Free Tempestuous Eden by Heather Graham Page B

the emergency over, she was finding time to think, and thinking reminded her of the day she had been so sure she had been watched.
    Funny though, all through the days of recovery from the tremor she had had that same uncanny feeling. But, then, Doc had told her that Craig watched her. Silly, he had been too busy to watch her. All his strength and wit had been working at top capacity, focused on the task of rebuilding and restoring order.
    And yet he had always been close. He had appeared almost as if by magic each time something was needed.
    But it would also be silly for Craig to watch her by the stream. Why watch covertly what could be yours if you said the word?
    But then again, she wondered dryly, why did he never say the word? Or had he been about to? She didn’t know. At least natural catastrophe had kept her from her reeling heart and mind for the last few days. But now they were back to square one. And she was finding herself overwhelmed by a sudden shyness. The man, the enigma were overpowering. She was at a loss.
    Brooding, she headed back only to have her mental dilemma halted immediately by the appearance of the very enigma she pondered.
    Craig was waiting for her on the path.
    “Hello.”
    “Hi,” she returned with a guilty smile. Did he know that she was plagued by thoughts of him constantly? That the last days, watching his caring, watching his competence had increased the feeling she hedged in her heart, drawn her even more irrevocably into his web?
    “We finally have a night,” he told her.
    “Yes.”
    “I’d like to share it.”
    “So would I,” she committed softly. He took her hand, and they returned to the compound together.
    Craig was calling the tune, Blair realized, but she was glad of it. Their relationship had taken a turn again. She was still inexplicably wary, and he still sensed it.
    But the time of hands off, of building friendship had come to an end. They were back to the simple but stark attraction of that very first evening.
    He was touching her again. They brought their meals to the stream that night, and after they ate, they sat, Blair cradled into the tender strength of his shoulder. They spoke little; they were content to be in each other’s company.
    Yet he still held his distance. He did not demand the kiss she was dying to give, and she was more keenly aware of the powerful longing he leashed within his taut frame.
    He returned her to her tent untouched, but the fire that blazed in his eyes was a pained one, filled with emotions she couldn’t begin to understand. There was regret in eyes she saw as a clear, warm ache of longing. A need that nearly took over for a moment as he caressed the back of her neck with both hands and stared into a sea of emerald green. His lips brushed hers like a feather, and then he was gone, walking past the fire, toward his own tent.
    “Craig …” The call voiced in her own mind didn’t quite become sound. She kept watching him move away, misery welling in her heart.
    And then she knew that he still sensed her terrible fear. The fear she never acknowledged in rational thought, the fear of pain that had been left her in legacy of Ray Teile’s death.
    There might be more to it than that—she didn’t know. But suddenly she did know that she couldn’t spend another night without him.
    She couldn’t spend any more time in long, deliberating thought. It simply didn’t matter.
    Filled with pain and need and a longing for the joy that only he could open to her, she felt her feet begin to move across the compound. Feelings moved her now, slowly at first, then with mindless determination, along the inevitable path she had been destined to follow since that very first day.
    She needed Craig Taylor.
    And she was very frightened that she loved him.
    None of it mattered now—nothing.
    Except that she be with him.

CHAPTER FOUR
    C RAIG FELT AS IF he had been tied into slow, tortuous knots, but because he was agitated, he made himself behave normally