LITMIR.BIZ

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      Jake looked around.

      “Next time you decide to pay me a visit, just remember there are half a dozen real guns inside that house.”

      “A little advice,” Jake said coldly. “Don’t threaten a man with a gun, real or otherwise, unless you’re prepared to face the consequences.”

      “Advice is the last thing I need from the likes of you, Captain Wilde. You’ve got a nasty disposition, a hair-trigger temper and you’re so full of yourself that—”

      Jake marched toward her.

      “You want to talk about being full of yourself, lady, try explaining that outfit you wore tonight.”

      Addison blinked.

      “I beg your pardon?”

      “Black silk, cut low. Ice-pick heels.” Was he actually saying these things? He sounded like a fool but the words just kept coming. “You might as well have pinned on a sign that said, ‘Hello, Wilde’s Crossing. Ever seen the likes of me before?’“

      Her eyes narrowed. “Are you finished?”

      Finished? Finished? No. He was not finished, nowhere near finished.

      “You know,” he said, “I behaved like a damned fool back at El Sueño.”

      “If you’re waiting for me to disagree—”

      “But what you did here was worse.”

      “Worse? Defending myself against you was worse?”

      “I could have killed you.”

      His words were flat and cold. Addison felt the chill of them straight into the marrow of her bones.

      “Don’t get me wrong. You were scared. A truck, following you on these dark, deserted roads … I understand that. But once you pulled that trick with your car, put your headlights on me, that flashlight, saw who I was—”

      “I saw who you were, all right.” For the first time since he’d taken her down, her voice quavered. “A man who wanted to—to—”

      Addison shuddered. The wind was chilly; in her rush to leave El Sueño, she’d left her jacket behind.

      “I’m not that kind of man,” Jake said flatly. “Despite this face.”

      “Goddammit,” she said with hot fury, “do you think that’s what this is about? You and your face? You, feeling sorry for yourself?

      Jake took a quick step forward, muscles taut with anger. “Who in hell do you think you are?”

      “I’m a woman who’s not afraid to tell you the truth, unlike that—that bunch of sympathy sisters at your ranch.” Her chin rose; she tossed her hair back from her face. “Grow up, Captain. You were wounded. You have scars. People react to seeing them. So what?”

      “You’re out of line,” he said coldly.

      “I am very much in line. You have a chip on your shoulder the size of a house.”

      “You don’t know a damned thing about me.”

      “And you don’t know a damned thing about me, but that didn’t stop you from making a snap judgment. And I am sick and tired of snap judgments. You got that?”

      Jake hesitated. Then he nodded.

      “You’re right,” he said in a low voice. “You want to know the truth of what happened tonight? I saw you. And I wanted you. I haven’t wanted a woman in what seems like forever but one look at you and all that changed. And then—then, my brothers told me you weren’t looking at me, Jacob Wilde, you were looking at me, the guy they’d recommended to check out your ranch and I, hell, and I—”

      “I saw you watching me. And I told myself I was just trying to get your attention so we could talk business but—but—”

      “Dammit,” he said, and either she moved or he did.

      It didn’t matter.

      What counted was that an instant later, she was in his arms.

       CHAPTER SIX

      THERE WAS NO time to try and understand what was happening.

      This was magic, and only a fool would question it.

      Jake was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a fool. He was a man with a beautiful woman in his arms, her mouth warm against his.

      She whispered something against his lips. Was she asking him to stop?

      No.

      Thank God, no, because stopping the kiss would have killed him.

      If anything, he wanted more.

      And she gave it, her lips parting eagerly so he could taste her hot, honeyed sweetness.

      She slid her tongue against his. And moaned.

      The sound went straight through him.

      She went up on her toes, the flashlight tumbling to the ground.

      His arms tightened around her as she wound her arms around his neck.

      He could hear his blood roaring in his ears.

      On a low, rough groan, he tilted her head back and took the kiss deeper.

      She trembled, pressed her body more tightly to his.

      The kiss went on and on; the moon and the stars spun around them. They were the center of the universe, its source of light and heat—

      And the kiss wasn’t enough.

      Jake stumbled back against the truck and lifted Addison into him. She clung to him. He moved his hips against her and the sound she made when she felt his erection was raw with need.

      Everything within him responded.

      He was steel. He was granite. He was dangerously close to losing control.

      “Addison,” he said in a warning whisper, “Addison …”

      She sank her teeth delicately into the tender flesh of his bottom lip. Rocked against him. Said his name in a hoarse whisper, and whatever remained of his sanity fled.

      He hoisted her off the ground, one arm under her bottom, his free hand beneath her skirt. She wrapped her legs around him.

      He sought her heat, found it, found the wetness that was for him, only for him, and cupped her with his palm.

      She gave a sharp, keening cry.

      “Please,” she sobbed, “Jacob, Jacob, please …”

      Beyond thought, beyond everything rational, he wrapped his fingers around the small bit of silk that kept him from her and tore it away.

      She gasped.

      Now he could feel her against his fingers.

      Wet heat. Soft curls. The delicate petals of the flower that was her feminine heart.

      He stroked her. She screamed. The intensity of her response almost finished him.

      Quickly, he reached between them, unzipped, freed himself, lifted her higher …

      And drove into her.

      She clamped around him, a velvet vise.

      Hold on, he told himself, don’t let go, not yet, not yet, not—

      But she kissed him. Lifted herself. Came down on his aroused flesh. Once. Twice. Again …

      She screamed again. Convulsed around him.

      And the cosmos whirled them away in its star-studded

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