"I"m not your love! I"m notyour anything!"

"Then why did you come?"

Gray"s heart pounded wildly. "Because I had no choice. Not after all those sneaking messages you left me! And because I had something to tell you." With trembling fingers, she clutched at her shawl, trying to quell the creeping heat that grew stronger every second. "S-stay out of my room, do you hear? Stay out of my sketchbook! Most of all, stay out of my life!"

"What about your heart, Gray Mackenzie?"

Gray"s breath caught at his dark, rough words. "What has myheart got to do with anything?"

The black-clad figure before her did not move. His eyes were all smoke and heat. Dark with an infinity of need, they roamed her face, missing nothing of her trembling response.

"Everything, I should imagine. Because I want you, Gray Mackenzie. I want you very badly."

His voice dropped to a husky, intimate whisper. "And tonight, stubborn one, tonight I"m going to have you."

CHAPTER SIX.

GRAY BLINKED,SUDDENLY DIZZY .Suddenly hungry.

For things she could not even name.

She stumbled backward, her hands tensed atop her heaving chest. "You"re-you"re crazy, do you know that?"

"I"ve little doubt of it." Adrian took a step closer.

"Stay away from me."

His eyes glittered. He moved again.

"Stop it! You don"t-you can"t possibly be serious about this!"

"No? Why not, Gray Mackenzie?" His voice was dark, compelling. Utterly ruthless.

Gray tugged desperately at her shawl. "Because you-you just can"t!"

"Why not?" he repeated, softly this time.

"Because-because you don"t know me. Not the slightest thing about me."

He was close enough to touch her now, but he did not. He only stared down at her, his eyes dark with the hunger of hundreds of wasted years.

Thousands of lonely nights.

"I know you"ve a temper to match that glorious auburn hair of yours. I know you snore quite impudently when you sleep." He gave her the ghost of a smile. "Marriages have been built on less familiarity than that."

Mine certainly was,Gray thought bitterly.

"So enlighten me, if you will. Why can"t I want you? Tell me all the reasons. Tell me that my pulse isn"t racing painfully right now. And that yours isn"t racing just the same," he added huskily.

Gray swallowed, fighting for control. "Because you-you just can"t!"

His eyes never left her face, harsh with need and something else Gray couldn"t quite make out.

"Why? The truth, remember?"

Her face turned a shade paler, and the sight made Adrian curse silently. Had he any other choice, he would have left off then and there. But now, in this place and this time, he could not.

For time was the one thing Adrian Draycott did not have.

"Well?" His eyes were mocking. "Not turning faint-hearted on me, are you?"

Instantly her chin rose.

Ah, that had done it. Somehow he"d thought it would.

He arched a jet-black brow and waited.

His patience was soon rewarded.

"All right, damn you, I"ll tell you why! I"ll tell youall the ugly little reasons." With trembling fingers Gray flung the shawl from her shoulders, baring her slim, lace-clad form to his hungry gaze. "B-because I"m t-too tall. Because I"m all bones and sharp angles. Not soft. Not de-desirable at all. B-because touching me is the next best thing to t-taking an ice bath!"

With a wild cry she spun about, her arms locked rigid about her chest.

Adrian could only stare at her back, wordless, uncomprehending. Even then heat licked at his loins, made his gut tense and churn.

Bony? Ugly? Undesirable? What in the name of heaven was the crazed female talking about?

Abruptly his eyes narrowed. Sweet saints above, could she really believe- His fingers clenched to fists. "Who told you such things? Who made you believe such lies?"

He heard her smother a soft sob.

"Does it matter?" Gray countered bitterly. "All that matters is it"s true, every last word of it."

Adrian went perfectly still. He ached to seize her, ached to press her trembling body against his. Damn and blast, a minute or two would do it. One hot slide of lips and tongue, one slow foray over her unbound, pouting breasts and she"d be his!

But even as the realization hit him, Adrian fought it down.

He didn"t want it that way, didn"t wanther that way.

For some unnameable reason he"d been called here, called back through space and time to find her. And he bloody well wasn"t about to settle for anything less than knowing why-all the reasons why. And for every sweet inch of her, given to him willingly.

"Oh, it matters. Far more than you can imagine. And whoever told you such things was either an utter fool or a patent liar. Probably both."

Gray"s fingers shook. "It"s not business of yours! Why do you care about any of this?"

"Because you affect me, Gray Mackenzie. In ways I"ve never been affected before. And I intend to find out why."

