Armed with the remote and a bowl of popcorn, Audrey settled in next to Jamie on her couch. “You aren’t a talker are you?”

Jamie’s beer paused halfway to his mouth and he glanced at her. “What do you mean a ‘talker’?”

“I mean, you aren’t one of those people who has to inject commentary throughout the whole movie, right?” She faked a wince. “Cause if you are, that’s just gonna ruin it for me.”

He chuckled. “What? Are you gonna dump me if I am?”

No, Audrey thought, shaking her head. Dumping one person today was enough, thank you very much. Rather than leave Derrick in the lurch, Audrey had taken the opportunity to call him this afternoon while Jamie had been at the camp’s library selecting their movie. He’d nixed a chick flick and she’d vetoed blood and gore, so they’re reached a compromise with a nice comedy.

At any rate, Derrick had been surprised by her answer to his proposal and even more shocked that she hadn’t put up a protest when he’d told her that they’d simply have to break up. Thankfully, Derrick’s ego was substantial enough that her refusal didn’t seem to have affected him that deeply.

Still, she just felt better knowing that she’d ended that chapter in her life and started a new one with Jamie. There was nothing quite so thrilling as the blush of new romance, she thought, snuggling in next to him as the previews rolled.Ah, Audrey thought happily. Another similarity. He didn’t want to fast-forward though them.

She cast him a glance from the corner of her eye and felt her chest squeeze with secret joy. Honestly, she could just look at him all day. Her gaze was perpetually drawn to the masculine line of his jaw, the curiously vulnerable patch of soft skin next to those amazing eyes. He just did it for her, Audrey thought. Was he perfect? No. What person was? She was suddenly reminded of a quote by Sam Keen. You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly. That fit, Audrey thought, smiling softly.

And Jamie had turned a corner today. This afternoon when he’d finally broken down and shared his tragedy with her... Her own chest had ached so much it had brought tears to her eyes. He’d been grieving for so long, and worse, blaming himself. She wasn’t altogether sure that he’d let himself completely off the hook in that regard, but she knew she’d argued a significant enough point to make him doubt and that was a start, at least. Baby steps, Audrey told herself, and wondered if asking him to stay with her indefinitely was more along the lines of taking a giant leap.

Technically he was supposed to go home tomorrow and yet the idea of him leaving now after everything they’d been through this week made her belly tip in a nauseated roll. She missed him and he hadn’t even left yet. That couldn’t be good, considering he was based in Atlanta and she in the wilds of Maine. Logistics, she knew, but she couldn’t keep from jumping ahead.

He was it. Jamie Flanagan was The One.

“Can I ask you something?” Audrey said, wanting to make sure they were on the same page. Or at the very least in the same chapter.

He tugged playfully on a lock of her hair. “I thought you said you didn’t like to talk during the movie.”

“Previews don’t count.”

“Ah,” he sighed, inclining his head. “That’s a handy piece of knowledge right there. Sure,” he said in answer to her question. “Ask away.”

Audrey hesitated. “Do you have to go home tomorrow?”

A slow smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and those golden green eyes softened. “Are you issuing an invitation?”

Audrey nodded. “An open one,” she said, putting it all out there. In for a penny, in for a pound, she supposed, mentally shrugging.

Impossibly, those gorgeous eyes softened even more and he leaned over and brushed his lips across hers in a tender kiss that stole her breath. “I like the sound of that.”

“I’m not scaring you, am I?” she asked, suddenly uncertain. She knew he cared about her--one of the only perks of this empathy thing, but... “I just--”

Jamie pressed a single finger against her mouth and his gaze searched hers. The emotion--the unadulterated feeling he allowed her to see--made her pulse leap. “I’d only be scared if you didn’t want me here.”

“No worries then,” Audrey told him. She leaned over and pressed her lips to his, sighed with pleasure as the innocent gestured quickly morphed into something a lot more potent. A movie? she mentally scoffed. Why watch a movie when there were other, more satisfying ways, to pass an evening.

Especially with him.

In the process of trying to crawl into his lap without upending her popcorn, Audrey started when a loud knock came at the door, then it abruptly burst open.

Moses leaped off the recliner, one-hundred-and-fifty pounds of pissed-off growling canine, and barreled for the door.

