“Us? You mean someone doesn’t like the idea that we’re—” She broke off and made another run at it. “Someone doesn’t like the rumors that are going around about us? But why on earth would anyone care if we’re, uh—”
“Sleeping together?” he offered helpfully.
“One time,” she said swiftly. “There was only one time. That does not exactly constitute a flaming affair.”
For some reason he found that observation both extremely irritating and strangely depressing. “Can’t argue that.”
She sipped her cocoa for a moment, then put the mug down. “I just had a thought. Maybe whoever did this is one of your old flames. A jealous lover from your mis-spent past?”
“Doubt it.”
She was undeterred. “Good grief. If I’m right, we’ve got more suspects than we can count.”
His incipient depression vanished in the heat of a sudden, fierce anger. He sat forward quickly, flattening his palms on the table. “My reputation in this town was always a hell of a lot more exciting than the reality.”
She blinked. “Now, Rafe—”
“Trust me on this. I was there.”
She cleared her throat. “Well, yes, of course you were, but everyone knows about your reputation in those days.”
“This may come as a stunning surprise to you, but contrary to popular opinion, I don’t have a legion of old flames hiding in the bushes here in Eclipse Bay.”
“I don’t believe I used the word ‘legion.’ ”
“Close enough. For the record, virtually all of my dates—and there were not as many of them as everyone seems to think—were weekend or summer visitors who came here for the beach, the boardwalk, and a good time. They knew what they were doing and so did I. There was nothing serious with any of them, and I’ve never seen any of them again.”
Her jaw clenched visibly. “There was Kaitlin Sadler.”
“Yes. There was Kaitlin Sadler. She was a year older than me, experienced, and she could take care of herself.”
“I never implied that you took advantage of her. No one ever said that.”
“I didn’t have a lot of rules for myself in those days, but I had a few and I stuck to them. I never got involved with anyone who was married or too young or too naïve to know the score. Hell, you ought to know that better than anyone else.”
“Me?” She gripped the edge of the table. “Why should I know anything about the history of your love life?”
“Because I never laid a hand on you eight years ago, that’s why.”
For the space of two or three heartbeats she simply stared at him in utter astonishment. Then she pulled herself together with an obvious effort. “Of course you never touched me. I wasn’t your type. You wouldn’t have looked twice at me if we hadn’t been stuck out there at the Arch together that night.”
A cold, mirthless amusement shafted through him. “You weren’t my type, and you were squarely in the ‘don’t touch’ category as far as I was concerned, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t look twice.”
Her eyes widened. “Because I was a Harte? Was I some sort of challenge?”
“The fact that you were a Harte had nothing to do with it.”
“Then why did you look twice?”
“Damned if I know. Pure masochism, probably, because I sure as hell knew that you’d never look twice at me.”
“That’s not true.” She shot to her feet. “I had a crush on you. Every girl in Eclipse Bay did.”
“That’s supposed to thrill me?” He was suddenly on his feet, too, although he had no recollection of getting out of his chair. “To know that for you I was just the interesting bad boy with the bike and the leather jacket and the dangerous rep? The kind of guy your parents always warned you about? The kind of guy it might be amusing to fool around with but definitely not the kind you would ever marry?”
A fresh tide of hot color rose in her face. He could have sworn he had embarrassed her. Good. Served her right. But her gaze did not slide away from his.
“How did you know what kind of man I’d marry?” she asked evenly.
“You told me that night, remember? You were only nineteen and you already had your damned list of requirements for a husband made out.”
“I was twenty, not nineteen, and I swear, if you mention that list one more time—”
He reached for her. He closed his hands around her shoulders and hauled her up against his chest. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care if I never hear about that damned list of yours again for as long as I live. Furthermore, I’m not real keen on hearing about your new, updated version of it, either.”
“Uh, Rafe, you’re acting a little weird here. Maybe the stress—?”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
He covered her mouth with his own, letting the fierce tension that was eating him up inside pour into her. She made a soft, muffled sound, and then her arms closed tightly around him and she was kissing him back with all the passion that had infused her anger a few seconds earlier.
“My God,” he muttered against her throat. “Do you have any idea of the scare you gave me tonight?”
“Scare?” Her own voice was muffled because she was frantically kissing his jaw. “Why were you scared?”
“First, because I thought maybe the reason you weren’t answering the door was that you were with some other man.”
“No. Really?” She went very still. Then she pulled back slightly and looked at him with wide, fascinated eyes. “You were actually afraid that I might be in bed with another man? Did you think that I might have a few old flames of my own here in Eclipse Bay?”
“Let’s not go there.” He refused to be sidetracked again by that possibility. “My other big fear was that you’d gone for a walk with Winston and fallen on the rocks.”
“Like Kaitlin Sadler?”
“I wasn’t thinking of Kaitlin,” he said bluntly. “All I could think about was you.” He wrapped his fingers around the back of her head. “Lord help me, I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything else except you since I got that letter from the lawyer.”
“Don’t give me that.” Fresh outrage erupted. “If you’ve been concentrating on me, it’s because I’m connected to Dreamscape. You have to deal with me before you can get your hands on my property. That’s why you suddenly started focusing on me. Admit it.”