ve felt the same way for a long time.” A muscle jerked in his jaw. “I don’t want to hurt you. There were times when I thought I did, but I want you to come to me willingly, Mallory.”

She stared up at him helplessly. The atmosphere between them was so charged, Mallory found it hard to breathe. She had never felt like this before. The sheer sexual energy of the man was overpowering. She abruptly realized it was the same primitive force he had been exuding in the courtroom that she had mistaken for hatred. That energy was drawing her to him with the dark magnetism that had compelled her during all those fear-filled weeks.

She tore her gaze away and took a step back. “I suppose I should be flattered you’ve formed some sort of attachment to me, but it’s really quite common.” She lifted the glass to her lips and sipped the martini. “Seeing a woman on the movie screen seems to generate a certain amount of unhealthy fascination in some people.” She could sense him go rigid and hastily took another swallow of her drink. Lord, she was probably saying all the wrong things. Sabin Wyatt wasn’t some neurotic fan who had developed a yen.

She was also doing the wrong things, she noticed suddenly as she looked down at the drink in her hand. She wasn’t supposed to be drinking. The doctor had warned her about mixing those sedatives with alcohol. She immediately set the glass down on the table beside her. “But this isn’t really about me, is it? It’s some dispute you had with Ben that was never resolved.”

“It has a hell of a lot to do with you. Do you mean he never told you how it all began?” He smiled mockingly. “I was in London three years ago when Ben was still working for the firm, and we both attended a royal gala for Mismatch.” He saw her stiffen and nodded. “You had a small role in the picture, and we both attended the premiere. I took one look at you, and I felt as if I’d been knocked silly. I never even tried to hide it from Ben. I intended to go backstage and get someone to introduce us, but I was called away from the theater before the picture even started. There was an emergency situation in Sedikhan that stretched on for months, and in the meantime my charming, little brother was caught with his hand in the till. I bid him a less than cordial adieu. The next communication I had from him was your wedding announcement.”

“You mean you think—No! He wouldn’t do that.” She gazed at him in horror. “He wouldn’t have married me just to take something away from you.”

“Wouldn’t he? Tell me, how did you meet?”

“My agent introduced us. He said Ben had been pestering him for months to—” She shook her head. It was a mistake. The room blacked out for a moment and swayed dizzily around her. What the devil was wrong with her? She took a deep breath and the dizziness receded. She had to think for a minute to remember what they had been talking about. “Ben was irresponsible, but he wasn’t malicious.”

“Think about it.” Sabin’s gaze was fastened on her face. “Lord, you look as if you’re going to faint.”

“I’m fine.” It was a lie. She felt awful. She couldn’t understand why she was so dizzy and uncoordinated at this moment when she needed to think clearly. She had to tell him what he believed wasn’t true. Ben had displayed sulkiness, even rudeness on occasion, but she had never been aware of any calculated manipulation.

She heard Sabin mutter a curse beneath his breath. “Okay, maybe he loved you in his own twisted way. He told me he did. Now will you stop looking like that?”

She gazed up at him in bewilderment.

“But the bastard stole you. He had no right to take you from me.” His voice was low and fierce, his light eyes blazing in his taut face. “And you had no right to play games and then try to cheat me.”

She felt almost numb from exhaustion and the shocks she had received this evening, and that blasted light-headedness had returned. She held her head very still to keep the dizziness at bay. “What … games?”

Anger flared in Sabin’s face as his hand gripped her elbow. “You don’t recall? Perhaps we should refresh your memory.” He propelled her across the room and down the hall. He threw open a door on the left to reveal the muted richness of a library with wall-to-wall bookshelves, a beige and scarlet Persian carpet, and a six-foot television screen mounted on the wall across the room. “I was saving this for later but now is as good a time as any.” He gestured to a beige leather-cushioned chaise lounge across the room. “Make yourself comfortable. It’s show time.”

He strode across the room and inserted a tape in the video recorder beneath the television screen.

Mallory gazed at him blankly and then moved across the room and sat down on the chaise lounge. That was better. The dizziness faded, leaving only a languid heaviness in its wake. She didn’t want to be here, she thought wearily. She wanted to go back to her room and try to absorb the suspicions Sabin had implanted. Heaven knew, toward the end, her relationship with Ben had deteriorated into something that bore no resemblance to the marriage of her dreams. But now, if she believed Sabin’s words, she was left with nothing at all.

