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Daylight made things so much clearer. “You’re doing everything imaginable to get hurt,” she chastised herself once she was inside the barn and the scent of dust and hay filled her nostrils. Her eyes adjusted to the dim interior and she looked around it lovingly. Old bridles, saddles and blankets were hung on the wall or sat on sawhorses in the corner. Huge bins of wheat and corn were still nearly overflowing, and the cattle and horses were shifting restlessly on the other side of the manger, chewing noisily, or indignantly stomping their feet or flicking their ears at the ever-present flies.
“God, I love this place,” Dani whispered. “How can I ever give it up?” Slumping onto a broken bale of hay, she took off her gloves and set them on an old barrel where she kept her oats.
“Regrets?” Chase’s voice was clear and loud.
Dani nearly jumped out of her skin. Heart pounding, she looked up and saw Chase lounging against the barn door, his arms folded over his chest, the bright morning sunlight at his back. His blue eyes looked deep into hers.
“A few, I guess,” she admitted, standing nervously and dusting her hands together.
“I thought we got over that hurdle last night.”
“Last night . . .” To her embarrassment she blushed. “Look, Chase, I—I’m not a prude, not really. But neither am I the type of woman who sleeps with men I barely know.”
“You know me.”
“That’s the problem; I don’t. I don’t know a damned thing about you! Oh, sure, I know that you own a company and you’re Caleb Johnson’s partner and you owe him a bundle of money, and he knew your mother way-back-when, but that’s about it.” All her insecurities came right to the surface. “I don’t know anything else. You could be married with a wife and six kids.”
“I’m not married and I don’t have any children.” He pushed his hair out of his eyes and shook his head. “But you knew that, didn’t you? Certainly you know enough about me to realize that I wouldn’t be here if I had a family.”
“What I know is that you’re here and you’re Caleb’s partner.”
He let out a long, tired sigh.
“Actually,” she said, leaning over the top of the manger and scratching a two-year-old heifer between the eyes. The cow jerked her head upward and Dani took her hand away, leaning on it instead. “You’re here because you’re in business with Caleb.”
Anger pinched the corners of his mouth. “I’m in Martinville because of Caleb, yes. And I want to work the creek because of him.” He started advancing upon her. “But being here, with you, has nothing to do with Johnson. I’m here because I want to be with you; because for a reason I don’t understand, I’m compelled to be here.”
He didn’t stop until he’d reached her and once there he placed his arms around her waist. Dani knew that she had to break free or she’d be lost to him, but when she tried to struggle, his arms tightened and he had the audacity to smile. “Tell me you didn’t want last night to happen.”
“I didn’t.”
He kisse
d her slowly, lazily. “Tell me you regret it.”
Warmth began to spread throughout her body. “I—I regret it,” she whispered.
Chase’s eyes centered on her racing pulse, visible in the hollow of her throat. “Tell me it will never happen again.”
“It won’t . . . oh, Chase . . . please, don’t,” she said, but couldn’t help sighing against him when his hands slid under her T-shirt and splayed familiarly against the muscles of her back. She trembled at his touch and her mouth parted expectantly as he kissed her.
“Tell me you don’t love me,” he prodded.
“I don’t even know you.”
The hands tightened. “Say it then.”
“I don’t . . . I don’t love you.”
“And you’re a liar.” His fingers began to move sensually against her skin and he lifted his head to stare into the uncertainty in her eyes.
“Chase—” She tried to push against his chest but his next words stopped her cold.
“I love you, Dani. It’s as simple as that. I love you and I don’t know what the hell to do about it. My instincts tell me I should run, just like yours tell you to, but I can’t.”
She swallowed and tried to stop the thundering of her heart and her rapidly racing pulse.
“Dani, I want you to marry me.”
