Nicky was sent to bed at nine, and begged to have Norman sleep in his room. Cabe gave him a hard glare, but his parents agreed, providing it was al right with Danet a.

  "You real y let him run loose in your apartment?" Nicky asked excitedly when they'd brought Norman into the house and he was perched on a bookcase in Nicky's room.

  "Yes, I real y do. He's potty trained. We'l have to put down a slightly wet newspaper in your bathroom and show him where it is. He'l go straight to it."

  "That's amazing," Nicky sighed. "Gosh, he's pret y."

  "Don't talk too loud, you'l make him conceited," she said in a stage whisper.

  Nicky laughed. "Okay."

  "And for heaven's sake, don't leave your door open," she groaned. "He wanders at night. He isn't nocturnal, and he's supposed to stay put, but he can't read the book that says so."

  "If he got into bed with my brother, the world would end, right?"

  She had to stop and think a minute before she realized he meant Cabe. She could see her rugged boss trapped in a room with an iguana. She started laughing and couldn't stop.

  "Are you sure that thing shouldn't be in a cage?" the object of their amusement asked from the doorway, scowling at Norman as he sprawled on the top of Nicky's bookcase.

  "I'm absolutely sure," Danet a as ured him." "He's very quiet and clean, and he won't bother anything. I was just tel ing Nicky how to fix his. . toilet facilities."

  "I could suggest a way," he murmured dryly.

  "He's just a baby," Danet a said gently.

  "Some baby. Uggggggh." Cabe shuddered.

  "Close your ears, sweetheart," Danet a told the lizard, stroking his head gently. He closed his eyes instead, and Nicky laughed with pure delight.

  "You made his day," Cabe said as he walked her to her own room on the other side of Nicky's. Cabe's was on the other side of the boy, so Danet a could understand his faint unease. In fact, they shared a mutual bathroom when Cabe was at home. She prayed that Nicky wouldn't forget to keep the doors closed.

  "He's a nice boy," she replied, pausing with her hand on her doorknob. It was early to go to bed, but she was tired and hadn't had much sleep the night before. Besides, Cabe had mentioned something about going fishing early the next morning, even if it was dreary.

  "I'l round you up a pole and we'l drive over to the lake and fish off Dad's pier," he murmured, his eyes going over her wan face like tender hands. "You look tired."

  "It was a long night," she told him, "and I didn't get much sleep."

  "That makes two of us," he mused, smiling faintly. "I tormented myself with thoughts of you and my sales manager until about five in the morning. I'd only had an hour's sleep when you got to the office."

  She searched his pale blue eyes quietly. "Ben is a nice young man," she told him. "But I real y went out with him in., wel , to prove that I didn't have a crush on you. So you wouldn't think I was going to chase you, or anything."

  He framed her face in his warm hands. "I might enjoy hiving you chase me, lit le one," he murmured. "You're It "nothing of a novelty in my life." Which was just what she'd suspected al along. But he bent and kis ed her gently, and she sighed with pure delight. Even knowing how shal ow his feelings were didn't seem to do anything for her sense of self-preservation.

  He lifted his head seconds later with obvious reluctance. "It isn't a good idea to start things we can't finish," he sighed. "Sleep tight, honey. Cynthia wil drag you out of bed at daylight. She and Dad are early risers, and she cooks a big breakfast."

  "I love breakfast," she said. "So does Norman. He likes eggs and bacon."

  He shook his head. "Talk about your weird triangles," he murmured. "You and me and the Irish lizard. Good night." She laughed as he walked away, her eyes adoring the powerful set of his shoulders, his slim waist and narrow hips and long legs. He was the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. Al muscle and bristling masculinity and sensuous appeal. With a frustrated sigh, she went back into her room and closed the door. The smel of bacon woke her long before Cynthia tapped on the door. She got up quickly, put on her jeans and a button-up blue-checked shirt and her socks and boots. It was stil gray outside, but the sun was threatening to come out and it had stopped raining. She ran a brush through her hair, left off her makeup, brushed her teeth and rushed down to breakfast.

