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Naked Thrill
Jill Monroe
How do you forget the hottest night of your life?Hayden Taylor awoke to silken sheets and the warmth of a hot, sexy guy—wait. Where the hell is she? And why is she naked in bed with an incredibly sexy stranger? She can't remember. The only thing Hayden knows for sure is that whoever he is, they had one very naughty night together.Tony Garcia doesn't remember last night, either. All he and Hayden have to go on are their burned clothes, a ton of cash and a car painted to look like a ladybug. As they piece together their wild night, they find it increasingly hard to ignore the sizzling chemistry between them. But sometimes one crazy night isn't enough to forget that their lives are worlds apart…
How do you forget the hottest night of your life?
Hayden Taylor awoke to silken sheets and the warmth of a hot, sexy guy—wait. Where the hell is she? And why is she naked in bed with an incredibly sexy stranger? She can’t remember. The only thing Hayden knows for sure is that whoever he is, they had one very naughty night together.
Tony Garcia doesn’t remember last night, either. All he and Hayden have to go on are their burned clothes, a ton of cash and a car painted to look like a ladybug. As they piece together their wild night, they find it increasingly hard to ignore the sizzling chemistry between them. But sometimes one crazy night isn’t enough to forget that their lives are worlds apart...
She made him want things he had no business wanting...
Tony stroked the backs of his fingers across Hayden’s soft cheek. So smooth. So tantalizing. Then he fisted her hair around his hands, the tendrils curling and tickling his skin. Hayden pressed herself against him, the oh-so-slight brush of her nipples against his chest making him crazy.
More.
Had she moaned that? Had he? Hell, yes, he wanted more. So much more. Everything.
But with a deep sigh, she put some distance between them and slumped against the seat of the car, fighting for breath.
He found it difficult to drag in air, too. He wrapped his fingers around the steering wheel, commanding his body to settle. But despite the pain he knew he’d be feeling on the drive back to Dallas, he had to chuckle.
“Guess that answers the question I asked earlier.”
“What?” she said, her voice tight.
“You feel it, too...”
Dear Reader (#ulink_0828bca8-d2df-5214-861d-e4c23875c43b),
The idea for Naked Thrill came about on a crazy, GPS-failing car trip with my best friend. So of course, Hayden and Tony had to have one mind-blowing adventure, too.
My favorite kind of trips are when you just hop in the car with no plans and no reservations and just drive, only stopping when something catches your eye—you never know where this type of trip will lead you. Although I’ve never had a vacation where I’ve lost my memories or my clothes (yet), it was a blast starting off Hayden and Tony’s journey that way and giving them an adventure neither could forget!
I’d like to say I felt a little guilty about making their lives so difficult, but I had too much fun seeing just how bad I could make it! I hope you enjoy reading about the detective work these two have to do on their past twenty-four hours, but also how they examine the choices and happenstances that put them on the path to finding one another.
You can always find me at my website, jillmonroe.com (http://www.jillmonroe.com/). Feel free to drop by unannounced!
Best,
Jill
Naked Thrill
Jill Monroe
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
JILL MONROE makes her home in Oklahoma with her family. When not writing, she spends way too much time on the internet completing “research” or updating her blog. Even when writing, she’s thinking of ways to avoid cooking.
This book is dedicated to my family, who, let’s face it, put up with a lot!
Special thanks to Gena Showalter—I thought about listing all the crazy places and misadventures we’ve had together, but, you know, NDA!
Special thanks to Deidre Knight and Adrienne Macintosh—you ladies are great!
Contents
Cover (#u45f36675-4f6d-5599-bbc9-84b0f7a060d7)
Back Cover Text (#u66fe177c-0712-56fe-bea0-1cb3df399a8f)
Introduction (#ua4df5397-2c40-5bb6-9b59-af3982ace298)
Dear Reader (#u12b2d307-b4d2-599c-ad04-e76e5c8eae6c)
Title Page (#u3c069a04-164d-5b46-97b9-21a08bc0c47d)
About the Author (#u5657c27a-c854-5209-aa22-cc4a1599e665)
Dedication (#u57909fa5-b4e8-5b3b-9eae-1e9e16e8d260)
1 (#uf8f4c2c7-a616-56e3-be55-14053e208121)
2 (#u764c8e1f-cbee-57f2-978e-485c9b02c723)
3 (#uff536b1b-f8d8-5798-a3ad-6566f906f6fd)
4 (#litres_trial_promo)
5 (#litres_trial_promo)
6 (#litres_trial_promo)
7 (#litres_trial_promo)
8 (#litres_trial_promo)
9 (#litres_trial_promo)
10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
1 (#ulink_ca8bde06-c141-5e2b-bb6e-b7698c149e47)
HAYDEN STRETCHED LAZILY beneath the softness of the silk sheet. Ahhhh, heaven. Nothing like sleeping in late, allowing the chirping of the birds and the warmth of the sun on her cheek to wake her. She’d never been so warm.
Wait a minute. She didn’t have silk sheets. And the kind of warmth next to her could only be provided by—oh, no.
