Jacey's Reckless Heart by Cheryl Anne Porter

Author:Cheryl Anne Porter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250092731
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jacey began backing upriver. Not only did she have to face him down, her hands outstretched as if to ward him off, but she had to fight the current, which wanted to push her into him. “Don’t even think it, Zant.”

“Oh, so now it’s Zant?” His angled chin and slanting eyes made him pretty scary. And unpredictable. But her choices were either to watch his face … or stare at his muscled chest and the crisp sprinkling of hairs revealed there by his partially unbuttoned combination-suit.

Jacey swallowed—about a pint of muddy river—and brazened it out. “Zant. Chapelo. Outlaw. Gunslinger. Take your pick.”

“How about lover?”

“Never.”

“Never’s a long time, Jacey.”

“Not long enough, outlaw.” How come the danged current didn’t seem to bother his big-bodied self? He walked—barefooted—through the water as if he were tramping booted through wooded undergrowth.

Aware that he was gaining on her inch by inch, and knowing that all he had to do was reach out to take hold of her, aware that he was toying with her in a purely seductive way, Jacey tensed and her teeth began to chatter. She clamped down on her back teeth until she could control her clacking jaw and cried out, “Knock it off, Zant. I’m soaking wet and freezing.”

His black-eyed, ornery gaze slipped to her chest and then flicked back up to her face. “I know. You’ll be warm enough soon.”

Knowing and yet not knowing what that meant, but realizing her female instincts were alive and screaming—for him—Jacey feinted right and then left. She wanted with all her might to put some distance between them. If she could just get him out of this water, maybe he’d calm down and quit—Zant abruptly snaked out his right hand and grasped her arm. She gasped and drew her arms up in a defensive posture.

“Quick. But not quick enough, Jacey. Come here.”

“No.” She wriggled in his grasp, but to no avail.

Despite her sodden, sagging clothes and drooping boots, Zant easily lifted her in his arms and carried her to the shore. Despite the warmth of the day, the warmth of the water, and the heat of Zant’s body, Jacey shivered as her skin bumped with gooseflesh. “What…?” She flicked her tongue over her lips and tried again. “What are you going to do?”

Setting her on her squishy feet, he said, “Nothing.” Then as he walked away, he called back over his shoulder. “Now we’re even.”

Watching his departing back, avoiding looking below his waist, Jacey stood frozen on the rocks, hugging herself. Now we’re even? What the heck does that mean?

* * *

That evening, sitting on his side of the campfire, Zant eyed Jacey on her side. Seated with her legs bent to one side, her head angled away from him, and with her now dry hair thrown forward over her shoulder, she was braiding her black and silky waterfall. Zant swiped his hand in agitation down his mouth and chin, fuming about how she had no idea what the sight did to him. But even before he knew he was going to say it, he heard himself at the same time she did.

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