As Jazz disappeared into Slade’s RV moments later she stepped from the tree line and began picking her way along the darkened edge of the lake, around the parked RVs, and back toward the parking lot.

Long minutes later, as she slid around the white-and-tan RV belonging to Slade and Jessie Colter, the sound of cartoons and low laughter had her chest clenching in envy.

Jessie Colter had befriended her when she’d first arrived in Loudoun as the new kindergarten teacher, Annie Mayes. Had it not been for Jessie, no doubt she wouldn’t have really made friends. The other woman had insisted Kenni go to dinner with her after school, or have lunch with her occasionally on the weekends.

When Jessie had married her lost love, Slade Colter, the other woman had become an instant mother to Slade’s little boy, Cody. That child was a precocious, sweet-natured little handful. Innocent of face, sincere of speech, and as charming as any six-year-old male could be. He stole hearts right and left.

She did smile then. Just a bit of a curve of her lips before it was quickly pulled back.

“Now, was that a smile on our little schoolteacher’s lips?”

The voice, as dark as the night, as sexy as the man himself, and as dangerous as any male ever born, drew her to a sudden and complete stop as she passed the corner of the Colter RV.

Dammit. Not tonight. Not now. Resisting him now, when she was so weak, would be so much harder.

Jazz had pulled his own RV about five feet past the bumper of his friends’ vehicle at a slight angle that protected the back of Slade and Jessie’s home on wheels. It was from there that he stepped, the bottle of beer held loosely in one hand.

“Jazz…” She stepped back, wondering if it was too late to run.

“Still running scared?” The amusement in his voice pricked her at her pride more now than it usually did.

“Still determined to seduce someone who’s not interested?” she sniffed disdainfully.

God help her. She’d known he was suspicious, but she hadn’t expected him to actually surprise her quite this way.

His brows lowered.

Leaning against the side of his RV, he watched her with that low, brooding frown while he scratched at his chest negligently.

“Not interested, huh?” His lips curved into a grin that didn’t quite reach those brilliant-blue eyes, though a hint of bitterness might have gleamed there. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you, sweetheart?”

Straight to his face? Well, it wasn’t easy, but of course she would.

“What reason would I have to lie to you, Jazz?”

She could think of a page full of reasons.

“Because you think you can get away with it.” He sighed his own answer.

She could get away with it, for a few minutes at least. It wouldn’t be easy, but she’d manage it if she had to. No doubt she was going to have to if his expression was anything to go by.

“Personally, I think you’re a little paranoid,” she informed him with an air of pity. “Such a shame, too. Jessie seems rather certain you’re a very intelligent man. Paranoia could be quite detrimental to that.”

He’d always been fun to play with, too. That hadn’t changed, he still enjoyed a few word games as well as his more sexual pastimes.

“Jessie likes to fuck with your head, baby,” he chuckled, the low, rough sound far too sexy.

“Or perhaps you’re still in denial. That’s never a good thing, Jazz,” she assured him, enjoying the exchange far too much. “Talk to Jessie. She’ll explain it all to you.”

Or actually manage to screw his head up completely, she thought, amused. Jessie had learned how to play those games as well.

He sniffed at the advice, never taking his eyes off her. He wasn’t stripping her with his eyes, he was warming her with them. But Jazz had a way of doing that, of making a woman feel like she was the only female on the face of the earth. He charmed and seduced and led them along a path of sultry kisses and dominating caresses—and at the end of that path they were left with the memory of something they would never know again. He’d seduced them so well that getting angry at him was impossible.

Kenni begged to claim otherwise. She was furious with him over every former lover he’d ever had. She wanted to claw their eyes out, then claw his out for being such a damned Romeo.

“You’re a pretty little thing aren’t you?” The statement had her heart nearly stopping before it began racing in her chest with a speed that made it difficult to breathe properly.

“Th … thank you.” Damn him, now he was making her stutter? Just because he thought she was pretty? And why had he waited two years to say that?

His head tilted to the side, his sapphire-blue eyes watching her for another silent moment. Sometimes she wondered what he saw and what he thought when he did that. He had a tendency to watch her as though she were some puzzle he needed to put together. If that was the case then she was in trouble. Once Jazz decided to figure something or someone out, he was just as tenacious as the most stubborn men she’d ever met.

Well, probably more.

When he looked at her like that he did things to her that no other man had even come close to doing. She tingled and could feel herself flushing. Her knees went weak. The tingles raced over her body, detoured to the peaks of her breasts, and then went decidedly south with a surge of energy that had her shifting on her feet to dislodge the ache.

Sweet merciful heaven. This was just wrong. This was not why she was here, and she didn’t have time for the distraction. She couldn’t let him draw her in yet, not until she was certain where his loyalties lay.

“I should go…”

“Something about you just makes me hard as hell.” He sighed, causing a laugh of pure disbelief to slip past her lips.

Well, he was rather blunt tonight. She normally steered clear of him, so she’d never really seen him like this. Heard of it, but hadn’t seen it. It frankly terrified her. If he kept this up, she might have to let him seduce her and that would simply defeat the purpose.

“Something about me, huh?” She lifted a brow at the phrasing, crossed her arms beneath her breasts, hoped she was hiding her hardened nipples, and tried for a doubtful expression as she watched him. “Perhaps it’s because I’m female.”

He seemed to pause for a moment. Maybe he was thinking about the accusation. It wasn’t possible to deny it, that was for damned sure.

“Well, I am known for my love of females.” He nodded seriously before lifting the beer for another drink.

“Yes, Jazz, you are known for your love of females.” Damned alley cat. “Healer of broken hearts, seducer of weeping divorcées, and all-around charming rogue,” she pointed out. “Never been married and not so much as a chip taken from your heart. Lucky man.” The mockery wasn’t nearly as subtle as she was trying for.

He glanced down. Kenni stilled at the flash of dark emotion that swept across his face for just a moment as he stared at the bottle in his hand.

He’d been in love? Oh, that wasn’t fair. Damn him, she’d never had a chance to give herself to the man she loved as a young woman, no chance to tell him how much she’d ached for him or to see if she could make this far-too-dangerous man fall in love with her. And he’d dared to fall in love while she was gone.

Bastard.

Double bastard.

“Yeah, lucky man.” But he didn’t sound as though he agreed with her. “What about you? Ever been married? In love?”

“I’m twenty-six years old, Jazz, what do you think?” She would be twenty-seven soon, but she couldn’t tell him that. She was tired, lonely, starving for his touch in ways she hadn’t in all the years before coming home, and certain that if she allowed herself to taste the pleasure he could give her, he wouldn’t just break her heart. No, Jazz wouldn’t do anything by half measures. He’d shatter her soul into a million pieces.