"Oh, why don"t you just go! It"s-it"s better this way, don"t you see?Safer. " Gray brushed a furtive hand across her cheeks. Only then did Adrian see the glint of tears in her eyes.

The sight made him stiffen, made his innards twist to furious knots.

But he hid his anger well, knowing she would mistake its cause. He took another step closer.

"Better offthis way? With you dead inside? Oh, well said, woman, except you"ve no notion of what you"re talking about." His voice hardened. "You"ve no notion of-death, and you can thank God for it. For you, Gray Mackenzie, were meant to hum with life. To burn with passion."

"Ican"t, don"t you see? Maybe I never could. Matt told me often enough that it was all my fault he-"

Adrian cut her off with a hoarse curse. "Enough! I"ll hear no more of the bastard"s name, nor of his lies. For lies are all they were, Gray!"

Gray"s face was a mask of alabaster in the filtered moonlight. "I-I"ve tried to believe that.

Dear God, don"t you think I"ve tried?"

Adrian reached out slowly. "Then give me your hand, Gray Mackenzie. Give me your hand, and I"ll give you answers in return."

She studied him warily, her chest rising and falling jerkily.

In the moonlight he could see the shadowed areolae strain against the fine lace at her chest.

Instantly he was on fire. Sweet Lord, he couldn"t bear another aching second!

Somehow he managed to keep his face impassive. "If you truly want answers, that is. If you truly want to leave the past behind. The choice is yours."

Gray took a ragged breath. Her shoulders straightened. Without a word she raised her hand and put it in his.

White fingers fitted to hard bronze.

Perfect, Adrian thought, feeling that one light touch rock him all the way to his suddenly shaky knees.

Unimaginably perfect. Just as if they"d been made for each other.

He wondered if the rest of them would fit together so well.

But at that thought, a storm of erotic images rushed over him, shaking his resolve. He drowned in dreams of rose-tipped breasts, of restless, naked limbs, of dew-slick skin that eased apart to sheath him.

Endlessly.

He cleared his throat loudly. "Good. There, we"ve made a beginning." His thumb trailed slowly over her pounding pulse. He would have liked to think that pulse leaped with the same passion he felt. But Adrian knew her too well now, knew it was a darker emotion than desire that made her tremble. That thought helped him combat the angry need that roared and screamed and threatened to overrun its banks.

Impulsively, he raised her hand to his lips, permitting himself the luxury of a slow, hot slide across her palm, along her fragile wrist.

He carried her fingers to the open collar of his shirt, then lower until her hand rested over the warm skin where his heart hammered madly.

"There"s a first answer for you." He stared at her, letting her see the heat in his eyes, the hard need that gripped him. "Does that feel like a man who"s repulsed? A man who"s had a-what did you call it?-a bloody ice bath?"

Her fingers flinched slightly, but did not draw back.

And what she did next stole Adrian"s breath away.

Her fingers curved and slid gently through the crisp black hair at his chest.

At the simple gesture his eyes turned to smoke. His breath slid hoarse between his taut lips.

He didn"t even try to hide the force of it. He wanted her to see, to know every single blessed thing she was doing to him.

He watched her eyes widen, watched a hundred different emotions war in her face.

"There it is, woman. Plain enough for even your doubting eyes, I should think."

Her surprise was all too obvious. Surprise, and then disbelief. But she was brave, this woman.

Watching her lips clench, her eyes darken with determination, Adrian began to think she was the bravest person he knew.

And she didn"t even know it.

He framed a silent prayer, knowing he was going to need every shred of patience and strength tonight. And Adrian Draycott had never been noted for his patience.

A second later, she inched closer, ran her hands gently over his rigid shoulders and cupped his face.

And then she drew him down to her.

He exploded like a Roman candle, halfway between heaven and hell by the time her lips settled as light as cobwebs against his own.

Sweet. Dear God, so unbelievably sweet. He was going to die grandly from that sweetness any second!

But when his hands rose to caress her neck, they were gentle, as tentative as her kiss.

Even at that, she shivered, pulled away. Her wide eyes locked upon his face. "Did you-did that-"

"I did and it was," he said hoarsely.

Her face flushed crimson.

"Ah, God, don"t blush, woman. Every time you do it sets me off, and I"m near to dead already.

Sweet Lord, have mercy on a poor, defenseless male!"

Instantly Gray"s face flamed brighter, but Adrian hadn"t missed the faint smile that tugged at her lips.

He groaned softly, burying his fingers in her hair.