constricting.
“And I’m out of wine,” he added. “Afraid we’ll have to go into this sober.”
She unzipped her jacket, grateful for the cool rush of air. “I don’t like wine anyway. Makes me sleepy.”
“Exactly.” He turned back to the grill.
Warning bells rang frantically in her brain, but walking away seemed beyond her. Instead, she scrambled mentally for a safe topic to cool down the heat rising between them. “I called my parents earlier. I told them what I had decided to do.”
He looked over his shoulder again. “What did they say?”
“Not to do it, of course.”
“Mom and Dad know best.”
She pressed her lips into a tight line. “If they were in my position, they’d do what I’m doing. Where do you think I learned it from?”
His answer was to flip the peppers charring on the grill.
“I just hope they don’t call my brothers and let them know what’s up. I’m surprised Aaron hasn’t called me already. He’s the cop,” she reminded him. “Chickasaw County’s finest.”
He closed the top of the grill again and turned around to look at her. “What would Aaron the cop tell you?”
“Not to do it,” she answered.
“Seems to be the consensus.” He walked slowly toward her, every step a seduction, whether he intended it to be so or not. She tried to look away, but her muscles seemed paralyzed.
A fly in a spider’s web, she thought faintly. Then he sat beside her again, lifting one hand to cup her cheek. What was left of her rational side curled up and whimpered.
He had large hands, rough with work. He ran the pad of his thumb lightly across her bottom lip. “You have a beautiful mouth. Has anyone ever told you that?”
The memory his words evoked helped her gather up what was left of her self-control. “Yes.”
His thumb stopped moving. “Whoever he was, he was right.”
“He liked kissing me.” She forced the words from her mouth, not because she wanted to talk about that painful time in her life, but because it was her best defense against Riley’s potent seduction. “But he loved someone else.”
Riley dropped his hand to his lap. “What happened?”
“He married her, not me.”
Riley breathed deeply, bending forward to rest his forearms on his knees. “When was that?”
“About four years ago.” She hadn’t planned to tell him more, but the gentle encouragement in his eyes made her open up about Craig, their whirlwind romance, the wedding plans and the terrible moment when, at the bachelor’s party, he confessed to Hannah’s brother Aaron that he was still in love with another woman. “Aaron made him tell me the truth.” She smiled wryly. “Craig’s lucky. Aaron was really ticked.”
Riley took it all in silently, his expression solemn. Surely he couldn’t miss the parallels between then and now, between Craig’s lingering feelings for his old flame and Riley’s unending passion for his dead wife.
“I think I knew long before he told me.” Shame burned the back of her neck. “I just thought I could change his mind. But you can’t will a man to get over the woman he loves.”
“No.” Riley moved restlessly away from her and opened the top of the grill. The smell of grilled peppers and steak filled the light breeze, but she’d lost her appetite.
Apparently, he had as well. Turning off the grill, he transferred the meat and peppers to a couple of plates, but he returned to her side without bringing the food. He turned toward her on the bench, reaching out to take her chin in his hand. He lifted her face, making her look up at him.
The intensity of his gaze made her stomach tighten into a hot, tight knot. “I don’t want you to go to Jackson tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know how to stop you. You’ve already said wining and dining won’t work.”
She had to laugh at that, and his lips curved in response, but he soon grew serious again.
“I can only tell you that I came damned near losing my mind when Emily died. I don’t think I’ve gotten all of it back yet.” He cradled her face with gentle strength. “If something happened to you, I don’t think there’d be anything left of me.”
Tears trembled on her lashes and tumbled down her cheeks. She blinked them back, fighting for control. “You hardly know me,” she said, trying to be reasonable. But even as she spoke the words, she knew they were inadequate. In a few, brief days, she’d shared more about herself with him than she’d shared with most of her family. He knew the fears that hid behind her bravado, the longing she buried beneath her outward contentment.
He didn’t have to contradict her. She saw in his eyes that he knew the complexity of their relationship went far beyond a few days of acquaintance.
She closed her eyes and drew away from him, needing breathing room to gather the scraps of reason still left in her rattled brain and try to figure out what to do.
She wanted him. She couldn’t have denied that truth if her life depended on it. And she also knew the futility of letting her desire become anything more demanding. They might have a deep and special connection, but that was no guarantee of happily ever after.
Could she settle for happily right now?
“Please don’t go to Jackson tomorrow,” he said.
She forced her eyes open, letting the tiny flicker of anger licking at her belly grow into a slow burn. “I told you my decision,” she snapped. “You’re going to have to respect it.”
She stood and entered the house, leaning against the door for a second to calm her jangled nerves. She listened through the door for any sign that he intended to follow, but all she heard was the clatter of plates and cutlery.
A sudden crash made her jump, and she peeked through the small window set in the top of the door and saw Riley crouching by the grill, piling up pieces of a broken plate with swift, jerky movements.
She went to the guest room, closing the door behind her, and sat on the bed, hating herself for breaking the peace between them. He’d just opened up to her, sharing feelings she suspected he hadn’t shared with anyone since Emily’s death, and she’d rewarded him with a temper tantrum.
RILEY TOSSED THE PIECES of broken plate into a trash bag one by one, grimly enjoying the sound of each thunk. As irritated as he was at the moment, he found a strange sort of pleasure in the feeling. It had been a while since anyone had inspired in him a powerful emotion outside of grief.
He understood her frustration with his stubborn insistence that she back out of Jim Tanner’s plan, but what choice did he have? He’d sacrificed a normal life in his quest to find Emily’s killer, but he wasn’t going to sacrifice Hannah.
Which was also a new sensation-caring about someone more than he cared about revenge.
He set the trash bag in the bin by the door and went back to the grill to gather up the food and take it inside.
Hannah was nowhere to be found. He glanced down the hall and saw the door to her room closed.
So she was hiding. Trying to stay mad? He knew she wasn’t as angry at him as she wanted to be. But anger was better than vulnerability. He knew that better than most people.
He found a pair of clean plates and split the steaks and peppers between them. Going back to the drawer for flatware, he glanced down the hallway again. The door was still closed.
He waited until after he’d poured ice water in two glasses before he went down the hall to knock on the door. “Hannah?”
She didn’t answer, but he could sense her listening just behind the door.
“If you don’t answer me, I’m going to assume something bad happened to you and bust the door down,” he warned.
The door opened and she stood on the other side, looking up at him with flashing green eyes. He took a step
