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When she didn’t argue, he bent his head and brushed his lips against her temple. “But the thing is, since I keep getting the feeling there’s something else going on here. I figure we’d be cheating our selves not to test it out.”

A ghost of a smile hovered at the corners of her lips. “That’s some seduction line.”

“Is it working?”

“I don’t know.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath that did intriguing things to her breasts beneath her T-shirt.

“How long has it been since you’ve been on a picnic?”

Her eyes flew open. “A picnic?”

“Yeah. A picnic. You know, where you go out into the woods, spread a tablecloth on the ground, sit on a blanket, and fight off ants while you share a loaf of bread and a jug of wine. The forecast calls for blue skies tomorrow. Come play with me.”

“Surely you need to work.”

“Since I’m sheriff, that makes me the boss. So I’ll give myself the day off.”

“How convenient.”

“Isn’t it?” He watched her sliding into her lawyer skin and found himself enjoying the anticipation of stripping it back off again with her clothes.

“If you’re taking me out into the woods to have sex with me, you should know that it’s not going to happen.”

“Actually, I believe I mentioned taking you out into the wilderness to feed you,” he said mildly. “Having sex would, admittedly be icing on the cake, speaking metaphorically.” He wondered if she’d run away if he told her that he was beginning to think that when it did happen, they’d be making love rather than having sex. “But I’m willing to settle for a few hot kisses and some groping that’s bound to leave us both hot and frustrated. If that’s what you really want.”

“A picnic sounds lovely.” Her tone was cool, designed to deter a less-determined man. Jack had never backed down from a challenge and he wasn’t about to start with her. “But without the groping,” she insisted unsteadily as he rubbed his cheek against the silk of her hair.

“Fine. We’ll settle for the kissing.”

“That sounds an awful lot like just sex.”

“Hey.” He curled his fingers around the nape of her neck. “Sex isn’t such a bad start. Besides, you can’t deny that all this chemistry has been a distraction. For both of us.” He nibbled on her lower lip, satisfied when he drew a soft, ragged moan from her throat. “Once we get the sex part out of the way, we can see if there’s anything more going on here.”

“What if there is?” She was tempted. Jack could taste it on her lips. See it in her soft-focused eyes as she tilted her head back to look up at him. “Something more than sex?”

Although he suspected that she’d throw herself off Mount Olympus before admitting it, she was afraid, Jack realized. He knew the feeling all too well.

“Then we’ll jump off that bridge—together—when we get to it.”

“You have to understand…” Her planned protest faded away as he began nuzzling at her fragrant neck. “I’ve never…” When he caught her earlobe in his teeth and tugged, she expelled a long, shuddering breath. “Oh, God.” She put both hands against his chest and pushed. Not hard, but enough to put a little distance between them. “What I’m trying to say is, that I’ve never taken sex casually.”

“Then you don’t have to worry. Because believe me, sweetheart, there’s nothing casual about the way I feel about you.”

“Oh, God,” she repeated, lifting her hands from the front of his shirt to drag them through her hair “I think I’ve just run out of arguments.”

“A lawyer without arguments.” He caught her distressed face in his hand. “Now that’s gotta be a first.”

Deciding that he’d been patient long enough, he lowered his head, watching her lips part in anticipation. A soft, yielding sigh slipped from between her lips to his. The night air had turned cool, but her lips were warm and moist and generous. She welcomed his tongue with a breathless moan that burned through him like wildfire and when his teeth scraped at her bottom lip, she went up onto her toes and twined her arms around his neck and clung.

Her body strained against Jack’s. Her hot, avid mouth was as urgent and impatient as his. The way she was moving her body against his was causing all the blood to rush from his head to his groin and with the last vestige of coherent thought he possessed, Jack realized that he’d miscalculated.

He hadn’t intended for things to get so hot so quick. Nor had he intended to ache. Not just the physical ache that had him as hard as a damn boulder, but a deep, grinding ache that went all the way to the bone. Some deep primal urge had him wanting to drag her into the backseat of the Jeep, never mind that nearly half the town could stumble across them at any minute. He forced himself to break the exquisite contact.

“Oh, no.” She was staring up at him, giving him the impression that she shared the disorientation that had him feeling as if someone had just informed him that the law of physics had been suspended, that down was now up, up down, and gravity no longer existed. “I was afraid of that.”

He watched her take a deep, ragged breath and felt a renewed slap of lust. “Of what?”

“Of what just happened.” She dragged a trembling hand through her hair. “Of how you’d make me feel.”

“I’m admittedly out of practice, but if it was that bad, perhaps I’d better work on polishing my technique.”

“No.” She wrapped her arms around herself in an unconscious gesture of self-protection that made him want to hold her close, this time to soothe rather than arouse. With effort, Jack stayed where he was. “Your technique was fine.” She sighed. “Better than fine,” she admitted. “It was terrific. And that’s the problem.”

