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plastic cups and handed her one. “To health.” He lifted his cup.
    “To happiness.” She touched her cup to his.
    His index finger reached out and hooked hers. “To beauty.” His gaze held hers. “You’re exquisite in the sunshine, Hallie. Your beauty rivals the flowers around you.”
    She was extraordinarily pleased. Men had told her she was beautiful, but never in such a husky voice and never with a shining look in their eyes.
    She lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip. Josh never took his eyes off her. “I suppose the freedom of the road inspires poetry in the soul. Are you a poet, Josh?”
    “No. It must be spring fever.” He took a drink, still watching her over the rim of his cup. “Or perhaps it’s the company.”
    Hallie took a slab of cheese and began to nibble on it. “It’s the meadow. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.” She gazed around before turning back to him. “My dogs and I stumbled across it yesterday. How did you find it?”
    “Persistence. For a while I felt like the Tin Woodsman looking for Oz.”
    “Strange you should choose the Tin Woodsman. He’s the one who had no heart.”
    “Precisely.”
    “Why don’t you have a heart, Josh?”
    “The Wicked Witches of the West stole it away.”
    “More than one witch?”
    “Yes.”
    Impulsively Hallie leaned over and pressed her hand against his chest. “You do have a heart, Josh Butler. Any man who knows The Wizard of Oz so well has a heart.”
    She started to remove her hand, but Josh covered it with his own.
    “Stay, Hallie.”
    She felt the steady pumping rhythm of his heart, the warmth of his skin. Josh guided her hand so that it gently massaged his chest. His golden chest hair curved possessively around her fingers.
    “I love the touch of a woman’s hand on my skin.”
    “Any woman?”
    His hand, holding hers captive, continued the stroking movements. “Especially yours.”
    Sitting in the flowers with the sun warming her back and Josh’s skin warming her hand, she felt the jubilee rising in her again—and for a man she barely knew. She tried to squelch the feeling with common sense, but reason was no match for romance. She closed her eyes, letting the feelings of warmth and pleasure sweep over her. Tomorrow, she decided, she’d do differently, but today she’d enjoy this golden man.
    “Hallie, you are the most delectable woman I’ve ever known.”
    His voice was like a caress. With her eyes still closed, she could feel the velvety texture of that voice.
    “Josh.” His name on her lips was merely a sigh.
    “You’re so sweet, and I have a craving.”
    His kiss was the lightest touch, like hummingbird wings caressing a nectar-laden flower.
    “Mmmm,” he murmured. “Delicious.” He eased her arms around his neck and gently lowered her to the quilt of lavender flowers. Leaning over her, he ran his hands through her dark hair, lifting it to the sun, letting it drift through his fingers, watching it fan out around her face. “I love your hair.” He pressed his face to the dark strands and inhaled. “Honeysuckle. I knew the fragrance would be in your glorious hair.” He raised himself on his elbows once more so he could look into her eyes. “If I had a heart, Hallie Donovan, I could fall in love with you.”
    She touched his face tenderly. “And I with you . . . if I weren’t a maverick.”
    He bent down and nibbled her lips with soft, moist, tasting kisses. He spoke between tastes. “I’m not . . . the falling . . . in love . . . kind.”
    “Nor . . . am . . . I.”
    His mouth settled on hers for a full-bodied kiss. He pressed her against the flowers, his chest half- covering hers, one leg thrown across her thighs.
    It was a leisurely kiss, without hunger, without hurry, but it was the most thoroughly masculine kiss Hallie had ever received. Josh was completely in charge. She submitted to him as naturally as if she were the earth, and he, the rain and the sun. She welcomed him, opened to him,