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“You’re a bastard,” she said. “A first-class A-1 bastard, and I never . . . never want you to set foot on this place again!”

“You’re making a mistake,” he said slowly. A muscle worked in his jaw and the skin over his forearms tightened.

“Not nearly as bad as the one I almost made.”

He pushed his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and looked upstream through the leafy overhanging branches of the trees to the fence and beyond, where his men and machinery were still in position on Johnson’s property. When he turned to her again, he was able to control some of his rage. “I didn’t want any of this to happen.”

“Good. Then we can both forget that it did.”

“I want to help you,” he admitted, and the torture in his voice almost convinced her. But not quite.

“I don’t want to hear any more of your lies. Now just get the hell off my property!” Reaching down, she scooped up his fishing creel. “And take all of this with you!” She threw it at him, but the toss went wild. Chase scrambled to catch it, but the creel fell on the rocks near the bank. The glass within the wicker basket tinkled and shattered. Mud and water started trickling through the woven bottom of the creel.

“No!” Chase was horrified. He picked up the creel and opened the lid, eyeing the shattered vials, oblivious to the water running through the wicker and down his jeans. “Do you realize what you’ve done?” he accused, fire returning to his eyes as he looked up at her. “Every vial is ruined!”

“I don’t really give a damn!”

He let the creel fall to the ground and advanced upon her. “What was in those jars might just have been the evidence you need!”

“Evidence?”

“That Caleb isn’t on the up-and-up!”

“What? How can water samples—” Shaking her head as if to clear it, she focused sharp hazel eyes on him. “If you expect me to believe that you were trying to prove that Caleb Johnson is a crook, you’ve got another guess coming! You’re his partner,” she reminded him, her voice rising. “You owe him a ton of money as well as your entire business!”

Chase was standing over her, looking down at her with judicious blue eyes. His nostrils were flared, his chiseled mouth tight. “Go ahead and believe what you want to, lady, but I’m going to get to the bottom of this feud between you and Johnson with or without your help.”

“Be my guest,” she threw back at him, “as long as it’s not on my property!”

He looked like he wanted to kill her. The frustration and anger in his look bore deep into her soul. Dani’s heart froze and her lips parted in surprise when he grabbed her, jerked her body against his and forced his head downward so that his lips crushed hers and stole the breath from her lungs.

Struggling, she managed to pull one of her hands free and she swung it upward, intending to land it full force on his cheek. But he was faster than she would have guessed and he grabbed her wrist, pinned her hand behind her and continued kissing her, forcing his tongue through her teeth, moving his body sensually against hers until, to her mortification, she felt her body responding. Her breasts peaked, her heartbeat accelerated and she felt like dying a thousand deaths.

When he lifted his head from hers, he slowly released her, dropping her hands. How he was coming to loathe himself. “Oh, God, Dani,” he whispered, pushing the hair out of his eyes with shaking fingers. “I’m sorry.”

She swallowed and let out a shuddering sigh. “So am I.”

“You are, without exception, the most beautiful, intriguing and frustrating woman I’ve ever met.”

“And you’re the most arrogant, self-serving bastard I know,” she said, holding the back of her hand against her swollen lips.

He stepped toward her, but she held up a trembling palm, “Just leave,” she whispered. “Go away. Get away from me! Why don’t you find the next train to Boise and jump on it! I can handle Caleb Johnson by myself!”

“Can you?”

“Yes!”

His jaw thrust forward, his eyes glinting a silver-blue, Chase reached down, jerked on his waders, picked up his creel and strode along the bank.

Dani watched him leave, positioning herself outside of the thicket so that she could follow his movements as he walked through the trees and into the sunshine, across the field and through the parted strands of barbed wire. Tears stood in her large eyes and she wondered why she couldn’t find the strength to hate him.

Chapter Five

Early in the afternoon, wearing a proud smile and waterlogged jeans, Cody returned with two small trout in his possession. Runt scampered up the two steps of the porch and flopped in the shade to pant near Dani’s chair.

She was sitting in her favorite rocker, mending some of his clothes and hoping that a few pairs of the pants would still fit him for the coming school year.

“Congratulations,” she said when Cody proudly displayed his catch. “Looks like we have fish for dinner.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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