“We can try again,” he suggested helpfully. “I’ll try to do worse, if it’ll make you feel any better.”

“Dammit, Jack.” This time she dragged both hands through her hair. “I’m serious.” Even as her eyes brightened with a wet sheen, a reluctant smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. That lush, sweet mouth he could still taste.

“I know.” Because he couldn’t be this close to her without touching, he caught hold of one of those slender hands and brushed his thumb over her knuckles. “But perhaps you’re overanalyzing things again, Raine. Didn’t you ever just go with the flow?”

“No.”

She looked so miserable, like a little girl who’d just had her dog die on her; Jack’s heart went out to her. “It’s getting late. Why don’t I go get the rest of the family, and—”

“That’s not necessary.” She was looking past him, over his shoulder. Jack didn’t need to turn around to know that they were no longer alone. The sound of female voices drifted on the night-cooled air. “Well,” she drew in another breath. “I guess I’ll be calling it a night. Thank you for the invitation. I had a lovely time. Please tell Amy I enjoyed watching
The Little Mermaid
with her. And seeing her baby video.”

Her tone had turned so impersonal, she could have been asking a judge for a sidebar. Suspecting the ploy was more for the others’ sake than his, he didn’t call her on it.

“I’ll tell her.” Still tempted to touch, he stuck his hands deep into his pockets. “I’ll see you tomorrow. then. How’s ten sound?”

“Oh, do you have plans, darling?” Ida asked, proving that although she may be nearly eighty, her hearing was working just fine.

“We’re going on a picnic,” Jack said, before Raine could respond.

“Oh, what a wonderful idea,” Lilith declared, obviously pleased by this idea. Then again, Jack thought, having watched Cooper and her, he suspected the lady had romance on the mind tonight.

The three girls concurred.

“I’ll make a lunch,” Savannah said.

“That’s not necessary,” Raine protested.

“Don’t be silly. What’s the point of having a Paris trained chef in the family if you don’t take advantage of her?” Savannah was obviously as pleased with this development as her mother was. The wattage of her dazzling smile was enough to light up Coldwater Cove for a year.

When she’d shown up at the farm tonight, Jack had taken one look at the lushly built, red-haired goddess and understood all too well how his cousin had been scared spitless of her back in their high school days. The funny thing was, as gorgeous as Savannah Townsend admittedly was, and as genuinely nice as she seemed to be, she still couldn’t cause his testosterone to spike the way her sister could.

As if realizing she was outnumbered, Raine surrendered the skirmish. “I have some work to do in the morning,” she said to Jack. “Eleven would be better.”

“Eleven it is.”

That taken care of to everyone’s satisfaction, with the possible exception of Raine, whose mind he had every intention of changing, Jack watched the family of females climb into the Jeep.

He stood in the driveway, watching the taillights as they disappeared down the long driveway out to the road, until they’d finally disappeared around a corner. Then whistled as he walked back to the house.

A
silvery pink light was slipping around the edges of the window curtain. In a desperate attempt at control, Raine told herself that the only reason she’d woken up at dawn was that her internal clock had somehow reset itself back to New York time.

Liar. She was, Raine told herself as she tossed back the quilt, pitiful. It was expectation, pure and simple. No, she corrected as she stealthily slipped into her robe, trying not to wake her sleeping sister. Not simple at all.

Although she still had several hours before Jack showed up, Raine wasn’t in the mood to start work. Instead, rather than take the time for real coffee, she nuked a mug of instant in the microwave and carried it out onto the front porch. Then stopped in her tracks when she viewed the Greek god leaning against the white porch railing.

“Good morning, Cooper.” She wondered idly if he was coming or going then reminded herself that her mother’s sex life was none of her business. “Can I get you some coffee? It’s instant, but—”

“Thanks anyway. But I’ve got a thermos in the truck.”

“Oh.” She glanced past him at the park service pickup. Then up at her mother’s bedroom window.

“We’re going to drown some worms.” His answer to her unasked question only gave birth to more.

“You’re drowning worms?”

He grinned. “Fishing, Raine. Lilith and I are going out to see if we can catch some brook trout for Savannah. Seems she has this new recipe she’s been wanting to try out.”

“My mother’s going fishing?” She looked up at the window again and wondered if she was still asleep. Surely this must be a dream. Or yet another hallucination.

He rubbed his chin. His grin widened. “Well, to tell the truth, she’s probably going to spend most of the day sitting on a rock prettying up the scenery.”

She sat down in the swing. “That’s one of her strongest talents.”

“Have you ever taken any martial arts?” he asked.

Raine blinked at the seemingly sudden change of subject. “No. I’ve been thinking about taking up yoga, though.”

