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“I haven’t been here since I’ve been back,” Denver said, eyeing the lake’s smooth surface.
“It’s low this year,” Tessa remarked, conscious that her hand was still linked with Denver’s.
Glancing down at her, he smiled, then led her to the small stretch of sandy beach. Taking a clean handkerchief from his pocket, he dipped it in the water, then gently wiped her face. “Evidence of Frenzy’s victory,” he chuckled, exposing her freckles and tracing the slope of her cheek.
Shivering expectantly, she took the handkerchief from him. “You, too.” Though her hands shook a little, she pressed the wet cloth to his forehead and cleaned the dirt from his smooth brow. “That’s better.”
She tried to pull her hand away, but his fingers curled possessively around her wrist. His eyes turned dark blue. “You’re a fascinating woman, Tessa,” he said quietly, “the most fascinating woman I’ve ever met.”
Slowly, using his weight, he tugged on her arm, pulling her down to the dry grass, half-lying beside her. She knew she should get up, stop this madness before it started, but she couldn’t. Her heart thudded over the quiet lapping of the lake.
“You’re not what I expected.” His gaze delved deep into hers, so deep she was sure he could see her soul, that her love for him was painfully obvious. His fingertips moved leisurely over her wrist, as if they had all the time in the world to get to know each other again. The earth was warm against her back, the sky turning a soft shade of lavender.
“I thought you’d be the same as when I left.”
Her lips twisted wryly. “I grew up.”
“I noticed.” His eyes drifted down her body, his gaze scraping against her curves.
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
He traced her eyebrows with one finger and she had trouble concentrating on anything but the warmth in his touch.
“That’s the problem, Tessa,” he admitted, his eyes searching her face. “I’m not disappointed. I wish I was. Things would have been so much simpler.” He pulled her into the circle of his arms and held her close, his lips brushing her crown, his breath stirring her hair. She shouldn’t be this close to him, Tessa thought. She shouldn’t let his kind words in.
“I didn’t think you’d become so . . . determined. You always had a mind of your own but I thought you would change. That after the fire—” His breath fanned her ear and warning bells rang in her mind.
She couldn’t let him do this to her! Not now. Not when so many things were unsettled. Not when his scars on the inside were more visible than those across the back of his hand.
She pushed against his chest. Half of her wanted to stay curled in the security of his arms, the other half knew that lying with him near the deserted lake was dangerous. “If you taught me anything, Denver, it was that I had to stand on my own two feet.” The old bitterness returned; she struggled and failed to get away from him. “Fortunately Mitchell was around,” she added, remembering those first excruciating weeks.
“Mitch?”
“He helped me pull myself together!”
“I thought he went into the Army.”
“Not until he knew that I was okay,” she said quietly, remembering back to the pain of Denver’s rejection. It still hurt—that burning, gaping hole in her heart. “He was here when you weren’t.”
“And now he’s back—hanging around, doing nothing.”
“You just don’t understand, do you?” she scoffed. “He came back here after the Army because he had a few months to kill before he started school. He’s—he’s been a big help.”
“Doing what?” Denver asked skeptically.
“Making fence, feeding the stock, repairing the machinery. Just generally helping out.”
“And all this time I thought he was just sponging off you.”
Tessa’s temper flared. “That’s what happens when you live in California and make rash judgments!”
“Is that what I’ve done?” he mocked, refusing to release her.
Was he laughing at her? “Of course it is!”
“Tell me about life in L.A. As you see it,” he goaded.
She rose to the bait. “I’d be glad to.” Struggling up to one elbow, she shoved her hair from her eyes. “My guess is that you live in your chrome-and-glass apartment with a security guard at the door. Drive a sports car thirty miles an hour in bumper to bumper traffic. Spend vacations in Hawaii or Mexico or Catalina and for God’s sake wear an imported Italian suit!”
