The left side of Talon’s mouth quirked up. A pseudo-smile. “Sure,” he said. “We can sit down and have a drink.”

“Why did you insist on keeping her here, Marj, and then unceremoniously kick her out?” Talon asked.

Marj dodged the question and feigned a yawn. Right. “I just realized I’m exhausted. So why don’t the two of you go out on the deck, and maybe you can get in the hot tub later? Jade, you eat your meal, and Tal, pour her a glass of Ryan’s Rhône blend. It’s her favorite.” She made a quick exit.

Subtle, Marj.

I looked at Talon. His lips were still quirked up.

“Some kind of setup, huh?” I said.

“You don’t have to stay.”

“Are you kidding? She dragged me away from an appointment, and I’m starving. I can’t resist a plateful of Felicia’s tamales. But honestly, you don’t have to sit with me and eat. I’m perfectly happy eating alone. I was going to be alone tonight anyway.”

“This is stupid. I’ll go get Marj to hang with you.”

My heart sank a little, but I hid it from Talon. “That’s fine. Tell her I’ll be out on the deck.”

I went to the kitchen, where Felicia presented me with a plateful of yummy tamales drenched in green chile “Here you go, Miss Jade. I’ve missed you around here.”

“I haven’t been gone very long yet.”

“I know. But I miss you anyway. It was nice to have another body around.”

I smiled. “Thanks. And thanks for dinner.” I took my plate out to the deck and sat down at one of the patio tables.

I dug into the tamales. Felicia made them in a Venezuelan style, with black and green olives, pork, and some carrots and peppers. They were then smothered with her green chile sauce. When I first came to the ranch, I had assumed Felicia was Mexican, because her Mexican food was so delicious and she had the darker Hispanic coloring. Turned out she was Puerto Rican, but she knew how to cook so many wonderful things. Her Italian cuisine was as good as anyone’s.

I didn’t look up when the French doors opened, assuming it was Marj.

Turned out it was Talon. He set a glass of wine in front of me and then took the seat across from me at the table.

I swallowed my mouthful of tamale, my pulse quickening. “Where’s Marj?”

“She wouldn’t come. Insisted I come out here and keep you company.”

I nodded. “That doesn’t surprise me. I…told Marj about us.”

He bit his lip. God, sexy.

“I know.”

“She hasn’t…talked to you about it, has she?”

“No. She’s my baby sister. It’s not really something brothers and sisters talk about. But she made it pretty clear when Julie showed up today that I wasn’t available.”

“Really? And how did you feel about that?”

“I have no interest in Julie, blue eyes. I never did.”

My skin tingled all over and I suppressed a smile. “But you fucked her.”

Talon let out a chuckle. “I’ve fucked a lot of women, Jade. You know that.”

“Have you fucked any since you and I…” I wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence. Since he and I what? I could’ve said fucked, but what we did was so much more than fucking. Was it making love? It was on my end, but I had no idea how he felt.

He cleared his throat. “No, I haven’t.”

I widened my eyes. Warm happiness blanketed me, along with some surprise. “All those nights you went off to Grand Junction? None of them ever ended in…”

He shook his head. “Honestly? I went to see Julie one of those nights. To try to take the edge off of my desire for you. It didn’t work out that way.”

“You didn’t go through with it?”

“No, I…couldn’t.” His cheeks pinked a bit. “And I’m glad I couldn’t.”

My palms got clammy and joy surged through me. He did desire me—I knew that—but now I knew it was different for him than it had been with anyone else. I’d known that for a while in my heart, and even by what he told me, but to hear him say the words—the actual words. They were more captivating than the western slope orange-and-pink sunset before us.

I took a sip of my wine, the spiciness a wonderful complement to the sweet corn and robust pork of the tamales. Talon watched me eat, but I had long gotten over being self-conscious around him. He’d seen me in every position possible.

“Those tamales are the bomb, aren’t they?” he said.

I nodded, swallowing another mouthful. “I do miss Felicia’s cooking. That’s for sure.”

“You can always come back.”

“We’ve had this discussion, Talon. You kicked me out.”

“And I told you, I regret doing that.”

“I believe you. I really do. But something happened to you that night, and until you deal with it, I don’t think I should be here. At least not on a permanent basis. I mean, I’ll come by. To see Marj.”

“Just to see Marj?”

Did he want me to say I wanted to see him? Of course I always wanted to see him. But I still didn’t know where we stood. Other than the amazing sexual chemistry, I wasn’t sure what was between us. I knew my feelings, but I didn’t know his…and I wasn’t sure he did either. “I’m always happy to see you. You know that.”

“Good. I’d like for us to have dinner sometime.”

The last time he asked me to dinner… That was the night he went crazy on me and kicked me out of this house. So I decided to play it light. “Isn’t that what we’re doing right now?”

“Touché,” he said. “Seriously, I’d like to take you to dinner.”

“You mean in your bedroom, like last time?” I said boldly.

He cleared his throat. “No. I want to take you out on…”

He really couldn’t even say the word, could he? “A date? You want to take me on a date, Talon?”

He looked down at the table, his head bobbing.

“Is that a yes?” Damn it, I was going to make him say it.

“Yes,” he said under his breath.

“Fine. Then look me in the eye and ask me out. Like a man.”

He lifted his head up, and his dark eyes were blazing with fire. “What is that supposed to mean?”