“Sorry I’m a little confused,” he said, and there was an edge in his voice she couldn’t put a name to. “A week ago you wanted to shoot me on sight.”

She felt her cheeks flush, although she was so warm all over she wasn’t sure how she could tell. “A week ago I was holding on to a lie.”

He let out a long, weary-sounding breath. “It wasn’t a lie. It’s still not. I should have—”

She lifted a finger to his lips—God, those lips—and silenced him. She felt a sadness rising in her, chasing the heat with its chill. “No. I’m sorry for what I said that day, and for what I believed. So consider this another in the long line of apologies I owe you.”

“You don’t—” he began the moment she moved her hand.

“I do.” She gave him a smile that let some of that sadness show. “And someday I hope you’ll accept.”

She couldn’t help herself, she touched his lips again. Then she drew back, aware she was expecting too much too fast, from a man who knew she had hated him for five years. That it was all a mistake didn’t matter, not yet. She could only hope that one day it would.

“If you ever get there, let me know,” she said softly.

“You want a registered letter?”

She didn’t blame him for the sarcasm. Anybody would feel that way, she supposed, after what had to seem like an abrupt about-face. Going from a fierce hate to...whatever this was.

“No,” she said softly. “Just you kissing me would do it.”

She got up then, reluctantly, but determinedly. And the ache that was growing inside her told her just how much pain she’d just set herself up for. Because he was looking at her not like a woman he’d just enjoyed kissing, but a woman he wasn’t sure he even wanted to be around.

Chapter 27

Adam sat out on the deck, savoring the chill in the air as his overheated blood gradually cooled. There were certain things he had always acknowledged in his life. That the wide-open spaces of home would always call to him. That his family was his rock, his foundation, the source of his gravity. That a good dog and a good horse were among the most important things a man could have.