Blind Promises by Diana Palmer Page A

her. She gasped and clung to him to keep her balance, and the magic of his warmth and strength made her knees even weaker.
    “Dana?” he whispered, bending.
    Incredibly, he found her knees and back and lifted her completely off the floor in his arms, holding her to his chest.
    “Mr….van der Vere…” she protested.
    “My name is Gannon,” he breathed, searching blindly for her mouth. “Say it…”
    “Gannon…”
    His lips took his name from hers, and she felt their warm, soft pressure against her own with a leap of her heart. She stiffened, but when the pressure continued with the same tenderness, she let her taut muscles relax.
    “That’s it,” he whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to comfort you a little, that’s all. Please, don’t deny me the one altruistic gesture of my life.”
    She watched his face as he kissed her again, softly,
     
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    Diana Palmer
     
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    with the same undemanding pressure as before. His mouth was warm and hard, and she liked the feel of it rubbing against her own. She liked the minty sigh of his breath on her lips and the smell of him and the strength of his arms holding her.
    She let her arms slide around his neck and her mouth tentatively moved against his, a tiny movement like a tremor. He stiffened; his arms tightened. Then his brows began to knot and his face hardened. AH at once his mouth burrowed between her lips and the kiss became complete.
    She gasped and pushed at his shoulders, and he drew back immediately, breathing hard.
    “Predictable, wasn’t it, little one?” he whispered with a wry smile. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take liberties. I really did mean to comfort you and nothing more.”
    “It’s all right, I understand,” she said shakily. She watched his face with awe. She hadn’t dreamed that a kiss could be so…frighteningly affecting.
    “Perhaps we’d better have our coffee in more sedate surroundings after all,” he murmured dryly as he set her back on her feet. “You’re a temptation, miss, and you have a very sweet young mouth that I could learn to like all too well. I don’t want to see you rush wildly away because I lost my head in the darkness.”
    She dragged her robe closer. “As you said,” she replied, “it was the darkness. And my fear.”
    He touched her sleeve. “The wreck we saw this afternoon-it brought back unpleasant memories?”
    “Yes, sir.” She pushed back her hair. “Hadn’t we better go? Your stepmother will have a pot of coffee by now, I expect.”
    “Yes, I expect so.” He let her take his arm and lead
     
    him out of the room. “And I thought I was the patient,” he teased softly. “Perhaps we were both mistaken.”
    She made a tiny sound and smiled as they joined Lorraine in the dining room.
     
    Diana Palmer
     
    65

Chapter Five
A
    . minor crisis in Gannon’s company kept him occupied on the phone for hours the next day, and an unexpected visitor arrived just as the cook was putting dinner on the table.
    “Dirk!” Lorraine cried, smiling. She jumped up from the table and darted toward a tall, dark man while Dana tried to figure out who the newcomer was.
    He was as dark as Gannon was fair, and not nearly as big. He had an easy smile and his face was that of a man who laughed a lot. The only Dirk whom Dana had heard mentioned during her stay at the beach house was Gannon’s brother, but of course this couldn’t possibly be him…could it?
    “And who is this?” Dirk asked, when Lorraine stopped hugging him, nodding past her to where Dana sat neatly in her nurse’s uniform at the long table.
    “Gannon’s nurse, Dana Steele. Dana,” Lorraine said with a gay smile, “this is my other stepson, Dirk van der Vere.”
    “I’m very pleased to meet you,” Dana said politely.
    He grinned, and she realized suddenly that he wasn’t
     
    much older than she was. And where Gannon’s Dutch accent was detectable, Dirk spoke English without the trace of