Body Heat (Vintage Category Romance) by Maddie James

met, and Blaire couldn’t stop the rest of her tears from slipping over and sliding down her cheeks with a soft sob.
    His face turned from hard angles to yielding flesh as his finger gently lifted the tears off her cheeks.
    “No,” he whispered. Blaire watched his lips. “You’re that beautiful.”
    A huge lump formed in Blaire ’s throat. Then slowly, she began to shake her head back and forth. “Don’t lie to me,” she whispered back.
    His hand cupped her cheek , and she watched as his gaze dropped to the floor between them. “I’m not lying.”
    “ Why should I believe you?”
    Darian slowly shook his head. “I don’t know. But I’m not lying. To me, you are beautiful…”
    Blaire didn ’t understand. “Then why?” He brought his gaze back up to hers. “Why are you treating me like this? What do want from me, Darian? First you push me away, then you kiss me, then you push me away again. I don’t understand.” She paused for a moment and glanced off. “Then again, I guess I’ve been doing the same thing to you.” This push-pull is driving me crazy….
    He dropped his hands, separated himself from her completely and stepped away. “I can’t get involved with you, Blaire. No matter how much I might want, I can’t.”
    “ Why?”
    “ I have nothing for you. Nothing to offer. I can give you one night, maybe two, and that’s it. You deserve so much more.”
    Blaire studied his face for several seconds, feeling her chest heave up and down. “What?”
    He stepped across the room and stared out the window, his back to her.
    “You can’t walk away very far in here, Darian. It’s always going to be right around the corner.”
    She saw him flinch, but didn ’t turn.
    “ What about all that talk about honesty yesterday?”
    He didn ’t move. Not that she could see at least.
    “ You know, I might be a lot of things, Darian MacGlenary, but at least I think I try to face my problems head on. You, on the other hand, simply hide from them. That’s evident, isn’t it?” His shoulders noticeably tightened. “Of course, it is. Why on earth would you hole yourself up in this cabin for four years? Why would you leave home on your eighteenth birthday and abandon your family for another fourteen?” His fists clenched into tight balls at his thighs.
    “ And why would you run away from me?” she whispered.
    He flung his body around. Anger flashed across his face.
    “ Why, Darian? Why do I frighten you so?”
    “ I’m not frightened of you.”
    “ Really.”
    “ And I’m not running away.” His face turned red.
    “ Then what is it?”
    His hands were shaking at his sides.
    “Is it your wife? Or is it Nicky?”
    Blaire knew she ’d crossed over the line when the mass of virile male lunged forward, shaking uncontrollably. She stood her ground and he stopped dead in front of her. Thinking he might reach out and snap her small frame in two with one simple movement of his hands, Blaire, for an instance, was truly frightened. But she held firm, braced herself.
    S he watched as in a split second the anger washed out of his face leaving him pale and lifeless. He snatched a heavy jacket off a hook on the wall and his hunting rifle from beside the door, and barreled out into the chill of the morning.
    As she watched him leave, Blaire felt her shoulders sag and her entire body grow limp. “You are running, Darian MacGlenary,” she whispered. “Just from what, I don’t understand. But you are definitely running.”
    ****
    Darian brought the telescopic sight of his rifle to his right eye and peered through it. Placing the crosshairs just so, in the center of his target, he held his breath and then squeezed the trigger. The shot rang out muffled through the snow-covered hills and valley, pierced the neck of his quarry leaving the wild turkey flopping in the snow, feathers slowly drifting to the bloodstained ground around him.
    Feeling both a sensation of victory a nd remorse at having killed—perhaps