The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

when I make love to you in my arms. Don't try to deny it."

    "If you think I'm going to let you sleep with me after some of the things you said this morning, you're out of your mind. Go to bed, Gideon. Your own bed."

    Gideon didn't move. "What do you want from me? Damn it, Sarah, I don't understand you."

    "That's obvious. The answer to your question is that I don't want anything from you tonight. Go to bed."

    "Sarah." He hesitated, some deep, primitive part of him urging him to ignore her protests. He was certain that if he just climbed into bed with her and took her into his arms, she would cling to him the way she always did. "Give it a chance. You want to communicate? This is one way we communicate just fine."

    "Not tonight, Gideon. I mean it."

    "Damn it, you want me to say I'm sorry? To apologize for what I said at the cabin? Is that it? All right, I'm sorry."

    "That's not enough. Not this time."

    "What more can you ask?"

    "I want you to admit why you did it."

    "Why I did it?" he asked blankly.

    "Yes. Why you did all of it. Why you said those things about the reasons I was sleeping with you, why you whisked us away from the cabin and why you're so determined to keep me here instead of letting me go back to Seattle."

    He stared at her, wishing he could see her face. "But I told you why I did all those things."

    "You gave me a fine song and dance about having legitimate reasons to question my motives and how you were going to protect me from Jake Savage in spite of myself, but that's not the real reason."

    "It's not?"

    "No, it's not. I've been doing a lot of thinking and I've finally figured out what's going on inside that thick skull of yours. It's time you admitted to me and to yourself the real reason you've been acting the way you have today."

    "All right, I give up. What is the real reason?"

    Sarah sat up against the pillows, her eyes glinting in the shadows. "Actually, there are two reasons. First, you're afraid to admit how much you've come to care for me, and second, you're jealous of Jake Savage."

    "Jealous?"

    "You're afraid he's going to steal me, not the Flowers, aren't you? Isn't that the truth? Isn't it? Come on, Gideon, say it. You've finally started to realize you're in love with me and you're afraid I'm going to get swept off my feet by Jake Savage. That's the real motivation behind your actions, isn't it?"

    Gideon felt as if he'd been sandbagged. "Is that why you didn't put up much of a fight about staying here with me?"

    "Of course it is. If I didn't think there was hope for you, I'd have gone straight back to Seattle. But I finally realized the real reason you were acting like a lion with a thorn in its paw and I decided to give you a little time to understand your own actions. But I'm not about to sleep with you again until you finally acknowledge how you really feel about me. Then we'll discuss your little problem with jealousy. Don't worry. It's nothing we can't work out."

    For once Gideon managed to keep his mouth shut, although how he managed it, he never knew. Jealous? Jealous of Savage? The blood was pounding in his veins, but not from desire. He hadn't been this furious in a long time. He turned on his heel, picked up his discarded clothes and stormed out of the room. He slammed the door so hard the wall trembled.

    He was damned if he would admit he was jealous of Savage. He would not give Sarah that much power. Never in a million years. He would never again give any woman that kind of power over him.

    Besides, she was a hundred miles wide of the mark. He wasn't jealous, he was just cautious. He was keeping her out of Savage's reach only because he was trying to protect her from her own naïveté. If she couldn't see that, she was a fool and a manipulative one at that.

    If she wanted to think she was in love with him, that was fine, Gideon told himself. But it would be a cold day in Hades before he set himself up to be betrayed again by his woman and his ex-partner. This time around he was going to stay in charge of the situation.

    He'd learned a long time ago that the only safe way to exist was to keep his emotions under rigid control. Sarah Fleetwood was not going to force him to break the rules under which he had been living successfully for the past five years.

9

    « ^ »

    S ARAH TRIED HER BEST to ignore Gideon's foul mood for the next two days. She pursued a variety of activities as if she were on vacation, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen,