That was the moment that Silvey realized that a man swimming alone in his own backyard didn't necessarily bother with a swimsuit.
Her gasp of surprise had his head whipping up. In what seemed like one movement, he grabbed a towel, wrapped it around himself, and leaped across the space dividing them.
Within seconds, Silvey found herself flat on her back on the lounge chair with Dan holding her down, his forearm across her throat.
"All right," he growled. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Dan." she choked. "It's me. Silvey."
He straightened in surprise and loosened his hold on her neck.
"Silvey? What the devil are you doing here?"
"Learning how to breathe through my ears,' she gasped.
"Sorry about that." He helped her sit up, then turned so that he was sitting beside her. He rubbed her back solicitiously until she could catch her breath.
"I ... tri-tried your doorbell but there was no answer so I came around back. The gate was unlocked so I came on in."
"Why didn't you let me know you were here?"
"You were busy," she said with a quick, sideways glance, sharply aware of his warm, moist thigh pressed against hers. "I didn't want to interrupt you."
"So you decided to give me a little added cardiovascular workout by presenting me with the shock of my life when I finished."
Silvey lifted her chin and met his eyes in the dim light. "You came out of that pool buck naked. I'm the one who got a shock."
He grinned. "Excuse me for not taking into account that there might be a peeping Thomasina in the neighborhood."
"I forgive you."
"My fault," he said. "After that trip up the mountain, I should have invited you to come swimming with me."
She looked at him from the corner of her eye.
He laughed. "I would have worn a swimsuit."
"It's probably just as well. As dirty as we were, we would have clogged up your pool filter."
Dan stood and pulled her to her feet. "Come on in and you can tell me why you came over." He stopped and swung around suddenly, anxiety shadowing his eyes. "It isn't Dad, is it? Or Leila? Did you hear something from them? Because if you did..."
"No," she reassured him quickly. "Nothing like that, but I do have something to tell you."
He ushered her through wide arcadia doors to a family room with burgundy carpeting and cream-colored leather sofas. The walls were covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, each one filled with volumes. The room opened onto an eat-in kitchen with a butcher block work island in the center, wide counters topped with Mexican tile, and the very latest in modern kitchen equipment-a home-maker's dream.
Dan disappeared down a hallway and Silvey took the opportunity to examine his books. She had seen his office and the artifacts that were displayed there. She was surprised to see that in his home, there were few such artifacts. Most of the books were novels and well-worn reference volumes on pre-Colombian history. On a modest shelf, she found copies of his own mystery novels, as if they'd been placed there as an afterthought. A computer and printer covered the top of an oak desk. Yellow legal pads, scribbled with notes were stacked beside it.
This was where his alter ego, D.K. Wilinson, did his writing. Silvey was tempted to sneak a look at his latest project, but she resisted the urge. She knew that was something that he definitely wouldn't like.
She longed to explore the rest of the house, but she knew she wouldn't get the chance. As soon as she told him what Reed had done, he would probably escort her out and never speak to her again.
Dan was back within a few minutes, dressed in a loose white T-shirt and cutoff jeans that gave Silvey a new appreciation for a man's legs. Funny, she'd never realized that bare feet could be sexy. His hair, which he'd finger-combed, was mussed and inviting.
Silvey sighed inwardly. She really had it bad if she was getting dreamy over Dan's feet and messy hair.
"So, what's this important news that couldn't be relayed over the phone?" he asked. "Not that I mind your unexpected visit."
He swung the refrigerator open, grabbed a couple of cans of soda and popped them open as he came toward her.
He invited her to sit on the sofa opposite him and she did so, teetering nervously on the edge.
"I guess I could have called, but ...I thought you might hang up on me and this is the kind of thing I need to say in person."
Dan's eyes grew serious. "So say it."
"The tires on the school truck aren't faulty. They were deflated deliberately by some of Leila's Warriors."
He set his soda can down on the table in front of him. "Excuse me?"
"Some of the people from the group were up on the mountain. They must have seen the open gate, followed us in, saw the truck and...."
Silvey shrugged. "Come to think of it, I thought I heard a car. It might have been them. I guess the opportunity was too good for them to miss."
"The opportunity to cause me trouble was too good to miss, you mean."
Silvey's brown eyes were full of misery. "I'm sure they didn't know it was you. They just saw a chance to cause mischief and took it."
"And these are adults we're talking about here, right?"
"In a manner of speaking."
Dan stared at her for a second before he spoke. The careful tone of his voice told her he was very angry. "I thought the idea of us going up there together was that you'd see the true picture and call them off. You didn't have them follow us, did you?"
Irritation replaced the misery in her eyes. "Oh, certainly. I just love being caught in a sand storm, then having to walk a couple of miles to get help in changing flat tires."
She jumped to her feet and started for the door, but Dan was right behind her. His hand on her shoulder was light, but firm. "Silvey, sit down."
She jerked away from him. "I don't want...."
"I said, sit down." He urged her back to her seat. "I want to get to the bottom of this."
