“Once they were inside the park Bay asked, “Isn’t there a store at the Rio Grande Village?”“What is it you need?”“Chocolate.”“It’s a hundred degrees in the shade,” he said. “Chocolate is going to melt.”“Well, actually, it isn’t chocolate I need. It’s something else. I didn’t want to embarrass you.”“What?”“Tampax.”He eyed her sideways. “Why didn’t you bring some from home? Or pick some up at the safeway?”She flushed. “I didn’t think of it. Not that it’s any of your business, but my periods aren’t regular.”He made a disgusted sound. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to bring you along.”

“I never got to take you to the prom. You went with Henry Featherstone. And you wore a peach-colored dress.”“How could you possibly know that?” Callie asked.“Because I saw you walk in with him.”“You didn’t know I was alive in high school,” Callie scoffed.“You had algebra first period, across the hall from my trig class. You ate a sack lunch with the same three girls every day, Lou Ann, Becky and Robbie Sue. You spent your free period in the library reading Hemingway and Steinbeck. And you went straight home after school without doing any extracurricular activities, except on Thursdays. For some reason, on Thursdays you showed up at football practice. Why was that, Callie?”Callie was confused. How could Trace possibly know so much about her activities in high school? They hadn’t even met until she showed up at the University of Texas campus. “I don’t understand,” she said.“You haven’t answered my question. Why did you come to football practice on Thursdays?”“Because that was the day I did the grocery shopping, and I didn’t have to be home until later.”“Why were you there, Calllie?”Callie stared into his eyes, afraid to admit the truth. But what difference could it possibly make now? She swallowed hard and said, “I was there to see you.”He gave a sigh of satisfaction. “I hoped that was it. But I never knew for sure.”Callie’s brow furrowed. “You wanted me to notice you?”“I noticed you. Couldn’t you feel my eyes on you? Didn’t you ever sense the force of my boyish lust? I had it bad for you my senior year. I couldn’t walk past you in the hall without needing to hold my books in my lap when I saw down in the next class.”“You’re kidding, right?”Trace chuckled. “I wish I were.”“Then it wasn’t an accident, our meeting like that at UT?”“That’s the miracle of it,” Trace said. “It was entirely by accident. Fate. Kisma. Karma. Whatever you want to call it.”

“I hurt my hip, too.”“Let me see.”She made a face and yelped when her cheek protested even that slight movement. “You don’t need to see my hip. It’s fine.”“If the skin’s broken, it’ll need cleaning, too,” he said, unbuckling her belt.“Stop that.”“Think of me as your doctor,” he said, as he unsnapped and then unzipped her jeans.“My doctor doesn’t usually undress me,” she snapped. “And my patients already come undressed.”He laughed. “Life your hips,” he said. “Up!” he ordered, when she hesitated.She put her one good hand on his shoulder to brace herself and lifted her hips as he pulled her torn jeans down. To her surprise, her bikini underwear was shredded, and the skin underneath was bloody. “Uh-oh.”She was still staring at the injury on her hip when she felt him pulling off her boots. She started to protest, saw the warning look in his eyes, and shut her mouth. He pulled her jeans off, leaving her legs bare above her white boot socks. “Was that really necessary?”“You’re decent,” he said, straightening the tails of her Western shirt over her shredded bikini underwear. “I can put your boots back on if you like.”Bay shook her head and laughed. “Just get the first-aid kit, and let me take care of myself.”He grimaced. “If I’m not mistaken, you packed the first-aid kit in your saddlebags.”Bay winced. “You’re right.” She stared down the canyon as far as she could see. There was no sign of her horse. “How long do you think it’ll take him to stop running?”“He won’t have gone far. But I need to set up camp before it gets dark. And I’m not hunting for your horse in the dark, for the same reason I’m not hunting for your brother in the dark.”“Where am I supposed to sleep? My bedroll and tent are with my horse.”“You should have thought of that before you started that little striptease of yours.”“You’re the one who shouted and scared me half to death. I was only trying to cool off.”“And heating me up in the process!”“I can’t help it if you have a vivid imagination.”“It didn’t take much to imagine to see your breasts,” he shot back. “You opened your blouse right up and bent over and flapped your shirt like you were waving a red flag at a bull”“I was getting some air!”“You slid your butt around that saddle like you were sitting right on my lap.”“That’s ridiculous!”“Then you lifted your arms to hold your hair up and those perfect little breasts of yours—” “That’s enough,” she interrupted. “You’re crazy if you think—”“You mean you weren’t inviting me to kiss my way around those wispy curls at your nape?”“I most certainly was not!”“Could’ve fooled me.”She searched for the worst insult she could think of to sling at him. “You—you—Bullying Blackthorne!”“Damned contentious Creed!”

