Free Rachel's Totem by Marie Harte Page A

wasn’t Sarah Duncan was it?”
    “Hell no.” Horrified at the thought, he caught her nasty chuckle. “Funny. No, it wasn’t Sarah. You blasted me for talking down to her, and maybe I deserved it. But that woman will not take no for an answer. She’s been bugging me for years.”
    Rachel stared. “No kidding.”
    He flushed, feeling stupid. “I like sex. It’s just that for me, it has to be with a person I care about.” So why did you take Rachel up against a wall? A woman you’d just met? He quickly hurried the topic. “I’ve never been married. Never found a woman I wanted to commit to. We Chastells marry for life. No infidelity, no divorce. Sounds corny, but we marry for love. Always have. And hopefully always will.”
    “That sounds lovely.” Her voice was thick, and when he turned to her, he saw tears in her eyes. “I should have waited. Every instinct told me Jesse was wrong for me. Even Aunt Charlotte told me to forget about him. But I was lonely. My parents had just died and I felt so lost.”
    He put an arm around her shoulders and they walked beside the stream. Being with her felt so right, as if he’d found the other half of himself long missing.
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    “I felt the same way when my parents died. Hell, they’d survived clan wars and a rash of poachers. Even land developers who made a real nuisance of themselves before I was born. And then they died in a stupid plane wreck.”
    She squeezed his hand by her shoulder, and he squeezed back.
    “I still miss the hell out of them,” he admitted. “Raising Grady and Dean through high school was a bitch, as I’m sure you can imagine.” He met her laughing gaze. “And the holidays are never the same. But I guess unlike you, I went in the other direction.
    Instead of looking for someone, I kind of hid back here at the ranch. I mean, who wants to find love when it can leave you in an instant?”
    As soon as he said it, he realized he spoke the truth…and that he sounded like a complete, emotional asswipe.
    Embarrassed, he turned her attention to an eagle cresting in the distance. But her touch on his face startled him into turning back to her.
    “Burke?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Thanks.” The kiss she gave him was nothing like anything he’d ever experienced.
    Full of promise, tenderness and affection, it pulled him deeper into the quagmire of emotion he didn’t want to feel for this woman, yet was helpless to deny.
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Chapter Five
    Rachel swore as she sneezed again. Damn, Aunt Charlotte might have dusted the attic at least once every ten years.
    For the past week and a half, Rachel had spent every morning with Burke trying to figure out how to find the totem and every evening sifting through more of Charlotte’s stuff. Moving in had been easy. Rachel had no furniture, just a bunch of clothes and toiletries she’d brought with her. She still rented a small storage facility back in Chicago full of books and odds and ends from her prior life.
    As much as she regretted some things she’d done, Rachel didn’t regret a single minute spent in Cougar Falls. She absolutely loved the town. Though she’d returned her rental car to the airport and knew she needed to find her own transportation, she’d found it easier to ride into town with Burke when he stopped by, which was at least three times a day. She couldn’t help the jolt of lust, and what felt like growing affection, every time she saw him.
    Thoughts of Jesse paled next to remembrances of Burke. Rachel could drown in Burke’s eyes, and never got tired of his broad, sexy grin. Much as she’d tried to forget it, she could still feel him pounding against her in that alleyway as if it had just happened.
    And several times she’d felt on fire, as if she’d die if he didn’t make love to her.
    Fortunately, she’d been in bed during those instances, and she’d taken care of the problem herself. She flushed, recalling how often she’d had to do that during her brief marriage. Another sign Jesse