Defending His Own

'Don't go reading anything into this.' Ashe turned to leave.

Opening the door, Roarke laid his hand on Ashe's shoulder, gripping him firmly. 'She's the one, isn't she?'

Ashe stiffened at his friend's words. 'The one what?'

'The one you told me about that night six months ago when we both got stinking drunk and wound up crying all over each other.'

Ashe didn't like to remember that night; he'd thought Roarke would never remind him. 'Yeah, she's the one.'

Pulling away, Ashe ran his hand through his hair, straightened his jacket and headed downstairs. He paced the marble-floored entrance hall until Deborah descended the stairs wearing a pair of olive green cotton twill pants and a baggy cotton sweater in an olive-and-cream stripe.

'Let's go,' she said, her chest rising and falling with quick, panting little breaths.

'You want to take your Caddy or my rental car?'

She tossed him a set of keys. 'The Caddy.'

He slipped his arm around her waist and they rushed outside, the cool night air assaulting them the minute they opened the door.

'I should get you a set of keys to the Caddy,' she said as he helped her inside.

He leaned down, giving her a quick kiss, then closed the passenger door and raced around to the other side of the car.

He knew where he was going to take her; he'd known the minute he'd suggested the ride. It hadn't been a premeditated idea, just something that hit him in a flash. In the dark confines of the car, he could hear her breathing, could smell that heady scent of flowery bath oil mixed with the musty scent of woman. He started the Caddy and backed out of the drive.

She waited for him to ask her where she wanted to go. He didn't ask. It didn't take her long to realize the direction in which he was headed. Dear God, no! Surely he wasn't taking her there. Was he that insensitive? Didn't he realize she'd never been back since that night?

The road leading down to the river was dark, lonesome and flanked on both sides by heavily wooded areas. Deborah closed her eyes, shutting out the sight, clenching her teeth in an effort not to scream. How could he do this to her!

'Please take me home.' Her voice wavered slightly.

'I thought you wanted to take a ride.' He kept his gaze focused on the view ahead of him.

'I don't want to go down to the river.'

'Why not?'

'You know damn well why not.'

'I want you to tell me.' He glanced at her and wished he hadn't. Her face was barely visible in the moonlight, but he could feel the tension in her body and make out the anger etched on her features.

'Take me home, Ashe. Now!'

He continued driving toward the river. 'It's time we talked. Really talked. We need to clear up a few things before we make love.'

'Before we make… Why, you arrogant bastard! You think you're going to take me down to the river and screw me again and then walk out of my life and never look back. Well, you'd better think again. I'm not some lovesick teenager who believes in fairy tales.'

'No, you're not.' He pulled the Cadillac off the road and onto a narrow dirt lane surrounded by trees. 'You're a woman who wants to be made love to very badly, and I'm the man who is dying to love you.'

When he reached out to touch her, she jerked away from him. 'Don't. I don't want you. Do you hear me? I do not want you.'

'Honey, stop lying to yourself. Do you think I like knowing I'm so hung up on you I can't think about anything else? Do you honestly think you're the only one with bad memories about that night?'

'Oh, I know all about your bad memories!' Whipping around in the seat, she faced him. 'You let your anger with Whitney and your need for a woman overcome your better judgment, and you screwed me. Then afterward you were filled with regret.'

He jerked her into his arms, lowered his head and whispered against her lips. 'Stop saying I screwed you, dammit! It wasn't like that and you know it. I made love to you, Deborah.'

Struggling to free herself, she laughed in his face. 'You didn't make love to me, you sc—'

He kissed her hard and fast, adeptly silencing her. She pulled away as much as he would allow and glared at him.

'Maybe I wasn't in love with you,' he admitted. 'But I did love you. I'd loved you since we were kids. You were one of my best friends.'

The tears welled up inside her; her chest ached from restraint. This was what she didn't want—what she couldn't bear. 'All right. We made love. But you regretted it. You said it could never happen again.'

'I cared too much about you to hurt you by pretending there could be more for us. I felt like a heel, but I did what I thought was best for you.'

She took a deep breath. 'I hated you after that night, you know. But all the while I swore to myself I despised you, I kept praying you'd come and tell me you loved me. I was such a fool.'

'And when two months went by and I didn't come to you, you decided to get revenge. All that love turned to hate so quickly.'

'What are you talking about? I admit I thought about how I'd like to toss you into a pool of piranhas, but that's as far as my seeking revenge went.' She scooted away from him when he loosened his hold on her. 'Besides, you didn't stick around long enough for me to plot any elaborate revenge schemes.'

'You don't call siccing your daddy on me revenge?'

Her eyes widened. She opened her mouth on a silent gasp, then shook her head. 'What—what do you mean, siccing my daddy on you?'

'Are you pretending you've forgotten or are you trying to tell me you honestly don't know what I'm talking about?'

'I have no idea what you're talking about,' she said.

'Then let me refresh your memory.' Turning sideways, Ashe leaned his back against the door, crossed his arms over his chest and rested his head on the side window. 'About two months after our night down here—' moving his head from side to side, he glanced out at the starlit sky, the dark waters of the Tennessee River and the towering trees tipped with moonlight '—the police chief hauled my rear end downtown. And who do you think was waiting for us when we got to the police station?'

Deborah's stomach did a nervous flip-flop. 'Daddy?'

'Bingo! Wallace Vaughn himself, fit to be tied and ready to string me up for raping his little girl.'

'Raping!' The blood soared through Deborah, her heartbeat wild, the pounding beat deafening to her own ears.

'Yeah, that was my reaction,' Ashe said, uncertain whether to accept Deborah's shock at face value or remain suspicious. 'But the D.A. was there with your daddy and he assured me that they weren't kidding. They were accusing me of rape, and when I told them that the charge would never stick, they both laughed in my face.'

'I had no idea Daddy could have done anything so—'

'You didn't go crying to your Daddy?' All these years he had been so sure Deborah had lied to her father, that she had made him believe that, at the very least, Ashe had seduced her, and at the worst, had taken her by brute force.

'I didn't tell my father anything.' Deborah scooted to the far side of the car, her back up against the door, she and Ashe glaring at each other in the semidarkness.

'Why the hell lie to me now?' He wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled. God, help him, he never thought he would feel such bitter anger again, that confronting her with what she'd done would resurrect the hatred he'd felt—for Wallace Vaughn, for the whole town of Sheffield, and, yes, for Deborah herself.

Deborah lifted her feet up on tiptoes, tensing her legs as she ran her hands up and down the tops of her thighs. 'I never told Daddy about our … about our making love that night. I told my mother.' I had to