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“You didn’t make love to me because of my looks,” she said, rolling to her side and stretching lazily. He watched as the bones of her ribs showed beneath her breasts and her abdomen hollowed as she raised her arms over her head.
“Didn’t hurt,” he drawled, watching the play of shadow and light upon her skin.
“No, but that wasn’t the attraction and you know it.” She smiled up at him and in a glimmer of an instant she reminded him of Kat. “You couldn
’t resist because I was a challenge, someone you shouldn’t have. Someone you didn’t want.” She stared so intently at him, he looked away. God, she was beautiful and looked so damned much like a woman he needed to forget.
“Wait a minute,” she said, and pushed herself to one elbow. “This isn’t some oedipal thing, is it? You’re not…we’re not here because I remind you of her, are we?” All playfulness left her features.
“Of course that’s not why we’re here.”
“But you and Kat…Oh, God…Zach…”
He faced her again. “I’d be a liar if I said you don’t look like her, or that I don’t see some of her in you. Yeah, yeah, I know that would make you London Danvers and I’m not ready to buy that yet, but let’s face it, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t resemble Kat.”
She reacted as if she’d been stung. Recoiled. Her face a mask of disbelief. “And so this…”—she motioned to the stirred ground where they’d made love—“…was all about her, about being with her, about screwing your stepmother.”
“No.”
“Of course it was,” she said, scooting away and reaching for her clothes. “You’ve told me I look like her, that you had an affair with her, and so you just wanted to see if I could measure up.”
“You really believe that?” he demanded, shock giving way to anger.
“It only makes sense.”
“That’s garbage, darlin’, and you know it!” He rolled over and grabbed her arm, forcing her to drop her top. His fingers coiled possessively over her wrist and he shoved his face to within inches of hers. Their noses nearly touched and he witnessed the shades of blue shift in her eyes. “From the get-go, you practically threw yourself at me,” he pointed out. “You chased me down.” With his free hand he motioned to the horses trying to graze on the grass that grew in patches between the trees. “In fact, you nearly ran me off the edge of the damned cliff.”
“But—”
“So enough of this Kat stuff, okay? Sure, you remind me of her and that’s more of a problem than you know. I’d rather forget her forever, but I’m not going to lie to you just to make you feel good. Yes, you look like her. Near enough to be her damned twin. But the resemblance is only on the outside. Believe me, you are nothing—no-damned-thing—like her! Got it?”
She didn’t answer and he shook her wrist.
“Got it, Adria?”
“I guess.” But she didn’t sound convinced.
“You know. What happened here—between us—isn’t about Kat. Never was. Never will be.”
“All right, all right,” she said, and pulled her arm from his grasp. “You’ve made your point, Danvers.”
“But you don’t believe me.”
“I don’t know what I believe anymore,” she admitted. “I don’t even know what I want to believe. You and me…what’s happening?”
“I know.” He glanced up at the heavens. How in the world had he let it go this far? And now that it had, could he ever break it off? When it came to this woman, he couldn’t think straight and he had the unsettling feeling that he would never get enough of her. Maybe she was more like Kat than he’d admitted. Christ, what a mess. When he glanced back at her, she was smiling, as if finding the vexation that had to be evident on his features amusing.
“Funny, is it?” He shook his head.
“More like impossible.”
“I’ll buy that.”
“Of all the things I thought would happen when I came to Portland, I never considered that I’d get involved with one of the Danvers family. I mean, I knew there would be resentment and distrust and a lot of pressure for me to back off, but this…what’s happening between us…believe me, it never crossed my mind until I saw you.”
“And then?”
“Yeah…and then.” She nodded and let out a long breath.
