“Make love, not war,” shemurmured.
He struggled to focus on anything but her lake-blue eyes. He swallowed and pointed the weapon at the earth. The daisy slipped out and landed in the dirt. His abs clenched as fire rolled through his body. His bear inhaled her scent and did a somersault in his chest. The creature wanted her with a passion fierce enough to steal hisbreath.
“You have to leave,” hechoked.
“Chill out, man,” the long-hairedmansaid.
Greg grabbed up the gun and took a step back. He was outnumbered. If they wanted to jump him, he could probably take them, but then he’d be even later for hischores.
A whistle piercedtheair.
“Ah, hell,” Greg said, recognizing his father’s pissed-off pitch. “I have to get back to the farm. But you’d better be gone before my old man comes down this way. He shoots first and asks questionslater.”
“We’ll be gone,” the girl with theflowersaid.
He turned to leave but stopped. He couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t find out one very importantthing.
“What’s your name?” heasked.
“Daisy.”
“Like theflower?”
“Yeah.”
Her slow smile sent tendrils of desire racing through his body. Already semi-hard, he quickly retreated before she could see his obvious erection. As he raced back to the farm, he braced himself. His father would be pissed that he hadn’t finished mucking out the horsestallsyet.
Greg dashed into the huge red barn. He set the shotgun against the wall and grabbed a pitchfork. Halfway to the first stall, his father’s booming voice cracked likethunder.
“Where haveyoubeen?”
“Out by the lake. Um, I thought I saw some people.” He knew better than to lie to his old man, but he didn’t want him running off half-cocked withthegun.
“Humph,” he grunted. “Did you seeanyone?”
“No. The sound must have been coming from across the lake,”Gregsaid.
“Damn campground. It’s bad enough we have to deal with the ones on this side of the lake. Well hurry up, your mom needs help mopping thefloors.”
“Where’s Samantha?” Gregasked.
“Your sister’s hemming some pants for me and sewing a dress for your mom,”hesaid.
“All right. Can you tell her I’ll be there in a fewminutes?”
“Sure,” his dad said. He turned to leave but stopped just outside the door. He took a couple of steps backin. “Son?”
“Yeah?” Greg looked up from the pile of manure he’d justscoopedup.
“I know there’s a lot of work. What with your brothers offatwar.”
“And college,”Gregsaid.
“And college,” he nodded. “Anyway, I appreciate you picking up theextraload.”
“We’re all working hard around here,” Greg said. His father rarely gave anyone a compliment, so it meant even more whenhedid.
“I’ll make sure your brother comes out to help you this afternoon when he gets home fromschool.”
