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The McKays gathered around a table piled high with food--laughing, s, happy

Normal pictures of a nor like jealousy twisted in Macie’s gut She didn’t have any pictures like that She had a few happy memories from her childhood, but no documentation

What would it be like to have that connection? To people? To a single place? To have a history?

Someone like Carter would never understand that even as she craved that kind of bond, the idea of permanence scared her to death

As she studied the second row of pictures, her face burned like she’d peeked into a forbiddento the subject’s soul She kneithout a doubt Carter had snapped these photos

The first one was a close-up of his parents His mother’s hand rested on his father’s weathered cheek An intense love was apparent on their faces and they see but each other

The second photo was of a dark-haired brother, wearing the duds of a rodeo cowboy

He hung on athe action in the arena, a far-away look in his eyes

The next one was of thehis face as he threw a hay bale from the bed of a beat-up truck, oblivious to the beautiful pearly orange glow of the sunset behind hirinning in pigtail braids, not yet woirl, innocence and deviltry mixed with an innate sensuality The last snapshot was of the brother as probably the source of the bad McKay reputation, given he had a gorgeous blonde stripper perched on each knee, a big cigar clamped between his teeth and a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand

No other pictures of the soldier No intilimpses into Carter either She wondered if any members of his family had such introspective pictures of him? Or did he hide behind his art? Use the camera and his sketch pad as a shield? Was there a deeper reason for the distance she glimpsed in him when others were around?

So ould the pictures he’d taken of her reveal? Would her face, her heart, her soul, be an open book?

Did he intend to showcase her frailties and failings as part of his art? What would she do if he did? Although Carter claimed to know her, how hts in the back of her y and huhtthe beautiful landscape and the enorotten her shoes, so she picked her way to the barn across the pea-sized gravel, one barefooted step at a time She stopped when she saw the barn door was ajar and she heard a strange noise frorave; vu

Or a repeat of the sexy dream she’d had of a trio of hot cowboys?

Da her nuts To ensure she was fully awake, she pinched the inside of her forearm Hard

Da Macie took a deep breath and quietly slipped inside

Artificial light shone in the y music drifted from an unseen boom box An explosion of art supplies--jars, paints, brushes, ju pieces of wood, sticks--covered every available flat surface Carterarea isty The irony wasn’t lost on her, as the aze to focus on him Good God The man was nearly naked A ratty cowboy hat on his head was about the extent of his attire He’d changed out of jeans and wore a stained pair of sweatpants hacked off above the knee Few men looked better out of clothes than in them, and Carter McKay was one of those luckyin heran enor smaller blobs She couldn’t see his face, but she could hear hiht he could carry a tune? Keith Urban had nothing to worry about, but Velht have a new contender for the open ely content just to watch Carter, fascinated by his controlled body movements The muscles in his shoulders bunched as he lifted his arms As he pushed and pulled the clay, corded muscles popped up on his forearms A thin line of sweat trickled down his spine and disappeared into his low-slung sweatpants She wished she could see his hands Those long, clever fingers s deep

Outside the mist morphed into a steady, soft rainfall The clean scent of rain wafted through the open door, but did nothing to cool her off See could ht Carter was sexy when they’d firstcompared to the way she felt when she looked at hi intensity, he eet and thoughtful and had a body made for pure sin She wanted hi her breasts Leaving ainto her hips Seeing his big handprints on the inside of her thighs

Tasting clay and passion on his lips Scraping her nails down his sweat-coated back

Clutching his ass Watching lust fire in his eyes as he took everything she offered hi

Thunder cracked outside

Macie gasped at the intrusion of reality into her little fantasy world

Carter spun to glare at her "Jesus, Macie, what are you doin’ in here?"

"I-I woke up a little while ago--"

"And you just snuck in to spy on ry look doused her steahts "No!"

"Then what the hell--" He paced toward her, then back "Fuck" Angrily he wiped his hands on a towel "Never oddaed to a torrential downpour More thunder boomed The wind howled and the door s on Just letshe saw before she fled was Carter flinging a sheet over the globs of clay and mysterious shape on the table

Macie couldn’t blae in the weather The change in Carter had a lot to do with it

Stupid girl Stupid to hope he’d be different When would she learn nothing ever changed for her when it came to her relationships with men?

Water splashed up to her ankles, as she couldn’t avoid lared at her like a disobedient child

A sharp rock tore at the skin on the bottohted herself and kept li in the downpour Why in the hell had she parked so far away?

Maybe it was a cosn she should drive far away and never look back Good plan

"Macie!"