  Cabe was already in the kitchen taking plat ers of food to the table for Cynthia. He looked different. His usual suit | had been sacrificed for tight jeans, a pair of boots that made him even tal er than usual and a pearl-snap Western-cut chambray shirt. He looked the picture of a working | cowboy, and so sexy that he made Danet a's heart beat like a drum. She watched him while they ate, covertly she thought,' but Cynthia and Eugene were exchanging conspiratorial* glances, so maybe she was a bit more obvious than she'd thought. In any event, Cabe was watching her openly, so it didn't real y mat er.

  Nicky was given the coveted chore of feeding Norman, which he did with relish as they carried the lizard back out to the garage for the daylight hours. And afterward, Cabe rounded up his fishing gear and a pole for her and they borrowed Eugene's fishing truck to drive to the lake. Cabe looked perfectly at home in the truck, with a beat-up tan Stetson on his dark hair. The sun was climbing out from behind the clouds as they rode down the long dirt path; that led past an enormous barn where Eugene kept his prize-winning purebred bulls. The path led into another ranch road, which merged with a county paved road.

  "I've walked it in the past," he chuckled. "There's a shortcut, but it's stil about two miles even that way. And it's too long a hike with fishing gear and lunch." Lunch was a big basket. Cynthia had packed it for them, along with des ert and cold drinks, in a cooler in the back of the truck. He glanced at her with a wry grin. "I don't relish the idea of lugging coolers and baskets along, but Cynthia seemed certain that we'd starve otherwise."

  "Cynthia is nice," she replied. "And so is your half brother."

  He averted his gaze to the road, accelerating to a speed (hut was distinctly uncomfortable for his pas enger. "So everyone says." She sighed wistfully. So much for mending broken fences, she thought.

  They unloaded everything onto Eugene's wooden pier beside his boat house on the lake, along with the worms they'd stopped to dig behind the bam. Eugene kept his own bed of night crawlers there so he wouldn't have to hunt bait when he went fishing.

  "Can you bait a hook al by yourself?" Cabe asked admusedly.

  "Look, I grew up doing this," she informed him, deftly threading a worm on to her hook.

  "Good God, that's not the way to do it," he burst out. "You have to give the fish something to nibble on!" He held up his own hook, where ten or so worms wiggled.

  "You'l lose al your bait, and I'l get a fish," she said haughtily.

  "You're on."

  They threw their lines in and sat. In the distance, they heard motorboats, but Eugene's cabin and pier were in a smal private cove, and no one intruded. Far out, the white triangle sails of the sailboats flashed against the blue sky.

  The pier was weather beaten and wet, although the sun was beginning to dry it out nicely, but Cabe had produced plastic bags for them to sit on. It was quiet and somewhat magical to be here alone with him in the early morning, with no other human being around.

  "I wish I had some dough-bal s," she sighed. "We used to fish for crappie with them."

  "Wel , worms work pret y good on bas , unles you'd like to try spring lizards."

  She gave him her best glare.

  He shrugged. "Norman has cousins, I gather," he mused. He frowned in mock thoughtfulnes . "I wonder what I'd catch if I put Norman on a hook.. ?"

  "You'd catch hel , that's what you'd catch," she said, "Norman is not fish bait."

  "I didn't sleep a wink for worrying about the doors staying closed," he muttered. "I figured if he's half as smart as you claim, he could open the damned door and eat me in my sleep."

  She laid down her pole. "Now look here, for the last time, iguanas do not eat people. Especial y not tough old oil riggers who probably taste like mildewed leather!" He put down his own pole with a wicked grin, and the next thing she knew, she was flat on her back on the pier with him looming over her.

  "I don't taste like mildewed leather, and I can prove it," he murmured, and lowered his hard, warm mouth square over hers. She didn't even make a pretence of resisting. She reached up to hold him, drawing his weight down over her with soft resignation. He knew she wanted him, so there wasn't real y much point in acting as if she didn't.

  His mouth worked on hers in lazy lit le pat erns, making her breath come quickly in her throat. His hands slid under her, protecting her back from the hardnes of the pier while his face brushed hers and his lips and teeth nibbled sensual y at her mouth.

  "What do I taste like?" he whispered into her parted lips.

