But there was no reason to wait, either. She was a woman who knew herself. Who knew her mind. She was attracted to Gabe Dalton.

And suddenly, she realized that a lot of the strange resistance she’d put up to him had been about that. Had been some kind of weird protection, in case he wasn’t interested in her. Because it had honestly never occurred to her that he might be.

She was...well, plain-Jane Jamie Dodge.

Good with horses. Good at a whole lot of things, but not especially accomplished when it came to seducing men.

She had always imagined that men like him would go for the women like Crystal. The buckle bunnies. And yeah, maybe a little bit of her hostility had been down to that. To pretending she didn’t want something she didn’t think she could have.

Well, she could have it.

Could chase all those wonderful, physical feelings he’d ignited inside her when he kissed her out behind the saloon. She turned around in her own driveway, headed out down the highway.

Her heart was thundering hard, her hands feeling a little bit clammy.

She felt...

Not nervous.

No. It reminded her of when she was sitting on her horse, the barrel set up in front of her, ready to go. Reminding her of what it was like to launch into the most wonderful, exhilarating thing she knew how to do.

She’d never been to Gabe’s house, but she had a vague idea of where it was.

It had been pointed out to her several times by Wyatt, Bennett and once by Beatrix, when they had been driving down the highway. But then, that was common enough in an area like theirs.

Rural directions.

You didn’t give street names so much as talk about something being two miles past Gabe Dalton’s place, around the corner from the big field of cows and past that big red totem pole on the left.

That meant it was essential to know where people lived. And it was proving to be handy to her now.

Even in the dark, she could find the red mailbox and the big, natural wood arch that stretched over the end of the driveway.

And the metal sign that said Dalton.

It was difficult to tell in the dark, but she had the sense that his father’s place—which was ornate and nearly overwrought in its detail—was completely different to Gabe’s.

She was proved correct when she pulled up to the house. Two stories and made of logs, like her family home, with a large front porch, and one light on shining through the window.

She realized, obviously a bit too late, that what she was doing could be construed as a little bit creepy. But it was kind of too late to worry about that.

Because she was here.

She was here, and she had made up her mind already. She swallowed hard and got out of the truck, and had planted one boot on the bottom step when she realized she was wearing a very plain pair of underwear.