LITMIR.BIZ

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you know he knows the painting is a forgery, you’ll impress him. He likes people who pay attention to details. Especially the prospective new chief of Rialto Industries.”

      “She may have a point,” Penny agreed.

      Rafe nodded, eyeing her thoughtfully. “Do you have other tidbits like this for me?”

      “Maybe. I’ve told you I made a study of him.”

      “So you did. If you’re finished ignoring your food, let’s get back to work.”

      “But shouldn’t we be making plans?”

      “The plans are already made, Kendra. Now we wait for him to hire me so we can put this operation in motion.”

      Penny waved them off. “I’ll distract Rosa while you two make your escape.”

      “You are a lifesaver.”

      “So true.” She batted her eyes at him. “Let me know when you want mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

      “Ah, Penny my love, I’m not sure my old ticker could tolerate that much excitement, but any time you want to practice…”

      “Get out of here while Rosa’s back is turned.”

      Rafe squeezed Penny’s hand and winked at Kendra. He was teasing, but Kendra wasn’t so sure about Penny. The other woman had a wistful gleam in her eyes. Kendra and Rafe scooted down the basement steps where Rafe proceeded to work her harder than ever while asking questions about Rialto the entire time.

      “No! Not like that like—”

      “Touch me again and I’m going to have to break that hand,” she warned him as he reached for her once more.

      Rafe stood still. They were both sweating and she was pretty sure she was going to have a bruise from that last fall.

      “I have had enough,” she announced firmly.

      “Is that what you’re going to tell one of Rialto’s goons when they corner you?” He narrowed the distance between them until her chest was practically touching his.

      “No,” she answered sweetly, “I’ll shoot him. In the chest,” she added for good measure.

      The smile started in his eyes and finally lifted the corners of his lips. Her gaze fastened on those lips, so temptingly near. She tried to tell her hormones they were pinging after the wrong man but her hormones weren’t listening. Neither was her common sense.

      “You’ll need a weapon,” he said softly, taking another step closer.

      Her heart stepped up the pace as his hands touched her shoulders. Lightly. Almost tenderly.

      “Yes.” The word was a faint hiss of sound. In that moment as his head lowered toward hers, she knew he felt the sensual pull between them as well. Her lips parted in silent invitation. He was going to kiss her.

      At last!

      “Excuse me, am I interrupting?”

      Kendra would have pulled away, but Rafe’s fingers tightened on her shoulders, holding her in place. He lifted his head and looked past her at the voice that had come from behind her.

      “Actually, yes,” Rafe said calmly. He released his hold slowly to allow her to turn.

      Lydia Skerritt stood a few feet away, dressed in heels and a canary yellow dress that would jump-start any man’s libido. Her long blond hair was in casual disarray that had probably taken her an hour to arrange. She looked sexy, sultry, and ironically amused.

      “We were working out,” Rafe said.

      “So I see. Did you forget our date? Dinner and a movie?”

      Rafe ran a hand over his jaw, his expression chagrined.

      “You did forget,” she said.

      “Guilty. Do I have time to shower and change?”

      “You do. I knew this might be a problem so I came a little early.”

      “Okay, give me five,” he rubbed his jaw, “make it ten minutes.” He turned to Kendra. “You did very well. I’m sorry to cut this short. Will you excuse me?”

      That look had probably melted harder hearts than hers. “No problem. I’m exhausted. One more throw and I would have cried uncle.”

      “You did,” he reminded her.

      “Ah, but that was just a trick. I was about to send you flying.” She turned to Lydia before he could comment. “Thanks for the rescue. I could use a shower, too.”

      Rafe watched her walk away, her head held high, the slight sway of her stride momentarily confusing him. What was going on here? He wasn’t seriously attracted to Kendra. He didn’t even trust her most of the time. Yet he found Lydia watching him watch Kendra with arched eyebrows.

      “Working out, huh?” she asked playfully. “Just what were you two working at?”

      If there’d been any trace of jealousy in her tone, he would have taken offense, but Lydia simply sounded amused.

      “Mitchell asked me to show her some self-defense moves. She lives alone. I’m sorry, Lydia, I really did forget our plans. Ten minutes, promise.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      But she was still smiling as she linked her arm with his and started for the steps. Her perfume permeated the room. He’d always liked the scent of jasmine, but tonight it smelled cloying to his senses.

      He left Lydia in the kitchen talking with Rosa while he walked over to the bunkhouse, stripped and showered in record time. A night with Lydia was exactly what he needed to unwind. She was witty, charming, beautiful and willing—and like him, she wanted no permanent ties. Who could ask for anything more?

      So why did he keep picturing wide hazel-brown eyes and softly parted lips, waiting to be tasted?

      The date wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t the escape he’d hoped for. Rafe found it hard to concentrate and more than once had to apologize for not hearing something Lydia said. He was grateful for the darkened movie theater where nothing more was expected from him than sitting there with his arm around her. He was heartily sick of the scent of jasmine by the time the evening was over.

      He knew when Lydia invited him back to Chet’s for the night he was going to say no. Her talented mouth wasn’t stirring him tonight. He had too many other things on his mind. The ringing of her car phone changed everything.

      “There’s been an accident. A couple of the guests are hurt,” she told him, hanging up. “I have to get back to the ranch.”

      “Do you want me to come with you?”

      “If you don’t mind. Chet thinks he might have to take one of them to the doctor’s and the helicopter is temporarily grounded.”

      Rafe offered to go to the doctor’s office with Chet so it was the wee hours of the morning before Lydia finally drove him back to the Smoking Barrel.

      “I’m sorry about the way the evening turned out,” Lydia apologized.

      “Hey, you have nothing to apologize for. I should apologize for being so distracted.”

      “You can make it up to me another time.”

      “Deal.”

      Her lips clung to his, inviting him to passion. Rafe was unmoved. They broke apart and he watched her drive out of sight before turning toward the bunkhouse. The door to the main house suddenly shut firmly as someone left the darkness of the porch.

      Rafe spun around. It could have been Penny, or Mitchell or even Maddie Wells, their other close neighbor and the only woman in Mitchell’s life. She often stayed over, but Rafe didn’t think it had been any of them. One of them would have called out a greeting to him. Rafe headed across the compound to the front

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