Hayden’s eyes popped open. Well, as much as her worn-out body would allow her eyes to pop after doing who knows what the night before. Every muscle ached and her lips were dry from—uh-huh, probably from too much lip-lock. Her fingers bunched into the sheet at her chest.
Please don’t be naked. Please don’t be naked.
She raised the sheet.
One hundred percent, bikini-line-glowing naked. Hayden lifted the sheet higher, dreading, hating that she must force her glance to the warmth beside her to confirm what she already knew.
Yep. A man. Just as naked. And he was exactly her type. Broad shoulders, nice sprinkling of hair across a muscular chest all leading to a flat stomach and—
Stop right there. How did that gambler’s remorse saying go? What happened last night would stay last night.
Only, what had happened last night? Hayden rolled to her side, drew her knees up and hugged them to her chest. She massaged tiny circles on her temples, easing away the tension and inviting her memories of last night to take its place.
Still nothing.
What was wrong with her? She didn’t feel hungover. Had she been drugged? No, she didn’t have that fuzzy, surreal grogginess she’d read about in those PSA pamphlets in college. But clearly something had been done to her; she couldn’t remember the night before. Picking up a stranger, getting naked and apparently dancing the horizontal mambo with a guy were usually things she remembered.
She was a commitment girl, in it for the long term when it came to men. Bang and bail wasn’t her style.
Hayden glanced over at the man beside her. Her huffing and rustling around in the bed hadn’t disturbed him. Maybe whatever had affected her was affecting him, too? Or did he just sleep like the dead on a regular basis?
Don’t wait around to find out.
Yes, grabbing her clothes and sneaking out seemed about as obvious as a blinking neon sign. Clearly the only logical response. Okay, no it wasn’t. Calmly waking him up and asking him his name and what the hell had happened last night was the only logical response. Hayden just didn’t want to do that, and logic had nothing to do with it.
Instead, she flung away the covers, gasping when her own nakedness confronted her again. At least it roused some sense into her.
No, she couldn’t sneak out. As tempting as avoidance was, she wouldn’t take the coward’s path. She needed answers, and the naked man beside her was the only one who could give them to her. Hayden gently tugged the sheet up and secured it around her breasts. She rolled out of bed and gazed down at his face, hoping something would finally click.
If she’d thought his body was droolworthy, his face almost put those washboard abs to shame. Relaxed in sleep and lightly stubbled, the strong curve of his chin, broken by a slight cleft, tempted Hayden to trace her fingers along it. Her gaze lingered on his sensual, full, bottom lip. How many times had she tugged that sexy lower lip of his into her mouth last night? Sucked it?
Tingles shot through her stomach and her nipples hardened against the softness of the sheet. It must have been some night if the man could make her go all tingly when she couldn’t remember what he’d achieved with those lips of his.
A shaft of heat shimmied down her back to pool between her legs, but she clamped her knees together. Now was the time for answers. Not imagining the hot kisses and slow caresses this man must have delivered last night.
But still, she could steal a moment to gaze down at him. After all, once learning the truth of the night before, she never planned on laying eyes on Mr. I’m Still Sexy After A Night of Wickedness. It was just too weird. One and done wasn’t her style.
And yet, last night must have been the toe-curling, forget-all-reason kind of sex, because her skin ached in awareness of him. Desire for more? Obviously her body remembered every caress and kiss and was shouting, hell yeah—more. He was the sexy kind of wrong that women lied to themselves to make right. Hayden’s heart raced as she neared him and she breathed in his scent. Clean apple, mixed with man and leather and dark, sweet chocolate.
Chocolate? Was she actually comparing him to chocolate? Good Lord, the man was addictive. Hayden wanted to breathe him in and taste him all at the same time.
What did I do to this man’s body last night?
More like, what hadn’t she done? Truth be told, she’d never woken up beside such a delicious man. A thin scar ran across his temple and disappeared into his eyebrow. He possessed a rugged kind of sexiness. Not boyishly handsome, more like I can make you forget your own name. He had the kind of dark wavy hair that women loved to drag their fingers through, but which he probably fought to control. She bet his eyes were as dark and beautiful, like a caffe mocha first thing on a cold, rainy morning.
Coffee and chocolate? Clearly she was food deprived. And sleep deprived. And extra hungry from the workout of last night, perhaps?
She noticed the lines fanning from his eyes and bracketing his mouth—he smiled a lot. Hayden liked that about him. Which was a relief. She needed to find good things in this man she barely knew but had taken to her bed.
Correction. A bed. On top of not recognizing the man, she had no idea where she was. She scanned the room frantically.
She was in a one-room cabin with logs for walls and a wall of windows overlooking a beautiful pond with two ducks playfully swimming and splashing in the water. Completely unfamiliar. What was going on? The ducks wouldn’t be giving off any clues, so the only way she’d find out anything was to wake Mr. Hot beside her.
Hayden poked the man in the shoulder. Nothing.
She poked him again, adding a shake and a “Hey!”
His lids slowly opened and locked with hers. Dark brown and just as sexy as she’d suspected. A slow smile spread across his face, and her breath hitched. Then his eyes drifted shut, and that was it. He’d fallen back asleep.
