One look at Spence's beaming expression told her the conversation had only intensified his fixation on her. He curled his hands around her arms and began to pull her to him just as the Roustabout's door flew open and Torie, who'd finally realized they were missing, came flying out to the rescue. "Hurry up, you two. Kenny just ordered three of every dessert on the menu."

Spence didn't take his predatory eyes off Meg. "Meg and I have other plans."

"The molten lava cake?" Meg cried.

"And the spicy peach cobbler!" Torie exclaimed.

They managed to get Spence back inside, but Meg was sick of being held hostage. Fortunately, she'd insisted on driving herself, and after four bites of lava cake, she got up from the table. "It's been a long day, and I have to work tomorrow."

Dallie was immediately on his feet. "I'll walk you to your car."

Kenny shoved a beer at Spence, stopping him before he could follow. "I sure could use some business advice, Spence, and I can't think of a better man to turn to."

She made her escape.

Yesterday when she'd come out of work, she'd discovered that the Rustmobile's broken windshield had been replaced with a new one. Ted denied having done it, but she knew he was responsible. So far, nothing else of hers had been vandalized, but it wasn't over. Whoever hated her wouldn't give up, not as long as she stayed in Wynette.

When she got to the house, she found Skeet asleep in the recliner. She tiptoed past him into her bedroom. As she kicked off her sandals, the window slid open and Ted's lanky body squeezed through. Little eddies of pleasure swirled inside her. She c.o.c.ked her head. "I'm sure glad we're not sneaking around anymore."

"I didn't want to talk to Skeet, and not even you can make me mad tonight."

"Sunny finally put out?"

"Even better." He grinned. "The announcement's coming tomorrow. Spence picked Wynette."

She smiled. "Congratulations, Mr. Mayor." She started to hug him, then pulled back. "You do know you're making a deal with the devil."

"Spence's ego is his weakness. As long as we control that, we control the man."

"Ruthless, but true," she said. "I still can't believe all those women kept their mouths shut."

"About what?"

"Your temporary lapse of sanity at your mother's luncheon. Twenty women! Twenty-one if we count Mummy."

But he had something more pressing on his mind. "I have a P.R. firm standing by. The minute the ink's dry on the land contract, a press release is going out crowning Spence the leader of golf's green movement. I'm going to make sure he's in too deep right from the beginning to ever pull out."

"I love it when you talk dirty."

Even as she teased him, an uneasiness came over her, a feeling that she was missing something, but she forgot about it as she began pulling at his clothes. He cooperated beautifully, and they were soon naked on her bed, the breeze from the open window falling across their skin.

This time she wasn't going to let him take over. "Close your eyes," she whispered. "Tight."

He did as she asked, and she nuzzled her way to a small, taut nipple. She dawdled there for a while, then slipped her hand between his thighs. She kissed him, cupped him, stroked.

His eyelids inched open, lids heavy. He reached for her, but she slid on top of him before he could take over. Slowly, she began guiding him into her body-a body not completely ready for such a formidable invasion. But the reluctant stretch and ache excited her.

Now his eyes were fully open. She began to pull herself down hard upon him only to feel his hands gripping her thighs, holding her back. His brow furrowed. She didn't want to see concern there. She wanted ravishment.

But he was too much the gentleman.

He arched his back and settled his mouth over her breast. The movement raised his thighs and lifted her off him. "Not so fast," he whispered against her moist nipple.

Yes, fast fast! she wanted to cry out. Fast and awkward and crazy and pa.s.sionate.

But he'd felt her tightness, and he was having none of it. He wouldn't let her endure even a moment's discomfort in pursuit of his own satisfaction. As he teased her nipple, he reached between their bodies and began to perform his magic tricks, arousing her until she was mindless. Another A-plus performance.

She recovered first and rolled out from under him. His eyes were closed, and she tried to find rea.s.surance in the rapid rise and fall of his chest, his sweat-slicked skin. But despite his rumpled hair and the slight puffiness she'd inflicted on his bottom lip, she couldn't make herself believe she'd really touched him, not in any lasting way. Only the memory of that reckless public kiss told her she wasn't being a fool.

The town erupted with the news that Spence had chosen Wynette. For the next three days, people hugged each other on the street, the Roustabout poured free beers, and the barbershop blasted out old Queen anthems from an ancient boom box. Ted couldn't go anywhere without men pounding him on the back and women hurling themselves at him, not that they didn't do that anyway. The good news even eclipsed Kayla's announcement that the contest bidding had reached twelve thousand dollars.

Meg barely saw him. He was either on the phone with Spence's lawyers, who were due to fly in any day to finalize the contracts, or he was involved in Operation Avoid Sunny. She missed him dreadfully, right along with their less-than-satisfactory s.e.x life.

