LITMIR.BIZ

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though a jury found him innocent?” Caitlin asked. “From what Will said, your sister was the one at fault.”

      “My sister had the poor judgment to fall in love with your half brother,” Jake said, thinking Caitlin should have left the topic alone because she stirred memories of the most abhorrent event in his life. It was the ultimate culmination of his hatred of Will. “Brittany didn’t live to tell her side of the story.”

      “At the trial Will testified that they had a fight and she drove off in a rage. He said he was afraid she would have a wreck and he followed her. He tried to get in front of her car so he could slow her down. He testified that when he tried to pass her, she sideswiped his car. She lost control and crashed.”

      “I’ll always think Will sideswiped her car. Will was the one who wanted her out of his life. She wanted him to marry her.”

      “That never came out in the trial, although it was common talk. Will admitted to Grandmother that Brittany wanted him to marry her.”

      “You know a lot about it.”

      “I was there, even if I was younger than you.”

      “She was pregnant with Will’s baby,” Jake said, feeling the dull hurt that came when he thought about Brittany’s crash. “Brittany told me. She was in love with him, too. I’m convinced Will ran her off the road and she crashed,” Jake said, hurt growing with each word. He hated having painful memories dredged up again.

      Caitlin gasped. “I always figured talk of pregnancy was just a rumor. It was never brought up at the trial.”

      “My mother didn’t know about it. My dad didn’t want it brought out at the trial and your family sure as hell didn’t,” Jake said. “I will always blame Will. I don’t believe he told the truth about that night, but no one will ever know because only two people were present. At the time of the trial, one of them was dead,” Jake stated, bitterness filling him as he sank into dark memories of a painful time. “We better get off this subject if you want to have a civil conversation with me.”

      Jake gazed into fiery green eyes. Caitlin made no effort to hide her anger. He could feel the waves of antagonism that revealed her flirting was simply a means to try to get what she wanted from him.

      “So that’s why you hate Will so much,” she said.

      “Will and I have competed in school in sports and in the classroom. I was captain of the football team when he wanted to be. We both were on the baseball team. I had more home runs than Will. He had more stolen bases. I was my class president and the next year he was his class president. We were both on the debate team. Will and I have had plenty of our own battles. I never put Will in the hospital or vice versa.”

      “You broke his nose. Actually, I wasn’t too sorry when I heard that. I thought a good punch was well deserved.”

      “It definitely was,” he said lightly. “It was the loss of Brittany that tops my list of complaints against Will. I loved my sister and I hated to see her go out with Will. Brittany and I fought constantly over that. When she could, she hid her relationship with Will from our dad. I should have told him, but I don’t think it would have helped. She was eighteen, a senior. Will was eighteen by then. I was still seventeen. She would have done what she wanted. I don’t think anyone could have stopped her. Not even that fatal night.”

      “As a Benton, you’ll always think Will was guilty.”

      “Yes. While you’ll always think he’s innocent. We’re at an impasse on the issue and it makes even a business deal between us an emotional event that can’t be looked at in a purely impartial way.”

      “Will’s no angel and we’ve never gotten along. Grandmother sat him down and made him tell her what happened. He swore that was the truth and I don’t think even Will could have lied to her. She could be a formidable woman. More intimidating than my father.”

      Jake sipped his beer and listened to the rain, remembering all the emotional upheaval of that time in their lives. He could imagine easily Will Santerre lying to his grandmother. He looked at Caitlin and saw a Santerre, Will’s half sister. The ultimate irony would be to seduce her.

      He had no intention of selling one inch of the Santerre place back to her.

      How valuable was the land to her? Was trying to obtain it worth the price of seduction?

      “That’s Will,” Caitlin continued. “What he did has little to do with me other than the fact that the same blood runs in our veins. There is no love lost between the two of us, so do not lump me with him.” The air was thick with hostility again. There was a fine line between them that kept them civil and caused her to flirt with him. He owned her family home and it was headed for destruction. In turn, he was beginning to want her in his bed. The more he was with her, the more he desired her.

      She placed her palm on his cheek, startling him. “I told you. I’m going to make you see me as a woman and not as a Santerre.”

      “I do already,” he answered in a husky voice, letting go thoughts about past history. Her hand was warm, soft against his cheek and he wanted her to keep it there. He longed to slip his arm around her waist and pull her into his embrace, to lean close to taste her lips.

      Instead, when she sat back in her chair, he took her empty glass from her. “Want something stronger than water this time?”

      “I’ll have another glass of water,” she said, smiling at him and getting up to follow him to the bar. She slid onto a high bar stool and watched as he filled another glass of water and sat on a bar stool facing her.

      With their knees lightly touching, the temperature on the patio rose a notch in spite of the rain-chilled air.

      “Now what can I do to get you to pay attention to me?” she asked.

      He smiled. “You have my full attention right now,” he said. “Should it wander, you’ll figure out some way to capture my notice again. Some way as clever as getting into my house and spending the evening with me. You managed that easily.”

      “Right now we’re captives of the storm. We both have to be here.” She leaned forward, her face closer to his. “I don’t know whether I can ever get you to see me apart from my family.”

      “I promise you,” he replied in a huskier voice, “that I see you as Caitlin, a beautiful woman.”

      Something flickered in the depths of her eyes and she got a sensual, solemn expression that made his heartbeat race. As his gaze dropped to her mouth, his desire to kiss her grew. He wondered about her kiss, resolving to satisfy his curiosity before the night was out.

      “Now we have the whole evening to get to know each other. Do you work, Caitlin?”

      She nodded. “I’m a professional photographer.”

      “You must be good if you’re earning a living at it.”

      Swirling her glass of water, she replied, “I freelance and I do earn a living at it.”

      One dark eyebrow arched. “Why do you want to stay out here when you have a busy life elsewhere in the world?”

      “Same reason you’re here, probably,” she replied. “I can relax, get away from everything else and have solitude.”

      He sipped his drink and nodded. “You’re right,” he admitted. “This is an escape for me.”

      “What do you need to escape from? Business decisions? Women?”

      He laughed. “Never women.”

      “You think about it—I’ll make a nice neighbor and the old feud will die with us. I won’t fight with you over the boundary, over water, never over the mineral rights, which I’m certain you won’t sell back to me, but that’s not my purpose here. I want to keep the home for all those people I told you about. Selfishly, also for my own memories and pleasure.”

      She sipped her water

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