Cougar shook his head. "Learning to fight won't change how he feels about you."

"I disagree." It had to. She couldn't live the rest of her life loving Clint when he didn't love her.

"It won't hurt for her to learn to fight," Mara pointed out. "You did say it was important for every woman to know how to defend herself."

"I did." Cougar stood.

"So you'll teach her?" Mara asked, her hand on his thigh looked small against the long expanse of muscle.

"Without telling Clint?" Jenna added, knowing Clint would forbid it.Cougar's big hand engulfed Mara's where it rested on his thigh. He stared at Jenna, his golden gaze so intent that she immediately dropped her eyes, remembered her vow, and brought her gaze back up to meet his. She might have imagined the slight nod of Cougar's head, but she was so desperate, she interpreted it as approval to sh.o.r.e up her resolve. He made her hold his gaze for two heartbeats before a slight smile turned up the corner of his mouth.

"As I owe the man one, I'll teach you."

Jenna closed her eyes as relief swept through her.

When she opened them, all she could see was the back of Cougar's head and the long fall of his hair as he leaned over Mara.

She'd never seen a man kiss a woman. Watching Cougar kiss Mara was a revelation. For a man who made her think in terms of danger and unpredictability, he was incredibly careful with his wife. From where she sat, Jenna could see the play of muscles under his shirt as he shifted his angle. He was a powerful man. As powerful as Clint, but whereas she was a big woman with meat on her bones to take a blow, Mara was tiny and slender.

Cougar could break her neck with a slap.

Jenna thought she heard Cougar groan and then Mara's hands crept over his shoulders, the tips curling into his shoulder as if she would pull him to her. Couga.r.s.eemed to lean into her grasp. By shifting just the slightest to the right, she could see his hand cupping Mara's head. She expected to see his fingers fisted in her hair, holding her for his pleasure, but the hand that engulfed her head was open, supporting, not demanding. The dark thumb resting against the white of her cheek caressed the skin with incredible gentleness.

"d.a.m.n, Angel, you go to my head," she heard him murmur, and she knew the rumors were true. Cougar McKinnely may have found his wife in a notorious bordello, but he loved her.

She pulled her gaze away from the two and moved the brick down on her thigh. If Cougar could love Mara despite her past, then maybe Clint could love her. Maybe she'd go to his head the way Mara went to Cougar's, and maybe he'd hold her the way Cougar held Mara-as though she was everything precious that made up his world.

The floor creaked as Cougar straightened. He was still looking at Mara, concern on his face. "You take care, today."

Mara shook her head at him. "You tell me that every day."

He touched her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

His skin was very dark against hers. "I have hopes that one day you'll listen.""I listen."

"Uh-huh." The smile that tilted his wide mouth was as soft as down. He flicked her nose. "And leave the furniture upstairs alone, until I get back."

Mara merely rolled her eyes. "Don't you have work to do?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't you do it?"

"When I have your promise."

"Can I clean house?" Mara blew her hair off her forehead.

"Yes."

"Figures you'd agree to that."

"I'll have your promise on the other." Cougar touched her cheek again.

"Soon as you're out the door, I could break my word."

"But you won't." The faintest of smiles crinkled the corner of the eye Jenna could see. He kissed Mara on her head. "You two come on down to the barn when Jenna's feeling better."

"Thank you."

He left the room. Mara's gaze clung to his broad back as he left, her heart in her eyes."I want that," Jenna said. The declaration landed hard in the sudden silence.

"My husband?" Mara turned, her expression amused.

"I want Clint to look at me like Cougar looks at you."

Jenna knew she was blushing from the heat in her cheeks.

Not to mention the laughter in the other woman's gaze.

"You want Clint to love you."

"Yes." It sounded so stark when said aloud.

"And you don't think he does?"

"No."

"Do you love him?"

"Yes."

"Have you told him?"

"Yes." Her blush turned to scorching.

"And?"

"He's kind to me, but he never says it back." She shrugged, feeling the emptiness of that "and" to the bottom of her soul.

"That's not good."

"No."

"It will have to be fixed."

"That's what I'm trying to do." With a wave of her hand, Mara dismissed Jenna's efforts."We'll need help." She walked over to the small desk and pulled out paper and a pencil.

"You think Cougar can't teach me?" Jenna asked, putting the towel-wrapped brick carefully on the gleaming floor. That was not what she wanted to hear.