Slowly, to show him that she was doing this only because she chose to, Silvey returned to her place on the sofa. He sat down beside her, but she pointedly drew her skirt away. He frowned at her, but she tossed her hair back and lifted her chin.
With an irritated sigh, he stood, towering over her. "The business with the tires was just a prank?"
"That's right."
"And you knew nothing about it?" "Right again."
"In that case, I believe you."
Expecting more of an argument, Silvey was surprised by his quick
affirmation. A smile tickled at her lips as she stared at him. "You do?"
"Yes, but they're going to have to stop doing this kind of thing."
"Yes, I know, but Grandma's the only one who can control them.
They rarely listen to me."
"So why did you agree to watch out for them?" He held up his hand.
"Never mind. I know the answer to that. It's that loyalty thing I've noticed about you."
"What?"
"I think we've discussed it before."
"You think I'm too loyal to my grandmother?"
"No, but you let your loyalty blind you to good judgment."
She crossed her arms and gave him a sardonic look. "Oh, really?
This little insight into my character is just too fascinating. Please go on."
"You take up with old friends you haven't seen in years as if they two of you are caught in some kind of time warp and neither of you has changed."
"Now you're talking about John Ramos, aren't you? I haven't `taken up' with him," she responded tartly.
"Only because I've been around to stop you."
Silvey didn't even bother disagreeing with him. He obviously had something on his mind and she wanted to know what it was. If he would ever get to the real point of this discussion.
"Dan," she said, helplessly, "I don't know what you're leading to."
He turned and paced the room. "Silvey, I've told you that I don't know much about women like yo
u ...and your grandmother. Honest women. Dad seems to attract women of somewhat inferior character," he added dryly.
Silvey remembered every word he'd said. "Yes. Your stepmothers were mostly opportunists as I recall."
"Bloodsuckers," he snorted.
"Not all women are like that."
"I know. I guess the images I formed in childhood loom larger than they should."
"We all have things we carry around with.us." "That's true."
She thought about that for a few seconds. "Dan, surely not all the women you've been with over the years have been like that."
"No, they haven't. I deliberately chose women who were independent, successful in their own right."
"Ones who knew the score," she added.
His smile was quick. "Right. They didn't ask more than I was willing to give and I didn't ask more than they were willing to give."
Silvey wrinkled her nose. "Sounds boring."
"Maybe, but the truth is, some of my images of women are... horrifying." He paused, obviously deciding whether or not he should continue. "When I was sixteen, one of my stepmothers offered to teach me a few things about love."
Appalled, Silvey stared at him. "That's disgusting."
"That's what my dad said when he kicked her out that very day and started divorce proceedings." "Good for Lawrence," Silvey said fervently.
Dan came over and sat down beside her. Picking up her hand, he curled his fingers around it. "I work with good women. As I said, I've dated women who were honest about what they wanted out of a relationship and so was I."
"Bully for the both of you."
Oblivious to her snippy comment, Dan went on. "I thought that would be the best way to avoid Dad's mistakes, but it's made me cynical."
It had been the best way he had known to protect himself, Silvey thought, with a flash of insight. Even a strong man had his vulnerabilities.
"I judge too quickly and too harshly, I know that I do. It's not something I take pride in," he finished.
In his own backhanded way, Dan was apologizing. Silvey curled her fingers around his. "But you recognize it and you try to make it right.
That's why I love you."
Dan had been looking down at their linked hands. Now he went very still, then turned his head to stare at her.
"Repeat that, please," he demanded in a hoarse voice.
Silvey opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, then gave a helpless little moan. "I can't believe I said that. It fell right out of my mouth. I didn't even know it was coming."
"But you did say it. Now repeat it."
Silvey swallowed, though her throat was as dry as the Sonora Desert. "I... I said I love you."
"Damn, Silvey," he murmured, closing his lips over hers. He slipped his hands up her arms, his fingers dipping beneath the shoulder strap of her
dress to massage, and then lay bare the delicate bones there. His lips followed his fingers to caress her collar bone. His hands moved down to encircle her waist, then moved up to rest just short of her breasts.
The shock of it had her gasping, but she didn't want him to stop.
When his lips returned to hers, she responded eagerly. He had kissed her before, but it hadn't been like this. He had kissed many women before, but she hoped it hadn't been like this. His other kisses had been appreciative, full of desire, but this was intense.
This was from his soul.
Responding to him, she felt her heart pound, her skin heat. Her hands flew to his shoulders, his neck, his hair, filling themselves with the damp thickness there. Somehow that made him more real-more earthy.
When he pulled away, his eyes had deepened to midnight. "Silvey," he said in a raw voice. "I can't tell you I love you. I haven't seen enough real love to know what it looks like."
She laid her hand on his cheek. "Oh, Dan, it's not something you see. It's something you feel."
He pressed his forehead to hers. "Honey, what I'm feeling right now has more to do with lust than love."
"Lust, hmm? That's a start." Her teasing smile flickered and died and the last words she would have expected from herself tumbled from her lips. "Let me stay tonight, Dan."
