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brush by him. He caught her arm, stopping her, forcing her to look at him. She felt the heat of his fingers to the center of her being. “Take your hand off me.”
    He tightened his grip. “Totally inappropriate because I’m the hired help?”
    Anna cocked up her chin, furious. With him. With herself for allowing him to get to her, for almost kissing him not thirty minutes ago. For wishing he would kiss her now. “Yes,” she lied. “Because you’re the hired help.”
    â€œYou are one cold princess.”
    â€œAnd I could fire you.”
    â€œYou could.” He smiled, the curving of his lips slow and confident. “But you won’t.”
    â€œAre you so sure?”
    His gaze lowered to her mouth for one dizzying moment, then he lifted it back to hers. “Yes. You need me, Anna. You hate it, but it’s true.”
    He slid his hand from her elbow to the curve of her neck. The blood thrummed in her head, her limbs grew heavy. “No,” she whispered. “You’re wrong.”
    â€œWhat do you need, Annabelle Ames?” he asked, his voice thick. “What do you want?”
    â€œYou’re going to end up alone, Anna. Almost forty, and all dried up already.”
    She brought her hands to Rush’s chest, curling her fingers into the sweat-dampened weave of his T-shirt, panic squeezing at her heart and lungs. “Don’t you want to be held? To be cherished? Loved?”
    She fought back Lowell’s words, fought the way they made her feel,
alone and frightened. She sucked in a deep, painful breath. “I don’t need anything,” she whispered, cursing the huskiness of her voice. “Especially from you.”
    â€œNo?” He cupped her chin in his palm and stared deeply into her eyes. “I don’t believe you. Not for a moment.”
    â€œThat’s your problem, isn’t it?”
    â€œMaybe it is,” he murmured. “And maybe I’d better solve it.” He lowered his eyes to her mouth and for one heart-stopping moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. Then he dropped his hand. “But today I’ve got a roof to repair. And I’m still on the clock.
See you around.”
    Anna watched him walk away, tears burning the backs of her eyes. She despised him, she thought. She wanted him off her property. She wanted to never see him again.
    She opened her mouth, his dismissal on the tip of her tongue. She swallowed it. She couldn’t fire him, as much as she wanted to. She needed him. Ashland needed him.
    Anna swore. But worse, much worse, was the fact that he’d been right. She wanted him. To kiss her. To hold and stroke and make love to her.
    Anna pressed her lips tightly together to keep them from trembling. What a joke. He neither needed nor wanted her. And what if he did? She would only lie there, as stiff and dry as an old cypress board.
    Memories of other times, of other men, filled her head. Her fiancé’s sarcasm. Spencer McKee’s laughter. Lee Fuller’s violence. Anna shuddered, the images playing through her head like an obscene kaleidoscope.
    Damn Rush Cousins for making her feel this way again. Damn him for making her remember. Before he’d come to Ashland, she’d been fine. Satisfied with her life. Resigned to her loveless future. She’d managed to tuck away the hurt, the disappointments, managed to tuck them into a quiet place where they hadn’t the ability to touch her.
    They touched now. Stinging, burning.
    And they refused to be tucked away. They refused to let her be. Tears welled in her eyes once more, only this time she didn’t have the strength to fight them off.

Chapter Four
    A nna shelved her pride and let Rush work on the roof alone. She couldn’t bear working beside him, feeling his every glance, continually wondering what he was thinking and cursing herself for her own ridiculous thoughts. Instead, she began repairing walls