Red Dust Dreaming by Eva Scott

matter.” He noticed he’d walked around the table to face her. When had he done that?
    â€œI live my life the way I want to.” She narrowed her eyes, her fists were balled up at her sides. Unless he was mistaken she was sizing him up.
    â€œRight, sure you do. You did whatever Mummy and Daddy wanted. I bet life is just peachy. Well it wasn’t, to hear Angela tell it.” Caden really hadn’t meant to start this fight. If he could take it all back he would but the words just kept pouring out of his mouth uncensored. He had to stop before they both all went too far.
    â€œMy childhood wasn’t so great either but I made the best of it. Angela rebelled every inch of the way and look where that got her!”
    â€œWhat exactly are you implying?”
    â€œI’m not implying anything. I’m calling it as I see it. She ran away to hide in this godforsaken place and left me to face our parents on my own.” Her hands were on her hips and her cheeks were flushed. Damn she looked pretty! And that particular fact only fuelled his anger.
    â€œI can’t stop you from taking Luke to New York. Believe me if I could I would. Just ask yourself this question, if New York is so damned good why did Angela run so far? Why did she deny your parents their grandchild? Why didn’t she tell you she was dying? She had a choice and she exercised it. She chose freedom. Do you really want Luke to wind up as uptight and miserable as you are?” He’d gone too far now. His words whirled about their heads like a flock of startled sparrows. Caden’s heart pounded in his chest. In some strange way he was having Angela’s argument for her, the one she never got to have. He’d heard her side of the story a thousand times and part of him justified his cruel words in defence of Angela.
    Elizabeth looked as shocked as if he’d slapped her, and in some way he had — verbally. His bravado evaporated as he looked into her eyes. Fury and pain lurked in their blue depths. He’d ignited both tonight.
    â€œI am not uptight,” she bit out between clenched teeth. She looked so angry, so small and alone in his kitchen there was only one logical thing to do.
    He took a step closer, inhaling her scent of sultry summer flowers. “Oh really,” he said before crushing her to him and kissing her with everything he had.

Chapter 7
    One minute he was yelling at her, the next he was kissing her. Elizabeth stood stock still as the heat from Caden’s hands seared her skin through her linen shirt. His fingers threaded through her hair, one hand cupping the back of her head as the other drew her closer until she pressed against the entire length of him. Heat came off him in waves as his lips covered hers. There was nothing gentle in his kiss, instead it spoke of pent up frustration, a need to possess. Elizabeth’s mouth opened like a flower, her knees weak with shock. Her hands clutched at his shirt while his tongue plundered her mouth winning the argument his words could not. She could feel his heart pounding or was it her heart? No longer able to tell where she stopped and he began she held on for dear life. All the anger she’d felt towards him dissipated to be replaced by a raw desire which ran through her veins like quicksilver. The sweetness of a hard male body pressed against hers awoke a need in her long repressed. Just as she allowed herself sink into the moment he released her, stepping away.
    She stood blinking in the kitchen light, dazed and confused. What on earth had just happened? Elizabeth looked up into Caden’s face only to see his hooded eyes shuttered, his face closed. He was cut off from her completely. It was as if the kiss, still warm on her lips, had never happened. She gripped the back of a chair to steady her legs. Her head whirled, dizzy with desire, and she closed her eyes for a brief moment to regain some equilibrium. When she opened them again he