Well, if she wanted him to wake up and stay awake, she’d have to go primal.
* * *
TONY’S LIDS OPENED with the force of a kick. Someone was smacking him on the bicep. Hard. In a flash his fingers encircled his attacker’s arm, and with a quick yank, he’d subdued and pinned his assailant to the...bed?
He blinked a few times only to see that long brown hair covered the intruder’s face, and his fingers were digging into supple, feminine flesh.
“Dammit, woman, I could have hurt you. You can’t wake a man up like he’s under attack.”
He loosened his grip around her wrists, but didn’t bother to roll off her body. He was enjoying being exactly where he was. With a soft woman beneath him. Her tight nipples caressing his chest. Her full hips gently cradling the hardness of his cock.
Now this is how to wake up.
She wrested her hands from his light grasp and pushed the hair from her face. “Get. Off. Me.”
His eyes met an angry green gaze. A completely unfamiliar green gaze. Holy sh— He backed off her in one fluid motion. Or it was supposed to be smooth. It was more like a jerky, lurching kind of stagger. What the hell had he done last night?
Despite the sluggishness infusing his muscles, Tony didn’t feel hungover. No headache. No dry mouth. No dizziness. A rush of sweet relief made his shoulders sag.
He hadn’t had a drink in over two years. A vow he planned to keep forever.
Besides, if he had been drinking, he’d be too hungover to now be enjoying the sight of the woman’s trim body. An amazing body he’d inadvertently revealed when he’d taken the sheet with him as he’d rolled off her. The roundness of her breasts would fit his hands perfectly. Her rosy nipples hardened before his eyes. And he imagined them hardening further in his mouth. He took in the slight tan lines at her hips and breasts, a treat he was sure few got to see, even though he had absolutely no idea who she was or how she came to be with him.
She gasped at the sudden cold draft of air, her hands flailing around for some protection from his eyes. He gave her a break and turned his back, although with such a stunning woman, he would have already looked his fill last night. Touched his fill. Tasted everywhere.
“Give me the sheet,” she ordered. “I don’t want you to see me naked.”
“What?” he asked with a false appalled tone. “If I gave you the sheet then you could see my naked ass.”
She sighed heavily behind him and he smiled. He couldn’t wait to look, touch and taste her—again. His body was ready for round two. Or was it round three? Four?
“Could you just be a gentleman and hand me the sheet.”
The strange woman sounded so agitated, Tony instantly felt bad for teasing her. Not that he wasn’t rattled by the situation, but he was more relieved that he hadn’t fallen off the wagon. “Okay, but you aren’t going to like it.”
“I’ll live,” she assured him.
He tossed her the sheet, keeping his eyes averted. He silently counted to ten. Then counted to twenty. He wanted to make sure he gave her plenty of time.
“Uh, you can look now.”
When he finally faced her, she sat cross-legged on the largest bed he’d ever seen. The monstrous thing was situated on a platform with filmy white fabric draped across the top of the bed’s four posts. Rose petals lay scattered and crushed on the floor and trapped in the bedding. Discarded towels led to another platform complete with a heart-shaped hot tub. Alarm clenched his gut.
“Are we in the honeymoon suite?” he asked.
“Don’t you remember?” she asked.
He slumped on the edge of the mattress. “I don’t remember anything. You?”
She shook her head. Then a line formed between her brows. “But you smiled at me this morning. Like you were—” she swallowed “—pleased.”
“How’s a man supposed to look when he wakes up to a beautiful naked woman plastered against him? Repulsed?”
“I guess not.” She hugged the silky sheet to her chest like a life jacket, the ends wrapped around her sweet body. Her full lips were set in a line. Yeah, there’d be no repeat glimpses of the soft curves that had been pressed against him so sweetly only moments before.
Even though she was fully hidden, she glanced everywhere but at his face. He liked that she was shy in the morning. Kind of cute. Then his beautiful stranger lowered her gaze and gasped, quickly averting her eyes.
“I can’t believe it.”
Yep, she’d spotted his hard cock. “I did warn you that you weren’t going to like it if I gave you the sheet.”
“Can you please just find your pants?” She peered left then right. “Shouldn’t there be a blanket or a comforter around this place? I can’t have a conversation with you both looking at me.”
Obviously the woman wasn’t used to one-night stands. Neither was he, for that matter, but he seemed to be handling it a lot better than she was. “It’s not my fault that I woke up next to a gorgeous and naked woman.”
“Here.” She tossed him a pillow. Very hard. Aimed straight for his crotch.
He caught it at his waist. “Careful.”
She lifted a brow. “Really? It’s a pillow.”
“I wasn’t expecting a Spartan-warrior throw.”
“Well, Spartans have no place for weakness,” she told him, her voice just a notch above a grumble.
He laughed. “Now I know why I picked you up last night. It’s a special kind of woman who can quote ancient lore. Okay, now that we’re both fully covered, I’m Anthony Garcia, by the way. Documentary filmmaker from California.”
“Hayden.”
“Hayden, what?”
She shook her head. “No last name until I know more about you.”
