it bother him that you preferred Oregon over Montana?”
“Of course it didn’t bother him. Why should it? Listen—”
“Tell me about your home. Do you live near the coast?”
Internally Cass was seething. He kept interrupting her, deliberately avoiding conversation about that option.
“I live on the coast. My house is on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Gard—”
“That sounds terrific. Bet you have a great view.”
Her patience came to an abrupt end. “You are without a doubt the most irritating person I have ever known.” Scrambling to her feet, she bent over to pick up the foil wrappers from the sandwiches. “You’ve ridden me around in circles all morning, and now you want to ride for another two hours to see a ridge that couldn’t possibly be washed away from spring runoff, no matter how much damned snow piled up in the mountains during the winter.”
“Now you’re mad.” Gard spoke in a hurt, disbelieving voice, as though she were the most unfair woman on the face of the earth. Or in Montana, at least.
Cass faced him, all but breathing fire. “If I were a man, I’d punch you right in the nose!” Then she whirled to go to her horse and get away from this infuriating person. She was all through being nice to him, option or no option.
Gard, still sitting, caught her by the ankles. Down she came, landing mostly on top of him. “You...” The names she shrieked at him were very unladylike and quite descriptive. “Let me go, you snake in the grass, you weasel, you...” Again the unladylike names rolled out of her mouth.
Neatly and with a minimum of exertion, Gard rolled them over so that he was on top. “You sure do have a mouth on you, Sassy Whitfield. I think it’s time someone taught you better manners.”
“And you think you’re the man to do it?” Cass let out a screech so loud and piercing, Gard thought it probably echoed throughout the entire valley. But she didn’t only screech, she started fighting to get away.
And the wrestling match began.
Three
Cass squirmed and pushed and shoved. “You cretin!” She was wiry and quick, but so was Gard, and his strength was so superior he soon had her hands locked above her head while the weight of his body held her down.
What really infuriated her was that he thought rolling around on the ground like this was funny. Throughout their tussle she’d heard the low, sexy chuckle deep in his throat, and when she was finally unable to move anything but her toes, he grinned at her.
“You savage,” she said, venting her wrath through clenched teeth. “Force is probably the only way you can get a woman on her back.” He laughed as though she had said something hysterically funny. “Egotistical jerk.” Cassandra turned her eyes to avoid his. No one she’d ever known had eyes as blue as Gard’s. Right now they were brimming with amusement and she didn’t want to see it.
He dipped his head slightly, bringing their faces closer. “There are three things I’d like to do to you, Sassy Whitfield,” he whispered. “Want to know what they are?”
“I most certainly do not!”
“Make that four, and I don’t believe you don’t want to know. In fact, I think you’re dying to know, so I’m going to be kind and tell you. First, I’d like to turn you over my knee and paddle your sweet little behind. I think you’ve had it all your way for so long, you don’t know how to deal with a man who doesn’t jump at your command.”
Cass’s gaze jerked around. “Of all the... Just try it, and I’ll scratch the eyes right out of your arrogant head!”
Gard laughed softly. “Second, I’d like to kiss you until you’re limp all over and begging for more.”
“Hell will freeze over before I ever beg you for anything,” she sputtered.
“Third, once you’re begging and whimpering, I’d like to make love to you. The right kind of love, Sassy, sensual and slow.”
She had no cutting retort for that one. Being held down like this was humiliating, and so were his crude fantasies.
“The fourth thing I want from you is friendship,” Gard said quietly.
“Yeah, right,” she drawled, disdain all over her face. “Why did I ever think you and I could conduct business like two normal people? You’re not the least bit normal.”
“Oh, I’m pretty normal, honey. Can’t you tell?”
What she could tell was that he was enormously aroused and not a bit averse to letting her know. It was a frustrating moment for Cass. Lying beneath him, feeling every contour of his body pressing into hers, her own hormones were beginning to misbehave.
“If friendship is what you want between us, you’re going at it in a mighty strange way,” she said sharply, denying the throbbing that had started at intimate points of her body. “Tripping me was abominable. So is holding me down this way. Don’t you have any scruples at all?”
“Since paddling your behind would probably cause a ruckus we might never get over, how about going with the second item on my list and kissing each other senseless?”
She turned her gaze to give him a murderous look. He was having entirely too much fun at her expense. “You’re already minus the sense God gave that tree over there. Let go of my hands!”
“So you can scratch out my eyes? That’s what you said, honey, that you’d scratch the eyes right out of my arrogant head.”
“This conversation is over. Let me up!”
“Not until you kiss me.”
Cass gulped. The silky tone in his teasing voice was much too reminiscent of that night at the dunes. “You don’t have the morals of an alley cat. I see it all now. This is the only reason you put on that big act of needing to inspect Whitfield land before making that decision, you...you...”
“Don’t start with the name-calling again, Sassy, or I swear I’ll hold you here for the rest of the day.”
“You always were a damned bully,” she said, fuming.
“I was never a bully and you know it. I did a lot of things I wish I hadn’t, but bullying people wasn’t one of them. If anything, I was too easygoing. I picked the wrong friends, or they picked me. Anyway, there was always someone around wanting to party, and I fully admit to acting like a jackass in my younger days.”
“You’re still acting like a jackass. Gard, this has gone far enough. Let me up!”
“After you kiss me.”
“I am not going to kiss you!”
“Then how about just lying still and letting me kiss you?”
“Could I stop you?” she said angrily. Could she stop him from doing anything he
