“WHY DID YOU KISS ME?

Nicks gaze slid to her mouth. “Curious.

“Curious to see if Id let you?

“No, he said, as if rejection had never occurred to him. “Curious to see if you taste as sweet as you look.

“What did you decide?

He crooked his finger at her and said in a low, sensual voice, “You taste like my uncles huckleberry wine. Definitely sweet, but with a warm kick.

She hid her smile. “Is that bad?

“Depends. He placed two fingers beneath her chin and stared into her eyes. “Has anyone ever kissed you until you were so hot you were burning up? Until you didnt care about anything else?

She didnt answer, not wanting to admit that shed never been so consumed or burned up with passion that shed lost her head. Even her best friend assumed she was a prude. But apparently not Nick. Nick saw what no one else did, and she let herself fall headfirst into the dizzy heat burning her flesh.

Other Avon Books by Rachel Gibson

Simply Irresistible

True Confessions

Truly Madly Yours

Coming Soon

Lola Carlyle Reveals All

Truly Madly Yours

Rachel Gibson

AVON BOOKS

ISBN: 0-380-80121-3

With love to my mother and father, Al and Mary Reed. Late at night when my mind is quiet, I can still remember the scent of my mothers skin and the texture of my fathers spiky crewcut, and I know that I have been blessed.

Prologue

The red glow from a space heater touched the creases and folds of Henry Shaws face, while the nicker of his beloved Appaloosas called to him on the warm spring breeze. He plugged an old eight-track cassette into its player, and the deep, whiskey-rough voice of Johnny Cash filled the small tack shed. Before Johnny had found religion, hed been one kick-ass carouser. A mans man, and Henry liked that. Then Johnny had found Jesus and June and his career had gone to hell in a hand basket. Life didnt always go according to plan. God and women and disease had a way of interfering. Henry hated anything that interfered with his plans.

He hated not being in control.

He poured himself a bourbon and looked out the small window above his work bench. The setting sun hung just above Shaw Mountain, named after Henrys ancestors whod settled the rich valley below. Sharp gray shadows sliced across the valley toward Lake Mary, named for Henrys great-great-grandmother, Mary Shaw.

More than Henry hated God and disease and not being in control, he hated friggin doctors. They poked and prodded until they found something wrong, and none of them had ever said a damn thing hed wanted to hear. Each time hed tried to prove them wrong, but in the end he never had.

Henry splashed linseed oil on some old cotton rags and set them in a cardboard box. Hed always planned to have a passel of grandchildren by now, but he didnt have a one. He was the last Shaw. The last in a long line of an old and respected family. The Shaws were nearly extinct, and it ate a hole in his gut. There was no one to carry his blood after he was gone ... no one except Nick.

He sat down in an old office chair and raised the bourbon to his lips. He would be the first to admit hed wronged that boy. For several years now, hed tried to make it up to his son. But Nick was a stubborn, unforgiving man. Just as hed been a defiant unlovable boy.

If Henry had more time, he was sure he and his son could have come to some sort of understanding. But he didnt have time, and Nick didnt make it easy. In fact, Nick made it damn hard to even like him.

He remembered the day Nicks mother, Benita Allegrezza, had pounded on his front door, claiming Henry had fathered the black-haired baby in her arms. Henry had turned his attention from Benitas dark gaze to the big blue eyes of his wife, Ruth, who had stood beside him.

Hed denied it like hell. Of course, there had been a real good chance that what Benita claimed was true, but hed denied even the possibility. Even if Henry hadnt been married, he never would have chosen to have a child with a Basque woman. Those people were too dark, too volatile, and too religious for his taste. Hed wanted white, blond-haired babies. He didnt want his kids confused for wet-backs. Oh, he knew Basques werent Mexicans, but they all looked alike to him.

If it hadnt been for Benitas brother, Josu, no one would have known about his affair with the young widow. But that sheep-loving bastard had tried to blackmail him into recognizing Nick as his son. Hed thought Josu had been bluffing when the man had come to him and threatened to tell everyone in town that Henry had taken advantage of his grieving sister and had knocked her up. Hed ignored the threat, but Josu hadnt been bluffing. Again Henry had denied paternity.

But by the time Nick was five, he looked enough like a Shaw that no one believed Henry anymore. Not even Ruth. Shed divorced him and taken half his money.

But back then, hed still had time. Hed been in his late thirties. Still a young man.

Henry picked up a .357 and slipped six bullets into the cylinder. After Ruth, hed found his second wife, Gwen. Even though Gwen had been a poor unwed mother of questionable parentage, hed married her for several reasons. She obviously wasnt barren, as hed suspected of Ruth, and she was so beautiful she made him ache. She and her daughter had been so grateful to him, and so easy to mold into what he wanted. But in the end, his stepdaughter had disappointed him bitterly, and the one thing he wanted most from Gwen, she had failed to give him. After years of marriage, she hadnt given him a legitimate heir.

Henry spun the cylinder then looked down at the revolver in his hand. With the barrel of the pistol, he pushed the box of linseed rags closer to the space heater. He didnt want anyone to clean up the mess after he was gone. The song hed been waiting to hear crackled through the speakers, and he cranked up the eight-track player as Johnny sang about falling into a burning ring of fire.

His eyes got a little misty when he thought of his life and the people he would leave behind. It was a damn shame he wouldnt be around to see the looks on their faces when they discovered what hed done.

Chapter One

“Death comes, as it must, to all men, and with it the inevitable separation from loved ones, Reverend Tippet droned in his flat solemn tone. “We will miss Henry Shaw, beloved husband, father, and prominent member of our community. The reverend paused and glanced about the large group gathered to bid their final farewell. “Henry would be pleased to see so many friends here today.

Henry Shaw would have taken one look at the line of cars backed up to the gated entrance of Salvation Cemetery, and he would have regarded the respectable turnout as somewhat less than his due. Until hed been voted out of office last year in favor of that yellow-dog Democrat George Tanasee, hed been mayor of Truly, Idaho for over twenty-four years.

Henry had been a big man in the small community. Hed owned half the businesses and had more money then the whole town combined. Shortly after his first wife had divorced him twenty-six years ago, hed gone out and replaced her with the prettiest woman he could find. Hed owned the finest pair of Weimaraners in the state, Duke and Dolores, and until recently, hed lived in the biggest house in town. But that had been before those Allegrezza boys had started building all over the damn place. Hed had a stepdaughter too, but he hadnt talked about her in years.