  "Coffee," she whispered back. Her fingers touched his mouth, feeling the smooth skin above it where he'd shaved that morning, savoring the clean smel of his body. His eyes were pale and they narrowed as they searched hers. He looked down at her breasts where their faint cleft was visible in the deep V-neck of the button-up blue-checked shirt she was wearing.

  "I'd give a lot to have you behind a locked door right now," he whispered huskily.

  "What would you do?" she whispered.

  "You know that already," he groaned against her mouth. His hand slipped around her rib cage to smooth over her soft breast with arrogant posses ion. "Remember how it felt, when I put my mouth on you?"

  Al too wel . She moaned at the expert touch of his fingers on the taut rise of her breast, his thumb slowly driving her mad as it rubbed lazily against the smal hardnes . He lifted his head, his dark face drawn as he looked around them. The area was total y deserted, and when his hungry eyes came back to hers, she knew before he reached for the buttons what he meant to do.

  "Someone. .might come looking for you," she whispered, but it was no real protest.

  "If anyone does, I'l kil him," he said shortly. He had the blouse unbuttoned and out of her belted jeans. She was wearing a bra, and he groaned with pure impatience as he half lifted her, reaching around to unfasten it. "I hate these things," he muttered.

  She stiffened as he moved to strip the blouse and bra away. "Cabe, you can't. .!" she exclaimed.

  "Yes, I can," he bit off, bending his head to her breasts.

  The protests left, along with most of her breath and sanity as she felt the warm, moist pres ure of his mouth taking the swollen tip inside. Her hands clenched beside her head and she moaned softly, arching faintly toward the sweet ferocity of his mouth.

  His free hand moved to her nape, slid into her hair and held her, while the other made exciting lit le forays down to her belt and slowly under it, onto her flat bel y. She gasped, and he lifted his head to look into her shocked, apprehensive eyes.

  "Al right," he whispered when he saw the uncertainty in her face. He drew his hand out of her jeans and smoothed it up over her breasts. "We'l save that for a time ' when we can lock a door."

  "I gues . . what we're doing is pret y old hat to you,'l she said nervously.

  His brows jerked together and then relaxed as he searched her eyes. "Dani," he began deeply, "it never felt like this with anyone else." The words came with obvious! difficulty. He looked down at his hand, where it was gently stroking one firm, perfect breast and making her body tremble. "It was never this exciting to touch a woman intimately, to watch her reactions." His eyes went back to hers. "I'm capable right now," he whispered. "And I've', barely touched you." Capable had connotations, but she stared up at him blankly.

  "You don't understand, do you?" he asked gently. Holding her eyes, he moved so that his forearms caught his [ weight. "Don't panic. I'm just going to show you something." Then he shifted, levering himself onto her body so that his hips and thighs pres ed completely over hers.

  Her eyes grew wide and shocked as she felt him intimately, and her lips parted.

  "Capable," he whispered. His hands tangled in her hair and his eyes darkened and grew fiery with need as he bent toward her mouth. "Until this happens, a man isn't capable of intimacy with a woman, didn't you know. . ?"

  His mouth covered hers and she shivered at the stark realization of what she was inviting. Age-old fears stiffened her, made her afraid.

  "Shhhh," he breathed against her lips. "I'm not going to hurt you, lit le one. It's al right," His slow, calm voice soothed her. Lit le by lit le, her body relaxed. His mouth warmed hers while he lifted just I enough to get his shirt unbuttoned. Then he lowered his body again and she felt the springy hair on bis chest rubbing abrasively against the delicate skin of her breasts. A sound worked its way out of her mouth and into his, something that sounded alien and unfamiliar to her ears. His mouth slid down to her ear. "You're shaking like a leaf," he breathed, nibbling the earlobe. His hand slid Along her thigh, gently cares ing. "Yes, you want me," he breathed . "And I want you."

  She bit his shoulder through the thin fabric of his shirt and a sob muffled against it. "Cabe," she whispered achingly.

