Carly Phillips - Brazen

He removed his hand from her mouth and braced his palms on her shoulders. "I didn't know how you'd be reacting to the morning after, so I was giving you space."

"What if I don't want any?" There would be plenty of distance between her and Mac soon enough, she thought, trying to swallow the painful lump in her throat.

"Then I won't give you any." He dipped his head for a leisurely kiss, warm enough, wet enough, special enough to reassure her. "Now, are you ready to head a little further west?" He eased the shirt, which now looked like a wrinkled rag, out of her hands.

She stared into the dark depths of his eyes and smiled. "Yes." Anything he suggested sounded good to her. "I don't know what you had planned, but when I was straightening out back by the storage room, I found an old picnic basket. I could throw in a few of the things we picked up at the store and we could eat on the road."

"You sure you'd like that better than a restaurant?"

"Hmm. Wide-open spaces versus a crowded room. Hordes of people rather than just you and me? Come to think of it, a restaurant sounds much better."

He laughed and took her hand. "Come on. Let's pull some things together before we're eating under the midday sun."

Sam followed him inside to pack and get ready, determined to make the most of their time. Time that was already ticking away much too fast.

After finding a spot beneath a tree, Mac unloaded their packages while Samantha spread a large blanket across the grass. A warm breeze floated on the dry air. Turkey sandwiches, chips and cola went down quietly, the silence telling him she had finally relaxed. In the ensuing stillness of the desert, Mac enjoyed something that until now had been foreign to him. Comfortable silence with a woman by his side. He hadn't realized such a phenomenon could exist for him.

She bit into her chips with gusto and crunched loud enough to wake the wildlife, then glanced at him and shrugged. "What can I tell you? They crunch when you munch."

He burst out laughing. Damn but she made him feel good. Crumbs had fallen over her yellow top and he reached over to help her clean up. His hand brushed her breasts, and her nipples turned to rigid peaks.

She sucked in a startled breath and he shrugged.

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

He grinned. "You're right. I'm not." He reached into the basket for another cola. "Drink?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, thank you. But it is hot." Despite the wide leaves overhead, the Arizona sun beat down on them, and she plopped a wide-brimmed straw hat she'd bought in Cave Cove onto her head.

Resting her chin on her knees, she looked into the sky and sighed. "Who said you don't see heaven on earth?"

He eased himself closer. "I guess you like it here?"

"What's not to like?" She lay down on her back, letting the hat fall behind her head, and stared up at the sky. Wanting to see her perspective, he joined her. Their arms aligned and touched. Neither pulled away.

"It's enough to make me want to consider a geographical change," she murmured.

"Seriously?"

"No." She answered quickly. "But a person can dream, can't they?"

"Nothing wrong with that." As long as he could convince her to make those dreams a reality. To do that he had to understand what made her so skittish.

"So where are we, exactly?" she asked.

"A deserted stretch of land." Mackenzie land, but Mac didn't think she was ready to hear his secrets just yet. "It goes for miles in either direction."

Squinting into the bright glare of the sun, she shaded her eyes with her hands. "And that large hotel in the distance?" She rolled onto her side for a better view.

"A place called The Resort."

"You're kidding."

"No, why?"

Her shoulders rose and fell. "It's where I'll be going for my conference," she murmured in a voice he had to strain to hear. A voice that told him how much she disliked the prospect.

That pleased him. The location of her conference was another story. The jig was up. Mac had never been into absentee management, and she'd know within an hour of check-in that he owned the place.

He pondered the unexpected news in silence, deciding how to use her conference location to his advantage. At the very least, now he could set the stage and tell her in his own setting, on his own terms. Once he'd thought things through, he couldn't believe his luck.

When she walked out of The Hungry Bear, she wouldn't be leaving him after all. As owner, he had access to all the guest registration cards. He knew exactly where to find her, and he had no intention of letting her get away.

"The conference you mentioned. It's at The Resort?"

"Yes." She settled herself more comfortably on the heavy woven blanket and eased herself backward, until she snuggled into him.

Her small backside wedged against his stomach and groin. He swallowed a groan, suppressing desire in favor of the information he wanted her to reveal. He had a number of business conferences scheduled for later in the week and he tried to recount the possibilities.

"Let me guess," he said. "You're an insurance salesman."

Her throaty laugh rumbled against his chest. "Funny, Mac. You already know I'm a financial planner. I'm attending workshops on financial gain and risk management."

"I knew there was a brain in that gorgeous head. So are you meeting clients or superiors there?"

"Both. The mornings and afternoons are filled with seminars that'll help me make wiser and safer investments for my clients. Then I'll take some clients to lunch, and my… boss will take me and some of the firm's larger clients to dinner."

He smoothed her long strands of hair out of his face, then rested his chin on her shoulder. "So tell me. When you were a little girl, did you dream of being a financial planner?"

She laughed at the deliberate absurdity of the question. "I dreamed of being a ballerina, then when I turned out to be uncoordinated, I dreamed of being married. Love, a fairytale wedding and happily ever after."

"And the financial thing?"

"Came about when I realized a savvy woman doesn't rely on a man to support her. And because my college grades showed I had an uncanny ability with numbers. I invested some money my father had put in my name when I was young. I made a nice, tidy sum. Turns out I was good at taking risks, too."

He grinned, thinking how much they had in common. He'd taken a risk investing all the family money in turning the small bed-and-breakfast into a first-class resort and spa. He could have lost everything.

Samantha's biggest risk seemed to be letting herself get close to him. He glanced over. At least she'd begun to open up. Now that he knew he could surprise her at The Resort and tell her everything there, he'd bought himself more time.

His gut told him he had her heart, but he had yet to win her trust.

"So tell me. What are your dreams, Mac?"

"I didn't think you wanted to know."

"I've shared mine, so fair is fair. Besides, what are dreams but fantasies, and we've already shared those."

Had they ever. Just the memory made him hard. He wanted to be inside her again, but the timing was wrong. If he broke off their conversation now, he'd lose Samantha for good. "Okay."

He'd never shared his dreams with anyone before and found it hard to know where to begin. When he'd sold off acres of his father's land to expand the hotel, he'd also kept in mind a promise he'd made. "I'd like to build a house on a wide-open stretch of land," he told her. This land.

"I can see why."

His father had wanted surplus acres kept in the family for future generations of Mackenzies. Mac had complied with that request, and though his sister still owned her land, she couldn't live there now. As for Mac, there'd been no reason to build a house for one person, and lately he'd begun doubting he'd contribute to the continuation of the Mackenzie name. Then a bedraggled female had stumbled into a bar and given him cause to rethink his future.