gaining entrance to and plundering the dark recess of her mouth.
A low moan escaped her and she wanted to die from embarrassment, yet she kissed him back. Her pulse throbbed and for the first time in years a hot, yawning desire uncoiled deep within her. She couldn’t think, couldn’t move, couldn’t deny. She wound her arms around his neck, feeling him yank her closer, knowing that her breasts, already full, were crushed against his leather jacket.
As suddenly as he’d taken her into his arms, he released her. “Jesus H. Christ,” he swore, breathing hard. Closing his eyes, he let his head drop back against the seat cushions and gritted his teeth, as if suddenly struck by the magnitude of what he’d done. It seemed as if he were mentally willing his desire away. “Damn it, Kat, what is it you want from me?”
“I-I’m not Kat,” she whispered, horrified.
A deep stain crawled up his neck as he realized his mistake. “And you’re not London. Look, we can’t do this.”
“I don’t want to-” The glare he sent her cut her to the bone.
“And don’t give me any crap about wanting to be friends. I think I just proved we’re way past that.”
She swallowed with difficulty. Desire pulsed through her veins. “Zachary, I can’t-this isn’t-”
“What isn’t?” His eyes flew open and he searched her face as if he intended to kiss her until she finally shut up. For several heartbeats she felt his indecision. “Hell,” he ground out before reaching for her again and roughly folding her into his arms. He kissed her without restraint, his lips anxious and hungry, his body hard and straining against hers as he forced her back against the seat, his weight pinning her. Again, his tongue delved deep and she felt the hardness between his legs. She should stop him, but she couldn’t. Delicious little flames of desire lapped at her, caused her lungs to constrict. He kissed her lips, her face, her eyes, his hands restless, but not moving from her back. When he finally lifted his head, he glared down at her and there was hatred in his eyes-intense, self-loathing hatred. “Don’t tell me you can’t,” he said through clenched teeth. “You can and would. But I won’t give you the satisfaction! You’re as bad as she was.” He struggled to a sitting position and reached for the door handle.
“As…who?” she asked, but knew that he was talking about Kat.
“She came on to anything in pants.”
“No-”
“You didn’t know her.”
“But I didn’t mean-”
“Neither did I.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” He raked stiff fingers through his hair. “Sorry?” His smile was cold in the darkness. “Don’t play the innocent with me, Adria.”
She itched to slap him, to deny what had so obviously been the truth, but curled her hands into tight little fists. “I didn’t…” If only she could lie and tell him that she didn’t feel any attraction to him, but she held her tongue. Her heart was still racing, her hands shaking.
The look he sent her seared her to the most forbidden recesses of her mind, and she knew then that what they felt for each other-this pure animal lust-was part of her destiny. A horrid attraction that she would have to fight. Her throat went dry and she wanted to deny the desire that pumped through her veins.
“I just wondered how much you were like Kat,” he said, his gaze raking over her uncombed hair, mussed sweater, and swollen lips. “How far you’d go.”
She didn’t believe him and her anger sparked. “So you expect me to believe that you kissed me out of curiosity?”
He shrugged. “I don’t give a shit what you believe.”
“Don’t lie, Zach. I didn’t. You kissed me because you wanted to. Hide it any way you like, but you felt what I did.”
“Christ, now you even sound like her!”
A sickening thought rolled through her mind as she pictured Zach, not quite eighteen, and Katherine, her mother, locked in a compromising embrace, bodies shining with sweat and hard with desire. Oh, God. Was it possible? Had they been lovers? “What are you trying to say?” she whispered as the horrid thought congealed in her mind. “That she came on to you-that she was your-”
“She was nothing to me!” He sliced her a glance that cut her to the quick.
“I don’t believe-”
“Believe what you want, Adria. As I said before, it’s no skin off my nose how you want to delude yourself.” He opened the door of the Jeep and cool air swept inside. She scrambled out and half ran to keep up with his long, furious strides. Rain peppered the ground and washed down her neck but she didn’t care.
“Wait-” Her fingers grabbed for the crook of his arm, but he tossed her hand aside and whirled upon her. His face was twisted into a mask of rage and he seemed larger than ever in the darkness. Rain caught in his black hair before trickling down the contours of his face and disappearing beneath his collar.
His lips flattened and the neon lights from the restaurant reflected red and blue in his eyes. “I don’t know what you want from me, Adria, but you’d better be careful. You might just get it!”
He turned and walked up two long, low steps to the porch of the log cabin.
Adria had no choice but to follow him. Slowly counting to ten, she followed his path, shouldered open the door, walked through a pine-paneled vestibule, and found him standing at the bar, one boot resting on a tarnished brass rail, his elbows propped on the battle-scarred surface of glossy cherry wood.
“I already ordered for you,” he said as the bartender, a slim woman with kinky blond hair and red lipstick, slid two frosted glasses of beer to him, then deftly snatched up the bills he’d left on the counter. His eyes met Adria’s in the mirror over the bar and his gaze had become cloudy again. “Come on. Let’s grab a table.” He cocked his head to an empty booth.
Adria tried to put a lid on her simmering temper. Though she was boiling inside, she slid onto the cushions and accepted the beer-his notion of a peace offering.
Zach gulped half his beer in one swallow. “Anything else you’d like to know about the Danvers family?” he asked with a scornful lift of his eyebrow.
“Whatever you want to tell me.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t want to tell you anything. I think it would be better if you just packed it all in and drove off to Bozeman-”
“Belamy.”
“Whatever.”
“Now you’re sounding like the rest of your family.”
“God forbid,” he muttered and drained his glass. He signaled for another drink, which a waitress, a heavier version of the blond bartender, brought over along with menus.
She winked at Zachary as if they were longtime friends, then smiled at Adria. “Refill?”
“Not right now.”
“I’ll give you a few minutes to decide.” She moved to a nearby table and Adria kept her voice low.
“You know,” she said, not really believing her own words, “despite what you said earlier, we could be friends if we tried.”
He made a sound of disgust. “Friends.” His lips curved into a smile without any warmth. “Is that how you treat all your ‘friends’?”
“Don’t do this-”
“
She threw off his hands and glared furiously at him. “Why are you trying so hard to hate me?”
He hesitated, then sighed and looked away. “Maybe it’s just easier that way.” Dropping back onto his bench, he studied the head of his beer and his jaw clenched. “For both of us.”
“You’re afraid I might end up with the Danvers fortune,” she said, realizing he was more like his family than he wanted to admit.
He snorted and rolled his glass between his fingers. “I don’t care if you end up with the whole damned lot of the inheritance-the logging company, the sawmills, the hotel, the house in Tahoe, even the ranch. If you did, I’d say good riddance. I’m not afraid of you.”