  "Oh, God, I want you!" he groaned as his mouth worked its way back to hers. "I want a bed, and you in it, and the door locked and bolted.. " She opened her mouth for him, drowning in the sweet in ardor that was making hel ish demands on her untried body. She didn't understand the urge to bite, but he didn't lecm to mind her teeth sliding against his broad shoulder, her lips on what she could reach of his broad, hairy chest. He even encouraged her, lifting himself so that she could reach the sensitive nipple on his own chest, her lips inexpert but fervent as she kis ed him there.

  He shuddered and groaned, grappling for her hand. He bent and kis ed her hungrily, sliding her hand down his powerful body until it reached the core of his masculinity. He opened her fingers and pres ed them against him. But her shocked struggle to draw her hand away brought him to his senses. He hadn't realized how far things had gone until then. And this just wasn't the place for what they were working toward. Damn circumstances! He didn't know how he was going to go on like this, with his conscience giving him hel every time he touched her and his body giving him hel every time he had to let her go. The situation was becoming impossible. With a faint groan, he released her hand and rolled aw from her. After a minute, he dragged himself into a sit ing position. He was shivering faintly, and the hand that reached for his cigaret es trembled.

  She sat up and got back into her things, curious to notice that he didn't even look her way. His back was razor straight and he was scowling. Maybe he was frustrated, she thought, a lit le embarras ed at her own headlong response.

  His dark, wavy hair was mussed from her fingers, and his shirt was rumpled where it had been bunched to one side while they were making love. He looked sensuous and she sighed with lingering appreciation. At least he'd stopped before things got too much out of hand, but he looked different suddenly—withdrawn and brooding. He drew in a steadying breath and smoked his cigaret e, in silence, not looking at her or saying a word to her until the silence became frankly uncomfortable. The fishing poles were stil lying in their place, and Danet a stared at them blankly, wondering if anything had taken the bait. Abstractedly he watched the sailboats far in the distance while he smoked his cigaret e. "I'l be thirty-seven in a few months," he said. "Funny, I never thought about get ing older. I was so busy building up my busines and making money that time slipped away from me. I'm rich as hel , but I've got nothing. I go home to an empty apartment and an empty life. Until Christmas there was an occasional diversion. Since Christmas—" his eyes darkened as he looked a| her "—there's been nothing at al ." He lifted the cigaret e!

  to his lips and searched her quiet face. "Celibacy hasn't even been that difficult. I take Karol out and I can't touch her. She doesn't appeal to me because she isn't you. And I didn't even know it until a few days ago when I kis ed herin my office and it was your mouth I tasted, your body I was imagining in my arms." He smiled at her faint surprise.

  "So now you know, don't you? I've been putting up a front for four months. Now the wal s are down." The smile faded and his eyes began to narrow, to brighten with emotion.

  "I want you. By God, I do, and you want me. Except for your puritan morals and my conscience, we'd be lovers by now. It can't go on like this, Dan," he said final y "We've got to decide what we're going to do."

  So that was what was bothering him. He had a conscience and he couldn't bring himself to seduce her unles she was wil ing. But he didn't want commitment, either. Why should that surprise her, she wondered miserably, When he'd been saying it for two years? Her eyes lowered to the chest she'd stroked so hungrily, visible where his shirt was stil unbuttoned. She hated being so vulnerable, and having him know it. She sighed as she drew up her knees mid rested her chin on them to follow his gaze out over the lake.

  "Maybe it would be bet er for both of us if I go to work somewhere else," she said quietly, grit ing her teeth in case he agreed with her. She didn't want to leave, but she wasn't cut out for an affair.

  That wasn't the answer he'd expected. His head turned mil he glared at her. She wanted him, he knew she did. He'd expected her to give in by now, but she was stubborn.

  "Do you think leaving is going to solve anything?" he , asked. He lifted the cigaret e to his lips with a sharp, angry movement of his hand. "I want you, damn it!" Her body stiffened. "Cabe, I'm not modern.. " she began.

  He saw the words in her mind and exploded with frustrated desire. Any other woman would have fal en into his arms. But this stubborn lit le virgin was going to deny herself and him, and for what? Wel , if she was holding out for a wedding ring, he'd soon disabuse her of that fantasy. Just being around his father and Cynthia had distorted his perspective al over again. Love didn't last. If it did, his father could never have remarried!