“No, lean back.” Sabin smiled over his shoulder as he reached for the remote control. “Indulge me. It’s a fantasy I’ve had for a long time.”

What did it matter? Mallory slid back on the chaise lounge until her spine was resting against the leather-cushioned back. “What do you want me to see?”

“Something we’ve both seen before … but not together.” He flicked out the light and moved toward the chaise lounge. “And I definitely want to see it with you. Scoot over. There’s room for two. I made sure of that when I bought that particular piece of furniture.”

His warm thigh came as a sensual shock against her own as he settled himself beside her within the confines of the lounge. She could hear the sound of his breathing in the darkness, smell the scent of his spicy cologne, feel the warmth of his body through the layers of clothes separating them.

“Are you ready?”

Ready for what? she wondered hazily. She wasn’t ready for the sexual arousal that charged the air with electricity. She wasn’t ready for Sabin Wyatt’s overpowering presence and vitality. She felt as if he were sapping the strength from her body with every breath he took.

“I assume silence is assent.” He pressed the remote control, and the six-foot TV screen across the room suddenly came to vivid life. “You’ll recall this isn’t the most graphic of the lot, but it’s my own personal favorite. You managed to encompass the entire range of emotion.”

She gasped as she saw her own face on the enormous television screen.

“You recognize it?” Sabin’s big hand began to gently smooth her hair back from her face. “Then you remember what comes after.”

She did remember. How could she forget? After Ben’s death she had burned those tapes. All six of them. But here they were again, haunting her with their futile eroticism. In Sabin Wyatt’s possession. “You … shouldn’t have this,” she said haltingly.

“Why not? I paid for it.” His voice was thick in the darkness. “I imagine I know every curve and hollow of your body better than you do yourself. I’ve watched these tapes so many times I’m surprised they’re not worn out. Half the time I didn’t even want to watch them. They made me angry and jealous and so damn hard, it was torture. I wanted to go out and find a woman, any woman, to relieve that torture. At first, I did just that. Later, I realized it wasn’t doing any good. I wasn’t going to be satisfied with anyone but you.”

The light of the television screen flickered on his face, and she could see her reflection in his eyes, moving, displaying, offering herself. He was absorbing her, she thought hazily. With every second that passed, every look, every touch a little bit more of her flowed into his possession.

“You’re not looking at the film.” Sabin began to leisurely unbutton her blouse. “You should be very proud of it. It’s one of your finest performances. The tape featuring the ruby necklace has a certain pagan charm, but the ermine coat truly looks magnificent on you. Ben said you were crazy to have it.”

“No, you’re mistaken. I never liked it,” she said dully. “But Ben wanted to see me in it.”

“For God’s sake, don’t lie to me. If you like pretty things, I’ll buy them for you but don’t pretend to be something you’re not. I can’t handle that right now.”

“When did Ben send you this?” Her words were slurred.

“It was the first one. Two months after you were married.” He parted her blouse and looked down at her. “You’re not fighting me. Are you going to be honest with me at last?”

“I always try to be honest.” She should be fighting him she realized in a dim corner of her mind. He was a stranger and yet not a stranger. He was a man who knew her body intimately and her mind not at all. She was beginning to tremble. “I can’t seem to think. Ben … I have to know about Ben. The tapes.”

“Forget about Ben. You belong to me now. You should always have been mine.” His lips were on her throat. “Ben cheated us both.”

His voice was so intense that it swept through her, battering down the frail resistance she was trying to erect against him.

You belong to me.

You should always have been mine.

The words had been said with unequivocal belief.

“No, I loved Ben,” she whispered.

“For the Lord’s sake, he sold you.” Sabin reached out and unfastened her bra, pulling it and her blouse off simultaneously. “He made you sell yourself.” He looked down at her breasts in the flickering light of the screen, and she could feel the shudder that went through him. “Funny, I can barely see you in the darkness, and all I have to do is glance at the screen to see every detail of your body. But this is you.” He bent his head, hovering his lips over one hard nipple. “The other’s a dream, isn’t it?”