“Fair enough.” He backed up a step, but wariness still flickered in the dark green depths of her eyes. Doubt about him. That he wasn’t one of the good guys. Tony flinched.
The cords of his neck tightened. How many times had he been on the receiving end of this exact look? Dozens. Hell, probably hundreds. From teachers. Probably every authority figure he’d come into contact with over the course of his life. Even his own mother. None of them had thought he’d make something of himself. And if Hayden had met him six years ago, she’d be right to flash him that cautious glance.
But he wasn’t that Anthony Garcia anymore. And he wanted to prove that to her. “Everyone calls me Tony.”
Hayden. He liked knowing her name. And when he got her last name—and he would—he’d show her she had nothing to fear from him.
“And Tony?”
Just the sound of his name on her lips made him need a bigger pillow. Since when had a woman saying “Tony” got him hard? Of course, he’d been working like a dog lately wrapping up the filming of his latest documentary on the cowhands of the Texas plains while researching his next project. There’d been no time for soft curves and sweet smiles.
But obviously he’d decided to end his self-imposed dry spell last night. And it must have been some night. Dammit, why couldn’t he remember?
Hayden was the kind of woman a man remembered until he was old and stooped and walking with a cane, and thoughts of her could still put a spring in his step.
“Weren’t you going to look for your pants?” Her voice cut into his thoughts.
“Right.”
Hayden the Mysterious wanted some space, which he understood and would respect because he wasn’t a dick. Not anymore. He backed away and once he reached the bathroom, he closed the door behind him with a solid click.
But no clothes were strewn across the tiles or piled in a corner. There were more used towels thrown in a heap on the bathroom floor, though. And the shower was wet. Rose-scented soap rested inside a dish, and he imagined rubbing that soap all over Hayden’s body. Her breasts, down her sides and over her ass. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed through his mouth.
What the hell was the matter with him? He was supposed to be giving her space. Not fantasizing about her beneath the jets of the shower. With a final deep breath he opened his eyes and spotted one lone folded towel on a wooden shelf in the corner of the bathroom. He may not have any answers for Hayden—or himself—yet, but at least he could put her more at ease by covering up. He wrapped the towel around his waist.
Tony wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t already taken off. Bolted away from him as fast as she could given she was wrapped in nothing but a sheet. The idea filled him with panic. Had he already blown his chance to prove to her that he was a good guy? That whatever he had done, he could make it right for her? “Hayden?” he called.
“Yes?”
He blew out a breath of relief.
“No luck in finding our clothes in there?” she asked.
“No, just a couple of empty bottles of apple cider vinegar.” He opened the door. “That’s weird, right?”
“Maybe not. It’s kind of hip right now to rinse your hair with the stuff.” She made a sniffing sound. “Come to think of it, I smell it in the air.”
“So that’s what I’ve been smelling,” he said as he joined her. “Sweet and yet—”
“Almost too strong.”
“Exactly.”
She’d moved around the cabin as she waited for him and now stood in front of the large fieldstone fireplace, staring at the dark ash. They must have lit a fire last night, as warmth still emanated from the firebox.
“Looks like we’re in a cabin in the woods. I didn’t see a car out front. Or our shoes. I’m not sure how we even got here. But there’s the key,” she told him in a rush, angling her head toward a set of keys on a gold heart-shaped ring on a pink drop-leaf table.
He crossed the room to stand beside her. The softness of her shoulder brushed against his arm, but he would not be distracted.
“Do you see that?” Hayden pointed at something shiny in the cinders.
“Might be one of those metal hooks they put on clothes.”
“Yeah, and I think that’s the underwire from my bra.”
“Why would you burn your bra?”
“Exactly, not my generation.”
“Hmm?”
“Never mind. Bad joke.” Hayden shook her head. “I really have no idea. Ugh, and that was my favorite bra, too.”
“Aren’t all bras good?”
She gave him the side eye. “Some you like better than others. Some make your boo— You know, I’m not getting into this with you.”
“It’s just...my underwear’s my underwear.”
“If only we could find your underwear.”
He agreed that while the towel did cover the essential parts, it was still way too intimate.
“But honestly,” she glanced at the cooling fireplace again. “I bet they’re in there. Along with the rest of our clothes.”
“That could be the metal button on my jeans, and the thing in the back has to be the buckle to my belt.”
“And I think that’s the fastener on my sandals.” Hayden turned away from the fireplace and sat heavily on the flat fieldstones of the raised hearth. “I’m not going to panic about this. I’m not going to panic about this.”
“You do realize you’re saying that out loud?” he asked.
She lowered her head into her hands, and he felt an overwhelming urge to comfort her. To draw her into his arms and convince her that everything was fine. He stretched out against the flat rock of the fireplace, but the towel parted as he sat and the cold edges of the stones cut into his bare ass. Probably the one and only time in his life he wished he wasn’t naked beside a sexy woman.
“Hayden, believe me when I tell you, waking up beside a woman I don’t know is new for me, too. I can imagine not remembering scares the hell out of you.”
“No, I’m good,” she mumbled into her palms.
