For one brief second she enjoyed his touch.

There must have been something she did to encourage him, because he lowered his fingers just enough to graze her arms. With her back to him, she heard him sigh.

“What can I do to convince you to go to dinner with me?”

She closed her eyes and remembered who she was standing with.

With a twist of her body, his hands had no choice but to fall away. “Dameon—”

“Just dinner. It would be a favor to me. Otherwise I’m going to get on the freeway with everyone else at this hour.”

“You really want me to believe the words just dinner?” His eyes were saying there wasn’t anything “just” about it.

“Maybe more than just dinner. But we have to start somewhere.” He took a step closer.

“We have no business starting anywhere.” Yet her feet weren’t moving away.

He slowly lifted a hand to her face and pressed his palm to her cheek.

She found the room lacking oxygen as she pulled in a sharp breath.

“Your lips say one thing,” he said as his thumb traced her lower lip. “But your eyes . . . these eyes are singing a completely different tune.” He moved his thumb to her temple.

“I think I read that line in a book somewhere,” she whispered. Move, Gracie . . . get out of his space.

“Are you suggesting that I’m wrong?” He moved closer. “That if I pressed my fingers to the back of your neck”—he did what he was threatening to do—“that you wouldn’t look up at me and open your lips just enough to ask for a kiss?”

She pushed her lips closed, her eyes locked with his.

A small laugh escaped him and he leaned down.

Back away!

Grace opened her mouth. A denial sat on her tongue but wouldn’t come out.

Suddenly, the front door of the house crashed open.

CHAPTER NINE

Grace jumped and Dameon twisted around to stand in front of her, shielding her from whatever or whoever had opened the door.

“Gracie?”

With her heartbeat well past her chest and up into her head, she looked around Dameon to the fury of Colin. “What the hell?” She dropped her hands that had grabbed ahold of Dameon’s waist and stepped in front of him.

Dameon’s arm came out and stopped her.

She pushed his hand aside. “He’s my brother,” she all but yelled at him.

“Are you okay?” Colin asked.

“Don’t I look okay?”

Colin’s gaze moved between her and Dameon and back again. “Who’s this?”

“What do you mean, ‘who’s this’? What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t answer your phone.”

She patted her back pocket and remembered she’d tossed it in her purse that was sitting in the trunk of her car. “It’s in my car.”

“We were supposed to meet at the Sierra Highway site.” By now the heat in Colin’s voice had started to ebb.

Grace lost some of her fire as well. “Oh, damn, that’s right. I got sidetracked.”

“When you didn’t answer, I used Friend Finder and saw your phone was up here.” Colin had stopped looking at Grace altogether and was staring at Dameon. “In the middle of nowhere, where anything could happen.”

“I’m capable of taking care of myself, Colin.”

“Considering everything that’s happened in the last year, you’ll have to forgive my intrusion.”

Any heat that was still lingering in her body left. She knew exactly what he was referring to.

Dameon took a step forward and reached out a hand. “I’m Dameon Locke.”

For a half a second, it looked like Colin wasn’t going to take it.

The men grasped hands and shook. Only Colin didn’t let go. “So you’re Dameon. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Oh, no . . . this was not going to happen.

“Oh? Is that right?” Dameon gave her a sideways glance.

The handshaking continued with white knuckles from both of them.

Grace placed her hands over theirs and pushed hard. “Enough.”

Their hands broke free, but she couldn’t tell who let go first.

Colin found her eyes. She knew she flashed a huge warning for him to shut up, but he was ignoring her.

“So, this is the stalker?”

Her eyes rolled back and she turned to Dameon. “I didn’t call you that. Erin did.”

Dameon looked at her, his lips holding the slightest grin. “Who’s Erin?”

“A friend,” she told him.

“Our brother’s girlfriend. Who has had her share of stalkers and is pretty good at identifying the like,” Colin said.

Grace swiveled so hard she nearly lost her balance. Two strides and she was in her brother’s face. “This macho big brother trip was cute when I was sixteen. Now knock it off! Dameon and I are here going over plans for his project. I’m doing my job.”

“That’s not what it looked—”

She lifted her foot and slammed it on her brother’s toes.

“Oh, damn, Gracie, that hurt.” Colin limped back a step.

“Be happy it wasn’t your balls.” She stood as tall as she could. Which wasn’t much, in light of the fact she was wearing tennis shoes and not heels. “Now . . . thank you for your concern, but kindly shut the hell up.”

Colin grunted and put one more dagger in his look at Dameon.

“Next time keep your phone with you,” he told her.

She really couldn’t hold that against him. “Next time, knock.”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Dameon spoke from behind her. “I’m sorry we met under these circumstances.”

She wanted to melt into a puddle and seep into the carpet just to escape the awkwardness of the moment.

“I’m glad to have a face with the name,” Colin said.

Grace lifted a fist in Colin’s direction and he retreated. “Goodbye, Colin.”

She watched as he walked through the rain and climbed into his truck. After he backed out of the driveway, she released a sigh.

“That was, hands down, the most entertaining encounter I’ve had in at least a decade,” Dameon said, laughing.

Thank God he was laughing. She wanted to crawl into a corner and die. “I’m so sorry.”

“Is your family Italian?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, I’m not. But no one has claimed it.” She finally dared a look in his direction. Even with the fading light, she saw his grin.

“So, you told Erin about me.”

“You’re going to make this more awkward, aren’t you.”

He shook his head. “No. I’m going to hold on to that fact and let it settle for a while.”

“Good.”

“You wanna tell me what Colin was talking about when he mentioned this last year?”

“It’s really not my story to tell and edges on gossip.” Not to mention it was still raw for her.

“Considering your brother wanted to yank my hand out of my arm, I’d like to know the context of his concern.”