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Chase let out a sigh and rolled his eyes heavenward. “And just two hours ago, I thought I’d never darken your doorstep again. But here I am.”
“Why?”
“Maybe to apologize,” he said thoughtfully, his voice as low and seductive as the cool breeze blowing from the west.
“And maybe to try and wear me down so that I’ll sell my land to Caleb.”
“Do you really believe that? After this afternoon in Johnson’s study? If you don’t remember who was on that white charger—”
She shook her head and laughed. The lamplight caught in the long, silken strands of her hair, turning the soft brown to gold. “Like I said, I really don’t know what to believe. Not anymore. But I’ve got to hand it to you, McEnroe, you don’t give up easily.”
“Not when something is important.” He lifted his hand to touch the bottom of her chin, forcing her gaze to meet his.
She swallowed against the dryness settling in her throat. “And this is?” she asked. “Is it that important to get your company back?”
His finger slid sensually down her neck to rest on her shoulder, near the strap of her sundress. “It was,” he admitted, his eyes following the path of his finger. “But I’m afraid it’s gone further than that.”
“Oh?”
“Much further.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
His eyes centered on her lips. “This whole mess is driving me out of my mind. And it isn’t just my business anymore. Hell, I’m not sure I really even give a damn about it, not after all the trouble I’ve had with Johnson. But you. You’re something else again. What was important to me is all confused and the damnedest thing is that all I can think about is you. And me. Together.”
She licked her lips and waited, her heart hammering so loudly it drowned the other sounds of the night.
“You’re what’s important to me. You, Dani.”
Hating herself for asking, she took a step backward to break the intimacy of the moment and whispered, “Why, Chase?” Her voice was raspy with emotion. “Why am I important? So that you can get your company back? So that you can get your job with Caleb completed and go back to Idaho?” She inched backward until she felt the rough siding of the house.
“If only things were so simple.” He ran one hand over his face and leaned his back against the screen door as he stared into the night. Shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, he rotated his head between tense shoulders. “Everything was so cut and dried a few weeks ago. Black and white. No gray. Now everything’s a mess.” He looked at her and saw the skepticism in her gaze. “I just know that nothing’s been the same since I met you.”
“Better or worse?”
His smile was easy, lazily stretching over his tanned skin. “A little of both maybe.”
“It couldn’t be all that bad because you’re still here, when I told Caleb I didn’t want any of his men on my land.”
Chase ran a tired hand over his chin. “I’m not one of ‘his men.’ If I were, I wouldn’t have saved your neck today.”
Dani’s chin jutted forward a bit. “Saved my neck?” she repeated. “I was doing fine—”
“You were losing control.” Chase moved and sat on the railing of the porch, while his gaze cut across the fields to the hill on which the Johnson house stood. “Caleb had you just where he wanted you and—”
“And?” she asked, defiance sparking in her eyes.
He glanced back at her. “—and you’ve got a gorgeous neck.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then you’re being an arrogant, chauvinistic male.” But she couldn’t help but grin, exposing the hint of a dimple.
“I’m being honest. And that kind of insult went out in the seventies.”
“You are, without exception, the most frustrating man I’ve ever met.”