“Scares the shit out of me.” He scrubbed a hand over his stubbled chin. “I haven’t handled this right. You should be wary of a strange man in your bed. But I promise, I’m a good guy, and I’m going to figure this out.”
“We.” She sat up and squared her shoulders, and for the first time since waking up she seemed more relaxed.
“What?” he asked.
“We’re going to figure this out.” The barest hint of a smile touched her face, and his mouth dried. He’d give up his field mic to see that smile aimed at him.
She stood and began to pace in front of him. “Okay, so why would we burn our clothes? There has to be a logical explanation for it.”
“Destroying evidence?” he offered.
She stopped midstride and raised a brow at him. “That’s your first go-to idea?”
Tony only shrugged.
She continued with her pacing. “Maybe something got on them. Like a toxin or... No, we wouldn’t have burned them just so we could breathe in the fumes later when we started the fire. Or maybe burning our clothes is what made us lose our memory in the first place. All the synthetics in the fabrics...”
“Maybe we played Texas Burn ’Em. It’s like strip poker, but if you lose on the flop, turn or river, you have to burn an article of clothing.”
Hayden’s beautiful green eyes first widened then narrowed. “That’s not a real game. You’re just messing with me now. Besides I don’t know how to play Texas Hold ’Em.”
“Which is why your clothes are nothing but dust.”
“Yours are, too.”
“Well, I lost because I’m a gentleman like that.”
“Please try not to be charming.” More pacing. “I must have had too much to drink last night. I picked you up because I wanted to, and then burned our clothes in some mad fit of passion.”
“So now you’re the one who picked me up last night?”
She turned toward him, her gaze systematic. “Look at you—you’re the prototype of the guy every woman wants to pick up in a bar. Dark wavy hair, that crooked way you smile that’s both endearing and sexy, and c’mon, your body? Seriously, how many ab crunches do you have to perform in a day to get that six-pack?”
“I think I should be offended by that assessment.” But why? The woman had just complimented him. But despite having been fully conscious with this amazing woman for less than thirty minutes, he wanted to get to know her better. Explore all her soft curves and remember touching and tasting her this time. And he wanted her to smile at him once as if she wanted to be with him. He didn’t want her boxing him in as nothing more than abs, a smile and hair.
Out of nowhere, she made a gasping sound and raced for the bathroom. He surged up and followed her to make sure she was okay. Then he watched as she lowered the sheet and angled her head so she could see her back in the mirror above the sink. Dissatisfied, she shifted, spinning like a dog chasing its tail, alternating between trying to look at her back in the mirror and over her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” he finally asked.
“Checking for the tattoo.”
“What? Why?”
“Because that’s what people do in these situations, isn’t it? Pick up a guy, get a tattoo—it’s the crazy night bucket list.”
Sexy and funny. He was liking this woman more and more. “I have one thing to say about last night.”
“Oh?”
“Can’t fault my taste.”
Hayden stopped trying to play spot the tattoo and her gaze connected with his. There it was again. The blast of awareness. Her skin exposed above the sheet reddened. A tiny pulse point at the soft spot over her collarbone beat like a wild thing. How did he know her skin was soft? He just knew.
“Now it’s weird,” she said, her voice low.
“You just told me my smile was sexy.”
The briefest of grins touched Hayden’s lips, and his heartbeat ratcheted up again because her smile was just what he wanted. “I’ve decided to roll with it,” she said.
Although it violated every instinct hardwired into him, Tony realized they had to find some clothes for her. Get her away from this cabin, the hot tub and the evidence of a wild night of sex. So he could start over.
Start over, and this time get it right and show her he could pull off being a white knight.
* * *
OKAY, SO WHAT really was the damage here? She’d just spent the most grueling semester balancing both a full school load and a job. It had taken her six years because she had to work so much, but in two weeks she’d be graduating. So apparently sometime last night she’d decided to cut loose and have a little fun. No harm, no foul.
Now she planned to roll with it right out of this cabin and back to reality. She was expecting an offer from one of Dallas’s largest engineering firms. But Hastings Engineering had cultivated a reputation of reliability and respectability. And Hayden had seen enough news stories about people being fired or having to wipe their social media accounts because of one accidental naughty message or naked selfie going viral.
Alarm swooshed through her. She was naked. She had a phone. She’d clearly indulged in something last night.
Don’t panic. You wouldn’t normally take a naked selfie, so chances are you didn’t last night. But still...
“We’ve got to find our phones, Tony. Now. And somewhere around here has to be our keys. I’m checking by the hot tub.”
“I’ll take the TV. Too bad this place doesn’t have a coffeemaker.”
Coffee sounded like heaven. Something that would take her mind off what may or may not be stored on the cloud right now that could torpedo her career before it even began. No, she had to find that phone. Hayden advanced on the hot tub as if it was a beast blocking her path to caffeine. The dark red heart-shaped tub lay recessed inside a wooden platform. Burned candles lined the tub. Good grief, they’d really gone for the romantic cliché. Hell, they hadn’t even bothered to drain the thing.
Too much of a hurry?