“Good idea. It’s supposed to be great for relaxation.” She was grateful when he didn’t point out what everyone else had since her arrival home. That she looked as if she needed relaxation. “I’ve studied aikido since I was a kid.”

“Oh. Is that like karate?”

“In a way. It’s one of the martial arts that teaches self-defense without weapons. It teaches you to neutralize any attack by learning to blend with the opposing energy. Or redirect it. To put it simply, once you know the right techniques, you can be empowered by staying in your center.”

Raine grasped his analogy immediately. “Lilith never attacks.” That she would have been able to handle. After all, she was an expert on the battlefield. It was her own feelings that she’d never been able to quite vanquish.

“No, that’s never been her style,” he agreed mildly. “Another thing aikido teaches is the ability to sense openings in your opponent. When we’re working on the mat, we learn to sense our practice partner’s strengths and weaknesses and honor and blend with them, to create harmony.”

Lilith and harmony were two words Raine never would have used in the same sentence.

When she didn’t respond to that, Cooper seemed to sense her vulnerability. He also seemed to possess mind-reading ability. “Your mother didn’t try to make your life tougher than perhaps it should have been, Raine,” he said gently. “She was only a girl, a decade younger than you are now when she became a mother for the first time with no real support system of her own.”

“She could have come home.”

“True. But between that glossy exterior and a very warm heart, Lilith definitely possesses her share of the Lindstrom female pride. She hadn’t wanted to admit to your grandmother that she’d failed.”

“Time and time again.”

“True. But she was only human, honey. Playing the cards she’d been dealt as best she knew how. Also, don’t forget that she swallowed that pride every single time she brought you and Savannah back to Ida. Because she was trying, in her own, admittedly flawed way, to do right by her daughters.”

His take on the situation left her feeling even more guilty than she had the morning after the blowup. Raine bit her bottom lip and looked out over the bay, which was draped in a light layer of white fog, like the angel hair she remembered Savannah draping over the limbs of the Christmas tree one year.

Like Jack, he was a man comfortable with silence. For a long time there was only the morning sound of the birds and the creak of the swing chain.

“Well, you’ve definitely given me something to think about,” she said finally.

“I’m glad. For both your and Lilith’s sake. Would you mind one more piece of unsolicited advice?”

“Of course not.”

“When I first started my training, I was young and stubborn. My sensei didn’t think I’d ever learn how to let go enough to follow the rhythm and the movement, rather than my expectations. It took me a very long time to discover that I got hurt a lot more when I’d think I knew what my practice partner’s next move was. Because by planning for it, I allowed myself to become more vulnerable to a different move.”

She took a sip of the cooling coffee. “Go with the flow, you mean.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that. But yeah, it’s the general idea.”

She thought some more. About her mother. Herself. And, this man who seemed so comfortable on Ida’s porch. Raine suspected he’d spent a great deal of time on this very same swing in the past.

“May I ask you something?”

“Anything,” he said promptly.

“Are you going to be my new stepfather?”

“You bet.” He smiled at her. With his mouth and his eyes and as she smiled back, Raine wondered if there was something in the air here on the peninsula that made the male population so self-confident.

She smiled back. “I’m glad.”

At that moment the screen door opened and Lilith came out, dressed in a designer version of fishing chic. Her blouse was a washable silk the color of mountain streams, her jeans had obviously been custom-tailored to fit her lush curves like a glove, and the sneakers on her feet were snowy white, suggesting they were new. Her gold earrings resembled fishing lures and flowers the same color as her blouse bloomed on the baseball cap atop her head.

“Good morning,” she greeted them. “Gracious Raine, darling, I was wondering who Cooper was speaking with. Whatever are you doing up so early?”

“It was a lovely morning. I thought I’d sit out here and enjoy it.”

“You couldn’t have found a better place. I know I always feel ever so much better whenever I come home.” Her smile, as she looked over at Cooper, was overbrimming with private meaning. “Especially this time.”

He smiled back and once again the air was so charged, Raine felt as if she couldn’t breathe. Deciding that if Savannah was actually counting on these two returning home with any fish, she’d be disappointed, Raine rose from the swing.

“Have a good time, you two.” She brushed a kiss against her mother’s cheek and felt another little stab of guilt at the surprise and pleasure that sparked in Lilith’s eyes. Raine couldn’t recall the last time she’d initiated kissing her mother.

A week ago she never would have thought of going up on her toes to kiss Cooper’s cheek as well, but as she did so, Raine decided that it felt eminently right. “Good luck,” she murmured,

Then, feeling even more heady anticipation than she had when she’d first awakened, she took her cup and went back into the house, counting the hours until eleven o’clock.

