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For a moment he could only look at her as old led with new Time hadn&039;t stood still for theirl ould splash headlong into the water with a dare The wo eyes had a layer of polish and sophistication the girl had lacked
The breeze had her hair dancing in fiery spirals That, at least, hadn&039;t changed She waited with every appearance of calm as he walked to her, but he neither saw nor felt any welco it would take you to coaze "I wasn&039;t sure you&039;d have the nerve"
It was difficult, horribly, to speak rationally when the ees from the cave still churned inside him "Do you ever come back here?"
"Why would I? If I want to look at the ocean, I can stand on my own cliffs If I want the beach, it&039;s a short walk fro here to warrant the trip"
"But you&039;re here now"
"Curiosity" Her head tilted to the side The dark blue stones at her ears caught the light and glinted
"And did you satisfy your own?"
"I felt you in there Felt us in there"
It surprised hi energy, when it&039;s done correctly We never had a problem in that area As for me - well, a woave herself to a man I can reret my choice of partner"
"I never meant to - " He broke off, swore
"To hurt ht Absolutely" Whatever came from this point on, if he was indeed fated to lose her, he could and would be honest about this one thing "I did ood job of it"
"Well, you surprise me at last" She turned away because it hurt to look at him, to see him stand there with his back to the shadowed mouth of the cave that had been theirs To feel the echoes of that boundless, consu love she&039;d once felt for hi to do so at twenty doesn&039;t ret it now"
"I don&039;t want your regrets"
"What the hell do you want, Mia?"
She watched the water tease the shore in its endless flirtation She heard the edge in his voice, knew it as a sign of a rising and reckless mood And it pleased her The more unsettled he was, the more she could feel in control
"A truth for a truth, then," she said "I want you to suffer, to pay, and to go back toNew York or to hell, or wherever you choose, so long as it isn&039;t here"
She looked back over her shoulder at him, and her smile was cold as winter "It seems so little to ask, really"
"I mean to stay on Three Sisters"
She turned back to hiht Roer and turave him yet another push
"For what? To run a hotel? Your fatherhere"
"I&039;m not my father"
The way he said it, that sered more memories He&039;d always had to prove hiht The constant internal war of Saine you&039;ll be bored with island life soon enough and escape As you did before
&039;Trapped,&039; I believe was your term You felt trapped here So, it&039;s just await," he warned He hooked his hands in his pockets "Let&039;s get so around the saain I have roots here, just as you do The fact that you spent your twenties on-island and I didn&039;t doesn&039;t change the fact that we both come from the same place We both have businesses here, and beyond that we have a purpose, one that goes back centuries What happens on and to Three Sistersspeech fro casual about it," he began, but she had already turned her back on hio, his o If this is fate, it can&039;t be beaten Shouldn&039;t be, for the good of the whole, fought against
"The hell with that" The words ground between his teeth as he went after her He grabbed her arm, spun her around so quickly their bodies collided "There was nothing casual about it," he repeated
"Nothing i careless"
"Is that how you justify it?" she tossed back "Is that how you ht? You left because it suited you, and you come back because it suits you And because you&039;re here, why not see if you can stir up some old flames?"
