Jake nodded. Looked up. “I’m still here.”
“And I’ve just proved that there’s no purpose to your visit. So do us both a favor. Go away.”
“I probably should.”
“There’s no ‘probably’ about it.”
“I would, if I were smart.”
“Yay,” she said, and he tried not to laugh when he heard her clapping her ha
nds together.
“But I’m not smart. If I were, I’d have done the right thing last night.”
“What did I say? I do not want to talk about—”
“I’d have told you,” he said gruffly, “that I wasn’t sorry we’d made love—”
“Goodbye, Captain.”
“—because,” he said quickly, before she could close the window, “because the truth is, I wanted you more than I’ve ever wanted a woman. And what we did …” His smile was slow and intimate and she could feel it, straight into the marrow of her bones. “What we did,” he said, “was fantastic.”
Addison stared at the man looking up at her from the porch.
What did she say to that blunt admission?
That blunt, incredibly sexy admission?
The man was a puzzle. He confused the hell out of her.
Just looking at him was confusing.
No uniform today. Instead, he was dressed like a, well, a cowboy. Faded shirt. Faded jeans. Boots that she could tell had nothing to do with style. Even here, in the heart of ranching country, she’d seen a lot of that. Style, no substance.
And, of course, he was wearing that eye patch, hiding what the war had done to him from the world.
He looked—there was that word again—beautiful. And so masculine she was finding it difficult to remember how much she despised him.
It was quite a combination. Arrogance and vulnerability in one gorgeous package …
She’d never known a man like him. And the sex—the sex, she thought, almost hearing the italics in her head—as for that …
Why lie to herself?
It had been … there had to be a better word than fantastic.
Sex was okay. But it wasn’t mind-blowing.
Until last night. Until he’d taken her in his arms. Was that why she’d heaped all the blame on him? Because it was less embarrassing than the truth?
Those moments when he’d been inside her, when their mouths and bodies had been fused …
“Okay.”
Addison came back to reality. Jake was still looking at her but he’d gone down the steps, even backed up a couple of feet.
Now that he had, she could see that he had a bouquet of flowers in his arms.