Yes, it was all a dream.

She snatched at the concept eagerly. None of this was real, only an erotic dream with nightmarish overtones. Sabin Wyatt couldn’t have formed an obsession for her when he didn’t even know her. Ben wouldn’t have betrayed her like this. She could accept both thoughts, if she could convince herself none of it was real.

His lips touched her nipple, and her breath drew in sharply. Heat flowed through her in a tingling, electric stream. It was as if all the force of Sabin’s magnetism had centered and exploded at that first touch.

“Sweet.” His voice was low, husky as his lips pulled gently on the taut nipple. “You like this?”

“Yes.” Her breasts were lifting and falling with the rapidity of her breathing. If it was a dream, it didn’t matter whether she fought or not, and she was too tired to fight Sabin. He was too strong, too certain, in this world she wasn’t sure of at all. His lips were igniting fires that spread throughout her body. She unconsciously arched up to meet him.

His big hands were cupping, squeezing, releasing as his mouth took.

She moaned low in her throat, and he lifted his head to look down at her. His nostrils flared as he smiled with savage pleasure. “You like me?” He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled her close, rubbing her against the thick, wiry thatch of hair covering his chest. “Tell me how you like it,” he muttered. “Tell me how to please you. I want to hear you cry out like that again.”

She was on fire, the tips of her breasts burning, a heavy throbbing between her thighs. Why was she letting him do this? In some remote corner of her mind she knew there was something strange about her total surrender to him. It wasn’t like her to … The thought faded away as the sensual haze Sabin was weaving intensified, and she became conscious only of him and what he was doing to her. Yet there was something she should know. “The tapes …”

He stiffened and then his lips twisted in a bitter smile. “It turns you on to talk about the tapes? Okay.” His fingers moved slowly down to the naked hollow of her spine. “Shall I tell you how I felt when I got them? The letter came first, you know, asking for thirty thousand dollars. Ben said you liked expensive things and he was desperate to keep you happy.” He bent her back over his arm, his teeth biting gently around her left nipple. “I sent him the money. Lord only knows why. Then the first tape came. Ben said you were very grateful and wanted to show me how the coat suited you.”

He began to unfasten the snap on her silk slacks. “I expected home movies. That’s not what I got, and the message at the end was the pièce de résistance. I didn’t sleep that night.” He pulled off her slacks and panties and threw them aside. He looked down at her, his gaze moving over her until it settled on the curls that surrounded her womanhood. She felt a heaviness, a tingling hot-ness where his gaze was resting. “This is what I thought about all night. You lying before me, like this. Damn you. I wanted you so much I thought I’d die. And I wanted to strangle Ben.”

“Ben wouldn’t—”

“Put me through hell? Oh, I’ve no doubt he enjoyed it very much. He had something I wanted and couldn’t have unless he deigned to give it to me.” He fell to his knees on the floor beside the chaise lounge and rubbed his cheek on her belly, his teeth nibbling at the soft rounded flesh. “He called me three days after I received the tape and told me you had no objection to belonging to me for a short period, if we could come to an agreement. He said he was a practical, modern man and you liked pretty things. If I sent him sizeable amounts of cash periodically, he’d send you to me for six months.”

Mallory could feel the faint stubble on his cheeks on her bare stomach, and a hot shiver went through her. She could barely hear his words through the haze of heat surrounding her, and she didn’t understand them anyway. What he was saying wasn’t making sense. No one could be as base and as manipulative as he claimed Ben had been. She would have known, wouldn’t she?

“I sent the money, and every few weeks I’d get a tape. A teaser to keep the money coming.” He was standing, stripping off his shirt. “I wasn’t stupid. I knew what you two were doing to me, but I kept paying anyway. Two hundred thousand dollars. Did you laugh about that with Ben?”

“No.”

“I don’t know whether to believe you or not.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

He was nude now and moved to stand over her. She was suddenly acutely conscious of her own nudity, her slenderness and vulnerability, the feel of warm pliant leather cushioning her body. The flickering light played on the brawny muscles of his shoulders, his flat stomach, the dark thatches of hair on his chest and encircling his manhood. He was a figure from mythology, she thought, Vulcan or perhaps Zeus.

