She didn’t tease him like she had for far too many years. She was more contained, quieter. And he realized he missed the spitfire she had been. By now, they should have been arguing loud enough to draw attention, while she drove him crazy with a combination of lust and exasperation.

Instead, she was standing at the glass sliding doors, staring into the distance reflectively as her fingers gripped the drapes at the side.

“I think you’re wrong, Kelly.” He leaned into the back of the barstool he was sitting in, one hand gripping the wheel as the boat plowed through the water toward the cove.

“About what?” She turned back to him with a frown, her gray eyes twinkling with good humor.

“I think I deserve to see you stripped down to something decent.” He scowled. “Stop letting that bastard win.”

She rolled her eyes before turning back to the scenery outside the boat.

“You don’t know everything, Rowdy,” she retorted, but there was no conviction in her voice.

“I know you.” He began unbuttoning his own shirt as he glanced at her, his cock throbbing in delight as she glanced back at him, her eyes shadowed with interest.

Within seconds he’d stripped the shirt, tossing it back on the chair behind him as he flashed her a wicked grin.

She turned to him then, crossing her arms over her breasts as she lifted her brow.

“You could at least lose the jeans,” he pointed out. “That shirt is big enough to cover two of you. No one would know.”

Four years ago she had worn that tiny little bikini all damned day, flipping around him like a wood nymph intent on driving mortal men insane. Now, he couldn’t even get her out of her pants.

“You’re pushing,” she warned, her voice holding a subtle snap.

“You haven’t seen me push yet, baby,” he growled in return. “Do you think I didn’t take the time to find out just how much you’ve been hiding since that bastard attacked you? You stopped dressing like the girl I knew and started dressing like your damned grandmother instead. You’re scared.”

“Well, duh!” she mocked him. “Go figure. Maybe I should just prance around naked for you, Rowdy.” She wasn’t really angry, yet. Her eyes were sparkling though, her cheeks flushing with irritation.

“That would work for me.” He grinned wolfishly. “Let’s try it and see if it will work for you. Take yours off and I’ll take mine off.”

“You would take yours off anyway.” Her laughter was soft, knowing.

“For you, baby, anytime.” He winked.

“A far cry from your answer in the past years.” The shade of mockery in her voice wasn’t lost on him. “Why now? You come back and suddenly can’t wait to get into bed with me? It’s enough to make a girl suspicious.”

“No doubt,” he agreed, grinning back at her. “There’s no secret there, sweetheart. I wasn’t about to take a kid to my bed. Being a virgin will be hard enough for you, I at least wanted you to be mature enough to know what the hell you were getting into. But I had no intentions of not coming back for you.”

Surprise reflected in her eyes.

“And if I decided I wanted someone else?” Her eyes narrowed, her lips thinning at the confidence he knew she was reading in his tone.

“Then Dawg or Natches would have taken care of it until I made it back on leave.” He shrugged easily. “I put a claim on you a long time ago, Kelly. You just didn’t realize it.”

“Somewhere between the little sex games that your buddies shared in?”

Ohhh, now was that just a little shade of jealousy there? He watched her closely from the corner of his eye as he kept the teasing grin in place.

“Sex games are for adults.” He scratched at his chin as he glanced back at her. “You couldn’t handle them.”

“Who says I couldn’t handle them?” She frowned back at him as she straightened and placed her hands on her hips. “You never gave me the chance to try.”

He snorted. “Don’t let your mouth write checks your body can’t cash, baby. Don’t dare me.”

He gave her a dark, warning look, one she immediately recognized. He wasn’t playing here. Not yet. And before he started, he wanted her aware of the rules.

“I’m not stupid.” She pushed her hands into her jeans pockets, staring back at him with an edge of anger, of arousal. “I paid attention to your reputation a long time ago.”

She wasn’t shying away from him. That was good. He didn’t want her shying away from him; he wanted her curious, interested. He wanted her horny.

“Did you now?” He ran his hand over his chest as he guided the houseboat into a turn that would take it off the main section of the lake and into a more narrow waterway leading to the cove. “And you still teased me every chance you had. You’ve stopped teasing me. Maybe you decided you can’t handle it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re being a prick.”

“I’m being honest, Kelly.” He gave his head a quick, negative jerk. “You listened to the rumors, you say. Evidently you didn’t listen close enough.”

“What does that mean?”

“Exactly what I said,” he answered, narrowing his eyes as he glanced back at her. “I’m fine with having the princess. I’ll take you to my bed, treat you like crystal, and love you with everything I have to give you, for as long as you can put up with me. But don’t tempt the beast, sugar, because when he gets hungry, you might get more than you’ve bargained for.”

He watched her expression go blank.

“You love me?” She blinked back at him, so damned innocent it made his guts clench.

“Kelly, I’ve always loved you,” he told her, meaning it. Knowing he meant it. “In one way or the other, you’ve always been a part of me. You’re old enough to decide if you want to settle in with one man, forever, or not. I figure I can give you this summer to decide for sure if I’m that man. If not, then I’ll let you go. It wouldn’t be easy, but I’d do it—”

“But, Rowdy, I’ve always loved you.” She watched him in confusion now, hope and fear in equal parts shadowing her eyes.

