Grace snapped her mouth shut and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms under her breasts. She didn’t know if it was the full belly she had now, or the anger growing inside her, but she was feeling much stronger all of a sudden.

“Which is why our positions are exactly as they are now,” he continued. “I had the endurance to get us off that mountain.” He leaned forward, his brows dropping and his eyes darkening. “And I still have enough strength left to put you in that snowcat, take you to Gu Bràth, and keep you there until you can take care of yourself and your son,” he finished in an even-toned whisper.

Grace stood up, either to prove to herself that she could or to get away from his veiled threat, she didn’t know which.

“That’s archaic!” she sputtered, refusing to be intimidated. “Brute strength is not how you solve a problem.”

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing Baby’s back again, and shrugged. “It usually works for me,” he said softly.

Grace picked up her empty bowl and carried it to the counter on the far wall of the cabin. It amazed her how well her muscles were working now; nothing like a little outrage to get the blood flowing.

She shouldn’t be surprised by his attitude. The moment she’d sat beside Greylen MacKeage on the plane, she had guessed the man was a bit of a throwback. What had she thought? That he looked as if he made his own rules and that he pounded problems into place when he couldn’t solve them any other way?

Yeah. That was the man she owed her life to.

And his arms suddenly moved gently around her, pulling her back against his warm and very solid chest.

Grace turned within his embrace, looked to see Baby sleeping in his crate again, and closed her eyes, setting her hands on Grey’s chest in an attempt to hold him away.

Or was it her own urges she was trying to hold at bay?

She knew what he was doing and didn’t like it. His threat hadn’t worked, so he’d ply her with kisses instead.

Which is exactly why she couldn’t go home with him.

Her emotions were too fragile right now; she was in no condition to spend the night in Greylen MacKeage’s bed. And if she went to Gu Bràth, that is exactly where she’d end up.

She lifted her face and gave him a smile. “I can’t get involved with you right now, Grey.”

His arms tightened around her, his head lowered, and his lips covered hers in a searing kiss. The room started spinning again; it was not caused by her head this time but by her heart. And it was all she could do not to rise on her tiptoes and kiss him back.

His tongue sought hers, sending a shiver through her body. Like up on the mountain yesterday, Grace’s body yearned to respond; passion ignited, radiating from her soul into her senses. She kneaded his shoulders with her fingers and tried to push him away.

She might as well be pushing a mountain. She was suddenly floating on air, and it wasn’t until she felt a hard surface against her bottom that Grace realized Grey had set her on the counter. He moved her knees apart with his legs and nestled himself firmly against her.

“It’s too late, Grace,” he said, staring down at her with eyes the color of winter spruce. “It’s already begun, and there’s no going back. Forget what your mind says, and listen to what your body is telling you.”

She stared into his bottomless, deep green eyes, and it took Grace a moment to remember that she must fight her attraction to Grey, not feed it. “But I can’t. I have…there are issues I need to deal with.”

His right brow lifted. “Baby’s father?”

Grace’s forehead started to throb again. “Yes. Baby’s father,” she admitted. It was true, just not in the way Grey thought.

“Do you love him?”

“No.” Which was also true.

“Are you running from him? Are you in danger?”

“No.”

He blew a sigh over her face that moved her hair. “Then what’s the problem?” he asked, his patience obviously wearing thin.

“The problem is I have a four-week-old baby, I just lost my sister, and I’m coming home for the first time in nine years. I need this time to get my life back in order.”

“I can help.”

“No, you can only complicate things. I have decisions to make about Baby, my job, and Baby’s father.”

He kissed her again, probably because he didn’t care for what she was saying.

And she kissed him back, probably because it was easier than arguing with him. Grace wiggled forward on the counter, pressing herself against Grey like a cat curling up to a stove. He trailed his mouth down over her throat and nuzzled the side of her neck. Grace arched against him, wrapping her legs around his waist, only to moan at the feel of him pushing so intimately against her.

She wondered why they both didn’t simply burst into flames.

How could something so not right feel so wonderful? Grace had the overwhelming urge to rip off both their shirts and rub her body all over his. She grabbed his hair and pulled his mouth back to hers, driving her tongue inside and pulling the taste of him back into herself. She decided to start with his shirt and reached for the buttons, popping the top two in an effort to feel his skin under her fingers.

At that moment of contact she did burst into flame; the air around them glowed with white light, time suspended, and Grace’s heart pounded with an excitement she’d never experienced before.

Ian came slipping and sliding through the door of the cabin with all the noise and dignity of a moose on ice skates.

And that was when Grace made her escape, her body on fire, her resolve shattered, and Grey’s mouth just one second away from changing her mind.

Although she had won several of the salvos and probably the battle by default, Grace still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to lose the war.

With Baby in her arms, she walked into the living room of the house she’d grown up in and set the thermostat on seventy-five degrees. As she walked back to the kitchen, she wondered how she had become engaged in a war in the first place.

Grey had continued to argue all the way down TarStone Mountain for her and Baby to go to Gu Bràth, where he could keep an eye on them at least overnight. But she had remained adamant.

And Grey had not been a graceful loser.

Not if that last, departing kiss was any indication of his mood. Grace raised her fingers to her lips and grinned. Her mouth still tingled with the awareness of being thoroughly possessed. In fact, even her toes still tingled.

This had to stop. She had to break Grey of the habit of just pulling her into his arms and kissing her senseless whenever he felt like it. It was the wrong time, Greylen MacKeage was the wrong man, and she didn’t know how much longer she could resist him.

And she had to, for Baby’s sake as well as her own.

It was just the circumstances, that’s all. She’d found herself in the arms of a guardian angel who kissed like the devil. Nothing more than mere infatuation. A strong, manly man with eyes the color of winter spruce and the body of Superman. A romantic notion of being in a hero’s arms, being swept into a fantasy world.

Grace was sure there was a scientific explanation for what she had felt on TarStone Mountain and the lingering effects she was still experiencing now. Lord, just the memory of the feel of him surrounding her made her knees weak and her heart beat wildly.

This had to stop. Tomorrow. She would dwell on this phenomenon tomorrow, once she was rested and back in charge of her faculties.

Grace set Baby on the overstuffed chair in the kitchen, padding him with a throw pillow so he wouldn’t roll off in his sleep. She took off her jacket as she looked out the window at the retreating snowcat.

She had given Grey her trust up on the mountain because it had been the wisest thing to do at the time. If he had been anyone less competent—or even less arrogant about being Superman—she would have looked for another means of survival.