"Raven, come here to me, please. I am weak and it would take most of my strength to come to you." There was gentleness in his voice, an honesty she found heartbreaking. She closed her eyes against the power in his voice, the soft caressing tone that rubbed sensuously like black velvet over her skin and crawled into her body, wrapping itself around her heart. "Not this time, Mikhail. We not only live in two different worlds, we have two separate value systems. We tried--I know you wanted to--but I can't do this. Maybe I never could have. It happened too fast and we don't really know one another." "Raven." Heat curled in her very name. "Come here to me." She pressed her fingers to her forehead. "I can't, Mikhail. If I let you get around me again, I'll lose respect for myself." "Then I have no choice but to come to you."