The One And Only. Laurie Paige

thoughts were like a flock of wild birds, whirling and swirling through her mind too swiftly and too frightened to come to the perch of reason. She struggled to free her hand, got one loose and, twisting, raked down his chest with her fingernails—an instinctive act of self-preservation.

      His head jerked up. They stared at one another.

      Slowly he released her and backed up a step. The breath rushed into her lungs, making her dizzy.

      Glancing down, he observed the four red lines standing in ridges on his skin. He turned his gaze from them to her. “No woman has ever marked me before,” he said, not in anger or accusation, but as if in deep thought, as if wondering about the marks—how they’d happened and why.

      Pressing her shaky hands against her breast, she confessed, “I’ve never done anything like that. I don’t know why I did. It…it was like I couldn’t breathe. Everything was going dark.” She stopped because she didn’t know how to explain the unexplainable.

      He smiled and it was full of gentle irony. The ache inside her returned. “I don’t think I’ve ever frightened a woman before, certainly not like this.” He touched her cheek with exquisite tenderness. “It’s strong, isn’t it?”

      She clasped her arms over her middle and nodded.

      “This hunger,” he continued as if thinking out loud. “It’s different, more than I’ve ever experienced, so much so that I didn’t get your signals at first.”

      “Signals?”

      “The panic,” he reminded her softly, and rubbed across her lips with one finger, then dropped his hand and stepped back another foot, giving her room. “I was too lost…” He hesitated, then shook his head. “That’s never happened to me before—to get so lost in passion that everything else disappeared. It’ll be different next time,” he promised.

      She moved sideways until she was on a line for the door. She hurried toward it. She managed to laugh and pretend it was all a joke. “I don’t think we should attempt a next time.”

      “I do.”

      The words were barely audible as she rushed across the charming living room and out the front door. The hammering at the resort stopped. She stared distractedly at the twin brothers, who stared back with frank interest.

      The door closed behind her.

      “Do you want the place?” Beau asked. “I’ll keep the rent reasonable.”

      “You?” she questioned, turning from the stares next door.

      “I bought the cottage. It seemed a good idea since it was next to the lodge. The new homeowners might have given us trouble over parking or noisy guests.”

      She tried to think clearly. “Perhaps it would be best if—” She faltered on the brink of refusing the offer. She glanced at the cottage and knew she still wanted it.

      “Good. Do you need help moving in?”

      “No.”

      “Okay. I have to get back to work. See you in the morning. I’ll give you a key then.”

      She blinked and realized he thought she had accepted. But why shouldn’t she rent it? It was charming. It fit her needs. She would have it to herself. She followed him down the flagstone path to the road. “Wait, the rent,” she reminded him. “How much?”

      “Two hundred a month.”

      She stopped. “That’s a steal.”

      He grinned over his shoulder. “So maybe you’ll feel guilty enough to invite me over for a home-cooked meal once in a while.”

      With that, he strode across the grass and got back to work. His cousins looked at her, then him. Feeling that they knew every intimate touch that had occurred between her and Beau, she swung toward town and jogged back to the B and B as calmly as possible.

      “Will you look at that?” Trevor said in awe.

      Beau gave him a warning glare. He looked around, spotted his T-shirt and put it on.

      “What happened while you were showing a prospective renter the house?” Trev demanded.

      “Nothing,” Beau muttered, tightening a bolt against the mud sill.

      Trevor looked at his watch. “Less than fifteen minutes,” he remarked. “Man, I wish I could make a woman so mad with passion in that length of time that she was clawing my body.”

      “Yeah,” Beau agreed. “You should be so lucky.”

      Travis, the quiet twin, grinned.

      “Not going to tell us about it, huh?” Trevor, the irrepressible cousin, demanded.

      “Not a bit.”

      “Well, at least you got a trophy during the battle.”

      Beau glanced down and spotted the blue headband dangling from his pocket. He shoved it out of sight.

      Trevor continued his lament. “I was hoping for a few pointers. My love life sure isn’t anything to write home about. Have you noticed how few women our age live around here? You two have grabbed the prettiest ones to show up in a coon’s age.”

      Beau glanced at Travis. The twin had recently gotten engaged to Alison, who’d come to town looking for her long-lost sister, who was pregnant and living with the owner of the ranch next to the Dalton homestead sans marriage.