Man on a Mission by Carla Cassidy Page A

horse and found herself in his arms. She stepped back quickly, needing to put as much distance as possible between them. “Thanks for the ride,” she said.
    He nodded, his eyes glittering in the light of the moon overhead. “I’ll walk you to your cottage.”
    â€œThat’s not necessary,” she protested. Her entire body felt as if it was electrically charged. She had never been so physically attracted to a man. He affected her like no man ever had before, on a visceral level that had nothing to do with intellect. And that frightened her more than a little.
    Despite her protest, he fell into step beside her asshe started toward her cottage. “Brian told me to come to dinner tomorrow,” he said.
    â€œYes, so he said.” A deep, eerie howl split the quiet of the night. “What’s that?” April asked, the hairs on the nape of her neck rising.
    â€œCoyote.” Mark pointed up to the fat, almost round moon. “It’s pretty close to a coyote moon.”
    â€œCoyote moon?” She looked up at him curiously as they reached her front door.
    â€œA full moon. It makes the coyotes cry and people go crazy.” He reached up and touched the back of his head. “It was a coyote moon on the night I got hurt.”
    â€œI’m sorry somebody hurt you, Mark.” And she was dreadfully sorry. She could only guess at what his potential might have been, and the thought took her breath away. “Again, thank you for bringing me home,” she said as she unlocked her front door.
    â€œDon’t walk in the desert again.”
    She turned back to him and smiled. “I promise I won’t.”
    He nodded, then before she could even guess his intentions, he stepped toward her and kissed her. The action was so unexpected, she had no immediate defenses.
    His lips captured hers with cool confidence and a mastery that, someplace in the back of her mind, astonished her. Whatever inadequacies his injury had caused him, none of them were evident in his kiss. He used his tongue to deepen the kiss, skillfully sending rivulets of fire throughout her body as his arms encircled her and pulled her tight against him.
    For just a moment, a single, exquisite moment, sheresponded and allowed herself to fall into the pleasure of the kiss. And just as quickly reality set in, and all the reasons she shouldn’t be kissing Mark filled her head.
    With a gasp she stepped back from him, her head reeling with the enormity of what they had just done. “Mark, I…you…we shouldn’t have done that.”
    He was already walking away. “’Night, April,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
    She watched helplessly as he disappeared into the night. Her mouth still burned from the intimate contact with his. The kiss had awakened an ache deep within her, an ache she had no intention of assuaging.
    She tipped her head back and stared up at the full moon. Coyote moon. The kind of moon that makes people do crazy things. It was the only explanation for her momentary lapse of judgment.
    The kiss had changed things. His kiss had made her realize he was attracted to her as a man to a woman. He’d moved their tenuous relationship into an unexpected arena, and she knew it was up to her to call a halt to things before they completely progressed out of control. Tomorrow night, after Mark ate Brian’s special hamburgers, she and the handsome cowboy had to have a difficult talk—for his sake and for her own, as well.
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    The taste of her mouth lingered while he brushed down the huge horse, as did the heat of her body pressed so close against his.
    He hadn’t intended to kiss her. When the impulse had struck him, he had just followed it to its pleasurable conclusion. And what a pleasure it had been. If he’d had his way he’d have carried her into her cottage and made love to her, swept all other worries and fears and