The MacKades Collection: The Return of Rafe MacKade / The Pride of Jared MacKade / The Heart of Devin MacKade / The Fall of Shane MacKade. Nora Roberts

as much of a pleasure to watch as the sway of Regan’s hips, as she sauntered over to study the arsenal of cues.

      Rafe heard the clatter of balls, and blinked. “You said you wanted an early night.”

      “Changed my mind.” Her voice was breathy from necessity, rather than design. The leather and Spandex were cutting off her air supply. “I had all this…energy all of a sudden.” She walked slowly to the table, resisting the urge to tug at the hem of the skirt. “Who wants to play?”

      Half a dozen men moved with scraping chairs and clattering boots. Rafe’s snarl was the low, vicious sound of a wild dog guarding his bone. Half a dozen men decided they weren’t in the mood for pool after all.

      “This is a joke, right?”

      Regan took the cue Devin offered, smiled and stroked her fingertips from the tip down the shaft. Someone moaned. “I felt like some action, that’s all.”

      With her confidence building, she passed the bottle of beer to Jared. This, at least, she thought, she knew how to do. Planting her feet, bending one knee for balance, she leaned over the table. Leather strained.

      Rafe’s elbow plowed into Shane’s gut. “Keep looking where you’re looking, and you’ll be blind for a week.”

      “Jeez, Rafe.” Shane tucked his hands in his pockets and prepared to watch the show. “Where’s a guy supposed to look?”

      She broke cleanly, even managed to sink a ball. With the rules of the game Ed had drilled into her flipping through her head, she circled the table. She had to stop, smile, as Devin was still rooted in her path.

      “You’re blocking the table, Sheriff.”

      “Oh. Yeah, right. Sorry.” When she draped herself over the felt this time, his eyes met Jared’s. They grinned at each other like two kids over a shiny new bike.

      She managed to sink one more. That made her cocky enough to try a complicated shot that required a little English. Her hips wiggled as she set her position. From behind her, Jared stuck a hand under his shirt and mimed a thumping heart.

      “You think what you’re thinking again, and I’ll rip your lungs out,” Rafe muttered.

      As the ball missed the pocket by a good six inches, Regan pouted with that red-slicked mouth. “Oops.” She straightened, batted thickly mascaraed eyes at Rafe. “Your turn.” She put her weight on one foot and ran a hand down his shirtfront. “Want me to…chalk your cue?”

      The room exploded with whoops and whistles. Some brave soul made a suggestion that had Rafe’s lips peeling back in a growl. “That does it.”

      He grabbed her cue, tossed it at Devin, then clamped a hand over hers to drag her toward the door.

      “But we haven’t finished the game,” she protested, forced to scramble on the skinny heels to keep up with him.

      He yanked his jacket from the hook by the door and bundled it around her. “Put this on before I have to kill somebody.” She was still struggling with it when he shoved her through the door.

      Devin let out a long, appreciative sigh. “He’s a dead man.”

      “Yeah.” Shane rubbed a hand over his stomach. “Did you ever notice her—”

      In Rafe’s stead, Jared rapped him with a cue.

      “I have my car,” Regan began, while Rafe towed her along.

      He dragged open the door of his own. “Get in. Now.”

      “I could follow you.”

      “Now.”

      “All right.” It wasn’t a simple operation to get into his car. Snug red leather rode higher as she tried for graceful and dignified as she lowered herself into the seat. Rafe ground his teeth audibly. “Where are we going?”

      “I’m taking you home.” He slammed her door, stormed around the hood, then slammed his own hard enough to rock the car. “And if you’re smart, you won’t talk to me.”

      She was smart. When his brakes squealed at the base of her steps, she stayed where she was. There was no possible way she could maneuver herself out of the tiny sports car without help.

      He gave it to her, though no one would have called the hard yank a gentlemanly gesture. “Keys,” he snapped, then snatched them out of her hand and unlocked the door himself.

      Miffed, she strode in ahead of him. “I assume you’re coming in, so—”

      She was rapped back against the door, his mouth hotly devouring hers. The heels put them head-to-head, heat to heat, with a pressure that fried his already overheated brain. Both his mouth and his hands were hard, possessive. He could only think of branding her his.

      His breath was ragged when he jerked back. He’d be damned if she’d work him this way again, make him a victim of his own needs.

      He tugged his jacket off her shoulders, tossed it aside. “Get out of those clothes.”

      Something in her sank. With her lashes lowered, she reached around for the zipper of the skirt.

      “No, I didn’t mean— God.” If she peeled herself out of that leather in front of him, he was lost. It was the confusion in her eyes that had him leveling his voice. “I meant I’d appreciate it if you changed into something else. Please.”

      “I thought you—”

      “I know what you thought.” He was dying here. “Just change, so I can talk to you.”

      “All right.”

      He knew it was a mistake to watch her walk toward the bedroom. But he was only human.

      Inside, Regan stepped out of the ankle-breaking shoes, stripped off the red leather. It was good to breathe again. She wanted to be amused, at both of them, but she felt so incredibly stupid. She’d made a spectacle of herself, thrown aside every scrap of dignity. For nothing.

      No, she thought as she fastened on pleated trousers. For him. She’d done it for him, and he didn’t even have the sense to appreciate it.