“I don’t think so,” she said, holding up the last plate she was drying as if to ward him off.

He grinned, shrugged and came to her. Before she realized his intentions, he slid his arms around her waist and held her in a loose embrace. “Thank you,” he said softly, his breath fanning intimately across her cheek.

“For what?” she asked shakily. Her breath snagged in her throat as she met his gaze.

“For going to so much trouble.”

“I told you—”

He reached up and brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. “I know what you told me, but the fact is you could have served me whatever that was you cooked in the first place and tried to scare me off for good. Instead, you went to a lot of trouble that wasn’t necessary. I don’t scare that easily.”

She sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

He studied her intently. The spark of mischief in his eyes raised goose bumps.

“You gonna fall apart if I kiss you?” he inquired.

An unwilling smile tugged at her lips. “I might.”

He nodded. “I think I’ll risk it anyway,” he said softly.

He lowered his head until his lips were a tantalizing hairbreadth above hers. She trembled as she waited for him to close that infinitesimal distance. When, at last, their mouths met, she could have sworn fireworks exploded. She’d been expecting a kiss that was gentle and tentative. Instead, he plundered, claiming her mouth as surely as his ancestors had claimed Comanche land.

After the first startled instant, when she couldn’t have moved if her life depended on it, Janet slid her hands from his shoulders into his thick hair, holding him, encouraging him to continue the assault that had her senses vibrantly, thrillingly alive for perhaps the first time ever. Nothing she had shared with her ex-husband compared to the consuming, white-hot fire raging through her just from Harlan Adams’s incomparable kiss.

She willed it to go on forever, imagining all of the wicked places it could take her. But just as she was indulging in sensations so sweet her heart ached for them to continue, she heard a startled gasp behind her.

“Mom, how could you?” Jenny protested with all of the hurt and confusion a thirteen-year-old could experience.

The kitchen door rattled on its hinges as Jenny left far more noisily than she had entered.

“I’ll go after her,” Harlan offered, but Janet stilled him.

“No, it’s up to me. You’d better leave, though. She won’t want to see you again tonight and this could take a while.”

He nodded, reluctance clearly written all over his face. “If you’re sure.”

“I am. I’ll handle it.”

“You’ll be at White Pines in the morning, then?”

“That might be difficult,” Janet said. “She might not want to be there after this.”