A Reunion and a Ring. GINA WILKINS

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      “You aren’t going back out in that. The way that rain’s coming down, I wouldn’t be surprised if the road is flooded. And the full force of the storm hasn’t even hit yet. We’re in for worse before it passes.”

      She thought of the water already creeping over the road when she’d approached the cabin. That frightening moment when she’d hydroplaned. She swallowed. “I’ll be fine,” she said, wishing she sounded a bit more confident.

      She bent to retrieve her dropped phone just as Gavin took a step toward her. “Don’t be foolish. The storm is too...”

      The collision knocked her flat on her behind and nearly caused Gavin to sprawl on top of her. Somehow he steadied himself, though it involved flailing that made him grunt in pain from his injured shoulder.

      Sitting sprawled at his feet, she shook her head. Could this ridiculous evening get any worse? Or was she tempting capricious fate to even ask?

      * * *

      Gavin was beginning to wonder just what was in those pills he’d taken before he’d turned in. Was he hallucinating? Or had a gorgeous, wet woman with a smoking body revealed by an open blouse really fallen out of the storm and into his bed? A woman right out of the memories he thought he’d locked away long ago, though they’d escaped a few times to haunt his most erotic dreams. Was he dreaming again now?

      No. The way she sat on the floor glaring up at him told him this was no fantasy. The dream-Jenny had been much more approachable.

      Muttering an apology, he reached down to haul her to her feet with his good arm. He released her as soon as he was sure she was steady on her feet.

      “It wasn’t your fault,” his uninvited guest conceded. “I was picking up my phone. I dropped it when I stumbled over your shoes.”

      Which made it still his fault, in a way, but he wasn’t going to get into a circular argument with her. “Are you expecting anyone else to arrive tonight?”

      Was he unintentionally intruding on what she’d planned to be a romantic, rustic retreat? He told himself the possibility annoyed him only because he didn’t want to have to deal with yet another intruder. What other reason could there be after all these years?

      “No. I was going to hide out here alone for a few days to get some work done without interruptions.”

      He was still having trouble clearing his thoughts. He couldn’t begin to understand why Jenny had come to this particular place to work. What the hell was he supposed to do with her now?

      An unwelcome recollection from the last time they’d been together here slammed into his mind in response to what should have been a rhetorical question. He could almost see himself and Jenny, naked and entwined, lying on a pile of their clothes in a secluded, shaded clearing. Laughing and aroused, they’d made good use of the stolen hour. His blood still heated in response to the distant echoes of their gasps and moans.

      Shoving the memories fiercely to the back of his mind, he half turned away from her. The storm assaulting the windows made it obvious she wasn’t leaving immediately. He released a heavy sigh. “Maybe you remember there’s another bedroom at the back of the cabin, behind the kitchen. You can crash there tonight, and we’ll get this all figured out in the morning.”

      “Spend the night here? With you?”

      Pain radiated from his shoulder, and his head was starting to pound. He hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in a couple days. Patience was not his strong suit at the best of times, but he’d lost any semblance of it tonight.

      “I didn’t suggest sleeping in the same bed,” he snapped. “The other room has a lock on the door. Use it, if you’re so damned afraid of me. Hell, take my weapon and sleep with it under your pillow, if it makes you feel better.”

      She sighed and shook her head. “I’m not afraid of you, Gavin.”

      “Great. I’m not afraid of you, either.”

      A soft laugh escaped her, sounding as if it had been startled out of her. “You’re in pain,” she said. “I’ll get the aspirin.”

      “I had a pain pill before I went to sleep. Probably shouldn’t take aspirin on top of it.”

      “Oh. You’re right. How long has it been?”

      “Couple hours, maybe. I can take one every four hours, but I don’t usually need them that often.”

      “What did you do to your shoulder?”

      “Long story.” And one he had no intention of getting into at the moment. “There’s another emergency lantern in the kitchen. I’ll help you find it. I’m thirsty, anyway.”

      “Thank you.”

      He saw her glance up nervously when something else hit the roof, and he wondered if she was anxious about the storm. He remembered that she’d never been a fan of storms. Yet, she’d been prepared to go back out in it? He shook his head.

      Carefully pulling on a loose shirt, he picked up the lantern and moved past her toward the doorway. He heard her pick up her bag and hurry after him, trying to stay close to the light. He retrieved the second fluorescent lantern from the kitchen counter, pushed the power button, then turned to offer it to his visitor. She accepted with barely concealed eagerness.

      He could see her more clearly in the double lantern light. She’d been very pretty just out of her teens, but the intervening decade had only added to her attraction.

      Her dark hair, which she’d once worn long and straight, now waved in layers around her oval face. He remembered how it had once felt to have his hands buried in its soft depths.

      Her chocolate-brown eyes studied him warily from beneath long, dark lashes. There had been a time when she’d gazed at him with open adulation.

      She was still slender, though perhaps a bit curvier than before. He’d once known every inch of her body as well as his own, and he noted the slight differences now. He tried to stay objective, but he was only human. And she looked damned good.

      Her expensive-looking clothes were somewhat worse for wear after her jog through the rain. He wasn’t one to notice brands, but even he recognized the logo on the overnight bag she carried. Apparently she had achieved the success she had always aspired to.

      He hadn’t kept up with her—quite deliberately—but his mother had mentioned a few months ago that she’d seen Jenny’s photo in the society section of the local newspaper. She’d watched his face a bit too closely as she’d commented casually that Jenny had been photographed at some sort of community service awards dinner for Little Rock’s young professionals. She’d added that Jenny was reported to be dating a member of one of central Arkansas’s most prominent and long-established families. He’d answered somewhat curtly that he read the sports pages, not the society gossip, and that he had no particular interest in who his long-ago college girlfriend was now dating. He wasn’t sure he’d succeeded in convincing his mother that Jenny never even crossed his mind these days.

      So what had really made this country-club princess choose to vacation at his rustic fishing cabin? As unlikely a coincidence as it was, he had no doubt that she was as dismayed to have found him here as he was that she’d shown up СКАЧАТЬ