“What are you talking about?”

“I know about your date with the pilot. And I know you spent a day with him on the lake.”

Even knowing this was coming, she hadn’t been prepared for the flat-out hostility in Brad’s eyes. Or for her own anger as she suddenly realized that Brad’s attitude had been part of the reason she hadn’t been able to move on. “Look, Brad—”

He’d cut her off with a dark look. “You’re a target,” he reminded her. “A widow with an income. Men will take advantage.”

She’d wanted to laugh but contained herself. Brad clearly hadn’t been in a joking mood. In fact, when he was like that, he reminded her very much of J.R. Brad was taller and heavier than J.R., and his complexion and hair were lighter, but there was an intensity about him that was J.R. through and through.

“Brad,” she’d said reasonably, making herself settle down, “I barely make ends meet here, you know that. I think we can safely rule out the possibility of some golddigger targeting me for my money.”

“Any man who takes advantage of another man’s wife isn’t much of a man in my book. And any woman who forgets where she came from… well, just don’t forget where you came from.”

She’d been so stunned by his vitriol she could only watch him stalk out the door.

Any man who takes advantage of another man’s wife.

She was no longer anyone’s wife. She was a widow, and she was entitled to a life. Brad would never see it that way. Maybe if he met Ty, he’d see what a good man he was.

And maybe fish would fly.

The bell above the door rang and drew her out of her worrisome thoughts. She recognized the ball cap first. Then she recognized the smile and the hitch in her breath that she should be used to by now but always caught her off-guard.

He looked good. He looked so very, very good.

“Well, well.” Kayla’s grin stretched a mile wide. “Look who found his way back north.”

“Hey, Kayla.” Ty’s gaze never left Jess’s face. “How’s it going?”

“Why, it’s going just fine, thanks for asking.” She darted an amused look from Ty to Jess. “Go ahead and take Bear for that walk, boss. I’ll close up.”

At the word walk, Bear bolted out from behind the counter with a happy yelp and barreled past Ty to get to the door.

“Whoa, big fella.” Ty laughed and grabbed the excited pup’s collar as Jess rushed out and clipped on the leash.

“He’s starting to grow into his feet.” Ty squatted down and scratched the dog’s ears, then looked up at Jess. “Mind if I tag along? I could use a stretch after my flight.”

Jess didn’t understand how he could look so cool and collected and in control when she was melting by slow, hot degrees.

“We’ll be right back,” she told Kayla, and headed out the door, feeling happier and more vital than she had since the night Ty had kissed her and left her wanting more.

“Take your time.” Kayla’s voice floated out after them, sounding annoyingly pleased and far too amused.

“I TAKE IT no one knew I was coming back today?”

The dog sniffed happily at the grass along the shoulder as they walked down the blacktop road.

“I didn’t figure it was anyone’s business but mine.”

Ty liked being her private business. He liked the way her eyes had lit up when she’d seen him walk in the door. He’d had hopes. When they’d talked or texted or exchanged e-mails, there’d been a quality in her voice or her tone that suggested she was ready to open herself up to this. That she was ready for them. But until he’d seen her face, he hadn’t been counting on anything. Now he was counting on a lot.

She looked good. While he loved the wholesome look of her without makeup, he liked it that she’d made a special effort to look nice for him.

“I thought this day would never come,” he confessed, and reached for her hand.

Warmth spread through his chest when she eagerly entwined her fingers with his. “I’d started to think it wouldn’t.”

Better and better. “I’m sorry it took me so long. Everywhere I turned, I ran into red lights that slowed me down. But it’s all good now. My deck’s cleared.”

“For how long?”

“Two weeks, at least. Longer if you want it to be.”

He’d hoped he’d see that pleased look in her eyes, but until it was a certainty, he’d been holding his breath. It made his next move so easy.

He stopped and pulled her toward him. “No cars ahead of us. No cars behind.”

“My powers of deductive reasoning lead me to conclude that we must be alone, then.”

He loved this carefree, playful side, too. Apparently, absence not only made the heart grow fonder, it also made it grow braver. “Reason to celebrate.”

She looped her arms around his neck. “What’d you have in mind?”

“The same thing that’s been on my mind since the last time I saw you.”

“Then why are you wasting so much time talking about it?”

He laughed and pulled her snugly against him, letting her feel exactly what she did to him. “Oh, what a difference three weeks and a handful of suggestive text messages can make.”

She laughed, too. “There you go. Talking again.”

“There you go. Reminding me.”

“Ty. Shut up and kiss me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Chapter 13

MIDNIGHT HAD BEEN LONELY FOR so long. Midnight had become an hour Jess dreaded and that she spent awake and alone too many nights.

That she wasn’t alone tonight felt like a small miracle. She didn’t want to remember how lost she had been. She wanted only to think about the touch of this man’s hands, alternately rough and gentle and oh so skilled. She wanted to be swallowed up in the solid, hot bulk of his body. The feel of him deep inside her. The suction of his mouth on her breast as she came with an involuntary convulsion of muscle and a gasp of wonder.

When she could take a breath that wasn’t a shudder, she lightly bit his shoulder, steeping herself in the maleness of him, his strength, the way his mouth cruised over her body and brought life where life had been gone for so, so long.

“You OK?”

She stretched in contentment and framed his face in her hands. “You really have to ask?”

He’d brought her there twice tonight. Eased her up the first time and taken her over. Then he’d turned on the lights and taken her fast and hard and desperately.

Now, in the aftermath, his heart slammed hard and true against her breasts. She loved the vital maleness of him. The heat and the scent of his skin, the bulk of muscle pressing her into the mattress as he rose up on his elbows and scattered kisses along her throat.

“You’re so beautiful.”

She needed that. He must know she needed that. She’d been shy when the first moment came. She’d led him to her bedroom and turned off the lights. Undressed in the dark. Met him on the bed where she’d never lain with a man, trembling, vulnerable, and more alive than she ever remembered feeling.

It had been so long. So long since the press of flesh on flesh had electrified her. So long since she’d lain beside a man whose caresses and low groans told her that yes, she was enough, and yes, she excited him, and yes, this was what magic felt like.