Jenna turned, a question in her eyes. “What?”

Gard shook her head, mesmerized as Jenna carefully set the plate she’d just rinsed down on the counter and dried her hands. Behind Jenna, through the window above the sink, the moon rode on silver clouds, dark lakes swirling indolently across its surface. She’d seen a similar moon a thousand times, seen the trees shimmer and the pastures radiant with starlight, but she’d never been pierced by the beauty until all that splendor framed Jenna’s face. She should thank Jenna for the dinner, turn around, and walk out the door.

Jenna took a step closer, then another.

“Jenna,” Gard warned.

“I’m listening.” Jenna was inches away, her mouth so close their lips would meet if Gard bent her head an inch. Carefully, ever so carefully, Gard rested both hands on Jenna’s bare arms, lightly clasping her soft, warm flesh.

“Why?” Gard asked.

The corner of Jenna’s mouth tilted upward. Her pupils, black lakes rimmed by forest green, expanded and contracted. Jenna rested both hands on Gard’s chest and rubbed her palms back and forth, her fingertips tracing the arch of Gard’s collarbones through her T-shirt. “Beyond the obvious?”

Gard’s breath kicked up and she stood absolutely still, letting Jenna explore her. She shivered and thought of the way the horses shied away, knowing they were prey, fearing their defenselessness but still wanting to be close, wanting to be touched. She wasn’t nearly as brave—she’d stopped inviting touch, stopped desiring connection, knowing the deadly vulnerability that followed. Knowing the soul-crushing pain of betrayal. Against her will, she leaned into Jenna’s caresses, inviting, seeking, needing more as Jenna’s fingers traced the outer contours of her breasts, coming close to but never touching her nipples. She shuddered as her nipples tightened into hard, tingling knots.

“The obvious escapes me right now,” Gard said hoarsely.

“Number one,” Jenna murmured, bowing forward until her pelvis snugged neatly into the curve of Gard’s crotch, “you’re gorgeous.”

Gard clenched her teeth as their thighs and bellies cleaved. From Jenna’s pleased smile, it seemed she hadn’t been very successful in hiding her response. Jenna played her fingertips up and down the center of Gard’s torso, as if painting her with sensation.

“But I don’t just love the way you look. I love the way you feel.”

Gard sucked in a breath, her stomach tensing as Jenna’s light strokes became firmer and their hips started a slow thrust and retreat all on their own. Jenna looked up, her gaze hot on Gard’s. “I love turning you on. Am I turning you on?”

“Mission more than accomplished.”

“Oh good.”

Laughing softly, Gard wrapped her arms around Jenna’s waist and tugged her sharply forward until their gentle melding transformed into a hard fusion.

Jenna pressed the flats of her fingers against Gard’s mouth. “I like to see you laugh.”

Gard teased the tip of her tongue between Jenna’s fingertips. Jenna tasted a little bit sweet, a little bit tangy. Gard wanted more, and the wanting was what worried her. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. Maybe the whys don’t matter.”

“Maybe only this moment matters,” Jenna said, her breath coming fast, the green of her irises darkening almost to black. “I want you to make love to me.”

Gard cupped Jenna’s hips, her hands closing possessively over firm muscles. Need flared as swiftly as a summer storm. She wanted hot, bare flesh beneath her fingers and the heady musk of desire in her mouth. The wild pulse in her belly made it impossible to think. “Jenna, God…”

“Don’t think,” Jenna whispered, her mouth an inferno on Gard’s neck. “Just feel me, right now.”

Jenna’s teeth closed on her skin and Gard threw her head back, her vision tunneling into darkness. What were they doing? What was she doing? Her hunger, so sharp after being so long denied, was a beast she feared would turn and ravage them both. “I don’t…I can’t.”

“All right,” Jenna said quickly, curling her fingers inside the waistband of Gard’s jeans. Her light grasp might as well have been iron, for all Gard’s ability to deny her. “Something safe then.”

Gard snorted, her skin so hot she feared it would melt from her bones. “I don’t think there is such a thing with you.”

“Just kiss me. Just a kiss.” Jenna traced her fingertips over Gard’s mouth. “Safe enough, for now.”

“I doubt it,” Gard muttered, but the need rode her hard and she took a chance. Gripping Jenna’s hips, she lifted her onto the counter. Jenna’s arms automatically came around her neck, and Gard caged her with her hands pressed flat beside Jenna’s hips, stifling Jenna’s cry of surprise with her mouth. She wanted to devour her. She wanted to plunge into the heat and promise of Jenna’s body. She wanted to lose herself in the sanctity of flesh and blissful oblivion of passion. For an instant she remembered how it had been with Susannah, the blind race to annihilation, the desperate quest for ultimate escape. Making love with Susannah had been a battle, a struggle to find union when they’d never quite been able to connect in any other way. For those few brief seconds when the world exploded with sensation, when thought was obliterated by white fire, she’d believed herself to be satisfied. She’d believed she’d been connected. She’d believed she’d not been alone.

She’d believed a lie. So many, many lies.

Gard pulled her mouth away, panting. “I don’t want to do this. Not with you.”

Jenna laughed shakily, her fingers closing convulsively on Gard’s shirt. “You have a way of insulting me more often than any woman I’ve ever met.”

Gard closed her eyes and rested her forehead against Jenna’s. “Sorry. That came out wrong.”

“I’ll cut you some slack this time.” Still in control—but barely—Jenna forced her fingers to relax and stroked Gard’s back. She was horribly aroused, more than she had ever expected to be from an almost-kiss. For a few seconds, she’d felt the power of Gard’s passion on the verge of exploding, and she’d wanted to be caught in the blast. She’d wanted the detonation to carry her over the edge into the maelstrom, tumbling her into a whirlwind of pleasure. They’d barely begun, and Gard had jerked away from her. If she hadn’t registered fear in that single jolt, she might have been angry, or at the very least insulted. Instead, she was anything but. She was captivated. And she was furious at the woman who had wounded Gard so deeply.

