He nodded grimly. "I dismissed her threats until today. This afternoon I saw just how destructive she could be."
"Hell hath no fury, et cetera."
"Especially since I was supposed to be having dinner with her when I was in bed with you."
Devon's lips parted, but remained speechless.
"When she found out about that, well, that really capped it. My sister, Sage, tried to warn me about Susan. I laughed off her warnings. I shouldn't have. Susan is devious and audacious, willing to go to any lengths to get what she's after.
"Damn my own hide, I made it easy for her to trap me, and at the same time bring down my whole family. Out of pure spite, she's not above making our lives hell. She can and will do it."
"Unless I tell the authorities where you really were the night of the fire," Devon said slowly.
"That's right." With emotional gruffness he added, "Unless you tell them that I was making love to you."
"Don't call it that!" Devon's words were a whisper, but an exclamation just the same. She left her chair so hurriedly that her thigh bumped the rim of the table and rocked the candle.
Lucky left his chair just as quickly. Devon was leaning into the countertop, her hands curled into fists on the tiles along the edge. He stepped behind her and, for a split second, wrestled with his conscience. He shouldn't touch her. He shouldn't. Even knowing that, he placed one of his hands on the countertop beside hers and curved his other arm around her waist, flattening his hand on her stomach and burying his face in the nape of her neck. He luxuriated in the silky feel of her hair against his lips.
"That's what it was, Devon. Deny it with your dying breath if it soothes your conscience, but that won't ever change what it was."
"Leave me alone," she moaned. "Please."
"Listen to me," he said urgently. "That arson rap isn't the only reason I'm here. You know that. You knew it yesterday. I would have come looking for you whether or not I was in trouble. I had to see you again.
"You wanted to see me again just as badly. I don't care how many times you deny it, I know it's true. You're not only running from involvement in a criminal case and what effects it might have on your life. You're running from this." He lightly ground his hand over her belly, skimmed her mound, the top of her thigh.
"Don't! Don't touch me like that."
"Why?"
"Because … because…"
"Because it drives you as crazy as it does me."
"Stop."
"Only if you tell me I'm wrong about the way you feel. Tell me I'm wrong, Devon, then I'll stop."
"Please. Just leave me alone."
"I can't." He groaned. "I can't."
She turned her head toward her shoulder.
He lowered his. Their mouths met in a greedy kiss. She turned into the circle of his arms, which pulled her against him. Resting his hands on her hips, guiding them, he positioned her against him.
As his passions burned hotter, he also got angrier because he knew she was forbidden to him. Despite his penchant to misbehave during Sunday school, some spiritual training had penetrated his young mind. That formal religious instruction, plus all the moral lessons drilled into him by his conscientious parents, declared that this was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Yet he couldn't deny himself her kisses, not when her mouth was warm and sweet and eager. He kept telling himself that the next kiss would be the last—forever. But one only made him hungry for more.
"Dammit, Devon, resist me. Stop this. Stop me." He was so obsessed with her, he was seized by a primal urge to fight for her. Pressing her head between his hands, he tilted her head back drastically. "Where is he? Where is the slob you're married to? Where was he when you were traveling around East Texas alone? Is he crazy to give you that kind of freedom? Is he blind? Why isn't the bastard here now, protecting you from me, protecting you from yourself."
Lucky had posed the questions rhetorically. He didn't really expect answers. That's why he was shocked when she cried, "He's in prison!"
The lights suddenly came back on.
* * *