Part 3 (1/2)

”You know, Denny, not everyone who doesn't travel with us is an outsider.”

Denise tossed her head, sending her hair flying over her shoulder. She drained the can in a last, long gulp, then crushed it. ”Yes, they are. They're outside and we're in.”

”Did you ever stop to consider that it might be the other way around?”

She stiffened at the sound of Will's voice behind her. She hadn't heard him approaching. Denise glared at her father. He might have at least warned her they weren't alone. Handing the misshapen can back to Tate, she turned around to look at Will.

Tate knew when to withdraw from the line of fire. It seemed a good idea to pull up stakes now, so he did.

Like a bantam-weight fighter, Denise balanced herself on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet, her face pugnaciously turned up to his.

”Meaning?”

She looked ready for a fight, he thought, and all he'd done was make a comment. ”That you're the one on the outside?”

That was exactly the way she'd felt when she thought herself in love with Audra's father. At the time, being an outsider had stung and stung badly. Eventually she'd gotten over it and sh.o.r.ed up her beaches.

But there was no reason to share that with this man.

Denise lifted her chin. ”No, I'm the one who's free.” Deliberately moving him out of her way, she strode toward the fun house. Even from here, she could see that the sign hanging over the top of the doorway was crooked. As she walked, she shoved her gloves back on her hands.

”Now if you've had enough slumming,” she said dismissively, ”you can go anytime.”

It took a second for the verbal thrust to penetrate. He'd worked as hard here as any day he'd put in on the ranch. She had no right to be snide with him, especially since he was doing her a favor.

”Is that what you think I'm doing?” Annoyed, he caught up to her in three strides and turned her around to face him. ”Slumming?”

Shrugging his hand off her arm, her eyes dared him to tell her differently.

”Aren't you?” She turned her back on him again, walking quicker this time. ”Aren't you here just to get a kick out of this? See what it means to really work for a living instead of sitting back and not even breaking a sweat over what you do?”

It amazed him to feel anger forming in response to her accusation. He was the calm one in the family, the one who never lost his temper. But for some unknown reason, this slip of a woman with the rattlesnake tongue set him off.

”That's so wrong, I don't even know where to start untangling it.”

She spared him one cold look over her shoulder before she went to commandeer a ladder. If he'd come expecting her to be grateful that a townie had spared a few hours to share some of their sweat, he was going to go away disappointed.

”Then don't bother.”

Will glanced toward the rear lot where his Jeep was. For two cents he'd just walk away and...

h.e.l.l, this would bother him all night Longer. He wasn't going anywhere until he put this foul-tempered woman in her place.

He caught Denise by the shoulder just as she began to drag the ladder back toward the ”building” that had taken three of her crew the entire time to reconstruct.

”Just what the h.e.l.l set you off?” Will demanded. ”The fact that you're not right?”

This time, when she jerked her arm, he held fast. She struggled for a moment, then stopped. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. ”What do you mean?”

Will realized that he was holding on a little too hard and dropped his hand. ”You probably thought you had me pegged as some well-off sn.o.b-”

A smug smile curved her mouth. ”Well?”

He felt a distinct desire to wipe that smile off her face, using any means possible.

”It depends on your definition of well-off, and I've never been accused of being a sn.o.b in my life.” He caught the frayed ends of his temper before they unraveled completely and lowered his voice. ”And I think that after about three hours of this, even you'd admit that I've held my own.”

Maybe. To someone else. But not to him. ”I don't have to admit anything,” Denise said.

Why was he even bothering? If Will thought about it for any length of time, he didn't even know what he was doing here. If he was so all-fired bent on physical labor, he could have been putting the time in on his parents' ranch, not here for some ungrateful h.e.l.lion.

Disgusted with her and himself, Will shook his head. ”No, you don't. People like you never do.”

He couldn't have annoyed her more if he'd deliberately tried.

”People like me,” she echoed. Hands on hips, Denise glared at him. ”Just what do you mean, people like me?”

”Prejudiced people.”

”Prejudiced?” She stared at Will as if he'd lost his mind. How could he possibly accuse her of that? The crew that worked for her was as diverse a mixture of people as could be hoped for. One glance, however cursory, was all that was necessary to make him aware of that fact. ”Boy, are you ever off. I don't have a prejudice bone in my body.”

He managed to get a good portion of his temper under control, though not all of it. ”Take another inventory. Somewhere amid that lovely bone structure of yours is a whole slew of prejudice bones.”

She opened her mouth to retort, but he never gave her the chance. Years of surviving with Morgan had sharpened his reflexes and taught him to be quick.

”What? You think that you can only be prejudiced against color or religion? Well, think again.” He could feel his temper reheating, fanned by his own words. ”Lady, you think you have me all figured out and stuck into some round little hole.” One by one, he pointed out her flaws. ”You're prejudiced against anyone who doesn't belong to your tight little group, you're prejudiced against anyone who you think has more money than they can keep in a sock and you're especially prejudiced against men.”

There were a whole host of names that begged to be flung at him and she could barely contain them. But Audra was somewhere within earshot, and she wasn't about to let her daughter hear her swear at this pompous, muscle-bound jerk.

Instead Denise seasoned her response with smug sarcasm. ”All this in three hours?”

He satisfied himself, for the moment, with an image of his hands around her slender throat. ”I'm a fast study.”

She wasn't rattling him-and that annoyed her beyond words. Her eyes became small, accusing slits. ”Well, you're wrong on all counts.”

How could he want to wring her neck one second, and desire her company the next? He wasn't on medication and as far as he knew, hadn't ingested anything to make him crazy. Yet there were these two very vital juxtaposed thoughts and feelings cras.h.i.+ng into one another within him.

”Prove it.”

Suspicion leaped up to take possession of Denise. ”How?”

She was looking at him as if she expected him to turn into some mythical monster, Will thought. ”Have dinner with me tonight.”

Right, waltz into his lair, just like that Been there, done that ”The h.e.l.l I will.” She bit off the words, turning her back on him and grabbing hold of the ladder.

When he tried to help her with it, she blocked him with her body. The woman was impossible.

So why did he find her so d.a.m.n compelling?

”All right, dinner with my family, then.”