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The sound of footsteps on gravel made him look up. He could see Megan approaching. She carried a wrapped parcel under one arm. The other swung freely at her side. She looked up at the house and came to a complete stop.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I came to apologize."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"I don't know. It's the truth."
She started walking again, this time moving quickly toward him, then up the stairs. "Nothing is ever simple with you, Justin. Do you know the kind of gossip there would be if someone spotted you here?" She opened the front door and ducked inside. "Hurry. Get in here before someone sees you. You might not care about the talk, but I do."
He rose slowly and stepped onto the porch. For the first time in his life, he was going in through the front door. He should have been pleased, but he wasn't. He'd been a fool to come back. Nothing had changed. Megan Bartlett still cared about her reputation more than anything in the world. And he was still just that bastard Justin Kincaid.
Chapter Three
JVlegan held the door open impatiently as Justin slowly stepped inside. If she didn't know better, she would swear he was taking as long as possible. Probably to punish her, she thought, shaking her head. She'd seen the anger in his eyes when just moments ago she'd accused him of not thinking of her reputation.
As soon as he was in the foyer, she slammed the door shut and adjusted the curtains on the side window. Her father had built the house on the far edge of town, opposite where all the new buildings had sprung up. He'd bought the surrounding land and enough of the woods to ensure privacy. Megan didn't get many visitors, but it would only take one to see Justin sitting on her front porch. Within hours, the entire town would know he'd been there and her reputation would be ruined. Not that he cared.
She glared up at him. His brown eyes met hers and flashed with equal fire. The tension between them crackled. She wanted to stomp her foot with irritation.
"Aren't you going to invite me to take a seat in the parlor?" he asked, his lazy drawl a direct contrast to the stiff set of his body and the angry, thin line of his mouth.
"No," she said curtly, even as the reminder of good manners made her feel guilty. It was wrong to keep a guest standing in the foyer. But Justin wasn't a guest. Thank goodness her father wasn't alive to see this moment. Why he would have-She swallowed hard as she met his stare. The tension she'd been aware of moments before charged the air. Like a sum-
mer electrical storm, when bolts of lightning ripped across the sky and loud claps of thunder echoed so forcefully the house shook. But during those storms there was no rain for relief, no soft patter of individual drops to provide counterpoint to the violence and beauty. Arid so it was in this room. There was the combination of anger and the past with nothing gentle to ease the intensity between them.
The skin on her arms puckered and a shiver raced down her spine. She lowered her gaze from Justin's dark brown eyes to his mouth, then to his broad shoulders and chest. His thick coat only made him look more powerful. And masculine.
He was a man, a man who had always been able to make her forget what was right and proper. He'd always been able to make her forget herself and all her good intentions. The ticking of the clock in the parlor suddenly sounded very loud. The steady sound seemed to echo in the house, reminding her she was completely alone with him. There were no witnesses, and no one to come to her rescue.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice low and quavering.
He shook his head, as if coming out of a dream, then moved away from her. There was very little light penetrating the curtained windows and soon they would be in darkness. Justin walked to the lamp she kept by the front door. Without asking her permission, he lit it. When the wick caught, he adjusted the flame until it burned brightly. Casually, as if he had the entire evening, and more time besides, he unbuttoned his coat.
Megan clutched at the fasteners at her throat. He hadn't done anything untoward, but she suddenly felt vulnerable, as if he'd started to undress. It's just a coat, she told herself. Most people took them off indoors. But most people hadn't kissed her on summer nights while sitting on the bank of the stream. Most people hadn't touched her waist and then moved higher to delicately caress her—
