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“So you don’t trust Caleb because he tried to buy all of your farm.”
She avoided his eyes. “There were other reasons.”
“Name one.”
“I can’t,” she admitted. “It’s just a feeling that I have; nothing I can prove.”
“Prove?” When she didn’t respond, he reached over and touched her cheek with his index finger. “Prove what?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly.
“Dani,” he whispered, pulling her chin so that she was forced to stare into his eyes, “you can trust me.”
“Aren’t you the man who just said he had a bargain with Johnson—not with me?”
His gaze slid to her mouth. “What do you think Caleb has done to you?”
Gambling, she said, “I think he’s done everything he could think of to discredit me, make me sell my land to him and ruin me financially.”
Chase dropped his finger and whistled softly. “Heavy charges.”
“Like I said, there’s nothing I can prove.” She tossed a rock into the creek. “At least not yet. So, how come you’re involved with him?”
“Good question.”
“You went to him when you needed financing.”
“Actually, I’d never laid eyes on him before. But he knew all about me and my company.”
“Isn’t that odd since your company is located in Boise?”
“I don’t know,” Chase admitted, his blue eyes clouding as he pondered the question that had been nagging at him for over two years. “There wasn’t much competition in the business at the time. Relive Inc. had a corner on the stream-rebuilding market and Johnson claimed to have known my mother, before she was married.”
“She’s never mentioned him?”
Chase shook his head. “She’s dead.”
“Oh . . . I’m sorry.”
Shrugging off the uncomfortable feeling that settled on him each time he thought about his mother knowing Caleb, Chase placed his hands behind his head and leaned against the trunk of a cottonwood. “So why don’t you tell me what, specifically, Caleb’s done to make you so damned mad?”
“I don’t think that would be wise.”
“Why?”
“Probably for the same reason you won’t tell me why you decided to ignore my edict, as you called it, and crossed the fence.”
A slow smile spread across his rugged features and his eyes warmed as he looked at her. “Maybe I just wanted to see you again.”
“So you waded in a frigid creek with all those bottles of yours? No way.”
Seductive blue eyes delved into hers. “It worked, didn’t it?” he asked, brushing a golden strand of hair from her cheek and letting his fingers linger at her nape.
Dani’s breath caught somewhere in her throat. “Don’t you have work to do?”
“Probably.” He inched his head closer to hers until the warmth of his breath fanned her face and his arms surrounded her shoulders. With eyes fixed on hers, he leaned closer still, and his lips brushed slowly over hers in an agonizing bittersweet promise that destroyed all her defenses.
I can’t let this happen again, Dani thought, but didn’t stop him. His fingers caressed her arms as he drew her closer, tighter against his chest and she could hear her thundering heartbeat echoing his. When he pressed his mouth over hers and kissed her, she felt the raging passion that had been destroying his nights and driving him insane during the day. Its fire ignited her own blood and it coursed in wild, hot tandem through her trembling body.
