IT WAS ALL coming back to him now. Not only had he been tortured with feelings of lust where Keely was concerned, he’d also been ready to kill every guy who so much as looked at her. Leaving Saguaro Junction to follow the rodeo circuit had kept him away from Keely, but it had also saved a lot of cowboys from having their jaws busted.

      Apparently he hadn’t changed in that regard, either. The drugstore clerk was a mere baby, but when his hormone-driven attention had settled on Keely’s breasts, Noah had been ready to take the kid apart. He’d have to work on that reaction, because men weren’t going to stop looking at Keely during the next three days. Men were always looking at Keely.

      The worst part was that he couldn’t understand where his protective instincts were coming from. Maybe because he’d grown up with Keely, he had some big-brother feelings going on, but she’d never acted like a shrinking violet in need of male protection. The males probably needed protection from Keely, when it came right down to it.

      That might be the heart of the matter, he realized with sudden insight. He hadn’t been willing to face that his childhood friend had become an extremely sexy woman. Every drooling guy who hung around emphasized the very thing he didn’t want to admit, so the answer was to keep them away from her. Knowing that she’d never tolerate that kind of protectiveness had been one of his major frustrations in life. The safest course had been to stay away himself, which had the added benefit of protecting him from his own sexual feelings for her.

      He should have continued on that course today. But he couldn’t have left her at the topless bar, knowing she’d have a job in no time and be dancing there by tonight, probably. The way things were going, the bachelor party really would end up at that exact bar and he’d have to watch his buddies and a host of strangers ogling Keely. The centerfold spread had been torture enough, but at least it hadn’t been firsthand torture.

      “Where are you staying?” she asked as they arrived at the Strip and turned left.

      “The Tahitian.” He’d been floored by the prices, but he had to admit the rooms were nice.

      “That new place? Cool! I’ve been meaning to check it out. The cliff-diver show is supposed to be awesome at night. And don’t they have an actual beach with surf in the courtyard?”

      “I guess. I haven’t seen it yet.”

      “You haven’t? Everybody talks about it—white sand, saltwater waves lapping at the shore, palm trees swaying—the whole nine yards. I guess your room must not look out on that, or you’d have noticed.”

      “Nope. Mine overlooks the parking lot.” He had a vivid mental picture of Keely lying at the edge of that lapping surf, the foam curling over her naked breasts and licking at her smooth thighs. Oh, boy. He was in trouble. He’d been denying her sexuality for years, but denial wasn’t working anymore.

      “In fact, considering you’re staying at such a premier resort,” she said, “I’m surprised you didn’t want to hang out right there and soak up the atmosphere instead of wandering around in the heat on a basically boring side street.”

      “Well, the thing is, I—”

      “Noah Garfield, were you planning to actually go into that bar? Don’t tell me that you’re secretly a voyeur who pays to look at naked women?”

      He winced as several people on the crowded sidewalk turned to stare at him. Taking Keely by the arm, he leaned down. “No, I am not a secret voyeur, but now several people in this city think I am.” He released his grip on her arm before the soft warmth under his fingers gave him even more ideas.

      “Sorry about that,” she said. “You know I always tend to speak my mind.”

      “I do remember that. Obviously you haven’t changed.”

      “Obviously you haven’t, either. Still worried about what the neighbors think.”

      She was baiting him. He knew that, but still she got his dander up. He wondered if he had any chance at all of changing her attitude this weekend. Probably not, but he had to try. He’d keep reminding her of her roots and see if that helped the cause. “Where you and I come from, you’d better stay chummy with your neighbors if you expect to make it in the ranching business.”

      “Well, I have no interest in making it in the ranching business.”

      She scored another hit with that one. He loved his life as a rancher and took negative comments about it personally. “I think you made that perfectly clear when you took the deal with Macho.”

      “You noticed that.”

      “Everybody noticed that.” And that was the other big reason he’d better get his mind off the lovely body of Keely Branscom. He’d never been the kind of guy who could have sex for the hell of it. With him, a physical relationship with a woman needed to be going somewhere. With Keely, it could go nowhere. She didn’t want what he could offer.

      “Noah…about that centerfold…” She sounded hesitant, which was unusual for her.

      Surprised at the sudden shift in her manner, he glanced over at her.

      She cleared her throat. “It was my ticket out.” Her gaze slipped up to his face, but her expression was disguised by her dark glasses. “Can you understand that?”

      “Sort of.” Frustrated by not being able to see her eyes, he faced forward again. “I mean, if you wanted to get out of Saguaro Junction, posing for that magazine sure worked like a charm. And I can see why the town might seem too conservative for you. But to cut yourself off completely…”

      “It was easier that way.”