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mistake. He couldn't have her, but he was damned if he would let her go on believing he didn't want her.
"If you think I'm not interested, you couldn't be more wrong. Baby, I'm so interested I can hardly think of
anything else. But it's just not possible.We're not possible. When I said you shouldn't have come here, I
meant you shouldn't be near me. For your own good. Around Riverbend, I'm bad news and whether
there was reason for the mud that was thrown or not has never made one bit of difference. It sticks. It'll
stick to whoever associates with me, and it won't matter how clean your reputation is. You've got a
business at stake. If you want to make a comfortable life for yourself in Riverbend, forget about me."
"And if I can't?"
The very blankness of Rachel's expression was arresting. Perversely, her shuttered distance added to his
ferocious tension. He found he wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling. He didn't
want her to hide anything from him, ever. Heat slammed through him, and between one breath and the
next he was fully, achingly aroused, his muscles taut, twitching with the strain ofnot acting. "Lady," he
said, his voice harsh, guttural, "you'vegot to try."
Rachel felt the bleakness of Cullen's statement like a blow. But his words were at odds with his
expression it was primitively male, sexual and possessive, and so hungry her heart missed a beat. It was
the kind of look that stopped women's lives, then sent them spinning in another direction entirely.
The kind of look she'd been waiting for her whole life.
The thought came out of nowhere, stopping the breath in her throat. Rachel nodded, barely aware she
wasn't agreeing to Cullen's request to keep away from him but was simply moving her head in reflex.
She wondered what on earth was happening to her. The seesawing depth of her emotions was
completely uncharted territory; she felt as if she'd been cast adrift that the goals that had defined her life
had shifted. Thatshe had changed in some fundamental way.
She'd always been so sure about what she wanted from a relationship, and this wasn't it. She'd never
imagined she would be so fiercely attracted to a man who both didn't need her and yet, was every bit as
demanding, as dominating, as any of her brothers. A man who affected her more powerfully than she'd
ever imagined one human being could affect another.
Something squeezed painfullyin her chest. She knew with a frightening clarity that if she let herself, she
could love Cullen, and that what she would feel would be beyond the scope of anything she'd ever felt
before. She also knew that he wouldn't allow himself to love her. He'd always been blunt on that point.
She should be happy that he'd been so ruthlessly clear-cut, that he hadn't taken advantage of her. This
way she could step back from a potentially hurtful situation, control her emotions before it was too late.
But Cullen's stance filled her with a helpless fury.He was making all the decisions, all the rules. And she
was tired of being shut out, of being forced once again into the passive role she knew too well.
* * *
Ten minutes later, after Cullen had quickly washed and thrown on a clean shirt, she was driving down his
winding drive with his truck lights glowing behind her. Her body felt odd, disconnected, as if she were
going through the motions and her brain had gone on hold. It took all her concentration to keep her car
out of the ditch and make the correct turns. Another fifteen minutes and she was slotting her car into the
tiny garage at the rear of the salon, and rummaging for the keys to get into her flat.
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Cullen came up behind her just as she finally managed to get the key in the lock and push the door open.
"I'll check your flat before I leave," he said quietly.
His presence filled her hallway as he stepped around her and started up the stairs.
Rachel closed the door and, out of habit, locked it and put the chain on before following Cullen. She [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]