The Suburban was not exactly designed for tight cornering, but Raine was not surprised by the way Jack maneuvered around the twisting switchbacks leading deep into the forest. He seemed to do everything well. When that thought caused a little spike in her heartbeat, she turned her attention to the scenery in an attempt to tamp down rampaging hormones.

The sky had turned a tarnished silver hue that hinted at a storm lying somewhere out to sea, while a pale sun latticed the landscape with a tapestry of green. The willows wore their bright spring coats of goldish green leaves, while bolder, red-green maple leaves unfolded from newly burst buds. Scattered amidst blushing meadows dotted with Indian paintbrush, bracken ferns were uncurling new, frothy, delicate pale fronds.

Growing more and more comfortable with each other, despite the sexual tension that still lingered as strong as ever, they allowed the silence to settle. For a long time the only sound was that of falling water, as crystal streams born in melting glaciers fed the roaring rivers that ran into the sea.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Raine asked finally.

“A little place I know out by Lake Crescent.”

Set dramatically amidst the majestic Olympic Mountains, the dazzling blue-green lake was considered by many to be the gem of the peninsula.

“Not the lodge?”

“No.” He glanced over at her. “I thought we’d go someplace off by ourselves. Unless you’d like to go to the lodge.”

Knowing that he had definitely not planned on sharing the stolen day with tourists, Raine appreciated him giving her a choice. “No. I get enough of people in the city. I’m starting to enjoy the peace and quiet.”

“Better be careful,” he said easily as he turned off onto another even narrower road that twisted like a snarled fishing line unreeling through the mountain passes in a series of sharp zigzags that defied compass reckoning. “This place can get in your blood if you let it. You might have a hard time getting away again.”

“I’ll admit that I’m seeing the town with new eyes. But I am going back to New York.” She wondered which of them she was reminding—him or her.

“All the more reason to make the most of the time you have here.”

They passed a waving green sea of meadow on which white Sitka valerium bobbed like whitecaps atop cresting waves. “You must spend a lot of time at this place, wherever it is.” She’d been lost for the past half hour. “To be able to find it so easily.”

“I haven’t been here for years, so I may not. We may end up getting hopelessly lost and forced to live off the land. Which, I suppose, could turn out to be an adventure.”

“Obviously we have different definitions of adventure.”

“You just need to use your imagination.”

“I was. I was imagining icy rain, hurricane gale winds, and mountain lions. Not to mention bears. So, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll pass on playing Grizzly Adams with you.”

“You’ve got the wrong adventure story.” He reached out, caught her hand and linked their fingers together. “It’d be more like Adam and Eve. Just you and I, Harvard, alone in a lush green Garden of Eden.”

“I don’t like snakes.”

“Fine. Since it’s our imaginary game, we won’t have any.”

“What about clothes?”

“Only if you insist.”

“I do.”

He sighed heavily. “I was afraid you were going to say that. Well, I suppose you can whip something up out of some leaves while I build our log cabin.

“You’re going to build a cabin? With what?”

“My bare hands. And, of course, my handy-dandy Swiss Army knife.”

“I didn’t realize those came with a chain saw feature.”

“Never underestimate the Swiss. Then, when I get it all constructed, you can make us a comfy bed out of pine needles.”

“Two beds.”

He shot her a sideways glance and another of those boyish grins that Raine kept telling herself shouldn’t affect her so strongly, but did. “Spoilsport.”

He made a sharp left turn that, even with her seat belt fastened, almost had her sliding into his lap. They passed a herd of deer peacefully grazing in yet another meadow awash in color.

“Lucky for us these woods are filled with game, so we won’t have to go hungry,” he said.

Raine folded her arms. “I categorically refuse to eat Bambi.”

“How about fish?”

She thought about that. “I suppose that would be preferable to starving.”

“Absolutely. Then we don’t have any problem. I’ll catch some tasty salmon with the pointed stick I whittle with my knife then smoke them over a fire, just like I learned when I was a Boy Scout.”

“You were a Boy Scout?”

“You don’t have to sound all that surprised. As a matter of fact, I earned a merit badge in survivalist skills.”

“I knew you were a hell-raiser. But I had no idea you were also training to be one of those antigovernment militia types.” Her faint smile took the accusation from her tone.

“That was before those nutty guys who like to blow things up gave the term a bad name,” he said mildly. “We learned all sorts of handy stuff. I’d almost made Eagle Scout when I got kicked out.”

“Now that I believe. What did you do? Row across the lake in the middle of the night and lead a panty raid on the Girl Scout camp?”

“You can be a sharp-tongued woman, Harvard. Fortunately for you, I like a woman with spunk. And, as a matter of fact, I put a skunk in the counselor’s tent.”

“Once again I’m not surprised. What does strain credulity is the idea of you actually growing up to serve as the symbol of law and order in Olympic County.”