This Heart of Mine (32 page)

She sat up in bed. Maybe she could distract him. "Just let me brush my teeth, soldier boy, and then I'll take you to paradise."

"Molly…" His voice sounded a low warning note, the same note she'd heard on Nick at Nite when Desi confronted Lucy. Molly had some 'splainin' to do.

"I have to pee!" She jumped up, flew past him to the bathroom, and shut the door.

The flat of his hand smacked the panel. "Come out here!"

"In a minute. Did you want something?"

"Yeah, I want something, all right. I want an explanation!"

"Oh?" She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the worst.

"I want you to explain why there's a frickin'
tuna
in my lake!"

It's true. Guys don't think the same way girls do, and this can lead to trouble.

"When Guys Won't Listen"

for Chik

Oh, boy
… Molly stalled as long as she could—brushing her teeth, splashing water on her face, straightening her tank top, and retying the drawstring on her pajama bottoms. She half expected him to charge in after her, but apparently he didn't see the need, since the window had been painted shut and the only other way out was through him.

A bath was too much to hope for. Besides, it was way past time to face the music. She'd edged open the door and saw him leaning against the opposite wall ready to pounce. "Uh… what were you saying?"

He carved out the words with his teeth. "Would you care to explain why, when I walked down to the beach after breakfast this morning, I found a
dead tuna
floating in the lake?"

"A change in fish migration patterns?"

He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the front room. Another bad sign. At least in the bedroom she'd have had a fighting chance.

"I seriously doubt that migration patterns are going to change enough for a saltwater fish to end up in a freshwater lake!" He pushed her down onto the couch.

She should have gone back to the lake last night and fished out the fish, but she'd assumed they'd stay where they were until they sank. They probably would have if it hadn't been for the storm.

Okay, enough messing around. Time for some righteous indignation. "Really, Kevin, just because I happen to be brighter than you doesn't mean I know everything about fish."

Probably not her best strategy, because his words bristled with splinters. "Are you going to look me in the eye and tell me you don't know anything about how a tuna got in that lake?"

"Well…"

"Or that you don't know why Eddie Dillard came up to me this morning and told me he wasn't going to buy the campground after all?"

"He did?"

"And what do you think he said to me before he drove away?"

"Just a guess: 'You duh man'?"

His eyebrows shot up and his voice grew as soft as an assassin's footsteps. "No, Molly, he didn't say that. What he said was 'Get some help, man!' "

She winced.

"Now what do you suppose he meant?"

"What was it he said again?" she croaked.

"Exactly what did you tell him?"

She fell back on the Calebow kids' technique. "Why do you think
I
told him something? There are lots of people here who could have said something to him—Troy, Amy, Charlotte Long. It's not fair, Kevin. Every time something happens around here, you blame me."

"And why do you think that might be?"

"I have no idea."

He leaned down, braced both his hands on her knees, and brought his face inches from hers. "Because I've got your number. And I've got all day."

"Yes, well, I don't." She licked her lips and studied his earlobe, perfect just like the rest of him, except for a small red tooth mark she was fairly sure she'd put there. "Who fixed breakfast this morning?"

"I did." He spoke softly, but the pressure on her knees didn't ease. He definitely wasn't letting her up. "Then Amy came in and helped me. Are you done stalling?"

"No… yes—I don't know!" She tried to move her legs, but they weren't going anywhere. "I didn't want you to sell the campground, that's all."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Eddie Dillard is a fool."

"I know that, too." He stood up, but he didn't back away. "What else have you got?"

She tried to stand herself so she could let him have it, but she was pinned in by his body. It made her so agitated she wanted to scream. "If you know that, how could you have done this in the first place? How could you have stood there and let him talk about painting the cottages brown? About tearing down
this
cottage—the cottage you're standing in right now!—and then turning the B&B into a bait shop?"

"He could only do those things if I sold the campground to him."

"If you—" She whipped her legs around him and jumped up. "What are you saying? Omigod, Kevin, what do you mean?"

"First I want to hear about the tuna."

She gulped. The moment she'd conceived her plan, she'd known she'd have to tell him the truth. She'd just hoped it wouldn't be quite so soon. "All right." She backed away a few steps. "Yesterday I bought some fish at the market, and last night I put them in the lake, and then I woke up Eddie and took him to see them."

A pause. "And you told him
what
exactly?"

She made eye contact with his elbow and talked as fast as she could. "That an underground chemical dump was leaking into the lake and killing all the fish."

"An underground chemical dump?"

"Uh-huh."

"An underground chemical dump!"

She took another quick step backward. "Could we talk about something else?"

Oh, jeez, that made his eyes flash fourteen different shades of mad. "Eddie didn't happen to notice that some of those fish shouldn't have been in a freshwater lake?"

"It was dark, and I didn't let him have a really good look." Another quick step backward.

Countered by a quick step forward from him. "And how did you explain away my trying to sell him a fishing camp on a
contaminated lake
?"

Her nerves snapped. "Stop looking at me like that!"

"Like I might wrap my hands around your neck and squeeze?"

"Except you can't, because I'm your boss's sister."

"Which only means I need to come up with something that doesn't leave marks."

"Sex! There are couples who think that having sex when they get really angry with each other is a turn-on."

"And you know this how? Never mind, I'm going to take your word for it." He reached out and snared the front of her top.

"Uh… Kev…" She licked her lips and gazed up into those glittering green eyes.

