Gil put his hands on his hips, staring at her. “I’m the foreman.”

Kai closed her eyes for just a moment, opened them, feeling the air sucked out of her lungs. “Y-you work here, too?” No! That wasn’t possible! This couldn’t be happening! Her mind worked at the speed of light. Her heart expanded with traitorous emotions, wanting Gil. Again. God, she could not go there! The bastard had walked out on her after five days of the most wonderful loving she’d ever experienced with a man. Gil had left suddenly without explanation, never to return. She hadn’t seen him for four years.

Anger flowed through Kai. Gil had used her as a convenient sex partner to bury himself in to get rid of his grief. His brother Rob, a Delta Force operator with another team in Afghanistan, had been killed. Gil had seen his brother’s body to the morgue at Bagram and then looked her up.

Touching her brow, Kai saw his generous mouth moving into a resistant, thin line. She remembered that mouth. Far too well. The pleasure he’d given her. Kai had never known such tenderness and vulnerability in a man until Gil had walked into her life for those five days. She’d been a widow for a year. When he reappeared, he said he needed her. Silly her. She’d believed him and they had ended up in a five-day sexual feast that was the best thing that Kai had ever encountered with a man. Yet, on the sixth morning, when she awakened, Gil was gone. No note. No explanation. No email. No…nothing. She wished she could have forgotten him, but she never had.

And now, he was towering over her, all six feet of him, broad, capable shoulders beneath a white cowboy shirt, a black leather vest stretching across his powerful chest. His Levi’s were worn and dirty, but from Kai’s view, his strong, hard thighs were just as beautiful now as they were when they’d captured her legs and held her in place to give her the most incredible pleasure she’d ever had. And then, he’d run. Kai had never felt so used by a man. Now, the bastard was standing there, defensive, bristling, and she could feel the energy pouring off him toward her. She was only five feet seven inches tall. She wasn’t short, but she wasn’t Gil’s height, either.

What would he do? Try to get her fired? Invent some lame excuse to let her go? Would he do that to her after what they’d shared? She searched his eyes, which were now a darker, stormy blue. Kai could feel how taut and upset he was. It felt as if they were two boxers in a ring sizing each other up, looking for weak spots, a place to get in and punch, taking the other down.