Page 2 of Rainwater

Loner . The word came to her mind suddenly. Not only alone, but this man wanted to be alone. She realized how much of his solitude he was risking to defend her, and it struck a chord inside her. “Thank you for involving yourself in my problems, Mr.…”

“Rainwater. Corey.”

“Jennifer Horn,” she said as she extended her hand. He pushed his sunglasses up into his hair and clasped her hand, gently, but firmly. Her pulse stumbled from the electrifying feel of his bare palm against hers, as if her hand had hit a live wire instead of warm callused flesh.

But the electricity of his touch was nothing compared to the sheer shock effect of his eyes.

Green eyes . Dark, fathomless and hot. Honest, straightforward eyes that could melt solid steel, see into the deep recesses of her soul and learn her most private secrets.

Eyes a woman could sink into and get lost in.

Yet she felt that in those deep turquoise depths, she would find the shelter and warmth she’d been craving ever since she was stupid enough to marry that good-for-nothing, rodeo-riding, womanizing Sonny Braxton and allow him to father a child.

No way, Jennifer , she admonished herself silently.

No way are you going to get mixed up with a man that looks this good, a man that looks as elusive as the wind.

A loner who clearly wants to stay alone.

So stop looking at him like that . She pulled her hand away as if burned, but either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

He probably had women swooning at his feet all the time and was used to being stared at.

Even though she told herself to stand firm, she couldn’t seem to stop the quick, fluttery feeling in her stomach.

He was at least part Apache, she speculated, with his sharp, high cheekbones, and his full sensuous mouth and strong firm chin.

Long, tousled hair in differing lengths was pushed off his forehead, blue-black and gorgeous—a dead giveaway to the fact that he had Native American blood in him.

A hint of a wild, untamed nature glinted in his astonishing eyes. A warning?

One she intended to heed.

He canted his hip slightly in an arrogant display of male cockiness, indicating that he knew she was looking and he didn’t mind. In fact, she had the feeling that he welcomed her appraising eyes on him.

Dangerous .

She had never met a more blatantly sexy man since Sonny, and even he paled by comparison.

“What brings you to Silver Creek?” she managed to ask, trying to conceal the evident wonder he evoked in her.

He didn’t answer but strode away. He shucked the worn mackintosh and stowed it in the pocket of the saddlebag he had strapped to his gleaming motorcycle. She shouldn’t have, but she did notice the way his tight black jeans molded to his very nice backside.

She must have been so caught up in her argument with Jay that she hadn’t even noticed the noise of the sleek motorcycle’s powerful engine.

Even through the coating of dust, she could tell the bike was well taken care of. He’d probably put it together himself, she mused. He looked like the kind of man who was good with his hands.

“Where’s the nearest hotel?” he asked with his back to her.

Thank God, he couldn’t see her eyes. She took a deep breath.

“No hotel. We’ve only got one motel and it’s at the end of town, but it’s really clean.

Ellen Beaumont runs both the motel and the diner and she keeps everything spic and span.

She even tries to dry the sheets outside if she can manage. We call her Mrs. Clean.”

He chuckled softly without real mirth. “If it has a bed and a shower, I’ll be ecstatic. I’ve done my share of sleeping on the ground.”

An unexpected catch of pain stabbed her heart at the disheartened tone of his voice.

Hadn’t anyone ever shown him a little kindness?

He seemed so alone and so sad. “Just keep going down this road.” She pointed down the main street of town when he turned around, leaning his backside against the seat of the motorcycle. “It’s next door to the diner.”

“I have always wondered what the difference is between a hotel and a motel.” He raked his hands through his hair and it fell back around his shoulders like a dark waterfall. She wondered what it would feel like between her fingers, against her heated skin.

Realizing that she was staring at him again, she shifted and stuck her hands in the pockets of her straight denim skirt. “A motel wants to be a hotel when it grows up.”

His lips twitched. His eyes traveled over her, and even though the humor glinted in them, she could still see the anger burning in their depths.

“Ah, a woman with sass and backbone. A volatile combination,” he said huskily, his voice doing strange and amazing things to her insides.