"Cougar would be hopeless at this," Mara snorted, and not in a ladylike manner. She scribbled on the paper.

With a sharp flourish, she finished writing and folded the paper in half. Mara glanced up from the desk and the smile on her face promised ill for someone. "I'm calling in reinforcements."* * * * *

"d.a.m.n it woman, do it like you mean it."

Jenna flinched at Cougar's growl and once again let her body drop while bringing the stick she was pretending was a knife into Cougar's knee. And once again, at the last moment, instinctively pulled back.

Cougar hauled her back up, his breath hissing between his teeth with impatience. "That wouldn't have even broken the skin."

"I know." She'd tried six times, and every time, given in to the sick feeling in her stomach at the last minute.

"If you can't take out the knee, how are you going to hamstring them?" The question growled past her ear as Cougar tightened his arm around her stomach.

"I don't know." She had absolutely no idea. She did know, however, if she couldn't master this, she was never going to succeed in her plan.

"G.o.dd.a.m.n it, you'd better not be crying." Cougar took a step back so fast she stumbled.

"I'm not." She blinked the moisture out of her eyes.

He caught her arm and turned her around. Sunlight dappled the barn floor. A stray beam shot through theroom and struck her across the eyes, blinding her. She shifted to the left in time to see Cougar fold his arms across his chest.

"You asked me to teach you."

"I know." She waved her hand helplessly. "I just didn't expect..." How could she say she hadn't expected it to be so violent?

"What?"

She pushed her hair off her face, forgetting about the stick and tangling it in her hair.

"It seems so mean," she admitted, unwrapping a strand of hair from the branch bud.

She flinched when Cougar swore and shoved his hair back over his shoulder. "Did you think you could just ask an attacker to let you go?"

"No, but do I have to stab them?" She lifted her chin as she yanked at the stick.

"What the he-eck else are you going to do? You're no match for a man in a fistfight, you can't run, and you're too soft for other things."

The calm listing of her negatives just made them seem so much bigger.

"Maybe I could knee them in sensitive places?"

Cougar was shaking his head before she finished.

"That's not reliable and you have to be too close." Hestepped forward into her shadowed area, his expression a combination of amus.e.m.e.nt and exasperation. She flinched as he brushed her hands aside and took the stick.

"Your best bet is to use what they know about you,"

he said as he went to work on the snarled mess, showing none of her impatience, gently untangling the strands.

"Do you really think it'll work?"

His hands stilled. "Don't take this wrong, Jenna, but for years you've taken whatever anyone dished out to you, not saying a word. If push comes to shove, you can bet everyone will be expecting you to surrender."

"They'll probably be right." It wasn't a very pretty picture he painted. She sighed. The stick came free.

"I'm counting on them selling you short." He said that in that deep drawl that reminded her of Clint. He handed her the stick. "And when they do, you'll use that to your advantage."

"I will?" She rubbed her fingers down the rough surface.

"Yes." He motioned for her to turn around. She didn't immediately.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because you're a mother now, and anyone who harms you, harms your children."She hadn't thought of that.

"And you really think I'll be able to do this?"

"I think if push comes to shove and someone you love is in trouble, you'll surprise yourself."

"I'm not so sure if it's Gray."

"The boy giving you problems?" His smile flashed across his face.

"He's so cold and angry."

"Scared, too, I'll bet."

She shook her head, remembering the determination that settled in Gray's eyes and the resentment that curled his mouth. "He doesn't have time to be scared. If he's not working with Clint, he's here with you or over at Asa's earning that horse he fell in love with."

"The boy's got a goal, that's for sure."

"I don't think it's a good one."

"Probably not, but he'll work through it and be glad for his family when he gets to the other side."

She shrugged. "I think he just doesn't think much of me."

"I'd say he thinks the world of you," Cougar contradicted, turning her around.

"What makes you say that?" She twisted against his hand to see his face."He gave his sister to you." With a simple push, he finished turning her around. She stood where he placed her, staring at the dust motes floating through the air.

Gray had given his sister to her.

"He didn't argue when I claimed him," she mused aloud.

"He's not dumb. He knows a good thing when he sees it." His arm settled around her waist. "Like Clint."

She slipped the stick of wood in the slit pocket of her skirt, biting her lip against the urge to ask him how he knew Clint saw her as a good thing.