Jackson Perdue was the only man who’d ever been able to light up her insides like a glowing Christmas tree by doing nothing more than looking at her. No matter what else had changed in her life and in their relationship, that one fact remained the same.

His gaze devoured her. “Cathy…”

The way he looked at her and the way he said her name brought back memories of a time in her life she had tried to put behind her.

She couldn’t allow her traitorous body to dictate her actions. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t! She wasn’t ready.

Easing away from him, putting some safe distance between their bodies, she took several steps into the living room. “Please come in and sit down. I’ll get us some iced tea.”

She watched as his chest moved with the force of the deep breath he sucked in and released, and she knew that he felt the magnetic force vibrating between them as intensely as she did.

“No iced tea for me,” he said as he followed her.

She indicated the sofa. He sat down first, and then she sat on the opposite end of the sofa. “Why are you here, Jack?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted as he rubbed his open palms up and down his thighs. “I guess I thought maybe you’d call me and tell me how things went today, you know, with you and Seth and-”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you expected me to call you.”

“I don’t expect anything from you,” he told her. “I just thought that maybe you might want to talk, but I guess you’ve got Donnie Hovater to talk to now.”

She caught the hint of censure in his voice and realized that he either disapproved of her budding friendship with the minister or was jealous.

“Donnie is a new friend, and that’s all he is-a friend. He’s trying to help me work out something with J.B. and Mona so that I don’t have to take them to court to regain custody of Seth.”

Jack cocked an eyebrow, the action expressing doubt. “If he can accomplish that, more power to him. But I’d hate to see you get your hopes up for nothing.”

She forced a smile and then changed the subject because there really wasn’t anything else to say about the matter. “How was your lunch at the Cedar House Grill? Did you take Lorie?”

“Yeah, I took Lorie. Why do you ask? Are you jealous?” he asked, a quirky grin on his face.

“No, of course not. What a thing to say. You and Lorie aren’t…Are you?”

Jack laughed. “Hell, no.”

“She’s still in love with Mike, you know.”

“Warning me to stay away from her?”

“You and Lorie are free to-”

“I’m not interested in playing second fiddle. Like you said, she’s still hung up on Mike.”

Cathy sighed softly. “And it’s pretty much hopeless.”

“Yeah, she filled me in on the situation. I like Lorie. I always did. She and Mike were great together, way back when. But I can see his side of things. It would take a pretty big man to get past what she did.”

“She made some mistakes. We all make mistakes. Are you saying that we shouldn’t find a way to forgive the people we love?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth, honey. All I’m saying is that Lorie bared all in Playboy and had sex with several partners, on film, and Mike’s a proud man and in many ways a very old-fashioned man.”

“If he loved her…”

“Damn, Cathy, you and I know that sometimes love isn’t enough.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide, her heart hammering inside her chest. “I did love you,” she said in a whisper.

“Did you?”

“Yes. With all my heart.” Please, God-please don’t let him ask me why I married Mark if I loved him so much.

He nodded. “We were a couple of kids with raging hormones. I was horny as hell, and you were in love with love.” He shot to his feet unexpectedly.

Cathy looked up at his back, a sick feeling hitting her in the pit of her stomach. How many times during those two weeks they had shared had he told her how much he loved her?

Only a few times-when they had been having sex.

Maybe that’s all it had been for him. Just sex.

She stood, walked over to him and laid her hand on his back. “Are you saying that you didn’t love me?”

He turned so quickly that if he hadn’t reached out and grabbed her, he would have knocked her down. His hands tightened on her arms.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever known what love is, not the kind of love you’re talking about. But if you’re asking did I want you, did I need you, did I think about you all the time, did I want to make you happy, then the answer is yes. If that’s love, then I think you’re probably the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

Of all the things he could have said to her to dissolve her resistance, he had chosen the one argument that no woman could resist. And before she had a chance to assimilate the information and separate her thoughts from her feelings, Jack cradled her face with his big hands and then leaned down and kissed her. Gentle at first, the kiss soon became a ravenous mating of mouths and tongues.

Breathless and shaken when Jack ended the kiss, Cathy shoved against his chest. “Oh God, Jack. God…” Tears misted her eyes.

Slowly, reluctantly, he eased his hands away from her face. “I guess it’s obvious that I still want you.”

She nodded.

“If you’d let me, I’d take you to bed right now. But I’m in no position to make you any promises, and unless I miss my guess, you’re still the kind of girl who’s got love and sex all tied up together.”

“I-I want you,” she told him. “That’s the honest truth. But my life is far too complicated already to have to deal with an affair with you or anyone else.”

“Not even Donnie Hovater, whom I’m sure your mother and your in-laws approve of?” Jack cursed under his breath. “Forget I said that, will you? If you want the honest truth, then I’ll admit that I’m jealous of the guy.”

“I’m flattered that you’re jealous of Donnie, but you have no reason to be. As I told you, he’s a new friend and that’s all. And you and I are friends, and that’s all I can handle right now. So if you want to date someone else, I’ll understand. I won’t like it, but I’ll understand.”

“Yeah, sure.” He nodded toward the front door. “I guess I’d better go and let you get some sleep.”

She walked to the door with him and then out onto the porch, not caring what her neighbors thought if they saw her standing there in her robe.

“I should have some preliminary plans for your house ready by the end of the week,” she said. “How about lunch on Friday?”

“Sure thing. Call me with the time and place.”

“I will.”

“Good night, Cathy.”

“Good night.”

She stood on the porch and watched as he drove away. Her body ached for him. It would have been so simple to have taken him to her bed and made love with him all night.

Simple? Was she crazy? Nothing in her life was simple these days, least of all her relationship, past and present, with Jackson Perdue.