was, would, at best, alter the design. At worst, he'd send those bricks tumbling down to ruin.
She'd kept away from him since the night she'd taken him into her bed. Just to prove she could.
But she had a smile ready for him now, a slow, cat-at-the-mouse-hole smile, and stood her ground as the dog raced over, tearing through the ground fog, to meet him.
Rufus leaped, slopped his tongue over Declan's face, then collapsed, belly up, for a rub.
It was, Lena knew, Rufus's way of showing unconditional love.
Charms dogs, too, she thought as Declan crouched down to rub and wrestle. The man had entirely too much appeal for anybody's good.
Especially hers.
'Rufus!' she called out, bringing the dog to his feet in a flurry of muscle and limbs that nearly put Declan on his ass. And laughing, she tossed the ball she carried high in the air, nipped it handily on its fall. Rufus charged her, a blur of black fur and enthusiasm. She hurled the ball over the pond. Rufus sailed up, over the water, and nabbed the ball with his teeth seconds before his massive splash.
'The Bo Sox could use you two.' As the dog paddled his way to shore, Declan strode up, cupped his hands under Lena's elbows, and lifted her off her feet. He had an instant to see her blink in surprise before he covered her mouth with his, and took her under.
She gripped his shirt, not for balance, though her feet were dangling several inches off the ground. But because he was under it, all that muscle and heat and man.
She heard the dog bark, three deep throaty rumbles, then the water he shook off himself drenched her. She wouldn't have been surprised if it had steamed off her skin.
'Morning,' Declan said and dropped her back on her feet. 'Where y'at?”
'Woo.' She had to give him credit for both greetings, and pushed a hand through her hair. 'Where y'at?' she responded, then reached up and rubbed a hand over his rough cheek. 'Need a shave, cher.”
'If I'd known you'd come walking my way this morning, I'd have taken care of that.”
'I wasn't walking your way.' She picked up the ball Rufus had dropped at her feet and sent it, and the dog, flying again. 'Just playing with my grandmama's dog.”
'Is she all right? You said you stayed over with her when she wasn't feeling well.”
'She gets the blues sometimes, is all.' And damn it, damn it, his instant and genuine concern touched her. 'Missing her Pete. She was seventeen when they got married, and fifty-eight when he died. More'n forty years is a long time to mesh lives.”
'Would she like it if I went by later?”
'She likes your company.' Because Rufus was thumping his tail impatiently, she winged the ball again.
'You said she has a sister. Any other family?”
'Two sisters, a brother, all still living.”
'Children?”
Her face shut down. 'I'm all she's got there. You been into town for any of the partying?”
Off limits, he decided. He let it go, for the moment. 'Not yet. I figured I'd go in tonight. Are you working?”
'Nothing but work till Ash Wednesday. People do like to drink before Lent comes.”
'Late hours for you. You look a little tired.”
'I don't much care for being up this early, but Grandmama, she's an early bird. She's up, everybody's up.' She lifted her arms high, stretched. 'You're an early bird yourself, aren't you, cher?”
'These days. Why don't you come back to the house with me, have some coffee, see what I've been doing with my time since I haven't been able to spend any with you.”
'I've been busy.”
'So you said.”
Her brows knit, forming a long, shallow line of annoyance between them. 'I say what I mean.”
'I didn't say different. But I'm making you edgy. I don't mind that, Lena.' He reached out to tug on her hair, amused and delighted to see temper darken her face. 'But I would mind if you think I'd settle for one night with you.”
'I sleep with you if I want, when I want.”
'And I'd mind,' he continued mildly, though the hand that gripped her arm before she could spin away was very firm. 'I'd mind a great deal if you think all I want is to get you in the sheets.”
'Men don't touch me unless I tell them they can touch me.' She shoved at his hand.
'You've never dealt with me before, have you?' There was steel in his fingers, in his tone. 'Just simmer down. Picking a fight isn't going to shake me loose, either. You wanted to keep your distance this week, okay. I'm a patient man, Lena, but I'm not a doormat. Don't think you're going to walk over me on your way out the door.”
Anger, she realized, wasn't the way to handle him. She had no doubt she could scrape away at that control and stir him up into a good shouting match of a fight. It would be interesting, even entertaining. But she had a fifty- fifty chance of losing it.
She didn't care for the odds.
Instead, she stroked a hand over his cheek. 'Aw now, cher.' Her voice was liquid silk. 'What you getting so het up about? You got me irritable, that's all. I'm not at my best so early in the day, and here you being all tough and surly. I don't mean to hurt your feelings.”
She rose on her toes and kissed his cheek.
'What do you mean to do, Angelina?”
There was something about the way he used her whole name that put her back up. A kind of warning. 'Now, Declan honey, I like you. I truly do. And the other night, why, you just about swept me off my feet. We had ourselves a real good time, too, didn't we? But you don't want to be making more out of it than it was.”
'What was it?”
She lifted her shoulders. 'A very satisfying interlude, for both of us. Why don't we leave it at that and be friends again?”
'We could. Or, we could try it this way.”
He yanked her to him, dragged her up to her toes. And plundered her mouth. No patience this time, no reason, no dreamy mating of lips. It was a branding, and they both knew it.
Rufus gave a warning growl as she struggled. Even when the growl turned to a snarl, Declan ignored it. He fisted a hand in her hair, pulled her head back, and took them both deeper. Temper, hurt and hunger all stormed inside him and flavored the kiss.
She couldn't resist it. Not when the punch of emotions slammed into her system, liberating needs she'd hoped to lock down. On a muffled oath, she wrapped her arms around his neck and met the ferocity of the kiss.
With a whine, Rufus settled down to chew at the ball.
'We're not done with each other.' Declan ran proprietary hands down her arms.
'Maybe not.”
'I'll come in tonight, take you home after you close. Wednesday, after things quiet down, I'd like you to come out here. We'll have dinner.”
She managed to smile. 'You cooking?”
He grinned, touched his lips to her brow. 'I'll surprise you.”
'You usually do,' she retorted when he walked away.
She was irritated with herself. Not just for losing a battle, but for cowardice. It was cowardice that had pushed her to start the fight in the first place.
She trudged through the marsh while Rufus raced into the trees, through the thick green undergrowth in hopes of scaring up a rabbit or a squirrel.
She stopped at the curve of what had been known as far back as memory stretched as Bayou Rouse. This mysterious place with its slow-moving, shadowy water, its cypress bones and thick scents, was as much her world as the crooked streets and lively pace of the Quarter.
She'd run in this world as a child, learned the difference between a wren and a sparrow, how to avoid a copperhead nest by its cucumber whiff, how to drop a line and pull up a catfish for supper.
It was the home of her blood, as the Quarter had become the home of her ambition. She didn't come back to
