Chance Encounter

“Busy day,” she noted.

He simply nodded and bit into the middle finger of his cycling glove and tugged it off. Then did the same with the other. He tossed them to the ground and planted his hands on the wood fence behind her head. “Were you on the river?”

He spoke so evenly. She would never have guessed at the bad temper behind that casual voice-except for the heat of it in his eyes. “Tim was showing me how to kayak.”

“I thought you weren’t a strong swimmer.”

“Tim was right there.”

“Stay out of the river, Ally.”

“I don’t respond well to demands.”

“Too bad. Stay out of it. And suppose you tell me why you’re wearing my jacket.”

“Your jacket?” She shook her head. “No, Jo gave it to me to borrow.”

“Yeah, from my office closet.”

“I-” His eyes were dark and unreadable as ever, and she bit her lip, thinking she would have to kill Jo personally. Slowly. “I didn’t know.”

“Now two of my jackets will smell like you.”

It embarrassed her that she had thought she’d been so independent here, and hadn’t been at all. “Nothing a little detergent won’t fix.” Frustrated, she ducked from beneath his arms and went to pull off Jo’s-his!-jacket. It was a pullover, with wide bands of rubber around the neck, waist and wrists, to keep out the water.

The bands also kept her in. Darn it, but it was hard to get off. She wriggled and writhed and pulled, but all that happened was she got caught, her arms up and over her head, the jacket holding her locked in that position.

She wriggled and writhed some more, but it was no use, she was good and truly stuck. “Um…Chance?”

He said nothing, but now that the jacket was over her face she couldn’t see him. Great. With as much dignity as she could muster, she tried to escape again.

To no avail.

She really hated to have to ask him for anything, especially help. But she had trussed herself up like a pre- packaged chicken. “Chance?”

“Yeah.” He sounded like he was strangling.

“Do you think you can help me pull this thing off?”

A long second later, she felt his hands on her. Her waist, then her shoulders as he tugged on the material. Beneath the jacket she wore the top of her two piece bathing suit, which meant he had to touch her bare skin. By the time he freed her, she had goose bumps over her entire body and it wasn’t from the cold morning air.

Chance tossed the jacket down next to his gloves, his blue eyes touching her everywhere.

“Thanks.” She backed up a step. “I’m sorry about-” Her words ended abruptly when he followed her, once again trapping her against the fence.

“I’m…um…pretty busy right now,” she managed, her breathing coming in funny little pants.

A wicked smile lit his eyes and one corner of his mouth lifted as he studied the way her breathing made her breasts lift and fall. “Busy doing what, Prim?”

Trapped within his arms, she felt like a butterfly about to be pinned alive. Then, when he leaned closer still, so that his shirt brushed her nearly bare chest, so that only a breath of air separated their mouths, she felt more like a sacrificial lamb.

A willing one.

That mouth of his barely, just barely, brushed hers. “What are you busy doing?” he repeated softly.

She’d forgotten. Her entire world slipped away when he was near her like this. He turned her inside out, and knowing that, knowing he was amused by it, gave her the strength to turn her head to the side. “Work…stuff. I’m busy doing work stuff.”

He slid his warm, work-roughened fingers under her jaw and brought her back around. His eyes went to her mouth and she thought-hoped, wished-that he might kiss her anyway.

“You’re cold.”

“No, I’m-” She bit back her sigh of pure pleasure when he cupped her cheeks in his big, warm hands.

His eyes were positively wicked. “Anything else you need warmed up?”

Oh boy. “N-no.”

He lowered his gaze to her breasts, zeroing in on the way her nipples were pressing against the material of her bathing suit, and she wanted to punch him for making her stomach leap in anticipation. Instead she put her hands to his chest, meaning to push him away, but she felt the bunching of his muscles and the quick leaping of his heart, and knew that he was as affected by their closeness as she. If she moved, shifted a bit, his body would rub against her. Unable to help herself, she did just that, and encountered full contact.

He was completely aroused.

She raised her gaze to his face and found him looking back at her from beneath lowered lashes.

“I’ve been this way since you got here,” he said.

She winced in sympathy. “I’ll just…go then.”

“I meant since you came to Wyoming.”

Her eyes flew wide. “Oh. Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” For a moment he stayed close, then backed up imperceptibly. “You’ve got a message from home.”

Thinking had become nearly impossible. Her heart was racing, her brain seriously impeded by the rush of blood from her head to all her erogenous zones. “My sisters again?”

“Yes.” He cocked his head to the side. “Dani said don’t forget next Tuesday is Maggie’s party. Come early and give her a hand, she said.”

“Oh.”

“You use that word a lot.”

She’d already told her family she wouldn’t get back that soon, but obviously Dani had wanted to pressure her, not realizing Ally could no longer be pressured.

“When were you going to tell Lucy?” he asked. “After you’d left?”

She pulled away because she couldn’t think when they were touching. It was hard enough when he was merely standing in front of her, all tall, intense and attitude-ridden. “Why does it matter to you?”

His eyes glittered dangerously. “It doesn’t. I happen to want you, yes, but it makes no difference to me whether you stay or go.”

“You…want me?”

“Don’t let it go to your head. I want a lot of women.”

“Oh, man, I really don’t want to hear this.”

Both Chance and Ally turned in unison to face a scowling Brian. He stood there wearing jeans five sizes too big, and a shirt that went to his knees. His tattered bike leaned against his hip.

Chance was still looking at Ally with heat, frustration and promise, and she had no idea what any of it meant.

I want a lot of women.

She had no doubt of that. Or that he’d find those women with one crook of his finger.

It makes no difference whether you stay or go. Ally tried to let that roll off her back and failed.

Brian thrust out his chin toward Chance. “Riding today?”

With annoying ease, Chance changed gears. “Already did, Slick. What happened to school?”

He got the Brian shrug. “Stupid assembly.”

Ally struggled to shift with the conversation. She knew Chance wasn’t the type to be held by the rules of society. But she hoped to God he knew enough to send this kid back to school. Brian desperately needed to learn to live by the same rules as everyone else, and she was certain he wouldn’t ever learn that from Chance, a man who’d never followed the rules at all.

Not that she was trying to save him, of course. Or anyone. But she couldn’t stop the thought. Please, don’t be reckless with Brian.

Chance looked at her, and as if he’d heard her thoughts, he went still. There’d been a heat in his eyes every