“I knew Ben wouldn’t give you to me for six months.” He parted her legs and knelt between them. “He knew me too well.” He began to rub the curls surrounding her womanhood, slowly, sensuously, occasionally pressing hard with the ball of his hand. “He knew I’d never let you go back to him.”

No, Zeus would never give up something he wanted. But he wasn’t Zeus, she remembered hazily, this was Sabin. Not that it made any difference. Power and lightning bolts …

“Well, did it turn you on to know what you did to me?” His hand moved down. “Let’s see, shall we?” He gently inserted a finger within her. She inhaled sharply, and he looked up and smiled. “Ah yes, you want me and you’re ready. What a lovely welcome.” Another finger joined the first, and he began to slowly move back and forth. “And tight. I can feel you clinging to me …”

His smile faded as he moved forward. “I can’t wait any longer,” he said thickly. “Tell me you want it. Tell me you want to give me what you owe me.”

The words were easy to say when her body was convulsing with pleasure with every stroke. “I want … you.”

“Tell me you owe this to me.”

She frowned in puzzlement. “I don’t think …” She stopped. His face above her own was intense, willing her to say the words. Perhaps, if this was a dream, she did owe him something.

Then, as if to corroborate the thought, she heard her own soft voice issuing from the television screen. “Six months. Any way you like it, Sabin.” The tape ended and began to automatically rewind, leaving the screen a crackling blue void.

But she had never said those words, so that proved none of this was real, didn’t it? The dream-Sabin seemed to think what he demanded was true, so why not please him?

“I owe it to you,” she whispered.

“You’re damn right you do.” The words were rough but his mouth on her own was gentle. “Mallory, love, give to me …”

He plunged deep!

Her scream was smothered beneath his lips.

He raised his head. “What the hell …”

Her nails dug into his shoulders. He was heavy, hot, huge within her. If nothing else was real in this world, Sabin most certainly was.

But he was too still. She needed more.

She tried to move, to take.

“Be still.” His voice was harsh. “Don’t move. I have to think. Dear Lord, how can I think.”

She moved again, instinctively tightening around him.

He was lost.

He groaned deep in his throat and began to thrust. Plunge. His breath came so hoarsely, it was like a sob.

His hands moved around to cup her bottom, and he lifted her, moved her, took her. It was as if he were possessed and in turn had to possess her.

“Sabin” Mallory could see his face in the blue-lit darkness, and what she saw there both frightened and entranced her. He was absorbing her again, pulling her into himself, making her entirely his own. She felt a sudden flurry of panic. “No.”

“It’s too late.” The words were grated between his teeth, each one hard with pain. “You … belong to me. It has to happen.”

Her teeth bit into her lower lip as the tension rose to unbearable heights. It had to break.

But it didn’t.

She arched up against him. “Sabin, make it—”

She cried out as the tension exploded in searing brilliance.

“That’s right, love,” Sabin’s voice was low, exultant. “Now, just a little more.” Several fierce thrusts and then he suddenly froze, throwing back his head, his strong throat arching as a shudder tore through him. He collapsed against her, his big body shaking.

After a moment he looked down at her, his breath coming in gasps. “My God, it tore me apart. I thought I—” He broke off, his expression clouding with concern. “Are you all right?”

“I don’t know.” She wasn’t sure of anything. Sabin still held her, enthralled both physically and emotionally, but tendrils of painful reason were beginning to flow. The television flickered blankly above them, casting its blue light over the shadowy room. She gazed at it in dumb fascination as Sabin’s words returned to haunt her.

He moved off her and stood up. “We have to talk.” He picked up his navy blue shirt and draped it around her, thrusting her arms through the sleeves. The shirt smelled of soap and spice, she noticed vaguely. He buttoned the top button, got up again and moved across the room to turn on the desk lamp. He turned to look at her, his expression grim. “We need to get a few things straight. One thing in partic—” He broke off as he saw her face. “What’s wrong? Stop staring at that damn screen and look at me.”

She couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t look at anything but the flickering blue light. Sabin Wyatt was sitting there naked beside her. She had let him make love to her in the most intimate way possible between a man and woman. No, not love. It had been lust. She felt the muscles of her stomach twist in rejection at the thought. “It was all true, wasn’t it?” she whispered. “About Ben, the tapes. All of it. It was … real.”

