“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Depends on your definition of all right.”

At that, his eyes cut to hers and he sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face, his fingers rasping over the growth there. He looked and sounded exhausted. “I’m sorry, Kenzie.”

“For what? That I just mooned you, or that I’m here at all?”

Aidan got to his feet, pulling the curtain shut again to give them privacy, privacy that she wasn’t sure she wanted.

He’d changed his clothes. He wore a pair of jeans now, loose on his long legs, low on his hips, with a long-sleeved shirt unbuttoned over a gray T-shirt that seemed to emphasize his broad shoulders and tough, athletic build. “Your shirt isn’t red,” she said slowly.

“What?”

“Before, somebody in a red shirt was looking at me.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.” She rubbed her temples. “I’m out of it.”

“It was a tough night.”

“Yeah.” But he didn’t look like he’d just worked his ass off and managed to save her life to boot; he looked casual, relaxed.

Cool as a cucumber.

And so hauntingly familiar, not to mention gorgeous, that she couldn’t keep her eyes on him. How unfair was it that he’d gotten even better-looking with age? “Thanks for stopping by, Aidan, but you can see I’m fine. You can go.”

He looked doubtful.

“Seriously. I’m really okay.”

She almost had him, she could tell, but then she ruined it by shivering.

Without a word, he grabbed another blanket and settled it over her. She appreciated his sense of duty, but what she would appreciate even more would be his vanishing.

Or her.

Yeah, that might be better. If she could just vanish on the spot. Poof. “Okay, now I’m good, thanks. Really.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I mean you can’t even look at me, so-”

Lifting his head, he met her eyes, his hot enough to singe her skin.

“Oh,” she breathed, feeling her heart kick, hard.

“I can’t look at you?” he repeated in low disbelief. “Are you kidding me? Kenzie, I can’t do anything but look at you.”

4

AT AIDAN’S WORDS, Kenzie’s breath caught and held. She didn’t know how to take him, especially the way he was looking at her, as if maybe he could see all the way through her, to her heart and soul, right to the very center of her being, where all the hurt was so carefully bottled up.

She’d gotten over him. Years ago. She really had. She’d gotten over how he’d once made her laugh, made her think, made her happy…

Made her come…

No way could he possibly reach her now. Not with that hard body, not with the look in his eyes and definitely not with the memories.

Okay, maybe the memories got to her, just a little bit. For one glorious summer, he’d been the best part of her life-before he’d walked away without so much as a glance back, that is.

Good. There was her anger, which would hopefully negate the fact that he was standing right here in the flesh looking good enough to…well…That thought made her want to sweat. But apparently she could be both over him and turned on by him at the same time, which confused her to say the least. She had no idea what that was about. No idea at all.

None.

She’d moved on years ago from that young, sweet, innocent girl. Now she was a woman with a backbone of sheer steel that had gotten her through some tough times.

She knew people tended to look at her carefully cultivated outer package-thank you, stylist to the stars-an outer package that was petite and willowy, even fragile-looking, and completely underestimate her.

But on the inside she was one-hundred-percent survivor, thank you very much. She’d lived through losing her parents early, through a happy-as-it-could-be teenage-hood with just Blake. She’d lived through being in the public eye, through the ups and downs of TV fame and most recently, through the death of her brother. All of that would have cracked most women, but she wasn’t easily cracked.

She would get to the bottom of this mess, no matter what she had to do in order to get there. No matter what. Even if she had to use her beauty, her checking account, her damn body.

She would do it.

Whatever it took.

For Blake.

“I heard you talking to the investigator,” she said softly.

Aidan’s eyes met hers, and she wished like hell she could read his mind. But she couldn’t, and he didn’t say another word to help.

“I think he’s wondering if I’m guilty of something.”

He just looked at her some more.

“The only thing I’m guilty of is knowing that he hasn’t done his job if he thinks Blake did those things.”

At that, his face softened, and regret filled his eyes, along with a grimness that had her shaking her head before he even spoke.

