Mouth slack with shock, he watched her walk away. She was dumping him. She'd just put him through the most emotional, most wrenching, most stunning experience of his life, and she was just walking away.
Well, fine, he thought, scowling at her retreating back. Dandy. That made it clean. He didn't want complications, or big, emotional parting scenes.
The hell he didn't.
She'd reached the kitchen door and just stepped over the threshold when he caught up with her. A tornado of temper, he snagged her shoulders, whirled her around.
'Just sex and science, is that it, Doc? I hope to hell I gave you plenty of data for one of your stinking papers.'
'What are you—'
'Don't you want one last experiment for the road?'
He dragged her up hard against him, crushed his mouth down on hers. It was brutal, and it was fierce. For the first time, she was afraid of him, and what he was capable of.
'Shane.' Shuddering, she wrenched her mouth free. 'You're hurting me.'
'Good.' But he released her, jerking away so that she nearly stumbled. 'You deserve it. You cold-blooded—' He managed to stop himself before he said something he wouldn't be able to live with later. 'How can you have slept with me, have shared everything we've shared, and then just turn around and walk, like it meant nothing to you but a way to pass some time?'
'I thought—I thought that's how it was done. I've heard people say that you stay friends with all the women you've—'
'Don't throw my past up at me!' he shouted. 'Damn it, nothing's been the same since you came here. You've tangled up my life long enough. I want you to go. I want you out.'
'I'm going,' she managed, and took one careful step, then another, until she'd reached the doorway.
'For God's sake, Rebecca, don't leave me.'
She turned back, steadied herself with one hand against the jamb. 'I don't understand you.'
'You want me to beg.' The humiliation was almost as vicious as the temper. 'Fine, I'll beg. Please don't go. Don't walk out on me. I don't think I can live without you.'
She put a hand to her head as she stated at him. All she could see was all that emotion swirling in his eyes. Too much emotion, impossible to decipher. 'You want me to stay? But—'
'What's the big deal about New York?' he demanded. 'So they've got museums and restaurants. You want to go to a restaurant, I'll take you to a damn restaurant. Now. Get your coat.'
'I—I'm not hungry.'
'Fine. You don't need a restaurant. See?' He sounded insane, he realized. Hell, he was insane. 'You've got that fancy computer, the modem and all those gizmos. You can work anywhere. You can work here.'
She wasn't used to having her brain frazzled. In defense, she latched on to the last thing he'd said. 'You want me to work here?'
'What's wrong with that? You've been getting along here, haven't you?'
'Yes, but-'
'Leave your equipment set up everywhere.' He threw up his hands. 'I don't care.' In a lightning move, he leaped forward and lifted her off her feet with hands under her elbows. 'I don't care,' he repeated. 'I'm used to it. Set up a transmitter in the hay barn, put a satellite dish on the roof. Just don't leave.'
The first hint of a smile curved her lips. Perhaps relationships weren't her forte, but she believed she was getting the idea. 'You want me to stay here?'
'How many languages do you speak?' Sheer frustration had him shaking her. 'Can't you understand English?' He dropped her back on her feet so that he could pace. 'Didn't I just say that? I can't believe I'm saying it, but I am. I'm not losing you,' he muttered. 'I'm not losing what I have with you. I've never felt this way about anyone. I didn't want to, but you changed everything. Now you're in my head all the time, and the thought of you not being where I can see you or touch you rips my heart out. It rips my damn heart out!' he shouted, spinning toward her with blood in his eye. 'You've got no right to do that to somebody, then leave!'
She started to speak, but the look on his face when she opened her mouth stopped her cold.
'I love you, Rebecca. Oh, God, I love you. And I have to sit down.'
His knees were buckling. He was sure he'd crawl next. To get some control, he pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. Whatever the humiliation, he would take it, as long as she stayed.
Then he looked up, looked at her. And she was weeping. His heart stopped thudding, split apart and sank.
'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've got no right to treat you this way, talk to you this way. Please don't cry.'
She took a sobbing breath. 'In my whole life, no one has ever said those words to me. Not once, in my whole life. You can't possibly know what it's like to hear them from you now.'
He rose again, resenting everyone who had ever taken her for granted, including himself. 'Don't tell me it's too late for me to say them. I'll make it up to you, Rebecca, if you let me.'
'I was afraid to tell you how much I love you. I thought you wouldn't want me to.'
He took a moment before he tried to speak, a moment to let what she'd said seep in and heal his dented heart. 'I want you to. I need you to. You're not going.'
She was shaking her head when he pulled her into his arms. 'I'm not going anywhere.'
'You're in love with me.'
'Oh, yes.'
'Thank God.' He covered her mouth with his while joy fountained through him. 'I've been falling for you since I picked you up at the airport. You were so snotty, I couldn't resist you.' A thought intruded, made him wince. 'Rebecca, last night—'
'It doesn't matter.'
'Yes, it does. I was with my brothers, down at Devin's office. I got drunk and slept it off on the cot in the back room. I was angry about what was happening here, and what had happened inside me, for you. Stupid.' He lowered his brow to hers. 'I didn't know if you just let go a little, it could all be so right. You were always meant to come here. Do you believe that?'
'Yes.' She cupped her hands on his cheeks. The full power of it struck her like light. 'We're connected.'
'That's one way to put it. I like 'I love you' better. I really like that. Who'd have thought?'
'I like it, too, better than anything.' Blissful, she snuggled into his arms. 'And I won't leave my equipment spread around the house. Since we're going to be living together, we need some sense of order.'
'Living together.' He tipped her face back, kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. 'Wrong. We've already been there, sort of. You're going to marry me.'
'Marry.' Her head spun. 'You.' Her legs turned to water. 'I have to sit down now.'
'No, you don't. I'll hold you up.' That lightning MacKade grin flashed before he began to trace kisses over her face, move his hands up and down and over her. Damn, but she was cute when that brain of her clicked off. 'Marry me, Rebecca,' he murmured. 'You might as well say yes. I'll just talk you into it.'
Marriage. Family. Children. Shane. Why would he have to talk her into something she wanted more than anything in the world? 'I can't think.'
'Good.' They'd keep it that way awhile, he decided, and nipped gently at her jaw. 'I love you. Mmm...pretty Rebecca, I love you. Say, 'I love you, too.''
The muscles in her thighs went lax. 'I love you, too.'
'Marry me, Rebecca.' His curved lips skimmed over hers, down her chin and back again. 'Be my wife, have my children, stay with me. Say yes. Say, 'Yes, I'll marry you, Shane.''
'Yes.' The strength came back into her arms as she threw them around his neck. 'Yes, I'll marry you, Shane.'
He nibbled around to her ear. 'Say, 'I'll cook for you night and day, Shane.''
'I'll—' Her eyes popped open. The most momentous event of her life ended in laughter. 'Sneaky. Very sneaky, farm boy.'
'It was worth a shot, Becky.' Laughing with her, he gathered her into his arms and swept her in circles. 'But I'll take the best two out of three.'
