she kept stealing glances at his hard profile. Ten years ago, he had been in his late thirties and in his prime; handsome in a dark dangerous way and powerfully built.
Not much had changed, Jenna noted, trying not to panic again. A bit grayer at the temples, but he was still big, far too big for her comfort.
The memory of what Rand had told her to do made her want to puke.
As if he sensed her interest from across at least twenty people, Rand lifted his head and looked directly at her-without an ounce of recognition.
Still, whatever he saw must have pleased him, for he shot her a slow smile that sent a chill racing down her spine.
She dropped eye contact immediately and wrapped her arms around herself, concentrating on dragging air into her lungs one breath at a time.
If she could have gotten up on her shaking legs and left, she would have. Instead, she stayed on the stands, huddled practically into a ball, and watched the game in mute misery.
The sight of her precious daughter racing across the court drew a smile back to her lips and eventually some warmth back into her body.
And when Stone spotted her at halftime, he loped up the stands and sat next to her, warming her some more.
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said with obvious pleasure, touching his shoulder to hers.
He was big, too, huge actually, but somehow his brute strength never threatened her. He would never hurt her.
She pulled away slightly, so that they no longer touched.
At the movement Stone frowned, his eyes steady and comforting on her, although he was careful not to touch her again. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” But she spoke too quickly, dammit, tweaking his concern and curiosity, then compounded her error by glancing at Rand again.
Stone followed her gaze. His casual ease vanished. Every muscle in his body tensed, hard and battle-ready. For a split second, the men exchanged glances, Rand’s slightly amused, Stone’s exacting and sharp.
Rand broke eye contact first, looking far from happy now.
Jenna held her breath. Clearly the tension between the two men had not lessened with time. She knew this was because of her, because of that time when Stone had been the only person on earth to believe in her.
With Rand’s eyes off them, Stone turned his attention back to her. He touched her arm softly, and when he spoke, his voice had changed, had become lower, gentler, automatically easing some of her fright and helping her to gain control of herself. “Are you certain you’re all right? You’re shaking and pale.”
With a last careful look at Rand, who was now speaking to someone on the other side of him, Jenna forced a smile. “I’m fine, really. I, um, just love basketball,” she said inanely.
His lips curved in a slow sexy smile. “Do you now?”
“Uh-huh.” She brought a still-trembling hand up to her hot face and hoped he didn’t notice.
His soft laugh brought butterflies to her stomach. Nice ones, she realized, really nice ones, and it had less to do with lust and more-everything-to do with how she felt being with him. Safe, warm, special. His hand reached up, gently touching her hand, still on her face.
She jumped, and this time it wasn’t from fear.
“Did anything else bring you here?”
“Like… what?”
“I don’t know…” His long fingers skimmed hers, playing havoc with her pulse, reminding her that she was indeed attracted to him. He reached her earlobe, sliding lightly, playfully, racking her body with a shiver.
His eyes, those wonderful all-seeing eyes, went hot. “Like maybe you have a thing for the coach?”
His hopeful and purposefully lecherous grin made her laugh, and it felt so good she laughed again. “Hmm. Do you know him?”
“I could introduce you.” At this, he grinned wider. “He happens to think you’re something, too, you know.” He stroked her jaw.
Good Lord, she thought weakly, if a sexier man than him existed, she couldn’t imagine.
“How about meeting him over pizza?”
She firmly shoved away her fear and smiled. After all, she was older now and wiser. She knew how to protect herself from danger.
Then she looked at the fascinating hot-blooded man waiting patiently for her answer and realized she’d just traded one dangerous man for another, for this one held her heart in his hands.
“Pizza sounds nice,” she said, sealing her fate.
A couple of days later Stone was deeply buried in work. He had his table saw pulled out, and the twelve-foot machine easily dwarfed even his big body as he bent over it, setting the correct measurements for what would become the frame for his latest prototype.
This particular job was new to him, a design he’d created last year. Kids liked big, responded to the visual, and Stone had capitalized on that He was making life-size puzzles, created of wood, designed to stimulate the minds of second graders across the state.
Flipping up his ear protectors, he turned on the saw and started. It was difficult back-aching work. Cutting out the pieces for the frames took hours, and by the time he was nearly done, his every limb trembled with fatigue.
Just two more cuts, he told himself, and then he’d break for lunch. Maybe he’d even catch a glimpse of his new neighbor. Over the past few days, he’d spent more time looking out his window and contriving to be on the sidewalk than in all the years he’d been here.
He would have been annoyed at himself, except he knew it was the same for her. There was no mistaking that he affected her every bit as much as she affected him, for he could see the pulse dance at the base of her neck when they saw each other. Her eyes would widen, her mouth would open slightly. She couldn’t keep her breathing even. She was definitely attracted to him.
Still, she’d done her damnedest to avoid being alone with him. In fact, the only time he’d spoken to her in the past days had been after Sara had arrived home from school
She had a great interest in his child, something that concerned him, for Sara had decided she didn’t like Cindy. Stone knew that was because his daughter sensed his interest, and since he’d never expressed a serious interest in another woman before, it threatened her.
There was one solution to this problem-stay the hell away from Cindy Beatty. Except that he really liked her, unsettling as that was.
Stone shook his head and pushed the last two-by-four through the massive noisy saw. But with his head buried in the clouds, he miscalculated, and didn’t push hard enough, even though he knew that with a saw this big, such an error could be dangerous.
He saw the mistake, but it was too late; he could do nothing to save himself as the saw kicked back the heavy beam directly at him.
No time to duck or even react before it hit him with terrific force, plowing him directly in the belly, knocking him ten feet back into the concrete wall of his workshop.
His head hit the wall with a sickening thud, and he saw stars. With the air socked right out of him, for long torturous seconds all Stone could do was lie there and open his mouth like a dying fish as he began the desperate painful struggle to pump air into his lungs.
“Stone?” Over the roar of the still-running saw, he barely heard her. “Guess what!” she called. “I’ve just taken on two girls looking for clerical and secretarial work, one of which I can place right away and-
From his vantage point on the cold floor, all Stone could see was a set of long legs running toward him.
Great legs, he thought woozily.