“It’s all right.” Jenna stroked Gard’s cheek and skimmed her fingers through her hair. “Really, it’s all right.”

“No, it really isn’t.” Gard straightened, her eyes stormy now, cloud-filled and impenetrable. “You’re a beautiful woman. Anyone in their right mind would be lucky to be standing where I am right now.”

“You don’t really know that, but thank you.” Jenna continued tracing light patterns down Gard’s neck and over her tense shoulders. The muscles beneath her fingertips tightened until she feared something might snap. “But this doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t even have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be tonight.”

Gard stepped away. “Dinner was great. I…Just in case you’re wondering, I didn’t stop because—”

“Oh no,” Jenna said abruptly, holding up one hand. “We’re not going down that road.”

Gard frowned. “What do you mean?”

“We’re not doing the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ routine. There is no fault here, no blame.” Jenna jumped down from the counter. “Maybe another time.”

“Sure. Maybe.”

Gard quickly strode to the door and pulled it open. She paused, her eyes bleak. “What I was going to say is that I stopped because I wouldn’t have stopped with just a kiss.”

Jenna pulled into the Leaf Peeper parking lot just after midnight. The only light came from the unit she now shared with Alice. The single-pane glass windows in the adjoining units looked like the flat dead eyes of mourners at a funeral.

“Hi,” she said when she let herself into the room. Alice, in sweats and a New York Yankees T-shirt, sat on one of the two double beds, pillows propped up behind her back, her computer balanced on her knees. Jenna didn’t think she’d ever seen her look so casual. When they traveled, they had separate rooms and she’d never seen Alice in anything less formal than pants and polo shirts. Usually she was in full business uniform. Tonight, with her hair loose, dressed in baggy sportswear, she looked a decade younger. Softer. Even more desirable than usual.

“Oh for God’s sake,” Jenna muttered, stalking across the room to the dresser where she’d left her electronics. What was wrong with her? Hormone storm?

“Have a good night?” Alice asked.

“Marvelous. Are you really sure you want to stay here?” Jenna grabbed her laptop and carried it over to the other double bed. The space between her bed and Alice’s was just wide enough to accommodate a nightstand with an alarm clock and a lamp. “It’s pretty cramped.”

“You worry me.” Alice clicked a few keys, then set her laptop on the mattress by her side. “You really can’t be serious about staying up here, so what does another day or two matter?”

Jenna opened her mail program and scanned it as she answered. “Actually, I’m going to move into Elizabeth’s house. The farmhouse. It’s silly to pay to stay somewhere when the house is mine. You’re welcome to come.”

Alice’s brows drew down. “You’re really going to stay long enough to make the move worthwhile?”

“Since you canceled my tour, I’m free—travel-wise at least—for the rest of the summer. I’ve got to get a jump on the new books, and I feel like it’s going to come easily here.” She played the work card without the slightest twinge of guilt. Alice would never argue with anything that helped her work, and in this case, it was true. “It’s perfect, really. What better way to stay motivated than to be immersed in the environment? I’ll be killing two birds with one stone. Handling Elizabeth’s estate, which is going to be a little more complicated than I anticipated, and cranking out the first book.”

“Three birds. You’ll be resting too.” Alice stretched and wiggled her bare toes, flashing the bright red polish on her pedicured nails. “Because God knows, you’re not going to be busy with much of a social life around here.”

“Uh-huh.” She wasn’t about to tell Alice the social life around here was a lot more exciting than anything she’d experienced in the big city, or that she didn’t have any trouble at all thinking of just who she’d chose for company. She hadn’t stopped thinking about Gard since the moment Gard had walked out on her. She didn’t make a habit of casual encounters, but intimate company wasn’t all that difficult to come by when she needed it. And damn it, she really needed it now.

No sexual foray in memory, not even the great marathon sex with Brin, came close to the intensity of the interrupted kiss with Gard. The woman turned her on like no one she’d ever been with. She bet she could come right now with barely a stroke, a theory she would have loved to test if Alice hadn’t been three feet away. She couldn’t remember the last time a woman had gotten her so excited she’d had to take matters into her own hands. She usually had far better control than that.

Of course, maybe Gard affected her so strongly because Gard pulled back first, catching her when she’d already let down her defenses. When she’d ached to have Gard take her. Gard had wanted her, she’d seen the desire in her eyes. But something held her back, and that something nagged at Jenna like a splinter just under the surface of her skin. She could see it, could feel the constant little stabs of pain, could hear the constant taunts of do it, do it, do it. She wanted to dig beneath the surface and find out what caused a woman like Gard—handsome, smart, accomplished—to resist something as simple as a kiss. What was that all about?

“Where did you just go?” Alice sat up, her expression moving from curious to suspicious. “What’s going on?”

Jenna considered making something up. She wasn’t in the mood for an argument with Alice. She was still too unsettled after the near miss with Gard. But lying wasn’t her style. And this was Alice, after all. “The social opportunities around here are just fine.”

“You’re stalling.”

Jenna laughed. “I am. I, uh, kind of made a move on Gard tonight.”

“Jenna!” Alice looked like she was going to take flight. “I told you not her. Why, why, why can’t you ever do anything I say?”

“You’re kidding, right? You’ve got to be kidding. I always listen to you.” Jenna was laughing so hard at the absurdity of Alice’s statement she could hardly catch her breath. “I’m like a good little soldier. You give me my schedule, I follow it to a T. You tell me you want a manuscript yesterday, I deliver the day before yesterday. I’m sorry my love life isn’t quite as easy to arrange as my writing schedule.”