He splayed his hand across her bottom. "I seriously suggest you don't call me that. And I seriously suggest you don't try to stop this either, because I really,
really
need to do something physical to you." He shoved himself against her. "And everything else I'm thinking about will put me in jail."

"O-okay. That's fair." As soon as she was naked, she'd let him know what else she'd said to Eddie.

But then his mouth crushed hers, and she stopped thinking altogether.

He didn't have the patience to take off his own clothes, but he stripped her, then slammed and locked the bedroom door in case any little Calebows decided to come visit their Auntie M.

"On that bed. Right now."

Oh, yes
. As fast as she could get there.

"Open your legs."

Yes, sir.

"Wider."

She gave him a couple of inches.

"Don't make me have to ask you again."

She slid up her knees. It would never be like this for her again. Never again would she feel so absolutely safe with a dangerous man.

She heard the sound of his zipper. A rough growl. "How do you want it?"

"Oh, shut up." She reached out and opened her arms. "Shut up and come here."

Seconds later she felt his weight settling over her. He was still angry, she knew that, but it didn't stop him from touching her in all the places she loved to be touched.

His voice was low and husky, and his breath stirred a lock of hair near her ear. "You're making me crazy, you know that, don't you?"

She pressed her cheek to his hard jaw. "I know. I'm sorry."

His voice grew softer and tighter. "It can't—we can't keep…"

She bit her lip and held him tight. "I know that, too."

He might not understand that this was going to be the last time, but she did. He drove deep and high inside her, just the way he knew she liked. Her body arched. She found her rhythm and gave him everything. Just once more. Just this one last time.

Usually, when it was over, he drew her onto his chest, and they cuddled and talked. Who'd been more magnificent, her or him? Who'd made the most noise? Why
Glamour
was superior to
Sports Illustrated
. But this morning they didn't play. Instead, Kevin turned away, and Molly slipped into the bathroom to clean up and dress.

The air was still damp from the storm, so she pulled a sweatshirt over her shorts and top. He was waiting on the screen porch, Roo at his feet. Steam curled from his coffee mug as he gazed out into the woods. She huddled deeper into the warmth of the sweatshirt. "Are you ready to hear the rest of it?"

"I guess I'd better be."

She made herself look at him. "I told Eddie that even though you were selling this place, you were still emotionally attached to it, and you couldn't stand the thought of something happening to the lake. Because of that, you were in denial about it being contaminated. I said you weren't deliberately deceiving him; you couldn't help it."

"And he believed this?"

"He's stupider than dirt, and I was pretty convincing." She trudged through the rest of it. "Then I said you had a mental problem—I'm really sorry about that—and I promised I'd make sure you got psychiatric help."

"A mental problem?"

"It was all I could come up with."

"Other than butting out of my business?" He slammed down his mug, sending coffee sloshing over the table.

"I couldn't do that."

"Why not? Who gave you permission to run my life?"

"No one. But…"

His temper had a long fuse, but now it fired. "What's
with
you and this place?"

"It's not me, Kevin, it's you! You've lost both your parents, and you're determined to keep Lilly at arm's length. You don't have any brothers and sisters—any extended family at all. Staying connected with your heritage is important, and this campground is all you have!"

"I don't care about my heritage! And, believe me, I have a lot more than this campground!"

"What I'm trying to say is—"

"I have millions of dollars I haven't been stupid enough to give away—let's start with that! I have cars, a luxury house, a stock portfolio that'll keep me smiling for a long time. And guess what else I have? I have a career that I wouldn't let an army of self-serving do-gooders steal from me."

She clenched her hands together. "What do you mean by that?"

"Explain something to me. Explain how you justify spending so much time minding my business instead of taking care of your own?"

"I do take care of it."

"When? For two weeks you've been plotting and scheming over this campground instead of putting your energy where it belongs. You have a career that's going down the toilet. When are you going to start fighting the good fight for your rabbit instead of lying down and playing dead?"

"I haven't done that! You don't know what you're talking about."

"You know what I think? I think your obsession with my life and this campground is just a way of distracting yourself from what you need to be doing with your own life."

How had he managed to turn the conversation? "You don't understand anything.
Daphne Takes a Tumble
is the first book on a new contract. They won't accept anything else from me until I revise it."

"You don't have any guts."

"That's not true! I did all I could to convince my editor she'd made a mistake, but Birdcage won't budge."

"Hannah told me about
Daphne Takes a Tumble
. She said it's your best book. Too bad she'll be the only kid who gets to read it." He gestured toward the notepad she'd left on the couch. "Then there's the new one you're working on.
Daphne Goes to Summer Camp
."

"How do you know about—"

"You're not the only sneak. I've read your draft. Other than some blatant unfairness to the badger, it looks like you've got another winner. But nobody can publish it unless you follow orders. And are you doing that? No. Are you even forcing the issue? No. Instead, you're letting yourself drift along in some never-never land where none of
your
troubles are real, only mine."

"You don't understand!"

"You're right about that. I never did understand quitters."

"That's not fair! I can't win. If I make the revisions, I've sold out and I'll hate myself. If I don't make them, the Daphne books are going to disappear. The publisher will never reprint the old ones, and they sure won't publish any new ones. No matter what I do, I'll lose, and losing's not an option."

"Losing isn't as bad as not fighting at all."

"Yes it is. The women in my family don't lose."

He gazed at her for a long time. "Unless I'm missing something, there's only one other woman in your family."

"And look what she did!" Agitation forced her to move. "Phoebe held on to the Stars when everybody in the world had written her off. She faced down all of her enemies—"