Janet had a feeling that—laws or no laws—he knew the justice system in Los Piños and could manipulate it far better than she ever could with her legal expertise and law school degree.

“Why are you making this so difficult?” she snapped. “Hasn’t anyone ever turned you down before?”

A ghost of a smile played around his lips. “Haven’t asked anyone until you came along, not for more than thirty-five years.”

That sucked the wind right out of her sails. She reached up impulsively and placed her hand against his cheek. “Harlan Adams, you don’t play fair.”

“That’s right, darlin’. I play to win.”

Before she could reply to that, his mouth was moving over hers again, coaxing, persuading, claiming.

It was a hell of a kiss by anyone’s standards. By Janet’s, it was devastating. A bone-melting, breath-stealing crack of thunder deep inside her. It raised goose bumps from head to toe and had the hair on the back of her neck raised on end.

“I think I’d better be going,” she murmured when it was over. As badly as she wanted to sound serene and unfazed, she couldn’t seem to get her voice above a shaken whisper. She glanced around anxiously, trying to spot the purse she’d dropped somewhere.

“Without Jenny?” he inquired, laughter dancing in his eyes.

“Oh,” she murmured. “No, of course not.” She drew in a deep, supposedly calming breath. It didn’t help a whit.

“How soon will she and Cody be back?” she asked a little desperately.

“Not for a while,” he reported complacently. “You might as well settle back and relax.”

Relax? It would take an entire bottle of tranquilizers to get her to relax as long as Harlan was in the vicinity. She didn’t have so much as a single pill to her name. She sipped at the only available distraction, her iced tea, but it didn’t go far in terms of settling her nerves or soothing the thirst that kiss had aroused.

“You look as if you could use a nice, cool shower,” Harlan said after a bit.

Her head snapped up. “What?”

“A cool shower,” he prompted, grinning. “Alone, if that’s the way you prefer.”

“Here?” she asked incredulously.

“Why not? It’s a big house. There are lots of bathrooms. If I’d put in that pool the boys were always plaguing me to, I’d suggest that, but a shower is all I have to offer.”

The offer might have been part generosity, part seduction, but Janet was intrigued just the same. Maybe an ice-cold shower would get her through the wait, she decided thoughtfully. It would wash away some of the hot day’s dust and cleanse her wicked thoughts at the same time.

And maybe not. She weighed just how far she could trust Harlan to stay right here where he was, rather than following her inside.