Hayden felt her cheeks burning and darted a glance toward Tony. Wrong move, because right now the towel was slipping and all she could see was his gorgeous ass. Maybe that wasn’t so bad. Because his ass was muscular and toned and a treat she wasn’t likely to enjoy again. Maybe she’d had the right idea last night.
If she were to put her new roll-with-it philosophy to the test, she could drop the bulky sheet at her feet. Cross toward him. Slowly trail her fingertips down the muscular slopes of his back...
Her nipples puckered against the sheet, and the tight hold she had on the restricting barrier slackened. An oh-so-heady, limb-loosening blast of desire rushed through her.
She whirled away from him. Sex with a stranger might have sounded like a good idea at one in the morning. But Hayden had only ever made love to a guy she cared about. Who cared about her. Could she have mind-blowing sex with a stranger? Apparently she had last night. But right now? In the cold light of day when it went against everything she believed at her core?
Tony’s not exactly a stranger, the daring side of her brain reminded her. That side of her had been quiet for so long, beaten down by long hours in the library and physically exhausting work in the restaurant that paid her tuition and rent. She couldn’t afford a mistake. Not at this point in her life when she was about to make all the dreams for her future now her reality.
Something silver and shiny winked in the sunlight. She pushed one of their discarded red towels aside with her toe to get a better view. It was her favorite hoop earring. She dropped to the floor to pick it up. An inexpensive high school graduation gift from her grandmother, but it was priceless to Hayden. She scooted around the floor trying to find the other earring. She couldnot roll with losing those.
Bingo! There it was. She stretched to reach it.
Tony made a strange choking sound just as she thankfully grabbed the cold metal hoop.
“What?” she asked. Maybe she should be asking what now?
“The sheet shifted when you started crawling on the floor, and...I think I found your tattoo.”
Hayden’s stomach tightened. “Seriously? But I didn’t see—”
“It’s in a spot, uh, not easily noticed.”
The fact that Tony appeared completely uncomfortable was a point in his favor. Hayden took a deep breath. After all, she’d been perfectly resigned to a tattoo five minutes ago. Yeah, perfectly.
“Okay, tell me quick, like you’re ripping off a bandage. Butterfly, flower or heart?”
“Dragon.”
“As in cute, puffy smoke or...?”
“Scales and flame. Medieval. Kind of fierce.”
Hayden collapsed against the smooth wood of the hot tub’s platform. So much for rolling with it. She began to laugh. “I’ve always heard tattoos were painful, but I’m not even tender.”
A quick two-rap knock on the door startled them both and a voice sounded from the other side. “Good morning, it’s Betty from last night.”
“Betty?” she mouthed at Tony. His shrug said he had no recollection, either.
“I have your breakfast,” Betty said.
“Open the door,” he whispered to Hayden as he raced for the bathroom and shut the door. Her stomach had rumbled at the mention of food, so any kind of I’m-literally-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo meltdown would just have to wait. She tightened the sheet under her arms and made for the door.
A smiling, kind-eyed lady greeted her from the other side of the door. The sun shone brightly behind her and a light breeze ruffled her hair. Birds sang their morning songs in the trees. It was that perfect kind of day that always seemed to spring up when your personal life was completely out of whack.
“I have your breakfast basket right here. Biscuits and gravy, pumpkin spice muffins and a carafe of coffee.”
Yes!
She had about a million questions for this woman. But they could wait until after she was dressed. And fed. And without a gorgeous man in her field of vision.
Betty gave her a little smile and leaned in close. “I see the clothes I left for you last night are still here on the porch, so I’ll just hand you the basket.”
Hayden couldn’t hide her cringe. Betty looked as if she could be Hayden’s grandma’s younger sister, and Hayden felt as if she’d been caught doing something very, very wrong. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. What must this kind woman think of her?
Of course when she considered this situation rationally, a stranger’s opinion shouldn’t bother her. You don’t live for others; you live for yourself.
Blah blah blah. Hayden understood all about the validation trap. That didn’t mean she could shake it off easily. It bothered her that Betty assumed Hayden had been apparently way too intent on the man in her bed last night to even employ the ten seconds it would take to grab a bag of donated clothes.
Nothing like that would ever bug the other young women in her engineering classes. But then, most of them hadn’t been raised by grandparents who seemed old-fashioned even to people of their own generation. In a word, she was mortified.
Betty’s voice lowered. “Sorry again about not being able to find a bra in your size, but there’s an extra cami in the pile so you can layer.” Then she flashed Hayden a comforting smile and the embarrassment and awkwardness churning inside her vanished.
Hayden loved Betty in that moment. The woman would be in her will. If she ever wrote a book, it would be dedicated to her. But coffee or clothes, which was more important?
“Thanks,” she gushed to their host as she took the basket.
Betty handed her the small mesh grocery bag with the clothes that had been left for them the night before. “Bill has your car down by our cabin. He’s gotten most of the smell out, but, you know, humans never win when they face a skunk.”
“Huh? Oh, yes, so true.”
“But it was so sweet of you to save the dog, although it wouldn’t have been the first time he’s lost a battle with a skunk, too.” Betty turned to leave. “Oh, and checkout was at noon. But since you guys didn’t get here until after ten last night, and we don’t have any other bookings, feel free to stay until two.”
