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“You’ll never get it.”
    His expression suddenly softened and he hunkered down in front of her. His eyes were level with hers and filled with so much tenderness that Kelly wanted to gaze into them forever. “I do get it,” he said quietly. “One of the things I admire most about you is your fierce independence.”
    â€œThen how could you even think about taking that away from me and making me nothing more than your appendage?”
    His lips quirked with amusement. “Plenty of wives are able to exert their independence. Marriage isn’t likely to join two people like us at the hip. I am capable of compromise, Kelly.” His gaze caught hers. “Are you?”
    The question caught her off guard. “Not if it means losing who I am.”
    â€œI want to marry you because of who you are,” he declared. “Why would I want you to change?”
    â€œThat’s what marriage does. It changes people.”
    â€œNot if they fight it.”
    She had no ready answer for that. She was beginning to weaken and he knew it. She could read the gleam of triumph in his eyes. With his hands resting on her thighs, with his masculine scent luring her, all of the old yearnings were beginning. Heat flooded her body and made her reason vanish. She had wanted Jordan Adams as far back as she could remember. She had ached for his touch, hungered for just one of the wicked kisses that he seemed to share so freely with other women.
    â€œYou’ve never even kissed me,” she murmured without thinking.
    She hadn’t meant it as a dare, only as an observation, but Jordan was quick to seize the opening. His hands, softer now than they had been when he was working his father’s ranch, but still strong, cupped her face. His thumbs gently grazed her lips until they parted on a sigh of pure pleasure. His mouth curved into a half smile at that and, still smiling, he touched his lips to hers.
    The kiss was like the caress of warm velvet, soft and soothing and alluring. It made her head spin. The touch of his tongue sent heat spiraling through her, wicked curls of heat that reached places she was certain had never before been touched.
    â€œOh, Jordan,” she murmured on another sigh as he gathered her close and deepened the kiss until she was swimming in a whirlpool of sensation.
    In her wildest imagination she hadn’t known, hadn’t even guessed at the joy a mere kiss could bring. This was Jordan, though, the man she’d always believed to be her other half. If she had known his touch would really be like this, she would have fought for him long ago. She wouldn’t have waited, patient and silent, for him to wake up and notice her. She would have overcome her shyness, shoved aside all of her fears of rejection and tried to seduce him.
    If only she were more than a means to an end, if only he really, truly loved her, she would say yes to him in a heartbeat, if only to guarantee that incredibly rare moments like this would never end.
    When at last he released her, Jordan looked almost as dazed as she felt. His hands lingered on her face as if he couldn’t bear to break the contact.
    â€œWas that a yes? ” he asked.
    Kelly listened to her heart and heard yes repeated over and over. Her head, though, was louder. “No,” she said with more regret than she’d ever felt about anything she’d ever done.
    â€œBut…”
    She touched a finger to his lips. “Don’t argue. This isn’t about all the clearheaded, rational arguments you can mount. It’s not about bullying me until you get your way.”
    Jordan looked as lost as if she’d been talking about astrophysics. “What, then?”
    â€œThink about it,” she advised him, hiding a grin at his confusion. “I’m sure it will come to you eventually.”
    Now that he’d really, truly kissed her, now that she knew the first faint stirrings of all the