“Don’t say it,” she warned, not willing to hear it, not from him. Not from anyone. Not when she was this close to a breakdown. A grief breakdown. “Don’t.” She knew Blake, goddammit. She did. She didn’t remember much about her parents before they’d died in a car crash, but she remembered Blake. Every bit of him. He was the boy who’d held her hand every time they’d had to move to a new foster home. He was the teenager who’d punched a boy in the face when he’d hurt her, he was the man who’d believed in her enough to work double shifts to pay for her publicity shots so she could pursue her acting dream.

He could never have committed arson. She’d have sworn Aidan would have known that as well, but apparently she was wrong.

“There’s evidence-” he began, but she shook her head.

“Circumstantial.” She swallowed hard but a lump of emotion, the one that had been there since Blake’s death, remained. “I see that you’re no better a friend than you were a boyfriend.”

He opened his mouth, but before he could respond, the nurse pulled aside the curtain and entered the cubicle, followed by a doctor. “Everyone out,” the nurse ordered.

“I’m the only one here,” Aidan said.

“So get out,” the nurse responded sweetly.

Kenzie closed her eyes and lay back. She didn’t look at Aidan again; in fact, she didn’t open her eyes until she heard the rustling of the curtain, signaling he’d left.

Which was fine. Perfect, really. Because she’d sure as hell rather be alone than look into his eyes and see things she didn’t want to see.

AIDAN EXITED the emergency room, feeling like a class-A jerk. Though how that was possible, what with his saving her life and all, he had no idea…

Okay, he knew.

She’d seen the look in his eyes; she’d understood something she hadn’t wanted to understand-that he knew Blake was involved with those arson fires.

Aidan felt torn up about it, sick over it, but facts were facts. Blake had been placed at the scene of each arson by various witnesses. He had been depressed since losing Lynn, his partner before Cristina, in a fire the year before. His home had been seized and searched, and in his garage they’d found a stack of wire mesh trash cans, similar to the ones identified as the point of origin in each of the arsons.

Most damning, Aidan’s partner, Zach, had also seen him holding a blowtorch just moments after Zach’s house had been set on fire, with Zach and Brooke inside. Zach had almost died there.

And Blake had died there, perhaps deliberately. He’d died, leaving all of them, Zach, Aidan and the other firefighters, even Tracy, the woman he’d had such a crush on, everyone, destroyed.

Kenzie was in denial. He got that. She was angry. He got that, too. She needed someone to vent that anger at, to place it on, and he’d been handy enough.

I see that you’re no better a friend than you were a boyfriend.

Yeah, that had been a direct hit. Having her look at him as if he was the bad guy had really gotten to him, especially considering he still had the scrapes and bruises from saving her.

The late afternoon sun was sinking fast, cooling off the day. Having been up for two straight days now, he desperately needed sleep. He could close his eyes standing up right there in the hospital lot, and not wake up if a cyclone hit. He was so tired that he’d probably sleep completely dreamless. Well, except for maybe dreaming about Kenzie’s bare ass. Yeah, now that he’d seen that again, he’d most likely dream about it for a good many hours.

Days.

Years.

“Aidan.”

Hell. Tommy was leaning up against Aidan’s truck, a file in his hands, mouth pinched tight, looking as if he had plenty of things to say, and all fantasies about Kenzie’s ass vanished. “What now?”

“I wasn’t aware that you knew her personally.”

“Who?”

“Come on, Aidan. Don’t play with me. Mackenzie Stafford. You didn’t say that you knew her.”

He sighed. “So?”

“So it felt to me like maybe you knew her…well.”

“Yeah. Once upon a time.”

“Okay, and so once upon a time, did you know she was Blake’s sister?”

Getting into tricky territory here. No one had known he and Kenzie had dated in the past. It’d been a quick, hot thing, very hot, and he certainly hadn’t been in any hurry to tell Blake he’d gotten his sister in bed. Kenzie hadn’t told Blake, either, for her own reasons, and then when Kenzie had gone off to Los Angeles, it hadn’t mattered anymore.

Did it matter now, with Blake dead? He couldn’t see how it did. “Yeah, I knew she was Blake’s sister.”

“Did you know that boat was Blake’s?”

“Where are we going with this, Tommy?”

“Did you?”

Aidan let out a breath. “Not until we were in the water and she told me.”

Tommy nodded. “Because you always sit around with someone you’re rescuing and chat about property ownership.”