Her heart beat too hard for her to find words. She stared at the screen in dread and curious fascination.

"What have you done?" she repeated in a stunned whisper.

She watched, tense and breathless, as the show played. She recognized all that she and Rob and Todd had created and captured, but now the program had been edited differently.

Rocco was gone.

Ben had taken his place.

"How did you do it?" she breathed.

He shrugged. "Who knew I was caught in so much of the footage?"

And he had been.

Ben calling her cupcake. Ben the sensual bad boy he was. Ben the wounded bear. All spliced with

snippets of tape of Julia instructing on what was needed for a man to be a true gentleman. The

audience would never realize that she had been instructing another man. She was amazed at how often Ben had been there, watching it all, taking it in. And then that moment where he had taken her into his arms to show Rocco how to dance with a woman. Julia gasped. And she had been involved in television long enough to know that that same gasp of awe was reverberating through El Paso right that second. Every female viewer from age eight to eighty would be swooning over what was slowly being revealed as a sensual but sensitive man.

She sat stunned through the first few commercial breaks. But finally she turned to him in awe. "How did you manage it?" she asked in wonder.

He shrugged and his lips quirked. "Todd, Kate, and I did some reediting. Even Folly helped."

"Folly?"

"You bet. He's not stupid, and he knows a good thing when he sees it."

She sat back, too moved to speak. After a second she asked, "What did you use in place of the grand

finale date?"

He smiled wickedly, then gestured to the television set when Primal Guy came back on. "Watch and learn," he teased.

Not knowing what to say, feeling overwhelmed, she turned back to the screen. Her eyes went wide and

her mouth fell open when she got her answer. Ben in the kitchen wearing an apron, serving up that gigantic breakfast, creating what appeared to be a man who was doting on Julia, and Julia moved to speechlessness.

"This was one of the toughest cuts," he explained.

"Why?"

"As you might recall," he said, one dark brow rising, "you were speechless because you weren't

speaking to me, not because I had shocked the words out of you."

She laughed out loud, the horrible clamp around her heart starting to ease. Hugging her knees close to her chest, she watched the show unfold as eagerly as she knew the audience would be watching. Just before she knew the program was going to end, she didn't have a clue how Ben would wrap it up.

But seconds later she had her answer.

The tears she had been fighting back finally spilled over as the camera captured Ben as he entered the grand living room. This Ben, the one who sat next to her on the sofa, whispered, "You can't believe how hard it was to get that shot of me walking into the living room without you knowing. Jesse helped, and we shot it last night while you were asleep."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I wanted to make sure it would work before you got your hopes up. I didn't want you disappointed again. Besides." He took her hands and looked her in the eye. "I owed you."

"You keep saying that, and I keep saying that you don't owe me anything."

"But I did. I owed you the same kindness and consideration you gave me this entire month. You were there for me. And I wanted to return the favor."

"Ben-"

"Shhh, watch the rest of the show."

When she turned back, Ben the Primal Guy had come close to the camera, and she could see that he

wore his leather jacket and looked as bad as he ever had.

The man on the screen smiled at her. "I might not be the perfect sweetie pie-"

Julia laughed through her tears. "Even when you were trying to help me, I couldn't get you into a tuxedo

or carrying roses!"

"But you did change me," he said into the camera. "You changed me, but more important, you saved me. Maybe I went down kicking and screaming, but you taught me how to be a better man."

He smiled that heartbreakingly sexy smile into the camera and said, "How about taking a chance on a

primal guy who promises to work hard to be a sweetie pie?"

On the sofa, as the music flared and the credits started to roll, she turned to him. "Why?" she breathed.

"Why did you really do it?"

He stared at her forever, taking her in, and she started to get nervous. What would this man say? That

he really did just want to thank her, or that age-old excuse he used again and again that he owed her- that it was nothing more than that?

"I wanted to be your white knight."

The words sent a shiver of amazement tingling down her spine.

He took her hand. "The guy who was there when you needed him the most. I wanted you to look into my eyes with all the love you have to give and have it directed at me."

"Oh, Ben," she whispered.

"I meant it when I said I love you," he added. "And I wanted to do whatever I could to prove that."

She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. She didn't think about being cool and elusive,

wild and sexy. She just wanted to hold on to this man.

"I love you, Ben Prescott. And I love that you are my knight in shining armor and saved the day."

"Not saved," he said, holding her. "I just helped. That's the thing you never understood. You don't have

to do it all by yourself."

She was beginning to understand that. She realized now that she had always felt she had to be the lone

ranger, helping others but not letting people truly into her heart. It had become a matter of pride to be strong and self-sufficient, to do everything her way, by herself. But now she knew differently. She couldn't do everything herself. And it wasn't a crime to let people help. Her show's success had taken a team effort.

"Which brings me to another point," he said.

"What?"

"I wondered if you could use a partner."

"A partner?" She looked at him curiously.

"Prescott and Boudreaux. Producers."

"You mean work together?! You and me?"

"Yep."

"But you're a cop."

"Was. I'm thinking that Serpico had it right when he got out and started making movies."

She laughed again at the sheer surprise and joy of being a partner with this man. Though there was just

one thing...

She looked at him through lowered lashes. "I think Boudreaux and Prescott sounds like a great team.

That is, if you can take the backseat to a woman."

This time he laughed. "How about fifty-fifty?"

She nodded. "The truth is, I wouldn't want it any other way."