Free True Colors by Jayne Ann Krentz

wouldn't have taken fright. Next time he would be more cautious. He'd botched things this evening somehow and the knowledge annoyed him. What was the matter with him, anyway, he demanded in silent self-chastisement. Where was his normal finesse?
    Cade slammed the key into the Mazda and yanked the car into gear. Next time matters would end properly. And after that it would be clear sailing. Because once Jamie had surrendered again, there would be no going back. He was done with waiting.
    "Dance while you can, lady," he muttered as he sent the Mazda hurtling forward into the darkness. "Time is running out for you. The ball ends at midnight, in case you've forgotten." He might not be Prince Charming, Cade acknowledged grimly, but he was the one the lady would find waiting when she finally accepted her fate.
    It was late in the afternoon the following day when Jamie decided she'd better stop for groceries before driving the last fifty miles into the dramatic Big Sur country of northern California. The lonely highway ahead hugged the side of the mountains as the Santa Lucia Range swept down to meet the surging Pacific Ocean. It was a spectacularly scenic trip, but the region was very unpopulated. The few stores she would encounter during the last portion of her drive existed primarily to serve campers, and most would be closed by the time she reached them.
    The fog was already gathering out at sea, Jamie noticed as she pulled into the parking lot of a small con-venience store. She wanted to be home before it cloaked the land. The narrow highway that she would be following for the next several miles was precarious in places. Not a road to be driven in fog.
    It had been a long, tiring trip. Jamie stifled a small groan as she climbed a little stiffly out of Miss Isabel's tomato-red Audi. She had left the motel at six-thirty that morning, praying earnestly that Cade would not decide to pick her up early for breakfast. But there had been no sign of him as she'd checked out and tossed her suitcase into the car. She turned left as she'd pulled out of the motel parking lot, deliberately avoiding the route out of town that would have taken her past the marina. The last thing she had wanted was to meet Cade coming the other way.
    It had been quite easy to get up early, pack and leave well ahead of the seven o'clock deadline. After all, she hadn't been able to sleep well, anyway. She was half annoyed and half proud of the way she had handled the situation into which she'd so unwisely catapulted herself. Jamie winced as images of moths and flames came to mind.
    The decision to tentatively, cautiously confront Cade again had been a reckless one, and Jamie knew it, but she had been unable to keep herself from doing it. Talking Miss Isabel into hiring him to search for her brother had been a way of providing protective cover for herself, but she wasn't sure it would work.
    The man she loved was shrewd and dangerous, and she hadn't been completely certain of her camouflage. But this time around, she'd vowed, she would be the one in control. She would not play the role of ripe peach again.
    His utter confidence in his ability to rekindle the fires of their relationship was probably the only factor that had saved her from making a complete fool of herself last night, Jamie decided as she walked into the little store that adjoined a gas station. Never let it be said that pride couldn't give a woman fortitude.
    Who did he think he was to take the attitude that all he'd had to do was wait for her to come to him? The fact that he had been partially right was galling. She pushed the knowledge aside.
    Brows drawn together in a severe little frown, Jamie selected some low-fat milk, cereal and a few vegetables. The small assortment of items, together with the supply of canned and frozen goods at the house, would tide her over a few days. She could always drive into Camnel in a day or two if she ran out of anything. It was fun to spend time in the