"I&039;ve been pretty restrained in that area" He yanked his sunglasses off, threw thereen "Up till now"
He crushed his mouth to hers, let himself take, let the storm of emotions that had shadowed him since he left the cave break over both of the what he wanted, not for letting it go
The unique flavor of her seared through hihtened so that her long, lean body was alloped until the paces matched Exactly
The scent of her, darker than he re through his systeirl, the reality of the woether and beca against hers, then she broke free Her breathing was as uneven as his And her eyes were huge, dark, unreadable He waited to be cursed, and counted it worth the price of that one taste of heaven
But sheher ar her body to his, she took from him as he had taken from her
Her h her He was the only ht her pain, and the only es of that keen sword stabbed, and still she took
She had pushed hied threads of his te purpose This Just this Whatever the risks, whatever the price, she&039;d had to knowShe remembered the taste of him, the texture, the way it felt when his hands slid up from her waist to fist in her hair She relived all of that now, and experienced the new
He nipped her bottoue slicked over the sale of the kiss, daring him to follow, to circle the slippery rim of that well of need
Soh to remind her that a
She drew back, then away, as the reverberations of thatof mouths tossed her emotions So she knew He was still the only one who could meet and match her passions His voice was hoarse, and far fro"
It helped, so he was as undone as she "Proves what, Sam? That we still have heat between us?" She waved her hand, and a duet of clear blue flames danced on her palers, opened theuished"
"Not so easily" He took her hand, felt the puy And knew she felt it, too "Not so easily, Mia"
"Wanting you with my body means so very little" She drew her hand from his, looked toward the cave
"It makes me sad to be here, to remember how much more we both expected of each other, and ourselves, once"
"Don&039;t you believe in fresh starts?" He reached out to touch her hair "We&039;ve both changed Why not take the tiet "
She laughed, surprising them both "More honesty Soon I&039;ll be speechless"
"I&039;d seduce you eventually, but - "
"Seduction&039;s overrated," she interrupted "I&039;in If I decide to sleep with you, then I&039;ll sleep with you"
He blew out a breath "Well, then It so happens I have an entire hotel at my disposal"
" &039;If&039; is the key word," she said mildly "On the occasion &039;if&039; becomes &039;when,&039; I&039;ll let you know"
"I&039;ll stay available" To give hilasses "But what I was going to say, was that while I&039;d seduce you eventually, I&039;ll settle for a friendly dinner"
"I&039; you" She turned to walk back up the bluff, to the road, and he fell into step beside her
"A civilized ent conversation, that chance to see e are If you don&039;t like calling it a date, we can call it aof two of the island&039;s proe reality" She stopped beside her car "I&039;ll think about it"
"Good" He opened the car door for her, but blocked her fro in "Mia - "
Stay with me, he wanted to say I&039;ve missed you
"What?"
He shook his head, stepped back "Drive safe"
She went straight hoed into gardening clothes Her large black cat,Isis , ribboned between her legs as she headed outside In her greenhouse she babied and fussed over her seedlings, selected flats to set out in the sun to help theathered tools and set to work prepping soil
Her daffodils were already up and dancing, and the hyacinths perfu to tease her tulips open, and soon she i in their candy colors She hadher, Mia admitted as she turned the earth Once a woet where to push
She&039;d wanted him to hold her, she&039;d wanted to feel his mouth on hers It wasn&039;t a criht now She&039;d had to know And now she did There was still a charge between them She couldn&039;t claim it surprised her Between the last kiss and this, no man had truly moved her There&039;d been a time when she&039;d wondered if that part of her had simply died off But the years had coated the wound, and she had recognized, even appreciated, her own sexuality
There had been others Interestingmen, attractive men But none who tripped that switch inside her, opened her to that rush of feeling
She&039;d learned to be content without it
Until now
And nohat? she wondered, studying the wisteria, just greening, that scrambled over one of her arbors Now she wanted, and had tested and believed - needed to believe - that she could take her pleasure on her own terms And protect her heart
She was human, wasn&039;t she, and entitled to basic human needs?
This ti, and in control Better, always, to face a dilenored Her wind chilanced over to whereIsis lay sprawled in the sun, watching her
"And ould happen if I let him drive this train?" Mia demanded "I wouldn&039;t be sure of the destination, would I? But if I choose the track, I choose the station"
The cat rowl
"So you say," MiaAnd I believe I will have dinner with hiarden spade into the soil "When I&039;fully in the air, then stalked over to watch the fish swiold flashes in the lily pond
For the next few days, Mia had toodinner with Sa him to her bed Lulu was distracted and cranky Crankier than normal, Mia corrected They&039;d squabbled twice over petty bookstore business
Which forced Mia to admit she was a bit cranky herself In any case, Nell&039;s expansion proposal had lighted a fire under her and provided her with an outlet for the energy that had puh her since the moment on the bluff with Sam
She met with an architect, with a contractor, with her banker, and spent several hours running figures It didn&039;t please her that the contractor she wanted had already committed the bulk of his tiuest rooick Inn But she tried to take it philosophically Saotten there first
Both the renovation and her expansion, she reood for the island As the weather continued warardens at home and in the beds she&039;d planted behind the bookstore
"Hey" Ripley wandered to the back garden of the store fro