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“That’s right.” Touching her lightly under the chin, he tipped her face up to his, staring into near-perfect features that were already indelibly etched in his mind. Her cheeks were rosy, her hazel eyes wide as they searched his, her ebony hair curling softly around her face. “I’ve been trying to exorcise you for eight years.”
“And were you successful?”
His mouth tightening at the corners, he said, “Doesn’t look like it, does it?”
“It did for eight years.”
His eyelids lowered to half-mast. “Not really.”
Cassie’s heart pounded. If only she could believe him. “And now?”
“Now is difficult, Cass,” he admitted. “A real problem. Every time I shove you out of my mind, you find a way to push yourself right back in.”
“Not true. I haven’t bothered you once.”
“Ah, Cassie,” he said with a world-weary sigh, his defenses slipping. “You didn’t have to try. You were always there—even when I thought I’d forgotten you, something would trigger a memory, and there you’d be.”
“If you expect me to believe that you’ve been pining for the past eight years—”
“I don’t pine.”
“I didn’t think so.”
“But I was bothered.”
“Not enough to call, or write, or stop by,” she pointed out, trying to remember just how much pain he’d caused. But here in the half-light, alone with him, those agonizing memories seemed to slip away.
“I wasn’t around.”
“Your choice,” she reminded him, aware of his fingers, hard and warm, against her chilled skin, and angry with herself for even listening to him.
“I didn’t want to be bothered,” he said tightly, slowly caressing the column of her throat, his gaze delving even deeper into hers.
Darkness settled between the decrepit facades of the time-worn buildings, and Cassie wished she had the willpower to draw away, to demand to be taken home, to tell him she never wanted to see him again as long as she lived. But she didn’t. Mesmerized by his silvery eyes, she asked, “What made you change your mind?”
“You.”
She laughed, and the sound echoed through the trees.
“I’m serious,” he said softly. “As long as I was in another city, or state or country, I could keep away from you. But once I was back here—”
“You’ve been here for months,” she cut in, forcing herself not to fall under his spell. “You didn’t come see me until Black Magic disappeared.”
A crooked smile twisted his lips. “Part of the time I was laid up,” he replied, bending to push his face closer to hers.
“And the rest?”
“Willpower.”
“So much for my powers of seduction,” she mocked.
“Oh, you’ve got them,” Colton whispered, his breath fanning her face, “and I’m not immune. But I had everything under control. Until I saw you again.”
“What’s this all about, Colton?” she asked, her voice sounding more ragged than she’d hoped. She wanted to appear in control when all of her senses were reeling; her nerve endings tingled from his touch, her nostrils were filled with his scent, her eyes were riveted to the sensual line of his lips.
“I just wanted to be alone with you,” he admitted, his voice as rough as her own.
“In a ghost town?”