“As she lifted her own backpack over the side of the black, heavy-duty dodge pickup, Owen took it out of her hands and set it beside the one-man tent and sleeping bag the FBI had provided for him.“I could have done that,” she said.“Sure you could. But my daddy taught me a gentleman always helps a lady.” Bay was so startled at what he’d said, and the chagrined way he’s said it, that she laughed. “Oh, my god. Chauvinism is alive and well—”“We call it chivalry, or Southern courtesy, ma’am,” he said. She realized he was heading around the truck to open the door for her.She stepped in front of him and said, “It’s going to be a long trip if you refuse to let me pull my weight. I can get my own door, Mr. Blackthorne.”For a minute, she thought he was going to make an issue of it. Then he touched the brim of his hat, shot her a rakish grin that turned her insides to mush, and said, “Whatever you say, Mizz Creed.”She was so flustered, she took a half step backward, slid into the seat when he opened the door for her after all, and said, “My friends call me Bay.”Bay flushed as she realized what she’d said. As he came around the hood and got in, she said, “That is—I mean—you know what I mean!”He belted himself into the driver’s seat and started the engine, before he turned to her and said, “My friends call me Owe. You can call me Owen.”She stared at him disbelief. “Oh. You. Blackthorne, you.”

“Stay put,” he said. “I don’t want you setting off any explosives that’ll get us both killed.”“Let me go with you.”“I don’t want you getting hurt, Red.”There was something about the sound of his voice that gave her pause. “Don’t tell me you care.”He ruffled her hair as though she were four instead of twenty-five. “All right, I won’t. Just stay put.”

“Billy pulled her snug against his body, forgetting his arousal in the urgent need to give her comfort.He felt her stiffen, sought the reason, and realized she must have felt his erection. She shoved him away with the flat of her palms and stared up at him, her eyes wide with surprise. Or maybe shock was a better word.Billy knew instantly what he’d lost. The wariness in her gaze spoke for itself. She’d always trusted him implicitly. Like a brother. But it was a lover’s body she’d felt. He could see she was astonished that he’d become aroused by touching her.He let his hands drop to his sides. He didn’t think excuses would work, but he was willing to give them a try. His mouth curled up on one side in a cock-eyed grin. “Sorry about that. The feel of a female body does that to a man, whether he wants it to happen or not.”“It shouldn’t happen between us,” she said with certainty. “We’re friends.”He shrugged. “You’re female. I’m male. Sometimes it happens.”“Not to us,” she insisted. She stared into his face suspiciously. “Or has it?”“It might have happened once or twice. No big deal.”She stared at the visible bulge in his jeans, then glanced up at him, her face flushed and said, “It looks pretty big to me.”Billy couldn’t help grinning. “Summer, you can’t be this naïve. This is how a man reacts when he’s around an attractive woman.”“You find me attractive?”He saw the startled interest in her eyes and realized he’d opened another can of worms. He didn’t want her judging him as a prospective suitor. There was no way he could match up to the men her father presented to her on a silver platter.“Any man would find a pretty girl like you attractive,” he said, backpedaling as fast as he could. He flipped one of her golden curls back from her shoulder and said, “Curls this bouncy, and eyes like topaz jewels, and a nose this nosy.” He tapped her playfully on the nose. “What man wouldn’t react like I did?”

“If she dies, you’re all to blame,” he said, turning accusing eyes on his family and hers. “This damned feud has to stop. Here. Now. For good.” He turned his gaze to Sam and said, “I’m sorry for what happened to you. It was an accident, plain and simple. I love your sister and I am, by God, going to make her my wife.” He turned to the rest of them and said, “And we’re going to be showing up for the holidays, and you’d better damned well make us welcome.”Owen was crying, the tears streaming unashamedly town his face. “I love Bayleigh Creed. Do you hear me? I love her!”“I think everyone can hear you just fine,” Bay murmured. “Oh, God, Red,” he said, smiling down at her through the blur of tears. “I thought you were dying.”She lifted a shaky hand to her head, but he caught it before she could touch the wound. “My head hurts like hell. But I enjoyed the speech, Owe.”