He shut his eyes and a shiver ran through him. "Silvey, no."
Rejection hurt. Pulling her pride around her like a protective cloak, she tried to sit up. "Oh, well, if that's the way you want it...:"
He held her in place. "It's not the way I want it. But it's the way it's going to be. You're not the kind of woman for a quick affair, or even a long term one."
He'd said that before, but pride be damned. She wasn't giving up without a fight. "You mean, I don't know the score'?"
"Honey, you don't even know what inning it is."
She had to smile at that because it was so true. He was so far outside her usual experience that she didn't even know what step to take next. She had known him for less than three weeks and her mind had scrambled almost every minute to keep up with what her body wanted.
"Come on," he said, standing and helping her to her feet, "I'll walk you to your car."
She knew this was for the best, but Silvey still stung from the rejection. Or at least she did until they reached her car and Dan pulled her close. He rested his hands at the back of her waist and swung her gently from side to side.
"What say we forget this whole business of elderly rabble-rousers, Moreno burial grounds, my father, your grandmother, and every other damned thing that's been between us since the minute we met and get down to some serious dating?"
"Dating?"
"You know. The old-fashioned kind of stuff where we go out and listen to concerts that bore us to tears, see movies we hate, and explore overpriced restaurants."
She laughed and went on tiptoe to kiss him.
"Sounds great. When do we start?"
"Tomorrow. I'll pick you up at seven. I seem to remember that you're a hell of a dancer." "So are you."
"Then we'll go dancing."
"I can't wait."
Silvey slipped into her car. Dan slammed the door, with a reminder to fasten her seatbelt.
She was tempted to remind him that it was a state law to do so, but she kept quiet. He might be overbearing, but she was beginning to realize that some of the things he did were to show he cared.
She figured it was about the next best thing to love.
Silvey backed out of the driveway and drove away, grinning at stop signs and street lights, thinking this business of falling in love wasn't so bad after all. A girl just had to be careful that when she fell, she landed with the right man.
CHAPTER TEN
DURING the next few days, Silvey and Dan were together whenever they weren't working. He complained that his new mystery novel wasn't getting written and his deadline was fast approaching. She answered back that she barely spent any time in her new shop, but she knew that neither of them would have changed things. Her only disappointment was that he wasn't in love with her yet, but she had hopes.
She had carried through with her threat and called Leila to resign her position as unofficial overseer of Leila's Warriors. Her grandmother had accepted her decision and apologized for expecting it of her. Silvey assumed Leila had called the members of her group and had a stern talk with them because she heard no more from them. It was with, a sense of relief that she turned her attention to her time with Dan and to her new business.
Whenever she talked to Leila, though, she was reminded that Dan hadn't yet become reconciled to his father's forthcoming marriage.
Silvey never missed an opportunity to praise her grandmother, but Dan usually met these statements with a knowing grin. Eventually, Silvey began to realize that no matter what she said about Leila, the change to a permanent commitment had to occur in Lawrence-and in Dan. As much as she wanted tofix things for Leila and Lawrence with Dan, she knew it had to happen naturally.
One afternoon Dan dropped by the shop and waited with barely controlled impatience while she prepared strawberry sundaes for a
couple of little girls. When her customers were seated with their treats, he commandeered her attention by planting his hands on the polished glass countertop, leaning over it, and giving her a kiss.
"I got clearance to begin excavating the village site on Branaman Mountain."
A month ago it would have infuriated her. Now Silvey was thrilled for him. She reached across the counter and gave his hand a squeeze.
"Oh, Dan, that's great. Congratulations."
He smiled, then gave her a searching look. "Are you okay with this?"
"Yes. I feel differently about it than I do the burial site. And, well, I realize now that you're good at your job."
Ignoring the giggles from her two little customers, he kissed her again. "I guess I'll have to keep trying to change your mind about that burial site. Gotta go. We start tomorrow and I've got to get my equipment ready."
"Tomorrow? I didn't know you could start so soon."
"No reason not to."
"No, I guess not," she said, swallowing the disappointment in her voice. It had just occurred to her that between the two-hour drives back and forth to the mountain, and his book deadline, she would hardly ever see him.
He seemed oblivious to her concern, and she wasn't going to spoil his happiness by telling him what she was thinking.
She dredged up a smile and waved as he swung through the door and headed for his car. With a resigned sigh, she returned to work.
The next evening, Silvey was at home, sitting in her favorite chair with her bare feet tucked under her when someone rang the doorbell. The nightly news was on, but she was watching with little interest, so she didn't mind the interruption. Hoping it was Dan, she jumped up, smoothed her hair, and hurried to the door.
A man she had never seen before stood on the porch. He was short and stocky, with iron gray hair and the bearing of an ex-military officer. Before she could offer a greeting, he said, "Are you Silvanna Carlton?"
"Why, yes." She glanced past him to see a car with the Sonora College logo printed on the side. "What can I do for you?"
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