“You’re kidding.”
His gray eyes didn’t blink. “Finding a body is nothing to kid about.”
And she could see that he was serious. Fear, then anger poured though her body, making her go cold, then hot. “You just told me you didn’t know if foul play was involved or not. So why do you want to know if anyone has angered me to the extent of committing murder?”
He smiled, but there was no humor behind the curve of his lips. “You always were a little too sharp for me. Weren’t you, Tori?”
“Don’t call me that!” she whispered icily. He was the only person who’d ever called her by that nickname and as far as she was concerned he’d lost his right to be that intimate with her. “And as for your question, no one has angered me in the past months. But a few years ago—I could have killed you. Given the chance,” she added.
Jess was a man known for keeping his head. It was one of the reasons he’d excelled at his job. A man with a cool head didn’t miss anything going on around him. He could reason, stay aware and stay alive. But there had always been something about Victoria that heated his blood. And it wasn’t just the lush, feminine shape of her. One glance, one word from her had the power to ignite an explosion in him. And she’d just set him off.
He said, “I guess Ketchum blood must be stronger than that Hippocratic oath you took.”
She was shocked to see her fingers had clenched, forming fists at her sides. She forced her hands to relax and her lungs to breathe. “What is that supposed to mean?”
His gray eyes slipped downward to where her breasts pushed against pale blue cashmere. The fabric was as soft as her skin and a knot twisted in his gut at the memory of her full breasts cupped in his hands, the rosy brown nipples begging to be kissed.
He looked at the floor, then back up to her face. “The oath is to save lives, not take them. But—where I’m concerned you only see me through Ketchum eyes.”
“My family never disliked you.”
He let out a harsh laugh, then rose to his feet and crossed the room to where a low fire crackled and spit in a native rock fireplace. “Tucker couldn’t stand the thought of you being anywhere near me.”
She wanted to point out that his comments had nothing to do with his visit to the T Bar K this evening, but she didn’t. For the past four months, since she’d heard Jess had come back to San Juan county, she’d known a time would come when she would have to face him again, to discover for herself if he held any bitterness about the past. She didn’t have to wonder anymore.
“My father didn’t try to prevent me from seeing you.”
His head turned away from the fire to stab her with a hot glare. “Not in words. No, the old man was too sly for that. He knew just how to get to you. And he did.”
Her jaw clenched. “I thought four years would have made you see how wrong you were. But it’s obvious you’re still just as blind and bullheaded as you ever were!”
“You’re the blind one, Victoria. You were then. And you are now.”
If he’d spoken the words in anger she would have understood them. But there had been no animosity in his voice. Just a quiet sort of warning.
Before she realized what she was doing, she left the couch and went to stand in front of him. “Is that supposed to mean something?”
He took a deep breath, then reached for a small framed photo on the fireplace mantel. It was a snapshot of Tucker and Amelia in their younger days, back when their four children had been small and the oldest, Hugh, had still been alive.
“Everybody but you knows Tucker Ketchum was a shady character—”
“You don’t—”
“That’s one of the reasons why this ranch is so big and profitable. And I’m afraid it’s a likely reason a body was discovered facedown in an arroyo on the T Bar K.”
She pushed at the heavy wave of nearly black hair dipping over her eye. “You’re despicable! You’re not fit to be this county’s undersheriff.”
“Why? Because I didn’t hang around and let the old man corrupt me, too?”
Raw fury brought her hand up and swinging at his face. He caught her wrist easily and jerked her up against him.
“This whole thing is making you happy, isn’t it?” She flung the question at him. “You’ve just been waiting for some reason to spite my family. And now you have it in the form of a dead body!”
His arm slipped around her back to still her squirms. “Nothing about this is making me happy, Victoria.” His eyes suddenly focused on her lips and then his head bent. “Especially not this.”
A kiss was the last thing she’d expected from the man and for a moment she was frozen with shock at the feel of his hard lips spreading over hers. Then her hands lifted to his broad shoulders and pushed. The feeble gesture of disapproval caused his lips to ease a fraction away from hers. But his hold on her back tightened, making her breasts flatten against him, her hips arch into his.
“Jess—”
If she had whispered his name in protest, he would have released her. But there had only been hunger in the sound of her voice and his desire fed on it like flames to the wind.
Time ceased to exist as his lips searched the sweetness of her mouth, his hands roamed the warmth of her back, then tangled in the thick waves of her hair.
Long before he lifted his head, she was clutching folds of his shirt, struggling to keep her knees from buckling. Her breathing was ragged, her heart racing like a wild horse on a lightning-struck mesa. No one but Jess could make her feel so helpless, so alive. So much a woman.
Dear Lord, nothing had changed, she thought desperately. Four long, lonely years had done nothing to erase this man from her heart.
“Is this how you question your female suspects nowadays?” she finally managed to ask.
Slowly, he moved his arm from around her back and she quickly put several inches between the two of them.
“That wasn’t a question, Tori. That was a statement.”
She swallowed as she pressed the back of her hand against her burning lips. “The statement being?”
He smiled, but once again there was no warmth or sincerity behind the expression.
“That I’m in charge of things now. And the fact that you’re a Ketchum means nothing where the law is concerned.”
Pain splintered in the middle of her chest, but she somehow met his gaze in spite of it.
“Is that how you kissed me? As a lawman? Or the Jess I used to know?”
For long moments his gray eyes simply roamed her flushed face. Then his lips parted, but before he could reply, a knock interrupted him.
Glancing over her shoulder, Victoria saw a young Native American man dressed similarly to Jess standing in the open doorway of the