She was doing her own avoidance dance with Spence. Fortunately, the local citizens had joined the effort to keep him away from her. Still, the uneasiness she'd been carrying around for days wouldn't go away.

On Sunday after work she made a detour to the swimming hole to cool off. She'd developed a deep affection for both the creek and the Pedernales River that fed it. Although she'd seen photos of the way a sudden rainstorm could transform the river into a raging corridor of destruction, the water had always been gentle with her.

Cypress and ash grew near the creek's bank, and she sometimes caught sight of a whitetail deer or an armadillo. Once a coyote came out from behind some b.u.t.tonbush and looked as startled to see her as she was to see it. But today the cool waters failed to work their magic. She couldn't get past the disquieting notion that she was missing something important. It dangled in front of her, a piece of fruit she couldn't quite reach.

A cloud rolled in, and a scrub jay scolded her from the branch of a nearby hackberry tree. She shook the water from her hair and dove under again. When she came up, she wasn't alone.

Spence loomed above her on the riverbank, the clothes she'd abandoned hanging from his big hands. "You shouldn't go swimming by yourself, Miz Meg. It's not safe."

Her toes dug into the mud, and water lapped at her shoulders. He must have followed her here, but she'd been too preoccupied to notice. A stupid mistake that someone with so many enemies should never have made. The sight of him holding her clothes made her stomach knot. "No offense, Spence, but I'm not in the mood for company."

"Maybe I'm tired of waiting for you to be ready." Still holding her clothes, he sat on a big rock by the river's edge next to the towel she'd left there and studied her. He was dressed for business in navy pants and a long-sleeved blue oxford dress shirt he'd begun to sweat through. "It seems every time I start to have a serious conversation with you, you manage to slip away."

She was naked except for a sodden pair of panties, and as much as she might like to think of Spence as a buffoon, he wasn't. A cloud skittered over the sun. She clenched her fists under the water. "I'm a happy-go-lucky person. I don't like serious conversations."

"Comes a time when everybody has to get serious."

The way he slid her bra through his fingers gave her chills, and she didn't like being frightened. "Go away, Spence. You weren't invited."

"Either you come out or I'm coming in."

"I'm staying where I am. I don't like this, and I want you to leave."

"That water looks d.a.m.ned inviting." He set her clothes next to him on the rock. "Did I ever tell you I swam compet.i.tively in college?" He began taking off his shoes. "I even thought about training for the Olympics, but I had too much else going on."

She sank deeper into the water. "If you're seriously interested in me, Spence, you're going about this the wrong way."

He pulled off his socks. "I should have been up front with you earlier, but Sunny says I can be too blunt. My mind works faster than most people's. She says I don't always give people enough time to get to know me."

"She's right. You should listen to your daughter."

"Cut the bull, Meg. You've had plenty of time." His fingers worked at the b.u.t.tons of his blue oxford dress shirt. "You think all I want is a roll in the hay. I want more than that, but you won't stay still long enough to hear me out."

"I apologize. I'll meet you in town for dinner, and you can say whatever you want to."

"We need privacy for this discussion, and we won't have that in town." He unfastened his cuffs. "The two of us have a future together. Maybe not marriage, but a future. Being together. I knew that the first time I met you."

"We don't have a future. Be real. You're only attracted to me because of my father. You don't even know me. You just think you do."

"That's where you're wrong." He took off his shirt revealing a gruesomely hairy chest. "I've been around longer than you have, and I understand human nature a lot better." He stood. "Look at you. Driving a f.u.c.king drink cart at a third-rate public course that calls itself a country club. Some women do just fine on their own, but you're not one of them. You need someone picking up the check."

"You're wrong."

"Am I?" He came toward the riverbank. "Your parents brought you up soft. It was a mistake I didn't make with Sunny. She worked at the plant from the time she was fourteen, so she learned early on where a dollar came from. But that's not the way it was with you. You had all the advantages and none of the responsibility."

There was enough truth in his words to sting.

He stopped at the riverbank. A raven called out. The water rushed around her. She shivered from the chill and from her vulnerability.

His hands dropped to his belt buckle. She sucked in her breath as he pulled it open. "Stop right there," she said.

"I'm hot and that water looks real good."

"I mean it, Spence. I don't want you here."

"You just think you don't." He pulled off his pants, tossed them aside, and stood in front of her. His hairy belly hung over white boxers, pasty legs protruding beneath.

"Spence, I don't like this."

