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As she settled back, footsteps sounded on the wooden deck.
“Hello?” she called, wondering if one of the Jacobs sisters had forgotten something.
“It’s Seth.”
Heart tripping in her chest, she answered him. “Your sisters left. So did your brother.”
“My sisters were here?” He came around the end of the screen.
“You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t know.”
“They dropped by for a visit.”
She knew the bubbling water kept her body hidden. But she was also acutely aware of the fact that she was naked.
“Why?” he asked, eyes narrowing.
“I think they were checking me out.”
“They know we’re fighting,” he admitted.
“They also know we’re attracted to each other.”
“Well, I sure didn’t tell them that.”
“They’re not stupid, Seth. They figured out that something was going on.” And if they had figured it out, she couldn’t help worrying that someone else might, as well.
“How much do they know?”
“I told them I had the hots for you.”
His mouth flexed in a self-satisfied grin.
She ignored it. “I figured it was better to admit to that much than to let them guess anything else.”
“You have the hots for me?”
“Had. Past tense,” she lied.
His gaze slid meaningfully down to the roiling water that covered her nudity. “For me it’s have, present tense.”
Darby took refuge in a drink of wine, but it didn’t do anything to quell her awareness of him.
“Travis called after he left here,” he added.
Darby pulled up on her meandering hormones. She hoped Travis hadn’t shared his suspicions about Sierra Hotel’s military connection. She could understand his loyalty was to Seth and not to her, but gossip and speculation could be as bad for her future as the trains.
“Is that why you’re here?” She probed, watching his expression, debating whether to come clean with him. It was a risk, admitting to anyone her true purpose at Berlynn Lake. But if Seth was already suspicious, wasn’t it better to bring him onside? If she was very lucky, it might even help him understand the importance of her work.
“I came to give you this.” He held up an envelope, looking uncomfortable enough to worry her.
“What is it?” she asked with suspicion. So much for confiding in him. Though at least she knew Travis was a man of his word.
“A check from the city.”
She didn’t reach for it.
“It’s for the railway easement. The land appropriation went through.”
Both his words and flat tone reminded her starkly that he was the enemy. It didn’t matter how sexy he looked standing on her deck silhouetted by the mountains. She had no business wanting him. She had no business even considering wanting him all over again.
She put a hard edge into her tone. “So the city now owns part of my land.”
“It was land you didn’t even know you owned until two weeks ago.”
“Don’t I have to sign something to make it legal?”
He dropped the envelope on the side table. “The very nature of expropriation is that one party is unwilling. It would be ludicrous to expect you to sign.”
“So that’s that?”
“That’s that.” He paused, his expression softening enough to cause a little lurch in her chest. “I feel like I should apologize.”
She valiantly fought the sensation. “Now that would be ludicrous.”
“I am sorry.” His apology seemed genuine, and she wished with all her heart she could separate Seth the man from Seth the mayor. But she didn’t dare.
She stretched her arms across the lip of the hot tub. “At the end of all this, one of us is going to lose big, Seth. And if I win the referendum, I’m not planning to apologize to you.”
“Okay. Then I’m no longer sorry. At least, not about the expropriation.”
She wanted to ask what he was sorry for, but she bit down on her tongue.
They stared at each other in the waning light, the hum of the whirlpool motor and the lap of the water a backdrop to the silent emotions thickening between them. She wanted him to go, but she also wanted him to stay. They were both adversaries and lovers, and there didn’t seem to be a road map for that.
“Warm in there?” he asked.
“No.”
He nodded, but stood silent, still, watchful, every inch the cowboy.
She lifted her wineglass, and he watched intently as she put it to her lips.
“Taste good?” he asked in a deep, stirring voice.
“No.”
“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”
“I’m never going to make anything easy ever again.”
His mouth quirked in a half smile. “I’m pretty much counting on that.” Still, he didn’t leave, just stood there watching her while the warm water burbled around her bare thighs, teasing her skin, arousing her senses.
She cracked. “There’s an extra wineglass on the table.”
“Yeah?” He didn’t move.
She cast her gaze to the foaming water, then looked back up. “That’s as easy as I’m going to make it, Seth.”
Eight
Glass of merlot in one hand, Seth eased his body into the warm water of Darby’s large whirlpool tub. Sitting on the opposite side, she was gorgeous as always. Water foamed around her bare shoulders, dampening her auburn hair, while the filtered glow of the porch light silhouetted her face against the backdrop of dark hills. He sipped his wine, not making any further assumptions on her meaning, content to stay quiet and watch her.
She didn’t seem bothered by the silence, gazing right back at him.
“You met with my sisters?” He opened with something relatively safe. And he couldn’t help wondering how that had come about.
“They wanted to see the place,” she answered.
“Are you trying to recruit them?”
“I am,” she admitted openly. “Then, I’m hoping they can influence you.”
He smiled at her easy admission. He liked the way she hadn’t evaded, pulled punches or danced around the issue.
“Is it working?” He stretched one arm across the edge of the tub.
“I’m not sure. They’re talking about coming back here for a weekend getaway.”
“You’re bribing them?”
“I got the impression they planned to pay. I didn’t offer a freebie.” She toyed with the stem of her wineglass. “Though, now that you mention it…”
“You can’t use my own ideas against me.”
“Sure I can. All’s fair in…whatever this is.”
“What is this, Darby?” He sure couldn’t figure it out.
“A flirtation?” she suggested. “A fight?”
“I don’t want to fight with you,” he told her honestly. “I do want to flirt with you.”
“Only because it helps with your fight.”
“I wish it was that simple.”
“Then let’s make it simple.”
“And how do we do that?”
“We either stop flirting or we stop fighting.” As she spoke, the underwater lights came on, giving him an indistinct view of creamy skin beneath the surface. He was momentarily speechless.
“Photo sensor,” she explained. “They’re automatic.”
Seth didn’t quite manage a reply.
He took a swig of the wine, telling himself to get a grip. She was naked, and she was beautiful.
“Travis seems to be doing okay.” She shifted the conversation. “That was a smart thing he did, bringing Evan up here.”
Seth didn’t want to stop flirting. “Travis is a smart guy.”
“So no danger of him getting in another fistfight?”
“In the theoretical, my brother knows what to do and what not to do. But he’s got a temper, and if he thinks someone close to him needs defending, he’ll defend them.”
“That someone being you?”
“The family, our business interests or more generally the interests of the entire ranching community.”
“That’s a lot of people to defend.”
“So I’m a little worried.”
Darby unexpectedly smiled, and it lit up her face. Her green eyes glowed in the dim light, and the steam rising from the tub gave her an angelic appearance.
“Do you like having a big family?” she asked.
The question surprised him, but he rolled with it. He could handle a long game when necessary. “I do. And temper notwithstanding, Travis is a great brother.”
“Your sisters seem very nice.”
“For the most part, we all get along. My father had a stroke a couple of years ago, and my parents moved to Palm Springs after his rehab. But we see them as often as we can.”
