and ready for the whisper of a man’s tongue, for the heat of his mouth …
“Jake?”
His groin tightened.
And that face.
Sculpted bones beneath creamy skin. Gray eyes. No. They were more silver than gray. A straight, no-nonsense nose above a mouth made for things best dreamed of in the deepest dark of the night….
“Jake?”
A hot rush of lust drove through his belly, so quick and fierce that it stunned him. He hadn’t felt anything like it for a long time.
A very long time.
“Hey, man, where’d you go?”
He blinked himself back to reality, swung toward Travis, saw the plate of food he was holding out. Food was the last thing he wanted right now, but he took the plate and forced a smile to his lips.
“Just what I needed,” he said briskly. “Thanks.”
Travis and Caleb began eating. He did, too, though nothing he put in his mouth had any taste.
He wanted to turn around and look at the woman with the silver eyes.
Ridiculous, really.
What would be the point? Forget that moment of lust or hunger or whatever in hell it had been.
At most, it had been an aberration.
The unbelievable truth was that he wasn’t into sex anymore, wasn’t into wanting it or even thinking about it. His sex drive had gone south.
Like the eye, it simply wasn’t there anymore.
Besides, he knew what he looked like. A guy with a Halloween mask for a face …
“… and damned if Lissa didn’t say, ‘Barbecue? Barbecue?’ In that way she has, you know, of making you feel as if it’s you who’s crazy, not her?”
Travis laughed, so Jake laughed, too, but his thoughts returned to the woman.
And to the sudden certainty that she was watching him.
Slowly, with what he hoped was an elaborate show of disinterest, he glanced over his shoulder.
His pulse jumped.
She was. Watching him. Not with curiosity. Not with disgust.
With interest.
And she was alone.
Not in the sense that she was here by herself, though he was sure she was. What man would bring a woman who looked like this to a party and walk away from her?
What he meant was that she was alone in the full sense of the word, separate and apart from everyone and everything….
Except him.
He felt the sudden leap of his blood. And, once again, that urgent pull of desire.
Which was crazy.
Now? he thought. In a room full of people? His long-dormant libido was going to kick in and—holy hell—kick in and add a boner to the fright mask that already made him a standout in the crowd?
God knew, he’d tried to get a rise out of himself—no pun intended—once his wounds had healed.
And fright mask or not, there’d been women who’d made it clear they’d have enjoyed his attention. Nurses. Therapists. A couple of pretty MDs. He had no idea whether it was out of pity or curiosity, or if, as one woman had whispered, that eye patch made him look hot….
The thing was, women had shown interest.
His reaction?
Nothing.
He might as well have been a monk. No erections, no steamy thoughts, not even an X-rated dream.
A few weeks ago, one of his doctors—the Shrink of the Month, was how Jake thought of it—had apparently figured out that he wasn’t fully back in the land of the living.
“So, how’s sex?” the shrink had suddenly asked.
Jake had given the kind of answer he’d hoped would end the discussion.
“Hey, Doc,” he’d said with what he’d hoped was a careless grin, “you’re over twenty-one. Find out for yourself.”
His pathetic attempt at humor hadn’t worked.
“Takes time for everything to function again,” the doc had said. “Not just physically. Emotionally. Trauma takes a toll, Captain, but you’re young. You’re healthy. Give yourself time and, you’ll see, your sex drive will return.”
“Sure,” Jake had said.
But it hadn’t.
Maybe he’d had too many other things to think about. What to do about his future. What to do about his past. How to get through the long days and longer nights.
Whatever the reason, sex—for a man who’d always had his pick of beautiful women—had suddenly become unimportant.
Desire, lust, call it what you liked, had not returned. He hadn’t been with a woman since he’d been wounded, hadn’t wanted to be with one….
Until now.
He took a deep breath. Told himself to look away from the brunette with the silver eyes, but he couldn’t.
Not while she was looking at him.
He searched hard for that oh-you-poor-thing expression half the women in the room had showed him tonight.
It wasn’t there.
She was simply watching him, assessing him with a steadiness that was unsettling.
His jaw tightened.
Now she was smiling, her lips curving in a way that reached deep into his gut.
She mouthed a word.
Hi.
And lifted her wineglass in … what could it be but invitation?
“Her name is Addison. Addison McDowell.”
Caleb’s voice was low. Jake looked at him.
“What?”
“The woman you’re looking at.”
“I wasn’t looking at anybody.”
Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, well, just in case you were—”
“I just told you, I wasn’t.”
“My mistake,” Caleb said calmly. “I only meant—”
“What’s she doing in Wilde’s Crossing?”
His brothers exchanged a quick glance.
“She owns the Chambers ranch,” Travis said.
Jake cocked his head. “What do you mean, she owns the Chambers ranch? The old man always said he’d never sell it. The General tried to buy it a dozen times, remember? And—”
“And got turned down. Well, the old guy died. Pretty much the way you’d expect, still working his skinny butt off, refusing help from anybody, his temper nasty as ever. Turned out he’d mortgaged the place to the hilt. The General found out, told his lawyer to buy it, but the bank had already turned it over.”
“To her?”
“To some old rich guy from New York.”
A muscle knotted in Jake’s jaw.
“And she’s the old rich guy’s wife,” he said flatly.
“The rich guy kicked the bucket right after he took ownership.” Travis jerked his head toward the woman. “She inherited it.”
“So,