“Moses, heel!” Audrey shouted at precisely the same instant she recognized her grandfather. There were two grim-faced men behind him whom she couldn’t identify, but she could hardly think about them at the moment. She was more concerned with keeping her dog from ripping the Colonel’s throat out. “Heel,” she ordered again, jumping up after the dog.

Her grandfather scowled. “Moses,” he scolded. “It’s only me.” He glared at Jamie. “It’s him you should maul.”

Confused, Audrey grabbed Moses by the collar and tugged him back. “Sit,” she told him, patting him on the head. Her dog issued another warning growl, but did as she commanded.

Jamie had left the couch and had come to stand behind her. “Colonel,” he acknowledged. His gaze darted to the men standing behind her grandfather and he gave them an up-nod, one of those male gestures of acknowledgment which seemed to indicate that he knew them.

Baffled, Audrey tucked her hair behind her ear. “Gramps, I didn’t know you were coming,” she said, for lack of anything better. She hadn’t called with updates the way he’d asked her to--she’d been too busy sleeping with his friend, she thought with an internal squirm--but surely that wouldn’t warrant a personal visit.

He continued to bore a hole through Jamie. “That’s because I wanted the element of surprise.” He paused. “When you didn’t return any of my phone calls I began to get suspicious.” His brows lowered even further. “Then Tewanda made an ominous comment about ‘my plan working out even better than I anticipated’ and I knew that I’d created a problem.”

His plan? Audrey wondered, completely confused. What plan? “Gramps, I don’t under--“

“I made the mistake of contacting your friends, here, Flanagan, and as you can see they leapt to the same conclusion I did and have rushed here on your behalf to try and save you. Touching, but pointless.” His brows formed an ominous line. “Because if you have done what I think you’ve done--if you have rounded any of the bases I warned out about--then no one will be able to save you. I want answers,” he thundered. “Now.”

He wasn’t the only one, Audrey thought, growing increasingly worried. She felt a frown wrinkle her brow. What the hell was going on? To hell with it. She didn’t have to wonder. This was her house, dammit. “Gramps, what are you talking about? Plan? Bases? Why are you threatening a guest in my home?” she wanted to know. Granted he was her grandfather, but this was uncalled for.

For the first time since he’d barged into her home, her grandfather paused to look at her. A flash of discomfort and oddly, contrition, momentarily claimed his features. “I have a confession to make, Audie. Do you remember last week when I told you that I would always have your best interests at heart, and to always remember it?”

A cold chill settled in her belly. She looked from a grim faced Jamie back to her grandfather. “I do,” she replied cautiously.

He grimaced. “Well, remember it now because what I’m about to confess is most likely going to make you angry.”

“Sir,” Jamie butted in, speaking for the first time since this weird scenario had began only minutes ago. “Let me tell her. Please,” he added as an afterthought.

A throb started above her left eye and a sickening sensation swept through her midsection. Tell her what? What the hell was going on?

“You lost that option, Flanagan, and you’re going to lose a lot more. I trusted you with someone I love, and you betrayed that trust. You’ve betrayed her. You were supposed to flirt with her, dammit!” He gestured wildly. “Not treat her like all those other tramps you whore around with.”

The sickening sensation worsened, pushing panic into her throat. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “Gramps, what are you talking about?”

“Flanagan owed me a favor, Audrey, and I called it in on your behalf.” He shifted uncomfortably. “You see, Tewanda had told me that Derrick had proposed and I was afraid that you would say yes.” He jerked his head in Jamie’s direction. “He was supposed to change your mind.”

Floored, Audrey didn’t know what to address first, her grandfather’s manipulation or Jamie’s part in it. The former pissed her off and the latter... Well, the latter felt like a boot-heel of disappointment straight into her heart. “You sent a man here to seduce me?” she asked, thunderstruck. Her eyes narrowed into angry slits. “How dare--“

“Not seduce,” he corrected swiftly. “He was supposed to flirt with you,” he explained a bit sheepishly, unable to hold her gaze. “He was supposed to instill doubt.” Her grandfather’s wrath turned upon Jamie once more. “He was never supposed to touch you. Period.”

Audrey went numb inside, absorbing what her grandfather had just said. She crossed her arms over her chest, chilled, and cleared her throat. “Is this true?” she asked him.

“The simple answer is yes,” Jamie admitted. “But I’m hoping you’ll give me a chance to explain.”

