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disconcerting quiet note was back in his voice. He actually sounded sincere. “What did you say?”
    â€œI’ve missed you,” he repeated with a touch of belligerence. “Is that so hard to believe?”
    â€œSince you’re the one who walked out on me without a word, yes, it is a little surprising.”
    â€œWe all make mistakes.”
    â€œAnd I was one of yours?”
    â€œNot you, Lara. Leaving you. That was the mistake. At the time I was so sure it was the right thing to do, but now I don’t know.”
    She swallowed hard. “I think you’d better go.”
    â€œNope,” he said, his voice merely conversational rather than challenging. “I ran away once before. I won’t do it again, not without explaining, not without trying to make things right.”
    â€œHow can I get through to you? I don’t want your strawberries or your explanations. I don’t want to have casual little chats with you about old times. In fact, I don’t want you here at all.” Her voice rose, ending on a note of frustration.
    â€œI think you do.” He took a step closer. “I think that’s why your cheeks are flushed that becoming shade of pink and your pulse is racing.”
    â€œIf my cheeks are flushed, it’s because I’m angry,” she retorted. “And my pulse is not racing.”
    A rough, tanned finger reached out, and she jerked away instinctively, backing up. He pursued her. A single step was all it took. He touched her neck gently, found the telltale pulse and lingered for just an instant. “Liar,” he said.
    Furious and suddenly all too vulnerable, Lara felt tears form in her eyes. “Why are you doing this?”
    â€œBecause I’ve waited long enough.”
    â€œLong enough for what?”
    â€œFor you to come to your senses. Long enough to see if I was right.”
    â€œRight about what?”
    â€œI came back here three years ago hoping that I’d been wrong, praying that you weren’t the reason no other woman appealed to me. I had this image of you in my mind that wouldn’t go away. It was there when I was awake. It was there when I slept. Worse, it was there no matter whom I held in my arms.”
    His gaze met hers, and she saw the shadow of pain in his eyes. It stunned her that Steven had not escaped the past years without scars, either. She tried to steel herself against what she saw. It made him appear defenseless, more accessible than the heartless man who’d been able to distance himself from a girl he’d promised to love. His smile now was a weary hint of the blaze of pleasure it had once been.
    â€œThen I saw you,” he said, sounding as bemused as she felt. “God, how you’d changed. There were shadows under your eyes. You’d pulled that incredible golden hair of yours back so severely that all I wanted to do was yank it loose and run my fingers through it until it was the wild tangle I’d remembered. And you were thin, all those ripe adolescent curves gone. But I wanted you, just the same. I wanted you so badly I hurt, just the way my body is hurting right now. I knew right then that I could never let you go again.”
    â€œStop it,” she pleaded. “Stop saying that. You left, Steven. You betrayed me. You betrayed all of us. You can never change that. It’s too late. I don’t want you back.”
    As if her words had been a challenge, a slow, gentle smile, brighter now, tugged at the corners of his lips. “I’ll make you want me again, Lara. You know I can do it, too, don’t you?”
    His words were spoken confidently, laced with a dare. Once Lara might have taken him up on it, but no more. She’d built a quiet, pleasant life for herself. Safe. More secure than ever, now that the farm was doing well each year. Steven Drake would not waltz in here one summer afternoon and take that hard-won serenity away from her.
    Oh, but he