He tapped his fingers against the wheel, turning it until it swung into another waterway leading to the private cove. Natches’s family owned the small property that bordered the bay. It was on the back side of undeveloped land, and completely private.

“Yeah, I know you have,” he finally answered as he pulled along the tree-shaded bank and cut the engine.

He didn’t say anything more as he moved beyond the sliding doors, throwing out the heavy front anchor weight before moving to the back and doing the same. As he returned to the living area, he paused by the table.

“I came back for you,” he said, leaning against the small bar, forcing himself to stand away from her. “That’s why Dad was so worried. He knew I came back for you. And the rumors are fact, baby. So don’t push me where the games are concerned.”

“I don’t need you or your dad making decisions for me,” she snapped, her gray eyes flaring in defiance. “If we’re going to try for a relationship, then we’ll meet in the middle. Somehow. But not if you think you can plan my life for me.”

His lips twitched. She was a bundle of fire, that was for damned sure.

“Take off the pants,” he whispered. “Let’s go one step at a time, Kelly. See what your limits are together.”

“Our limits,” she retorted. “Not just mine.”

His lips curled into a frankly sexual, wicked smile.

Kelly licked her lips nervously. The action had the head of his erection pounding with need. Damn, he wanted that little tongue there laving the thick crest, licking around it as though it were a favorite treat.

She bit her lower lip and glanced away before breathing in deeply. Her hands moved, pulling out of the jeans pockets before moving beneath the shirt to unsnap the pants. She kicked off her sandals then pushed the jeans over her hips and down her legs.

Within seconds she was laying them over the chair with his shirt before turning back to him.

“You used to tease me like a brazen little hussy,” he whispered, staring at her legs, dying to feel them around his hips. “It was one of the things I looked forward to most when I thought of coming home.” He watched her move toward him, her eyes becoming cloudy with passion as he kept his voice low, carefully teasing.

“You didn’t act as though you enjoyed it,” she murmured as she drew up to him. He jerked as she placed her small hand on his bare chest and ran it slowly down to his tight abdomen. “You stayed away from me.”

He lifted his hand, moving it to her arm, feeling the softness of her skin as he ran his fingers to her elbow and back again.

“If you knew the things I wanted to do to you over the years, you would have run screaming.” He stared down at her uplifted face, his gaze on her lips. The soft, candy pink perfection of those full curves had him aching. “You’re still too damned young for the things I want to do to you. With you.”

“What did you want to do to me, Rowdy?” Her hand slid from his abdomen to his chest again as she stared at him, her eyes reflecting the same hungry need she had shown for years, but it also showed a shadow of fear, of hesitation.

“Everything.” He wasn’t going to lie to her. Now wasn’t the time to hide any part of who or what he was, or the hungers he could unleash on her. If there was a time to be honest with her, it was now. Before the emotional connection that had bonded them for so many years deepened, before there was a chance she could be hurt.

Arousal flashed in her eyes as her breathing became heavier, jerkier. “Give me an example.”

He ran his fingers down her arm until he found her hand, lifted it, pulling her fingers to his lips as he watched her through narrowed eyes. Her gaze flickered to his lips as he licked over the pad of two fingers, her eyelids drooping, pleasure rather than fear filling her gaze.

“You know what I want,” he whispered. “Exactly what I suspect you’re most frightened of now.” He lifted his other hand, smoothing back her hair from her face, his thumb caressing her cheek. “I want to strip you down, love you from head to toe as often as possible, and sometimes…we might not be alone.”

Her breath caught in a hard hitch a second before she jerked away from him, moving across the room, her shoulders stiff and straight as he forced himself to relax, to wait.

“And if we weren’t alone?” Her voice was thin, breathy. He couldn’t tell if it was arousal or fear that inspired it.

“If we weren’t alone, you know the only men I’d ever allow around you,” he told her softly.

“And if it’s not what I want?” She asked, her gray eyes dark, shadowed with indecision.

“Then I won’t press you for it.” He crossed his arms over his chest again as he leaned against the counter. “That doesn’t mean I won’t think about it, that I won’t fantasize the hell out of it. I won’t lie to you, Kelly. Ever. And I won’t have things between us that don’t need to be there.”

“And how do they feel about this?” Arousal lay thick in her voice, as did the fear. “Have the three of you already been making plans to seduce me?”

“There are times when men don’t have to make plans, Kelly.” He kept his voice smooth, even. “They know me, just as well as I know them. No plans will ever be made outside of your presence.”

She breathed in slowly, her nostrils flaring as she watched him closely.

“Which brings me to another point,” he continued. “Whether you want to do it or not, you’re going to at least have to fake it. Until I catch that bastard who attacked you, I’ll let him think it’s going on. I’ll torture him with the knowledge of it. Because I’ll be damned if I’ll let him threaten you any longer. So you might want to think about at least enjoying some of the pretense.”