Hayden closed the heavy oak door and leaned her head against the smooth wooden surface. Then she realized she’d missed the opportunity to find out more from the woman. “I was going to ask so many questions,” she mumbled.
“You still can,” Tony said as he emerged from the bathroom, still looking as gorgeous as when she’d woken up in his arms. Still same towel low on his hips. Surely that bag contained some sanity-saving pair of pants he could wear.
Still, she couldn’t handle any more conversations with Mr. Should Be a Model for Pec and Ab Magazine. She thrust the sack of clothes into his hands.
“You can get dressed first,” she offered, sounding way too cheerful and helpful.
A small smile played about those beautiful lips of his. Did he suspect she wanted, no needed him to be covered?
The attraction she had to this man was puzzling. Hayden didn’t believe in love at first sight. Not even love after six months. But she did believe in possibilities. And pleasure. And she knew the man leaning against the wall could give her both.
“Hayden?” Something heated and primal flickered in his dark gaze. Her heartbeat slowed. He pushed off the wall with his shoulder and crossed toward her.
Beat.
A shaft of sunlight blazed across his magnificent body, and she noticed the word fearless tattooed across his bicep.
Beat.
He stopped a foot away, towering over her. Big. Strong.
Beeaaatttt.
Her breath hitched and his eyes narrowed at her gasp.
“Do I frighten you, Hayden? Say the word and I’m out of here.”
She was all kinds of afraid of how he made her feel. But no, that wasn’t what he’d asked. She shook her head.
“Then give me your hand.”
Her hand balled up into a fist for a moment, then she lifted her arm. He clasped her fingers in his grip, strong and sure. His head lowered a fraction, as if he was going to kiss her. Hayden’s lips parted in anticipation, and the slow cadence of her heart flipped, now ratcheting up in speed. She spotted want and need in his gaze—and regret. He stopped.
Disappointment razored through her. He was going to give her space.
“Coffee,” she told him. “Everything’s better after coffee.” Tony didn’t drop her hand, and instead walked beside her toward the table where she’d stashed the breakfast from Betty. “Oh, I almost forgot. Apparently we lost a fight with a skunk last night.”
“That explains the burned clothes and bottles of apple cider vinegar.” Tony released her hand to rummage through the bag of clothes.
“I’ll unload our breakfast while you change. In the bathroom.” It was an act of self-preservation. She couldn’t handle Tony dressing in front of her after that near kiss.
“Yes, explains the clothes...but not the hot tub,” he told her as he shut the door, his voice low and setting off a chain reaction of awareness in every part of her body.
Nope, it did not explain the hot tub. Nor that path of towels to the platform bed. Hayden felt her face heat for about the hundredth time. Her skin was probably growing all blotchy. She never handled embarrassment well.
Hayden opened the wicker basket Betty had delivered and pulled out a coffee carafe and mugs. She quickly poured two cups, and then took a long draw from the mug, so glad the brew wasn’t piping hot because she would have gulped it down, burned tongue or not.
She was reaching for the carafe to top off her cup when Tony emerged from the bathroom dressed in jean shorts and a T-shirt announcing I Do A Body Good.
“Oh, if only I could remember,” she teased, surprised she’d so quickly slid into a playful mood. Coffee did a body good, too.
“Don’t laugh. Your shirt is worse,” he said, tossing her a bright pink T-shirt with Too Hot To Handle across the chest.
“Betty and her husband must have an interesting sense of humor,” she said as she raced for the bathroom to change.
Fifteen minutes later, Hayden no longer had to walk with a bedsheet trailing behind her like a train. She dumped the sheet on the straightened bedding. Betty’s bag had also provided her a change of underwear, the promised cami and a pair of khaki shorts. After a quick finger comb to her hair, she joined Tony at the table. The enticing scent of pumpkin spice muffin was too much and she reached into the basket and plopped a piece into her mouth. Delicious.
They sat in silence for a moment. They needed to have a conversation, but what was the protocol here? She’d missed the How to Talk to the Stranger You Just Slept With etiquette lesson. Of course avoidance was the preferred course of action in any social situation. A lesson taken straight from her grandma. Hayden bit back a smile as she remembered the woman’s advice. Hayden, dear, don’t force it. Things have a way of working themselves out, you’ll see.
Now people would call that “escape coping,” but sometimes Grandma was right and things did work themselves out.
In other words, just roll with it. Yes, that’s exactly what she’d do.
But first, one piece of information was best not avoided. For both their sakes. “You don’t have to worry about pregnancy or anything. I’m covered there.”
Alarm flashed through his brown eyes. “Hell, I hadn’t even thought about that yet.”
“Too busy trying to figure out how to ditch me?” she joked.
“No. Too busy trying to figure out what kind of idiot forgets making love to the most beautiful woman he’s ever been with.”
She let out a small laugh, but Hayden was torn. Torn because she didn’t know how to feel. All her emotions warred with each other as if they were battling for the last brownie in the pan. She was mortified that she couldn’t remember last night. Thrilled that she’d connected with Mr. Amazing and Hot. She was a contradictory mess of embarrassment, satisfaction and chagrin. And Tony thought he was the idiot. “I guess I’m strangely flattered.”
