Tender Stranger. Diana Palmer

rough with laughter. “I ache all over.”

      She began to smile, and his attention was caught by the sunniness of it, by the sudden beauty of her face. And he’d thought her drab and dull. How odd. He sensed a deeply buried sensuality in that voluptuous body, and he wanted it.

      He propped himself up on an elbow, his free hand still tugging absently at her short hair.

      She gave her eyes the freedom to roam that powerful body, talking in its bronzed sensuousness, the light covering of dark blond hair on his chest, his rippling stomach muscles, his strongly muscled thighs. He even had nice feet. And his legs weren’t pale, as most American men’s were. They were broad and dark, and looked good.

      “I like your legs, too,” he murmured.

      She glanced back up. “Do you mind?” she asked gently. “I know I’m gawking like a schoolgirl.”

      “You’re very honest, aren’t you?” he remarked for the second time that day. “It’s vaguely disconcerting. No, I don’t mind if you look at me. Except that it—”

      “It…?” she persisted.

      “Arouses me,” he said frankly.

      “Just to be looked at?” she asked, fascinated.

      He smiled a little. “Maybe it’s my age,” he said with a shrug. “You have very expressive eyes, did you know? They tell me everything you’re thinking.”

      “Do they really?” She laughed, looking up at him. “What am I thinking now?” she asked, her mind carefully blank.

      He pursed his lips and smiled slowly, and she felt a deep, slow ache in her body that was intensified when she looked at the broad sweep of his chest.

      “That you’d like to have dinner with me,” he hedged. “How about it?”

      “Yes. I’d like to. If you won’t seduce me for dessert,” she added.

      He sighed softly. “I’d like to have you,” he confessed. “But I couldn’t quite take you in my stride, either. A virgin would be something of a rarity for me. Most of my one-night stands have been the exact opposite of virgins.”

      She tried not to blush, but her cheeks betrayed her.

      He searched her eyes. “I wouldn’t hurt you,” he said suddenly. “And with you, it would have to be lovemaking, not sex.”

      Her body felt boneless as he searched her eyes, and there was a flash of something like tenderness in the look he gave her. “I’m sorry,” she said.

      “Why?”

      She dropped her eyes to his chest. “Because I think…I’d have liked you…for a lover.”

      “Yes, I think I’d have liked you for one,” he agreed softly. He tilted her face back to his and searched her eyes. “Wrong time, wrong place. We should have met ten years ago.”

      She smiled ruefully. “You wouldn’t have liked me at sixteen,” she said. “I really was twenty pounds overweight.”

      He drew in a slow breath. “And I was in the early days of some pretty raw living,” he agreed. “What a pity.” He lifted her hand and kissed the soft palm, watching her face color with pleasure. “How long will you be here?”

      “Four days,” she said miserably.

      His teeth bit into the soft flesh. “Make some memories with me,” he whispered.

      “That will only make it worse…” she began.

      “We’ll keep it light,” he said. “I won’t seduce you.”

      “By tomorrow I’ll probably beg you to,” she said unhappily, studying him with helpless longing. “I’m frighteningly vulnerable with you.”

      His eyes went along her body and he felt himself going rigid with desire. “Yes. I’m pretty vulnerable myself.”

      She had to force her eyes to stay on his face, and he smiled wickedly, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

      He laughed and she rolled over onto her stomach again.

      “Don’t worry,” he murmured as he stretched out beside her. “I’ll take care of you. Don’t sweat it.”

      She turned her eyes toward his and searched them, and then she smiled. “You’re so handsome,” she whispered helplessly.

      “You’re a knockout yourself,” he said. “Flat-chested, hell.” He laughed. “You’re dynamite!”

      “Thank you.”

      He searched her face appreciatively. “So innocent. J.D. would laugh himself sick at me.”

      “J.D.?” she asked curiously.

      “An old friend.” He grinned. “Close your eyes and let’s soak up some sun. Later, I’ll take you sight-seeing.” His eyes closed and then opened. “Not to the docks,” he added, and closed them again.

      She closed her own eyes with a smile. Miracles, she thought wistfully, did occasionally happen to lonely spinsters. These were going to be the four most beautiful days of her entire life. She wouldn’t take a second of them for granted, starting now.