"Yippee!" Kate cried out.

She leaped up and took Julia by the hands and twirled her around. "I knew all along you could do it!

And you did! It's Must See TV, Jules. I can't wait for Chloe and Sterling to get back in town. They're going to be as thrilled as I am!"

It was all Julia could do not to sag against her friend in relief.

"You look exhausted," Kate said.

"Rob, Todd, and I have been editing all weekend."

"Todd?"

"The guy who assisted Rob with the footage. Some of the sequences were his."

"Guy?" Kate raised a brow.

"A sixteen-year-old guy."

"You had a kid help with this?" Andrew demanded.

"Yep. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Actually, no. What a great angle. A kid who helped with the show. We can get coverage on MTV.

We'll be able to shoot for that huge eighteen-to-thirty-four demographic that pays so well. This is great!"

Now Folly was excited. It was like her life had turned on a dime.

"Go home and get some rest," Kate said. "You deserve it. We'll take care of everything else on this end."

Now that the hard part was over, Julia wanted a break. She wanted to get away. But the thought of

going home held no appeal. It was Monday evening, and Bobby's Place would be filled with men there to watch Monday Night Football.

Men who would adore her.

Men who weren't Ben.

The old Julia surged through her, and when she slid into her car, she headed toward the bar that had been a favorite hangout for her and the girls.

She felt wild and on the edge. It was like the act of keeping busy had kept the wildness at bay. And now

that the job was done, the wildness surged back like a tidal wave, overtaking her.

She drove fast, pulling into the lot and throwing the car into park. The minute she walked into Bobby's Place, heads turned. She absorbed the appreciative murmurs. The smiles of promise.

She walked to the bar and took a stool that some big, brawny man vacated for her.

"Thank you," she purred.

But her heart pounded. She couldn't find the joy the attention used to bring her.

Determined, she told herself she just had to try harder.

When a strapping man next to her offered to buy her a drink, she accepted.

"A cosmo, thank you."

It was all she could do not to suck the whole thing down in one gulp in hopes of finding the ease, the

power, she'd always found when she was surrounded by men.

She felt a shiver of concern that she wouldn't be able to find her way back to being a bad girl. She had always been the woman that men sought out and couldn't have-unless she wanted them. And then only for a little while. She didn't believe in commitment. She didn't want anything long term.

Long term never worked out.

She had seen that again and again with her father.

She refused to be like one of the many women he discarded when he was bored. She did the discarding.

But tonight, with handsome, interested men circling her, she couldn't find the power in her lifelong

philosophy.

She must not be trying hard enough.

With the determination of a warrior going into battle, she reached under the bar and placed her hand on

the man's thigh. She saw the start of surprise, followed quickly by the desire that flared even brighter in

his eyes, the way the pulse in his neck beat harder. Even the rise in his tight jeans. He wanted her. But all she felt was panic. Panic that this wasn't working for her. All because she was obsessed with another man. Damn. If she was truthful with herself, she would admit that it was Ben who she wanted. Ben, who was as bad as they came. A man like her father, who would get bored easily.

She curled her fingers into the man's thigh. Harder. She concentrated. This had to work.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she sensed a change in the bar, like an energy sizzling through the space. She tried to block it out. Focused on her hand on this stranger's thigh. She could do this.

Then she felt the man tense.

"Uh, uh," he stammered.

"What's wrong?" she purred.

That's when she saw Ben.

He stood behind her, staring at her reflection in the mirrored backsplash.

"Julia," he said simply.

"Ben." She swallowed hard.

He stood like a towering wall of muscle, his hair dark, his eyes darker. His body was sleek and smooth,

predatory in a way that had every man in the room stepping back. His ruggedly chiseled face was filled

with danger, a warning. This was not a man to mess with-at least a sane person wouldn't.

But that was the thing. She didn't feel sane. She felt every bit as crazed and dangerous as he had been since she met him.

She held on to the man's thigh even tighter, the nails she had polished last night, her favorite hot pink, running along his stiff blue jeans.

The man was caught between desire and the need to protect. Himself.

"Hey, uh, man, if she's with you, I didn't know." He staggered off his seat.

After a second, Ben slipped onto the stool. "A draft," he ordered with quiet control. A cold mug was set before him in record time.

"So," he said, "what was that all about?"

To someone who didn't know him well, the tone would have sounded conversational. Julia knew better. Ben was mad as hell.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said stiffly.

"Ya know," he said with a regretful sigh, "one of the things that I always admired about you was the way you weren't afraid to tell it like it was. No matter how harsh the truth, you said it. Tell me, Julia, what happened to that woman?"

She hated that the words hit their mark-a truth that went beyond wild clothes or prim clothes, overtly sexual behavior or virginal manners.

"That's none of your business."

"Maybe," he conceded. "But I want it to be my business."

Her fingers clutched the long stem of her drink tightly. "Sure you do. Now." She swiveled away, slid off the stool, and went in search of some man to dance with her.

Ben watched her go, and in short order she was on the dance floor, pressing close to another man who wore a cowboy hat, boots, and jeans. Ben had told himself that some good old-fashioned sex with Julia would get her out of his head. He had wanted her for weeks, and had told himself that that desire had been purely sexual. Over the last few days since that amazing night, he hadn't been able to get her out of his head.

What he had hoped would finally purge her from his thoughts had only added fuel to the fire. All he felt afterward was more intense desire. For this woman. And the episode on the tram had only proved he wanted her more.

He understood her wish not to show weakness or need. So he understood why she had been avoiding him. He had wanted to avoid her, too. But the more he tried to put her out of his head, the more he wondered what she was doing, where she was. Until he came to Bobby's Place to throw back a few in hopes of drowning out thoughts of her. Only to find her here. Putting the moves on a cowboy as if proving the wild Julia was back. With a vengeance.

He wasn't sure whom she was trying to prove that to, however. The crowd or herself. And now it was like she wanted to prove what they had shared meant nothing to her.

He didn't believe it for a second. What he believed was that she didn't want it to mean anything.

Pushing off the stool, he slapped down some money, then walked over to the dance floor.

"I like," Ben heard the cowboy say, the man's voice filled with sexual promise.

"So do I," Julia murmured, running her hand down his chest as they moved together in a smooth

Texas two-step.

It wasn't jealousy that snaked through Ben; it was something deeper. A need to keep her safe.

"What's your name?" the cowboy asked.

"Who cares about names?" she responded with a wicked chuckle.

That's when Ben knew he was right. She was pissed off, probably at herself, and doing something

stupid to prove some kind of point. He'd had enough of that.