“Of course, it’s true.” He shut off the television set. “Mallory, I don’t know what the hell’s happening.”

The blankness of the screen released her. She dragged her gaze away and struggled to sit up. “I have to … I can’t stay here.” Waves of darkness began to wash over her as she stood up and stumbled toward the door. “Real … Mistake. I can’t stay …”

“Mallory!”

Why couldn’t she make her legs work properly? She felt as if she were wading through mud.

She reached for the knob of the door but it wasn’t there.

Nothing was there.

Only blackness.

Sabin looked tired.

At first, Mallory thought she must be mistaken. Since the moment she had first seen him, she had been conscious of his overwhelming vitality dominating everything and everyone around him. Yet now deep grooves lined either side of his mouth, and he was staring at the headboard with a blind weariness that was unmistakable. “You’re tired. You … should go to … bed.”

His gaze shifted quickly to her face, and he tensed. “That’s a weird thing for you to say. The least I expected was ‘Go to hell, Sabin.’”

“Give me time. I just woke up. I’ll get there.”

“I don’t give a damn if you flay me alive. I’m just glad you’re finally awake. You scared the hell out of me.”

“Did I?” She sat up in bed and lifted her fingers to rub her temple. “Lord, I have a headache.”

“You’re lucky you don’t have more than that.” Sabin picked up the brown pill vial from the bedside table. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to mix pills and booze?”

“I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t think … It was only a few swallows.”

“Enough to do the damage.” Sabin put the vial back on the table. “Your Dr. Blairen was mad as hell.”

Her gaze flew to his face. “You called him?”

“What did you expect me to do? I carried you back here and found the pills. For all I knew, you might be in a coma.”

“You shouldn’t have bothered him.” She moistened her lips with her tongue. “I was just tired.”

“Exhaustion, anemia, severe nervous tension,” Sabin enumerated. “In short, within a hair’s breadth of a nervous breakdown.”

“I’ll have to have a talk with the good doctor.” She made a face. “There’s such a thing as patient confidentiality. Besides, the man worries too much. I’m fine.”

“Are you?” Sabin’s gaze raked her face. “Is that why you look as delicate as a willow leaf? Is that why you slept for twenty-four hours?”

“That long?” She glanced away from him. “Jet lag.” Her slim fingers clenched the sheet nervously. “And a few other shocks to my system.”

“I had a few shocks too.” He paused. “For instance, your virginity. What the hell—”

“I’d rather not talk about that right now,” she interrupted quickly. “I think I’m hungry.”

His gaze narrowed on her face. “We’re going to talk soon, Mallory.” He stood up and moved toward the door. “But right now you do need food more than I need answers. I’ll send Nilar in with a tray.” He paused at the door to look back at her, and for the first time a smile that held no bitterness softened his harsh features. “I’m glad as hell you’ve come back to me. Don’t you ever do that again.”

Then, before she could reply, he was gone.

The room appeared to lose color and vitality, yet Mallory welcomed that loss. She had to think, and she couldn’t do it with him sitting there looking at her. Now the tension gripping her eased a little. In her weakened state she was better off without any confrontations with Sabin Wyatt. His effect on her was as unsettling now as it had been in the library when—

She blocked the thought, but it was too late to halt the tingle of heat and anger at the memory of what Sabin had done to her. She could accept the anger as her right, but she mustn’t remember her response.

So what was the next move? Did she go to Sabin and rant and rave as he obviously expected? She didn’t have the strength to set off the fireworks she would like to light under him, and she had never found anger as successful as reason when confronting anyone of intelligence. No, it was better to submerge the anger and maintain control of the situation.

Control? Her lips twisted as she lay back down on the pillows. She hadn’t done too well at maintaining control since she had walked in the front door at Kandrahan. Okay, face it, she told herself. She had made a mistake, but it was no great tragedy. What had happened had been a combination of cause and effect that would never occur again. Shock, exhaustion, pills, the liquor, and Sabin’s sexual charisma at full power.

But she was fully herself now and should be able to handle both Sabin and the situation.