excuse about running up to the main house. She’d even begged Val to wait until she got back.
“You didn’t know?” he asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “I thought you two were thick as thieves.”
“I guess she forgot to mention it,” Val said, recalling the evasiveness Annie had displayed earlier. The little schemer had set her up.
“So, will you stay?”
“Are you sure you want me to?”
“I suppose that depends on how dangerously you like to live.” His gaze settled on her mouth, lingered, then rose to meet her eyes. “Or how involved you are with the drummer.”
“I told you, Paul and I are friends.”
“Good,” he said succinctly. “That leaves us with deciding how much of a risk-taker you are.”
“Risk-taker?” she echoed. She was cool, calm, dependable Val. She never took risks unless they were carefully calculated.
He nodded and lowered his head until his lips were almost touching hers. She held her breath and waited, almost certain she would die if he didn’t close that infinitesimal gap Instead, he pulled back and grinned.
“Like I said, Val, it’s time to decide just how dangerously you want to live.”
She had a feeling he was toying with her, pushing her to admit that she had deliberately tried to make him jealous by flirting outrageously with Paul right in front of him. For all she knew, he’d asked Laurie, or even Paul, if there was really anything for him to be jealous about.
Impulsively, she reached up and threaded her fingers through his hair. “Paul who?”
She kissed Slade until she felt him tremble, then pulled away, forcing her expression into a deliberately nonchalant mask. “Still up for this, cowboy?”
As it turned out, Slade was very much up for it...and then some.
Nine
Carrying Val off to his bedroom struck Slade as being both the smartest and the dumbest thing he’d ever considered. She was the kind of woman any man would count himself lucky to have in his bed. He knew there was a sizzling passion between them just waiting to explode. He sensed she would be every bit as generous in bed as she was in other ways.
At the same time, he also knew that he wouldn’t walk away from the experience unscathed. He’d already become addicted to setting off those sparks in her eyes, to seeing her mouth curve into a slow smile. What would happen when he’d experienced the most intimate caresses? When her body had welcomed him?
Worse, he was taking advantage of her, taking what she offered without being willing to offer her anything in return except what they shared in bed. He was setting himself up for guilt and her up for heartache.
Knowing that, he actually managed to get himself to halt at the door to his room.
“You can call it quits now,” he said, his voice husky. “No harm, no foul.”
“Not a chance, cowboy.”
The sparkle of anticipation in her eyes was as bright as a star. Gazing into her eyes, he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell he could turn back now. He wanted it all, needed her in ways he’d sworn never to need a woman again. Sex was one thing. This was something else entirely, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself otherwise.
It was barely dusk outside and the room was in shadows. Slade wanted it that way. As desperately as he wanted to see every inch of Val, he was just as desperate to keep her from getting a good look at the scars from the accident. His leg wasn’t a pretty picture. Suzanne had made it clear more than once that the crisscrossing of stitches disgusted her. He had to assume that most women would feel the same.
As Val’s fingers lightly touched his cheek, his attention snapped back to the here and now, back to a touch so tender it set off longing right along with fireworks. He pushed all thoughts of his ex-wife from his head and concentrated on the woman who could make him weak-kneed with a glance.
He settled her on the edge of the bed, then sat next to her. When she reached for the buttons on his shirt, he stilled her hand. “Slowly, darlin’. We have all the time in the world.”
She gave him a faint smile. “I keep thinking you’ll change your mind. You have before. And dinner is on the table.”
“Dinner can wait.”
“It’ll be ruined,” she lamented.
“It can be heated up again. You seem to forget that I was used to ruined before you came along.”
She touched a hand to his