The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

he was holding. He was propped up against a couple of pillows, wearing a pair of low-slung jeans and nothing else.

    "How did you get in here?"

    "I own the place, remember? I have a key."

    Kate drew a deep breath, unable to move. This was not fear, she told herself firmly. She was just feeling naturally wary of the big, dangerous man on her bed. "Did you stop by to apologize and explain yourself?"

    Jared sipped meditatively from the snifter. "No. What about you? Finished playing games with Taylor?"

    "I'll play games with whoever I feel like playing games with."

    "Then we have a problem, don't we?"

    "I don't see why. You and I are no longer involved, remember? We had a major quarrel this morning. That was the end of our famous affair as far as I'm concerned."

    "You're lying. If you thought things were over between us, you would have bought a ticket on the afternoon plane to Ruby. You didn't even try."

    "I said things were over between us, I didn't say my vacation was over."

    "Go ahead and tell yourself whatever you like. We both know you're still here because of what's happening between us."

    "You are so damned arrogant."

    "And you're not?"

    "Not like you," Kate shot back.

    He laughed softly and sat up on the side of the bed. He put the snifter down on the end table and got to his feet, facing her. "You're more like me than you want to admit and that's why we've got a few problems. But I'm beginning to think we can fix all that."

    She instinctively stepped back as he came around the end of the bed and started toward her. Then she refused to retreat any farther. Her chin lifted even as she felt herself turning hot and vibrant with the fierce emotions coursing through her.

    "Now just one blasted minute, Jared Hawthorne."

    "Let's get something clear right from the start. This is just between you and me," Jared said. "You want to go to war, we'll go to war. You want to make love, we'll make love. But we don't involve any third parties. No more Jeff Taylors."

    "You really are a pirate, aren't you?"

    "If I'm a pirate, you were born to be a pirate's woman." His hands closed over her shoulders and his mouth found hers in a searing kiss.

    He was right, Kate acknowledged silently as she felt the passion rising swiftly; some part of her had been born to respond to him. He was the man she had been waiting for all her life. Her arms went around his neck and she shoved her fingers through his thick, dark hair.

    Jared exhaled heavily, his body going hard at her touch. "I knew when you didn't try to get on that plane today that you realized this was special." He pulled her down onto the bed and sprawled across her. "Neither one of us can walk away from it now."

    His arrogance appalled her. "All right," Kate said, looking up at him through her lashes, "I'll admit the sex is good. And I've heard it's a great cure for stress. I might as well enjoy it."

    Jared's eyes glittered with sudden anger and his hands tightened on her. "It isn't just the sex and you know it."

    "What else is there? It's not as if there's a lot of trust or love between us."

    "Damn you, stop trying to manipulate me. I'm not the kind of man you can push and prod until I collapse in a heap of jelly and tell you whatever you want to hear. One of these days you're going to learn that."

    "Just as you're going to have to learn that I'm not the kind of sweet, soft, meek little woman who will let you pat her on the head and tell her to mind her own business."

    He stared down at her, his mouth inches from her own, his hands locked on her shoulders. "One of us is going to have to back down and I can tell you right now, it won't be me, Kate. I know what I'm doing and I know what's best for you. You're going to have to trust me and that's final."

    "Nothing is final," she told him, pulling his head down to hers. "But there's no point talking about it tonight."

    "On that we agree."

    His mouth took hers once more in a kiss that demanded everything from her. It was as if he had decided that in place of the capitulation he could not quite wring from her, he would take her very soul instead.

    Kate trembled with the force of her passion, clinging to Jared as he thrust her legs apart with his own. Her red skirt foamed high up on her thighs. He freed her mouth with a husky groan and buried his lips in the curve of her shoulder.

    She felt his hands on the zipper of the red dress and a moment later the silky material was being pushed down over her hips. She