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Since he sauntered across the patio to the door, still unconcerned and naked, she had no choice but to follow.

"Do you have a robe?" she asked in cold and vicious tones.

"What would I do with a robe? Hang on, Red. "

He left her, dripping and beginning to shiver in his kitchen.

He came back a few minutes later, wearing ratty gym pants and carrying two huge bath sheets.

"These ought to do the trick. Dry off, I'll toss these in for you. "

He carried her clothes through a door. Laundry room, she assumed as she wrapped one of the towels around her. She used the other to rub at her hair - which would be hopeless, absolutely hopeless now - while she heard the dryer click on.

"Want some wine instead?" he asked as he stepped back in. "Coffee or something. "

"Now you listen to me - "

"Red, I swear I've had to listen to you more than any woman I can remember in the whole of my life. It beats the living hell out of me why I seem to be falling in love with you. "

"I don't like being . . . Excuse me?"

"It was the hair that started it. " He opened the refrigerator, took out a beer. "But that's just attraction. Then the voice. " He popped the top and took a long drink from the bottle. "But that's just orneriness on my part. It's a whole bunch of little things, a lot of big ones tossed in. I don't know just what it is, but every time I'm around you I get closer to the edge. "

"I - you - you think you're falling in love with me, and your way of showing it is to toss me on the ground and carry on like some sex addict, and when you're done to drench me with a hose?"

He took another sip, slower, more contemplative, rubbed a hand over his bare chest. "Seemed like the thing to do at the time. "

"Well, that's very charming. "

"Wasn't thinking about charm. I didn't say I wanted to be in love with you. In fact, thinking about it put me in a lousy mood most of the day. "

Her eyes narrowed until the blue of them was a hot, intense light. "Oh, really?"

"Feel better now, though. "

"Oh, that's fine. That's lovely. Get me my clothes. "

"They're not dry yet. "

"I don't care. "

"People from up north are always in a hurry. " He leaned back comfortably on the counter. "There's this other thing I thought today. "

"I don't care about that either. "

"The other thing was how I've only been in love - the genuine deal - twice before. And both times it. . . let's not mince words. Both times it went to shit. Could be this'll head the same way. "

"Could be we're already there. "

"No. " His lips curved. "You're pissed and you're scared. I'm not what you were after. "

"I wasn't after anything. "

"Me either. " He set the beer down, then killed her temper by stepping to her, framing her face with his hands. "Maybe I can stop what's going on in me. Maybe I should try. But I look at you, I touch you, and the edge doesn't just get closer, it gets more appealing. "

He touched his lips to her forehead, then released her and stepped back.

"Every time I figure some part of you out, you sprout something off in another direction," she said.


Tags: Nora Roberts In the Garden Romance