Later, alone in her too-quiet, too-lonely room, Daisy could admit that the meeting with Walker had been a disaster, start to finish. But as she thought back over the evening–from Tommy’s disappearance to the awkward reunion a few hours later–what stuck in her mind was that unexpected kiss she and Walker had shared.

      Why couldn’t she shake the memory? Was she so desperate for a little attention that any man’s kiss would have thrown her off-kilter like this? Maybe so. In fact, that had to be it. It had nothing at all to do with Walker Ames.

      Yeah, right. She touched her fingers to her lips. Even now she could almost feel the whisper-soft caress. It hadn’t lasted more than a few seconds, but it had felt like an eternity. He had seemed almost as shocked by it as she had been.

      It was definitely a good thing that he had declined her invitation. Hopefully he’d also declined the suggestion that he stay at Cedar Hill. He’d be just fine at Trinity Harbor’s one fancy hotel. Near enough to drop in, but far enough away to avoid temptation.

      She sighed. She had a feeling that kiss was going to keep her up all night as it was. Having Walker Ames right down the hall would have been more than she could bear.

      His concession to stay in Trinity Harbor through the weekend was a blessing for Tommy, but it was going to be tough on her. In one single gesture, Walker had reminded her that she was a woman, that she had needs and desires that had been ignored for far too long. He’d be lucky if she didn’t drag him off somewhere and try to ravish him.

      She blushed at the thought. What had come over her? She never thought like that, much less behaved in such a wanton manner. Not once in all of her thirty years had she felt such an intense need to have a man’s tongue intimately invade her mouth, to have his hands on her breasts or to feel his body inside hers. Not even Billy had aroused this kind of desperate yearning. Their lovemaking had been sweetly satisfying, but she’d never seen stars, never felt as if the earth were tumbling out from under her feet the way she had tonight. These days, on those rare occasions when she passed Billy on the street, she felt nothing at all. Yet even now, she couldn’t imagine a time when the sight of Walker might not affect her.

      Which just proved that it was way past time for her body to wake up and come alive again. Once again she tried to reassure herself that the physical response was just that–physical. It did not have anything whatsoever to do with Walker Ames specifically.

      She needed to keep reminding herself that his decision to stay simply gave her three more days with Tommy, three more days to convince everyone that he was better off with her in Trinity Harbor than he would be in a city like Washington.

      Her father, who had more prejudices than Daisy would ordinarily condone, had it just right when it came to the nation’s capital. The city’s level of crime was a disgrace. It was no place to raise a small boy. Surely a man who dealt with that crime every day of his life would be able to see that. She just had to sit down and reason with him.

      Unfortunately, she had discovered tonight that Walker Ames had the ability to rob her of the power to speak coherently, much less forcefully. He knew it, too, more’s the pity.

      But Daisy hadn’t been raised by a man like King Spencer without learning a little about ignoring her fears to get the job done. If Walker Ames thought he could use his masculinity to fluster her, then she could just as easily use a few feminine wiles to turn the tables on him. The more she considered the prospect, the more anxious she was to see him in the morning and put her plan into action.

      In the meantime, it might be wise to say a little prayer that she wasn’t deliberately throwing herself to the wolves…or to one wolf in particular.

       6

       W alker had a lot of excess tension to work off. He woke up at dawn after a restless night on a hard hotel mattress, feeling every one of his thirty-five years. His shoulders ached. His knees were stiff, the result of too many years of hard physical activity from football in high school to the jogging he now did daily to keep in shape.

      More troublesome than the aches and pains were the mental cobwebs. As if dealing with his first face-to-face meeting with Tommy weren’t stressful enough, there was Daisy Spencer and her far too tempting mouth to consider. She’d played a prominent role in his dreams. No wonder he’d awakened thoroughly aroused and totally exasperated with himself.

      The last thing he needed in his life was a woman who looked at him with moist lips half-parted by unmistakable lust and eyes shining with innocence and vulnerability. There was a contradiction there that he didn’t want to get mixed up in. No way.

      He hadn’t wanted to belabor the discussion of the kiss they’d shared because he’d been very much afraid he’d be tempted to kiss her again just to shut her up. She had that exasperating effect on him, an effect no woman had had for a very long time.

      Bottom line, he needed to get her out of his system before he saw her this morning and did something that would only add to the regrets he already had. A good workout ought to accomplish that. Luckily he kept his gym bag in the trunk of the car. He changed into shorts and a sweatshirt, tugged on his running shoes and hit the road.

      For the first few blocks, he was barely aware of his surroundings beyond the lack of traffic and the faint tang of salt in the air. His concentration was totally focused on getting into his rhythm, getting his breathing to match his relaxed, easy