He began to turn away, the confusion of his feelings for her had become entirely too complex. This was not what he had wanted, not what he needed. The night called to him, urged him to leave her manipulations and compelling attraction far behind. He wanted nothing more now than to escape.
The feather-light touch of her hand on his arm stopped him with the grip of a vise. He cursed himself again for being unable to shake her off, to leave her standing there, but he stayed.
“Luke, I need you.” Her voice had grown soft, almost pleading. Her fingers moved against the flannel of his sleeve, and he felt them as if there were no barrier at all between. “I’m desperate. I need your help ” The warmth of her body radiated against his back. “Nothing has ever been more important to me than this—nothing. Please.”
The raw note of despair in her voice was like pain, so unlike what he knew of her that it almost shocked him. It almost took him out of his anger, his pride and confusion Almost.
He pulled away from her abruptly, freeing his arm from her grasping fingers “I’m sorry, Joey.” The coldness of his voice mocked his words. “I can’t help you. It’s too bad you wasted so much of your time.” She made a soft, helpless sound, but he refused to look back. “I suggest you come back with me now, if you don’t want to be left out here alone.”
Without further words he started back for the lodge, his strides long and heedless. The crackle of brush sounded behind him as she struggled to keep up.
“Luke, please…”
He whirled so suddenly that she stopped herself only inches from colliding with him, her face frozen in startlement. “Don’t push me, Joey. Don’t push me.”
He knew from the slow alteration of her expression that she finally grasped what he said, that she saw the force he held in check, the savagery just under the surface. He willed her to feel it so she would never forget.
When he turned his back on her again, he hoped she did understand.
At the end of another nearly sleepless night, Joey sat in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin and contemplated utter failure.
How had things gone so wrong? She knew he’d wanted her—and she’d made doubly sure of that before attempting to strike her bargain. If only she’d had more time, more time to lead him on, make him believe he wouldn’t be sacrificing anything—least of all his pride—to help her.
The morning light gave a cheerful cast to the room that seemed to mock Joey’s despair. She caught the blanket in both fists and pulled as if she might tear it apart. She had moved too quickly She had been too impatient, too inept at making veiled promises she had no intention of keeping. Luke had seen through her. She’d ruined her last chance.
Joey seriously considered spending the entire day under the covers, refusing to face a world that seemed altogether hostile. She could not even face the prospect of turning to Maggie—not after what had happened. It was far too humiliating. Better to avoid people entirely, so that her defeat remained hidden from everyone but him.
In the few hours of the night when she had managed to sleep, he had been in her dream.s She could not even bar him from that last refuge.
Joey got out of bed and moved to the window. It was another of those crisp, flawless days when the sky was so blue, it almost hurt to look at it. The trees lay like a rich green carpet over the hills and valleys and mountains, up to the timberline where the peaks rose in stark, forbidding splendor. He had said there were many mysteries there few human beings had ever seen. The one mystery she needed most to solve was still beyond her reach.
With a groan of utter frustration, Joey grabbed her brush from the bureau and began to pull it through her tangled hair with punishing jerks. This room, this lodge, was too small to contain her equally tangled emotions, she knew she had to escape, to be alone and walk the woods and hills until she could walk no farther. Beyond that she refused to think.