His eyes moved slowly over her, causing that warm tingle in her stomach to radiate to her skin. The appreciative look in his eyes made her so nervous that she instantly looked away.

Softly he said, “Look at me, Jennifer.”

Her eyes flew to his and her face flamed. His eyes lingered with intense force on her lips.

Self-consciously she licked them and the appreciative look swiftly changed to one she recognized immediately.

Her breath fisted in her lungs. God, she’d never had a man look at her like that.

It weakened her knees to jelly. It wasn’t lustful, exactly.

It was the intense look of a man who admired a good-looking woman and made her feel intensely beautiful.

Unfortunately, the look made her remember what it was like to be held by a man, made love to—it brought heated visions of a hard, muscular body, legs wrapped around hers and warm, supple skin.

For a silent moment, she savored those memories with a hunger that had grown over the thirteen long years since she divorced Sonny.

“So, are you visiting?” she managed to say around the knot in her throat.

“No.” He folded his arms over his chest and tilted his head with a self-indulgent expression on his face.

“On vacation?” She thought that possibility unlikely and noticed how his eyes became distant, wary and closed.

“No.”

“Just passing through?”

“You’re very inquisitive, Jennifer Horn.”

And you are very guarded, Corey Rainwater .

Yet regardless of the shield he had erected, she could see the pain in his eyes.

This man was scarred and battered by life.

He was running, she thought silently. “And you’re being polite.

My father would have called it nosy.” She could hear her father’s voice.

That inquisitiveness is going to get you into trouble one day, girl.

That devil-may-care attitude will, too .

He’d been right. The fact that she was raising a child alone showed her how her impulsiveness had gotten her into trouble.

“My father always told me I was as curious as a cat.”

A smile warmed his face and twinkled in his eyes. “Well, darlin’, cats have nine lives. You only have one.”

“A man with backbone and sass,” she teased. She watched the wide grin slash across his face and wished for more time with him.

What was she? Crazy? She had enough trouble.

More than she could handle right now with Ellie and the Triple X, not to mention Jay.

She knew she hadn’t heard the last from him.

Besides, this stranger was involved some way with the rodeo.

She was sure. And she couldn’t let history repeat itself. She wouldn’t.

“Down this road, you said?” he questioned while his bright eyes traveled over her face, then touched intimately on her hair as if it were changing colors or something equally magnificent.

She got the strange feeling that he was as reluctant to leave, as she was reluctant to let him.

Ignoring the weakness that his smile aroused, she managed to keep the breathlessness out of her voice.

“Yes. You can’t miss it. Why don’t you come to dinner tonight?

” The words were out of her mouth before she could engage her brain.

“After all, you saved me from getting punched out. The least I can do to repay you for your help is give you a home-cooked meal.” She stumbled over the words like a tongue-tied teenager. Her face flushed again.

He went very still. The raw pain that passed across his face wrenched something deep inside her.

Who’d hurt him , she wondered. Who had hurt him so much that a friendly invitation to dinner would make him look as though someone had ripped open a wound?

She remembered what Jay had called him and winced inside.

Derogatory words came easily to Jay. Even in this PC time, how many times had Corey’s heritage been belittled , she wondered.

He had been hurt enough to make a simple dinner invitation seem like a gift from God.

He looked at her so long she thought he wasn’t going to say anything. He rubbed at his eyes and pushed his hair back again. His voice cracked slightly when he finally answered.

“That’s very kind of you, but I’ll have to decline.” He paused and looked down the street as if trying to maintain his composure.

At his refusal of her invitation, she felt slightly relieved and intensely disappointed at the same time.

“You don’t owe me anything, by the way,” he said.

“Creeps like that cowboy need to be taken down a notch or two. I don’t like seeing women abused.

” He looked at her suddenly and the fierceness in his eyes caused her chest to tighten.

“I especially don’t like seeing you abused.

” His jaw clenched and he closed his eyes wearily, and she suddenly noticed how tired and drawn-out he looked.

“Any decent man would have done what I did.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” She looked away because the vulnerability in his expression was too much to bear. Why did people have to be so damn narrow-minded?