Jarrod started the engine and his mouth tightened. “Don’t use her, okay? I know you have a thing—some kind of personal vendetta—against her old man, but don’t use her to get back at him.”

“Don’t worry about it.” The last thing in the world he wanted to do was hurt Bliss, but he damned sure wanted to make love to her. And that was a problem—a problem that had been with him since the first time he’d seen her so many years ago, a problem he couldn’t begin to solve.

But then again, he was a firm believer in the old “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” theory. Now was as good a time as any to test it.

On Bliss.

* * *

Astride Fire Cracker, Bliss craned her neck and peered over the edge of the ridge. Full from the spring runoff, the river far below slashed wildly over stones and fallen trees, carving a rushing swath through the stony canyon as it had on the day she’d nearly lost her life at this very spot.

Her heart began to pound and her hands sweated on the reins as the memories of that fateful afternoon ricocheted through her mind. She remembered Mason’s warnings as clearly as if he’d just uttered them....

“Don’t be a fool.”

Too late, she thought. She’d always been a fool for Mason Lafferty. They’d been so young, so innocent, and so afraid of falling in love.

It seemed as if everything and nothing had changed. Slowly she dismounted.

The wind stirred, rustling through the trees and causing wildflowers to bend in its wake. Bliss sighed for all the could-have-beens until she noticed the shadow creeping slowly beside her. Squinting against the sun she saw Mason, tall astride his horse, rangy and rugged as the mountains that towered around them.

Her heart squeezed as it always did when she was alone with him, and a tiny voice inside reminded her that he was the one—he had forever been the one—who was wedged deep in her heart, be he bad, good or indifferent. “Mason,” she said, surprised that her voice had lost some of its timbre.

“Thought I might find you here.” He swung down from his gelding and let the horse roam free.

“Did you? Why?”

“Because, like it or not, Bliss, I know you.”

Her throat turned to dust but she wouldn’t be so easily seduced. “No, Lafferty, you don’t know a damned thing about me. Not anymore.”

Slowly he sauntered toward her. “When you weren’t at the house and Delores said you’d taken off riding, I thought I’d be able to catch up with you. So I, well, ‘borrowed,’ I guess you’d say, one of the horses in the stables and rode out here. After all, this is the scene of the crime, so to speak.”