“What did you say?”
“I said that you don’t need to be upset. I can bring you just as much satisfaction with my hands, and mouth, if you want.”
At first, his meaning didn’t register. When it did, she gasped and shoved his surprised body off her and to the side. “You big baboon! You blathering idiot! You… you…” She stood and towered over him. “Do you really think that’s what I want from you?” Without waiting for an answer, she stomped through the bushes and down the rise to the horse market.
For a moment, Rafe just stared after her.
That had been a crude, cruel suggestion he’d just made to Helen. But deliberate. He’d known she would be affronted. A tongue job or a finger flutter wouldn’t be Helen’s idea of making love. Hell, it wasn’t what he wanted from her either.
But he was coiled tighter than a Slinky, and tempted beyond his normal restraint. He doubted he would have been able to hold out against Helen’s pleas to make love to her. He’d felt like an out-of-control train racing down the tracks, all cylinders firing, bound to crash. And the only way he could think to stop the train was to turn Helen off.
But he’d wanted her so bad. Still did.
“And another thing…”
“Huh?” Rafe looked up to see that Helen had returned. She rested her hands on her hips, belligerently. Her red hair billowed out from under the cowboy hat Pablo had given her. Her normally creamy complexion was mottled with rage, and freckles. The ugly, green, flower-sprigged dress he’d bought her earlier hung loosely over her frame, and her military trousers and boots peeked out, incongruously, from the antique gown.
She should have looked silly.
God, she was beautiful.
He rose to his feet to face her.
She jammed a forefinger in his chest.
He backed up slightly, laughing.
“And another thing,” she started again, giving his chest another jab. “You’d better stay away from me from now on. No more seducing me. No flashing that sexy smile. No — ”
“Sexy smile?”
She gave him one of those you-are-a-toad looks and continued with her litany of orders. “No more suggestive remarks. No sweet talk. No more singing ‘Wind Beneath My Wings.’ No touching, at all. Definitely no touching.”
“Because?” he prodded.
“Because I’m warning you, Rafe, now that I’ve decided I want you — though God knows why, I must have lost my mind — I’m probably going to have you.”
He laughed, despite himself. She wants me.
“Unlike you, though, I have scruples. So, I’m giving you fair notice. I want babies, and I wouldn’t mind having yours, even — ”
“Oh, my God!” She wants my baby.
” — even if you are a louse.” She peered at him closer. “Why are you turning green? Oh, I see. You think I want to marry you. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t deliberately get pregnant. I’m not trying to trap you.”
“I never said you were trying to trap — ”
“You made me give up my plans to marry Elliott just to have a baby.”
“What? I did?”
“I’m drawing a line in the sand here, mister.”
“Are you saying this is war?” His lips twitched with suppressed amusement.
“In a manner of speaking. You pushed and pushed and pushed till you got me turned on. Well, I’m not a faucet to be turned on and off at will.”
“Prissy, don’t challenge me. Ask me to back off, but don’t issue ultimatums. I’ll have to fight back, and I fight dirty.”
“I’ve had too many years in the military to be afraid of a battle. Maybe I know how to fight dirty, too. Furthermore, you can stick those condoms on your ears for all I care. Consider yourself forewarned. Kiss me again, and I’ll corkscrew or gargle you or whatever it takes to make you forget you don’t like babies.”
He grinned. He couldn’t help himself.
She gave his chest one final poke with her forefinger and walked away again.
And for the first time in ages, Rafe wished he didn’t hate babies.
Rafe’s warm, fuzzy feelings for Helen didn’t last long.