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“Maybe not,” he said, his voice calm, gentle. “Then again, you won’t know if you don’t try me.”

It was cold, sitting naked on the floor. She instinctively rolled into Silas. For the warmth, she told herself. For the body heat. Her head fit nicely in the crook of his shoulder. “I’m sorry. A bad memory came out of nowhere,” she said.

“Must’ve been a doozy. Want to tell me about it?”

“No.” He found me. I moved again, and again he found me. If a neighbor hadn’t heard the commotion and interrupted him, I’d be dead and he’d have Mia. I can’t allow that to happen, not ever. She couldn’t tell Silas what Blake had done to her, couldn’t make him understand.

Because he wasn’t like her ex-husband.

She gathered the courage to tilt her head back and look up. Silas was beautiful, by the moonlight coming through the window. Hard, yes, but also beautiful. If he was angry or frustrated that she’d pulled away, it didn’t show. Not in his face, not in his voice.

She didn’t want Blake to have the power to rob her of even the simplest pleasures of life. A man in her bed. Human contact. And yes, a damned, long overdue orgasm. “Can we try again?”

Chapter 9

Silas still didn’t know what had brought Gabi to Mystic Springs, what would make a beautiful young woman live the way she did. She’d been here a year, and in all that time he’d never even wondered why. Obviously she was hiding from something. The dried mud on her license plate confirmed it. Could be legal trouble, but he didn’t think so. Judging by her reaction in bed a man had done this to her. He didn’t get angry often, but that did it.

Anything that happened between them tonight would be on her terms. Even if that anything turned out to be nothing.

There were a hundred ways for him to chase Gabi out of town. Some would be easy; others pretty damn tough. None of them would be pleasant. Catching that word — mine — from Mia had made him question everything for a while. Tonight Mia had just been a baby, with no hint that she might have Springer blood. Then again, tonight she’d been happy and well-fed, with Judge at her side. When she and the bloodhound had first claimed one another and she’d believed her new friend was going to be taken away, the child had been in deep distress. That emotion might’ve triggered the aberration.

Even if Mia did have Springer blood, she might not display any indication again until she reached puberty. There were thousands of people out in the world who had descended from one Springer family or another and were ignorant of that fact. He didn’t worry about them, why should he get obsessed with one kid?

Silas dismissed all thoughts of babies and Brigadoon. Whatever had brought him to this moment, he liked it. He liked being here, in this place and time, more than he should.

Sitting naked on the floor at the side of her bed, Gabi leaned in and up to kiss him. Gently at first, then with a building passion. A lingering hint of tension slowly left her body, until there was just this. Just the two of them.

Gabi was the one who pulled away but she did so reluctantly, not in a panic. She stood and offered her hand. He took it, admired the way this marvelously naked woman looked by the soft light that filled her bedroom, then rose to his feet and waited for her to tell him what to do.

For a moment she seemed uncertain, but that didn’t last long. She used her hands on him, exploring, arousing. She kissed his chest as her hands raked down his side, to his backside, and up again. It was as if she was attempting to learn every crevice, every inch of his skin. He was tempted to pick her up and throw her on the bed, but he didn’t. This was her show, and he would do nothing that might alarm or frighten her.

She guided him back into her bed, placing him on his back. She lay atop him for a moment, kissing, touching, and then, finally, she reached for the bedside table and grabbed the condom. She opened the packet with just a little bit of trouble, he didn’t offer to help and she didn’t ask, and sheathed him so slowly she almost pushed him too far. Almost.

This beautiful woman who had stirred him up inside and made him question everything looked him in the eye while she straddled him and took him in. She wasn’t afraid; her mind wasn’t elsewhere. There was no one in the bed, or in her mind, but the two of them. She was fully and completely in this moment. There was nothing else in her world, or his, but the way they came together.

She rode him slowly at first, then hard, and climaxed with a low moan that was all he needed to push him over the edge.

Afterward they were both motionless for a long moment, breathlessly depleted. Eventually reality returned. Gabi rolled off him, but she didn’t bother to slip under the covers. Her eyes were closed, her body relaxed. She was wonderfully on display.

Silas didn’t leap from the bed. He wanted to lie here a while longer, wanted to look at Gabi, to touch her.

Finally she opened her eyes and looked at him. “I don’t love you,” she whispered.

He understood. Love had burned him, once, had made it hard for him to trust. It had burned Gabi badly, judging by her reactions tonight. “I don’t love you, either.”

She seemed relieved. “I do like you, though, and tonight was lovely.”

“Lovely?” He smiled at her.

She laughed. Gabi had a great laugh; he’d never heard it before, not like this. It was real and free. The laughter didn’t last long, not nearly long enough. “Go. You can have the bathroom first. And I guess you have to get back to your place soon. Because of the dogs.”

“I have a helper on duty. I can stay as long as you want me to.” He left the bed, headed for the single, small bathroom. Gabi said nothing, not a single word. He added, “You could at least pretend to want me to stay.”

“Oh, Silas,” she said seductively as he reached the doorway. “Don’t go.”

He turned and looked at her. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”

Her lips pursed as her head returned to the pillow.