she began to relax a little. “Well, then,” she said. “Why didn’t you just say so in the first place?”
He cleared his throat. “Because I figured you’d think I was trying to get to you through Madison,” he told her.
Some reckless Kendra took over, pushed the day-to-day Kendra aside. “Were you?” she asked. “Trying to get to me through my daughter, that is?”
She saw his jaw tighten, release again.
“That would be wrong on so many levels,” he said. He was clearly angry, which was rich, considering he’d been the one to raise the topic in the first place. “Madison’s not a pawn. She’s a person in her own right.”
“I quite agree,” Kendra said, sounding prim even in her own ears.
That was when Hutch reached up, looped an arm around Kendra’s waist and lifted her down off Coco’s back. She came up against him, hard.
“If I want to ‘get to’ you, Kendra,” he informed her, “I can—and without using an innocent little kid or anybody else.”
She stared up at him, startled, breathless and without a thought in her head.
And that was when he kissed her, not gently, not tentatively, but with all the hunger a man can feel for a woman, all the need and the strength and the hardness and the heat.
Instantly she turned to a pillar of fire. Her arms slipped around Hutch’s neck and tightened there, and she stood on tiptoe, pouring herself into that kiss without reservation.
This was what she had feared, some vague part of her knew that.
This was what she had longed for.
It was Hutch who broke away first. His breath was ragged, and he thrust the fingers of his right hand through his hair in a gesture that might have been frustration. “Damn it,” he cursed.
Kendra, all molten passion just moments before, went ice-cold. “Don’t you dare blame me for that, Hutch,” she warned, in a furious whisper. “You started it.”
He didn’t answer, didn’t even look at her.
No, he turned away, gave her his back.
“I’m sorry,” he said, after a long time, his voice rough as dry gravel.
He was sorry? He’d rocked her to the core, thrown the planet off its axis, changed the direction of the tides with that kiss. And he was sorry?
“So much for two old friends just out for a simple horseback ride,” she heard herself say. Humiliation and anger combined gave her the impetus to get back on Coco with no help from Hutch Carmody, thank you very much.
Hutch turned then, glowering up at her. “Don’t,” he warned. “Don’t be flippant about this, Kendra. Something just happened here, something important.”
“Yes,” Kendra said lightly. He was standing and she was mounted and that gave her a completely false sense of power, which she permitted herself to enjoy for the briefest of moments. “You kissed me, remember?”
“I’m not talking about that,” Hutch told her.
“Then what are you talking about?”
“We’re not finished, you and I,” Hutch said. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Kendra retorted, coming to a slow simmer. “We are so finished. So over. So done. So through. We have been for years, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“The way you just kissed me says different,” he replied, mounting up at last, reining the gelding around so that he and Kendra were facing each other.
“You kissed me,” she reiterated, almost frantic.
“You’re damn right, I did,” Hutch answered. “And you kissed me right back. If we’d been up at the meadow where it’s private, instead of down here on the open range, we’d be making love right now, hot and heavy. Just like in the old days.”
“Your ego,” she snapped, “is exceeded only by your ego. I’m not one of—one of those women, the kind you can have whenever you want!”
He laughed, but it was a tight sound, a challenge, a promise. “Prove it,” he said.
Kendra was practically beside herself by then. She wanted to get back to the barn, get off this damnable horse, collect her daughter and her dog, and race for home, where she could reasonably pretend none of this had ever happened. “What do you mean, ‘prove it’?” she practically spat.
“Opal is looking after Madison,” he said. “Let’s ride up the mountain, Kendra—just you and me. Right now.”
“Absolutely not,” Kendra shot back loftily, amazed at how badly she wanted to take him up on what would surely be, for her, a losing bet.
“Scared?” he asked, leaning in, almost breathing the word. His mouth rested lightly, briefly, against hers, setting her ablaze all over again.