“No,” she insisted. She didn’t have a better name for it, but she’d been swearing to herself for days now that she was not dating Harlan Adams and that’s the way she intended to keep it. “Even if those meals counted as dates, that’s hardly a sufficient basis for assuming I would go off on some romantic tryst with you.”

“I figured those kisses were a clue that you might at least consider the offer.”

“Then you leapt to a wrong conclusion,” she said adamantly.

An expression of pure frustration crossed his face. “Your daughter is asking me if I’m interested in having sex with you. My sons are practically salivating over every development in our relationship. I’d just like to get to know you someplace out from under their watchful eyes.”

She stared at him with growing horror. “Jenny asked you about sex?” she asked with a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

“Indeed she did,” he said. “Not the workings of it, of course. Just whether that was the only reason I was interested in you.”

“Oh, sweet heaven,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t seem to care about an apology. In fact, he seemed torn between exasperation and admiration for her child’s audacity. She’d noticed that about him. Almost nothing threw Harlan Adams off stride. He was confident in a way that didn’t require controlling other people. For all of the teasing she’d witnessed between him and his sons about his manipulation, she noticed that each of them had gone their own way, apparently with their father’s blessing.

“I can’t go away with you,” she finally said with some regret. “I won’t leave Jenny, for one thing. For another, I can’t afford the damage to my reputation. I’m having enough difficulty getting the people in town to trust a woman lawyer, who’s part Comanche, to boot, without giving them anything more to speculate about.”

Harlan’s expression promptly clouded over. “Are people still giving you a hard time? I thought that would be a thing of the past by now.”

“It’s no worse than I expected,” she repeated emphatically, regretting taking that particular tack with him again. She knew better than to get his white knight tendencies stirred up.

“Who’s bothering you?” he demanded, ignoring her low-key attempt to sidetrack him. “I’ll have a word with them.”

“No. You will not! We’ve been all through this. I will not have you fighting my battles for me. We’re talking about my career. I can handle it.”

He seemed ready and eager to rush off and slay a few dragons for her, but he finally backed down at her adamant tone. It was another thing she liked about him. He didn’t just listen to her. He actually heard what she was saying.