Audrey nodded, felt icicles lick through her veins. Any second now she’d be frozen completely, then simply shatter. She swallowed. “I, uh...” She winced, shook her head. “I just want to be clear on something. You were supposed to change my mind about marrying Derrick and then report back to my grandfather, right? Is that the gist of it?”

Jamie nodded. “But--“

“And yet you’ve known the answer to that for a while, haven’t you, Jamie?” He’d seduced her, knowing that she’d never intended to marry Derrick. You know, Audrey thought. She’d pegged Jamie Flanagan as many things--fierce, loyal, competent, hers, even, and yet an opportunistic player had never been one of them. He’d used her...and she’d made it easy for him.

Evidently reading her line of thinking, Jamie stepped toward her. “Audrey, I know that you’re angry and you have every right to be, but if you’ll just give me a chance to explain--“

She smirked, walked between his two friends--Payne and McCann, if she remembered correctly--and opened her door. “You’ve had plenty of opportunities to explain, Jamie, and no one is more disappointed or feels more foolish right now than I do that you didn’t.” She lowered her head to hide her watering eyes. “Please go.”

“Audrey,” he repeated softly, a say-you-don’t-mean-it tone.

She merely opened the door wider.

 

*   *   *

 

“We’ve been trying to call you,” Payne told him. “To warn you. When that didn’t work...” He shrugged, not stating the obvious. They’d come to his rescue. Jamie was thankful, but couldn’t find the words at the moment.

“You know this isn’t over with Garrett,” Guy pointed out. He jerked his head toward Audrey’s cottage. “Once he gets finished covering his own ass up there he’ll be down here on yours.”

Jamie tossed back another shot of whiskey, hoping like hell it would warm him up inside. Seeing the look on Audrey’s face when she’d realized that he’d made love to her after she’d given him the information he’d needed had practically flash-frozen his insides. The duplicity had been bad enough, but this... This was a bigger betrayal.

You’ve had plenty of opportunities to explain, Jamie, and no one is more disappointed or feels more foolish right now than I do that you didn’t.

Anger was so much easier to accept than disappointment, he thought, remembering the look of complete regret on her hauntingly beautiful face.

“Let him come,” Jamie said, spoiling for a fight. Everything about this damned favor had been wrong. It was Garrett’s fault. Jamie hadn’t wanted to trick her to start with. He’d known then that it was wrong, that it could only end in disaster. His. “I’ve got a few things I’d like to say to him.”

Guy and Payne shared a look.

“I think you’d better start figuring out a way to keep Garrett from separating your stones from your shaft, if you know what I mean,” McCann suggested. “This was his grand-daughter, Jamie.” He chuckled darkly. “This wasn’t just some three-date disposable girl you messed around with.”

Annoyed, Jamie looked up, glared menacingly at his friend and laced his voice with unmistakable lead. “She’s not disposable.”

Payne’s gaze sharpened. “What are you saying?”

Guy stilled, studied him for a moment. Any trace of humor vanished from his gaze. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

Jamie nodded. “She’s...it,” he finally finished, releasing a pent-up breath. And he’d blown the hell out of any chance with her. After a moment, he laughed bitterly and said as much. “I’ve screwed up. I should have told her and I didn’t. And she was right. I’ve had plenty of time, I just...” He gestured wearily.

“You just thought she’d never have to know,” Payne finished.

“Stupid bastard,” Guy chimed in. “Granted I am not the authority on women that you are, but even I know they appreciate honesty and don’t like being lied to.”

Payne peered out the window. “Or made a fool of. She thinks she fell for an act, and the longer she ruminates on that, the harder it’s going to be to change her mind.”

He was right, Jamie realized. Whether she’d wanted him to leave or not, by walking away he’d just made himself look all the more guilty. What the hell had he been thinking? Had he lost his freaking mind? He didn’t retreat, dammit. He’d been a Ranger, for chrissakes. He didn’t back down. He’d never walked away from a fight in his life and wasn’t about to start now. Not when he had so much to lose.

Namely her.

Jamie sprang up from his chair and headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Guy asked, startled.

“I’m taking that hill,” Jamie said, referencing the old adage, because he was prepared to die on it if need be. His lips quirked with bitter humor.

And considering Garrett wanted to kill him that was a distinct possibility.