Tallchief: The Hunter by Cait London

her. She hadn’t expected to want to smooth it, to lock her fingers in it. She slid her hand away, returning it to his shoulder. “So that you can see better. It wouldn’t do for you to misstep and we’d both go down in the mud. You could use a haircut.”
    He hesitated in his stride, but didn’t look at her. “I could use a kiss.”
    “That’s the price, is it? There always is. But we’re not teenagers any longer, Adam—don’t even think about a higher price.”
    Adam’s scowl seared her, as though anger had leaped within him. Then he pushed it into a milder expression. “Sex, you mean? You and I? I’d have to think about that, but if it’s not freely given, with caring and the heart involved, then it means little. One small friendly kiss I might take for a trade, but not a woman’s body.”
    The past caught and lingered in the bright morning sunlight. At their first meeting, Adam had accused her of marrying Kevin for his family’s money. The nagging questions leaped at her again. Had she given herself to her husband and her marriage? Or had she been traded? Kevin had taken her as his right and had promptly fallen asleep—
    “I’m certain you’ve had plenty of kisses, and women, in your life.” She wished she hadn’t lobbed the words at him, trying to nudge information from him. Why should she care how many women Adam had known, or loved?
    “I’ve had kisses, and a woman—one I thought I’d marry. We were friends more than anything. Along the way, she fell in love with someone else, and I had to wonder then if we had ever loved. The pain should have been deeper, but it wasn’t.”
    “How do you know that?” She’d felt only relief when Kevin had forsaken their marriage bed. It wouldn’t do for divorce papers to state that his wife was frigid—in Kevin’s mind, that would reflect upon his skill as a lover and damage the macho picture he sought as a young politician.
    “I’d had something to compare it with. A girl, a long time ago. She broke my heart. I wonder, at times, if it ever mended enough to let another woman into it.” He nodded and continued to the barbed-wire fence. He placed her on the other side and watched her remove his coat. He didn’t answer her goodbye as she handed it to him. She headed in the direction of the Petrovnas’, and looked in the rearview mirror. Adam stood, legs braced wide, holding the coat and looking as if he’d wait forever.
    Jillian rubbed her chest lightly and knew that the ache in her heart was caused by memories that Adam had evoked of a time when they were teenagers. She also noted that he hadn’t pressed his request for a kiss, that the decision had been left to her.
    She smoothed her fingertips over the steering wheel and remembered how his hair had felt, crisp and straight, gleaming in the sunlight. A shorter cut, a neat trim wouldn’t suit him, she decided. The shaggy, thick style matched his untamed disposition; he traveled as he wished, and spoke without sparing her. But then, he considered her family to have caused his aunt’s untimely death, didn’t he? It was only logical that he would pose questions to her that might nag and hurt.
    She’d wanted to marry Kevin. She’d wanted the dreams that her friends were snatching at the time. She understood him, his motives, how he needed to please his family. It was a desperate need, matching her own. She liked andrespected him, and since she’d been raised in a family without love, she hadn’t expected that favor. Had she really sold herself for her family? When Kevin proposed, was she in love with love and not the man? Or did she want to get away from her parents and he was only the opportunity?
    Jillian pushed away the ugly thought. She had a great career opportunity and she was on her way to tell her friend.
    Adam had nothing to do with her unrest, the questions that kept circling her. “Sex, you mean?” he’d asked. “If it’s not freely given, with caring and the heart involved,