“Well, we’re here.” His face was blank. She didn’t know him well enough to determine if this was his usual, unbothered look or a facade he put on just for her sake.
“Yeah. We are.”
The awkward silence grew until she took a breath and spoke.“I’m sorry things didn’t work out the way you wanted them to, Michael. I really wish your sister the best.”
She placed gentle fingers on his exposed forearms. As soon as her skin connected with his, she knew the gesture was a mistake. The prickle of smooth hair underneath her fingertips was more tempting than a glass of ice water in hell.
Realizing her mistake, she regretfully peeled her fingers away until she’d completely separated herself from him. Only, it was too late. Her pulse was already jumping with the need to know what the rest of him felt like. Was the rest of his body covered with this soft, fine layer of hair, or was it thicker and coarser where she couldn’t see and where her hands shouldn’t touch?
“Vanessa?”
She cleared her throat at the sound of her name and linked her fingers together to prevent them from doing something stupid like reaching for him again.
“Thank you for trying to help my sister. I appreciate it. And even if it didn’t work out the way we intended, I still owe you a debt. If you ever need anything, just call me.”
Oh, she needed something all right. Asking for it was off the table, however. Besides, propositioning a law enforcement officer to strip naked in a car so she could run her hands and tongue all over his body was probably illegal in this tiny town.
“My grandmother’s ring will be thanks enough, Michael.”
Liar!
Yeah, that was an accurate description. She was sitting in this car, lying through her teeth. And as she sat, staring at him, aching for him to make a move she was too chickenshit to initiate herself, she called herself that and worse.
When he didn’t move, Vanessa decided she had to end the torture somehow. Reluctantly, she grabbed the door handle and stepped out of the car. She heard Michael doing the same. Because the need to turn around and look at him was so strong, she had toconcentrate just to put one foot in front of the other. She refused to look back for fear she wouldn’t find the strength to keep walking toward her car.
She pressed her key fob and her trunk opened just in time for Michael to step in front of her and place her weekender inside. She closed it, smiled at him, and then took her place in the driver’s seat. She refused to look his way as she prepared to start the ignition. Leaving, getting away from whatever this thing was that made her want to fall in his arms every time she saw him, was paramount. That was all she had enough energy to do.
She stepped on the brake and pressed the ignition button, desperately waiting for the hum of her engine coming to life. That sound meant freedom, and more than anything, she needed to escape this town and this man before she did something ill-advised like forget the handsome sheriff was off limits. To her surprise—and not the disappointment that should have flooded her—the engine made a wheezing sound instead. She tried it again, and it sputtered much like it had last night on the bridge.
“Come on, baby. What’s going on?”
A tap at her window pulled her attention from her console and placed it directly in the path of dark, smiling eyes.
She tightened her hands at the bottom of her steering wheel before she pressed the button to lower the window.
“I’m assuming your car doesn’t normally do that, right?”
“No,” she groaned. “Not before I got stuck on the bridge last night in all that rain. It sputtered a bit and was slightly difficult to handle the rest of the way to the inn.”
He leaned into the window, bringing his intoxicating smell of spice, and sexiness, and him, which had become her new favorite aroma, disrupting her peace.
“Fancy cars like these don’t do well with water damage. As long as you were sitting idle on the road with all that flooding, you might have damaged something in the electrical system.”
Determined he was wrong, she stepped on the brake again and attempted to get the engine started. Much to her dismay, the wheezing and sputtering grew louder and more daunting, and was followed by abrupt silence.
“Hmmm, that doesn’t sound good.”
She cut her eyes at him, embracing the anger sliding through her veins. It was better than the lust that was clouding her judgment earlier. At least this gave her clarity through the haze of desire that engulfed her whenever she was in his presence.
“You don’t say?”
He dropped his head as he chuckled a bit, then stood up, reaching for the outside door handle.
“It’s obvious you’re not going anywhere right now. Let me call our mechanic and see if he can get you back on the road.”
She stepped out of the car when he opened the door and leaned against the driver’s door.
“Let me guess, there’s only one mechanic in this one-pony town, so it could take forever for him to get over here and check my car out.”
