The Calamity Janes: Gina and Emma: To Catch a Thief. Sherryl Woods
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was exactly where you were going. Lo and behold, here you are, sneaking around behind my back to cross-examine my parents.”
“I was not cross-examining your parents,” he repeated patiently. “I stopped by looking for you. Your mother invited me in. Your father did most of the talking. That’s it.”
She gave him a plaintive look. “Couldn’t you go away?” she asked in what had become a familiar, wistful refrain. “Go home? I’ll be there in a couple of weeks and answer every single question you have.”
“Much as I would like to get out of the wilds of Wyoming and back to civilization, I can’t take a chance that you’ll disappear. You’re my best link to Rinaldi.”
“I haven’t heard from him. In fact, if he’s smart, I will never hear from him, because if I ever get five minutes alone with him, I will wring his scrawny neck.”
She said it with such heartfelt conviction that Rafe’s faith in her shot up another notch. That still didn’t mean he could go running back to New York the way she wanted. Unfortunately, he was here for the duration.
And gazing into her sad, vulnerable eyes was making that more and more difficult with every passing day.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said finally. “I’ll make you a deal.”
She regarded him with suspicion. “What sort of a deal?”
“What’s on the reunion agenda for the day?”
“A picnic in the park.”
“Is that the last event?”
“No, most of us will be here for the Fourth of July fireworks later in the week.”
He regarded her solemnly. “Do you swear that you will not skip town on me?”
She sighed. “I’m not going anywhere. How many times do I have to tell you that? You can turn your back on me. In fact, it might be nice if you just forgot all about me.”
Rafe grinned at her wistful tone. “I can’t do that, but I will back off. I have some paperwork to do.”
“Hallelujah!” she said, though her tone was less than enthusiastic.
“I’m not saying I won’t cruise by the park—”
“I should have known it was too good to be true,” she murmured.
“That could be just because I’m longing for a glimpse of you,” Rafe suggested.
“Oh, of course,” she said sarcastically. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
He was surprised by her skepticism. “You don’t think that could be true?”
“You are not hanging around here because you’re attracted to me. You’re here because you want to nail me with a crime.”
“Maybe that’s how it started,” Rafe said quietly, regretting the admission almost before the words were out of his mouth.
She gave him a startled look. “What are you saying?”
“I’ve already said it. Never mind. The point is I will try to give you a little space. Just don’t make me regret it. I have a lot of resources and I will use them to find you, so save yourself the trouble.”
He’d taken half a dozen steps, almost made it to safety, when she called out to him. He turned back.
“What?” he asked, noting the confusion in her eyes.
“Are you saying that kiss yesterday...” Her gaze locked on his. “Did it mean something?”
Rafe couldn’t help the smile tugging at his lips. Her words were too close to an invitation, way too close to a dare, or maybe he’d just been searching a little too desperately for any excuse at all to do it again.
“I don’t know,” he said nonchalantly. He walked slowly back to her. “Only one way to find out.”
Alarm flared in her eyes just as he bent down and lightly touched his mouth to hers. He could have stopped with that. He should have. But her soft little moan, the way she swayed toward him, they were too much. The next thing he knew she was in his arms and he was devouring her mouth.
The morning had been unseasonably cool up until then, but now the temperature shot up until it felt hotter than it had under the blazing sun on his walk back into town the day before. His heart pounded and his body turned hard, even as hers went pliant, molding to his in a way that left him shaken and her trembling.
His breathing was ragged when he finally pulled away. “I guess we have our answer,” he murmured, his voice husky.
She stared back at him with dazed eyes. “Answer?”
“That kiss definitely meant something.”
“What did it mean?”
He took a step back before he replied. “Trouble,” he said quietly. “It was definitely trouble.”
* * *
Trouble? Gina echoed to herself after Rafe had wisely walked away. It wasn’t just trouble. It was a disaster. If he’d asked, she would have followed him straight to the nearest bed without giving it a second thought. She would have slept with a man who wanted to put her in jail.
Okay, maybe he was beginning to cut her a little slack, but he definitely didn’t trust her, not the way a man ought to trust a woman he was making love to. Of course, that kiss had been all about lust, not love. Gina supposed a man—or a woman—could have spectacular sex with somebody without worrying too much about such niceties as trust. Personally, she’d never tried it. She’d had one serious relationship in Italy, but since coming back to the United States, she’d barely had time to date, much less get involved with a man deeply enough to think about letting him into her bed. And her relationship with Carlo had taught her all about the dangers of dating a suspicious man. His lack of trust, his constant accusations that she was deceiving him had destroyed them.
Now, in just a few short days, Rafe had stirred her hormones to such a fever pitch that she was willing to toss aside everything she valued for a quick romp with yet another man who didn’t believe in her.
“I saw what Rose Ellen meant,” Gina’s mother said quietly, slipping up beside Gina and putting an arm around her waist.
“You saw?”
“Oh, yes. So did your father.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t go for his shotgun.”
“I think he might have, if you’d shown even the tiniest hint of displeasure.”
Gina regarded her mother with a wry look. “Well, that certainly didn’t happen, did it?”
Her mother chuckled. “No, which begs the question, what is your relationship with Rafe O’Donnell?”
“I wish I knew,” Gina said plaintively. “It’s...it’s confusing.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She shook her head. “Not yet, Mom, but I’ll tell you everything when I get it sorted out. I promise.”
“If you want your father to run him off, he will, you know.”
Gina grinned. “I know, and believe me, the thought holds a certain appeal.” She uttered a sigh of resignation. “But Rafe would just come back again.”
“Your father was a persistent man, too,” Jane said, looking nostalgic.
“Did you ever try to shake him?”
“For a while,” she said, then grinned. “But my heart was never in it. Is your heart really in getting rid of Rafe once and for all?”
“Apparently not,” Gina said. In fact, she was beginning to look forward to having him pop up when she