in her rearview mirror, and he was still watching.
All the way home, she played those kisses over and over in her mind, wishing she could put them out of her mind. By the time she’d tucked herself into bed, she’d almost succeeded. Then her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID.
Eve.
Deal with her now, or deal with her later.
Shannon answered her phone. “It’s late, Eve. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“No way. I want to know now. Why’d you leave so quickly tonight after talking to Luke?”
Shannon turned over in bed, groaning at Eve’s question, feeling a little loopy. Two margaritas were one thing, but it was the one hot cowboy who had done a real number on her.
“He left, and then you left…” There was a long pause, and then Eve’s exclamation. “Oh, my God. Is he there right now?”
“Knock it off, Eve,” Shannon muttered. “He’s not here. Nothing happened.” Not much, anyway.
“Oh, come on, Shannon! It was no coincidence that you left so close together.”
Shannon put her hand to her throbbing forehead. “I’m going to sleep now.”
“No. Don’t you dare cut me off. I want the whole story.”
“I told you the whole story. Good night.”
Over Eve’s protests, Shannon punched the End Call button and turned out the light. She lay in the dark, but every time she closed her eyes to sleep, she saw Luke in her mind. Heard him. Felt him. After a while the images were so vivid she swore she could reach out and touch him.
But it was nothing but lust, and lust led nowhere. And she’d do well to remember that.
The minute Luke got back to the shelter and pulled through the gate, he found himself looking down at the barn. The last thing he needed to do was go down there after dark. He knew he would feel a surreal kind of déjà vu that would make him remember that night, but when he left the City Limits with the taste of Shannon still on his lips, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. It had been a long time since he’d kissed her like that.
Such a long time.
He walked down the path, the humid evening air wrapping itself around him like a shroud. When he reached the barn, he flipped on the hayloft light and looked up. His heart thumped hard at the sight, making him feel as if he’d traveled back in time to live that night all over again.
He remembered finding Shannon’s necklace on the ground by the stock tank and the excitement he felt at the prospect of bringing it back to her. He heard her in the hayloft and climbed the ladder to see her still looking for it. When he held it up and she acted so relieved, he felt like a hero.
They sat up there for a long time, talking about nothing in particular, just as they’d done so many times before. Most of the time around there he had the feeling people were watching them. But that night in the loft after everybody else had gone home, it felt as if they were the only two people on earth.
Then he said something about his father. She looped her arm through his and lay her head on his shoulder. Even though she didn’t know any of the details, it was as if she really did understand how he felt. He could have stayed in that loft forever, feeling warmth flowing from her body to his, wiping out, bit by bit, the coldness he often felt inside.
But then it got late. She had to go. It was like this every night. If she didn’t come home before dark, there was hell to pay with her mother.
She asked him to put the necklace back on her. She turned her back to him and swept the loose hairs off her neck with one hand, holding the necklace up with the other. He remembered starting to take the necklace from her, only to look down at the smooth, creamy skin at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, that beautiful, tempting hollow that seemed to call out to him. In that moment, every desire-filled thought he’d ever had about her seemed to coalesce into a single force that drove him to ignore the necklace. Instead, he dropped his lips against that spot in a gentle kiss.
Shannon froze, her hand closing tightly around the necklace. He slid his hand around her waist and pulled her gently back against him. He heard her deep intake