A Woman's Touch

parked.
    „You sneaky, conniving, manipulating little witch,“ he said between his teeth. „I let you get away with murder on the job at Flaming Luck but no one, no one gets away with trying to play games with my life the way you’re trying to do. Do you hear me, Rebecca?“
    „I hear you,“ she whispered. She looked past him, focusing on the mountains in the distance.
    „Look at me when I’m talking to you, lady.“ He trapped her chin in his fingers and forced her to meet his furious eyes. His jaw was rigid with his anger. „That was one damned fool stunt you cooked up. You’d have your revenge, all right, if I let you go through with it. But if you think you’re going to get away with it, you’re crazy. I won’t let any woman run me around in circles like that. Not even you.“
    Her own temper flared. „Don’t say that as if I were ever someone special to you. We both know the truth.“ Her voice was tight in her throat. „The only reason you were ever interested in me was because of Harmony Valley. I’d hoped you were telling me the truth when you said your feelings for me were stronger than your obsession with that land, but I should have known better than to believe you.“
    „Don’t you dare try to twist this around so that it comes out being a test of my feelings for you. I gave you your chance to test me. I told you to go ahead and sell to Ballard if you doubted me that much.“
    „You knew all along I’d never do that,“ Rebecca said swiftly. „It was safe for you to offer me that option because you knew I’d never take it. Maybe I should have. It would have served you right. But that way Ballard would have gotten more than he deserved, and there would have been no justice for Alice Cork.“
    „What right do you have to go out gunning for justice for Alice and her mother? You never even knew those two women,“ Kyle snarled.
    „They were family.“
    „You’d never even heard of them before you met me.“
    „Then blame yourself for this whole situation. If you hadn’t gone out of your way to hunt me down and seduce me, I wouldn’t be handing you and Glen the problem of Harmony Valley.“
    „Damn it, woman, you’re playing fast and loose with my life and my future, and I won’t let anyone do that.“
    „You can’t stop me.“ She was amazed at the degree of courage required to stand here and confront him. Now she knew why so many quailed at the prospect of dealing with Kyle in this mood.
    „Don’t challenge me, Becky.“ There was bleak warning in his eyes. „We both know you’ll lose. Don’t make me your enemy. Don’t do this to either of us.“
    „There’s an option,“ she pointed out in a low voice.
    „What option?“ he snapped. „Working with Ballard? That’s not an option. That’s a flat-out impossibility. If you knew a little more about local history, you’d realize that. There’s no way a Stockbridge can work with a Ballard. You seem to think this feud is some kind of long-standing joke. But it’s not, Rebecca. Men have died in the battle between Ballard’s family and mine.“
    „And women have cried. But that’s all in the past. It’s time to end it.“
    „You’re not going to be the one to do it,“ he roared. „Understand me? I warned you not to try to play peacemaker.
    You’re mine. Your loyalty is to me, not Ballard. You admitted as much this morning when you said you couldn’t sell the land outright to him.“
    „You can’t force me to choose sides. I’ve already made my decision and I’m sticking with it.“
    „Even if it tears us apart?“
    She looked at him helplessly. „We were never really together, Kyle. I had a few hopes and dreams, but I see now that they were based on illusion. You’ve just said you think I’m a sneaky, conniving, manipulative little witch. Not much chance you could ever fall in love with someone like that, is there?“
    „Don’t put words in my mouth, damn it!“
    „Not much chance you could ever fall in love with any woman, I guess,“ Rebecca went on sadly. „I should have realized that sooner. Go back into the shadows where you belong, Kyle. Stay there in the darkness until it eats you alive. Forty or fifty years from now when you look back on a lifetime spent alone, try to remember that there was one woman who tried to pull you out into the daylight. Remember that there was one woman who truly loved you. For a while. But you couldn’t love her in return.“
    „I told you once I gave you