"You brought it on yourself, Miz Meg. If you'd gone to Dallas with me like I wanted yesterday, we could have had this discussion on my plane." He dove in. The splash hit her in the eyes. She blinked, and within seconds, he'd surfaced beside her, his hair plastered to his head, rivulets of water running through his blue-black beard. "What's the real problem, Meg? You think I won't take care of you?"

"I don't want you to take care of me." She didn't know if he intended to rape her or if he merely wanted to make her submit to his authority. She only knew she had to get away, but as she backed toward the riverbank, his arm shot out and he grabbed her wrist. "Come here."

"Let me go."

His thumbs dug into her upper arms. He was strong, and he lifted her off the rocky bottom, exposing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She saw his lips coming toward her, those big square teeth aiming for her mouth.

"Meg!"

A figure shot out of the trees. Slim, dark-haired, dressed in hip-hugging shorts and a retro Haight-Ashbury T-shirt.

"Haley!" Meg cried.

Spence jumped back as if he'd been hit. Haley came closer, then stopped. She hugged herself, crossing her arms over her chest and clutching her elbows, unsure what to do next.

Meg didn't know why she'd shown up, but she'd never been so glad to see anyone. Spence's heavy, drawn eyebrows jutted ominously over his small eyes. Meg made herself look at him. "Spence was just leaving, weren't you, Spence?"

The fury in his expression told her that their love affair was over. By puncturing his ego, she'd moved to the top of his enemies list.

He pulled himself out of the water. His white briefs clung to his b.u.t.tocks, and she looked away. Haley stood frozen in the shade, and he didn't spare her a glance as he jerked on his pants and shoved his feet into his shoes without his socks. "You think you got the best of me, but you haven't." His voice was almost a growl as he s.n.a.t.c.hed up his shirt. "Nothing happened here, and don't either of you try to say otherwise."

He disappeared up the path.

Meg's teeth were chattering, and her knees had locked so she couldn't move.

Haley finally found her tongue. "I've-I've got to go."

"Not yet. Help me out. I'm a little shaky."

Haley came toward the bank. "You shouldn't swim here by yourself."

"Believe me, I won't be doing it again. It was stupid." A sharp stone bit into the ball of her foot, and she winced. "Here, give me your hand."

With Haley's help, she made it up onto the riverbank. She was dripping and naked except for her panties, and her teeth wouldn't stop chattering. She grabbed the towel she'd brought with her and sank down onto the sun-heated rock. "I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't shown up."

Haley looked toward the path. "Are you going to call the police?"

"Do you really think anybody wants to take Spence on right now?"

Haley rubbed her elbow. "What about Ted? Are you going to tell him?"

Meg imagined the consequences of doing just that and didn't like what she saw. But she also wasn't keeping this to herself. She rubbed her hair with the towel, then balled it up. "I'll call in sick at work for the next few days and make sure Spence can't find me. But as soon as that b.a.s.t.a.r.d's down payment is in the bank, I'm telling Ted exactly what happened. A few other people, too. They need to know how ruthless Spence can be." She clutched the towel. "For now, keep it to yourself, okay?"

"I wonder what Spence would have done if I hadn't shown up?"

"I don't want to think about it." Meg grabbed her T-shirt from the ground and pulled it on, but she couldn't make herself touch the bra he'd held. "I don't know what stroke of luck brought you here today, but I sure am glad. What did you want?"

Haley twitched, as if the question startled her. "I was- I don't know." Color flooded her face beneath her makeup. "I was driving, and I thought you might want to ... go get burgers or something."

Meg's hands stalled on the hem of her T-shirt. "Everybody knows I'm staying at Skeet's. How did you find me here?"

"What difference does it make?" She spun around and headed for the path.

"Wait!"

But Haley didn't wait, and her reaction was so extreme, so out of proportion to their conversation, that Meg was taken aback. Then everything clicked into place.

Her chest constricted. She shoved her feet into her flip-flops and ran after her. She took the shortcut through the cemetery instead of following the path. Her flip-flops slapped her heels, and weeds grabbed her still-damp legs. She reached the front of the church just as Haley ran around from the back, and she blocked her path. "Stop right there! I want to talk to you."

"Get out of my way!"

Haley tried to get past her, but Meg wouldn't let her. "You knew I was here because you followed me. Just like Spence did."

"You don't know what you're talking about. Let me go!"

Meg tightened her grip. "It was you."

"Stop it!"

Haley tried to free her arm, but Meg held fast as water dripped icy fingers down the back of her neck. "All this time. You're the one who broke into the church. You're the one who sent that letter and threw the rock at my car. All along. It was you."

Haley's chest heaved. "I don't- I don't know what you're talking about."

Meg's damp T-shirt clung to her skin, and goose b.u.mps broke out on her arms. She felt sick. "I thought we were friends."