Tony leaned toward her, his brown eyes intent. “We have two options. Go our separate ways and forget this ever happened. Or find out why we hooked up and why neither of us can remember it.”
“How we hooked up. I know why.”
A slow smile curved his gorgeous lips. Tony had mentioned he was a filmmaker. Cue the rainbow. And the birds chirping. Hell, bring in a unicorn because at this moment all the embarrassment and mortification vanished. “I don’t even know where we are,” she said, breathless.
“The back of that take-out menu says Broken Bow, Oklahoma,” he told her, nodding to a couple of menus stuck to a bulletin board with tacks near the kitchen sink. Yeah, the couples who stayed in this lover’s cabin probably didn’t plan to venture out during their whole stay. Drop the supplies at the door and go was more likely their approach once they spotted that heart-shaped tub and platform bed.
“Uh, the last place I remember is Texas,” she said.
“Dallas?” he asked and she nodded. “There’s a start. We must have met in Dallas. Of course, I can’t even figure out how to get back there because I still can’t find my phone.”
“Same. Do you have a map in your car?”
Tony flashed her an embarrassed glance, so Hayden knew the answer was no. Her grandparents had embraced technology as much as the next person, but when it came to navigation, Grandma Taylor insisted on paper. Every year, she gifted Hayden with a new and updated atlas in case technology failed. But Betty had only mentioned one car, and chances were that it was his.
“Maybe Betty can loan us a map,” he offered. “Or we can stop at a gas station on the way out of town. You in?”
Was she? Hayden could only do damage control if she knew exactly what she’d done last night. And that meant she had to stick with Tony. “Yes—we have a plan,” she said, hopeful for the first time that day.
Five minutes later they stepped out together on the wooden planked porch. Two rocking chairs swayed in the breeze. In the distance, the trees loomed tall and lush, so different from the flat terrain of Texas where she’d grown up. Two hawks flew a lazy pattern above her head and the sound of locusts filled the air.
She pointed out two squirrels chasing each other around the trunk of a tree. “You know what’s strange? I’ve lived in Texas all my life, and have never been to Oklahoma. You’d think at least once I would have crossed the border.”
“I’ve never been to Oklahoma, either. Something we have in common.”
“Tony, I bet’s that’s how we ended up here,” she told him, gripping his arm. The muscles beneath her fingertips bulged. “I can’t believe how excited I am to realize that.”
“It sucks not feeling in control. Not knowing what you’ve done.”
Something dark and regretful lurked in his tone—as if he’d weathered a similar situation in his past. She gave his arm a squeeze before dropping her hand down to her side. Until this moment, Tony had been teasing or reassuring. But since waking up, she’d only been concerned about herself. Hayden hadn’t given a second thought to how he must be feeling. Instead, she’d pegged him as that dude—the kind of man who congratulated himself on getting lucky. But there was more to him than that.
“I’ve been kind of a bitch to you, haven’t I?” she asked as they approached a larger cabin marked Office.
He gave her a wink. “It’s okay—I can handle a few knocks.”
Hayden laughed as the front door opened and Betty walked out to greet them. “Hey, you two lovebirds. That’s just the way you were last night. Covered in stink but still laughing. Although you smell so much better this morning, but it’s nice to see the smiles are still there.”
“Thanks for helping us out. We didn’t seem, uh, strange to you last night?”
Betty just laughed. “Honey, you were covered in skunk, of course you seemed strange. But no odder than any other high-on-love couple.”
High on...what?
“We didn’t leave our phones with you?” Tony asked.
“No, just the car. Mike’s bringing it around now. Maybe you left your phones in the car. By the way, I used my homemade air freshener in it last night and again this morning. Lilac and pine. Between that and the breeze, I think you’re good.”
Car tires crunched on the gravel and they all turned to watch a bright red car with black polka dots painted on it—it was a ladybug on wheels. “That’s your car?” she whispered.
“I was hoping that was yours,” he groaned.
Oh, crap.
She’d had about a million questions to ask Betty and Mike and every single one of them vanished the moment a ladybug car neither of them owned rolled toward them. Mike slid out of the car and handed Tony the keys. Ugh, as if the keys belonged in Tony’s hand.
“That’s a tight squeeze, Tony. Not sure how you’re comfortable wedged behind the steering wheel. But anything for the ladies, huh?” Mike asked as he draped an arm around Betty’s shoulders and kissed her temple.
“Oh, well...” Tony mumbled.
Get out of here.Now. Before Mike and Betty began to ask questions that would lead to 9-1-1, handcuffs and a single phone call. Hayden didn’t know which was worse. The prospect of that jailhouse phone call or that she really had no one to phone. She might as well dial the HR person at Hastings Engineering because she definitely wouldn’t be working there after she was arrested.
She swiped the keys from Tony’s hands. “Actually, I do most of the driving. He’s the navigator.”
The other couple laughed.
“Speaking of navigating, you wouldn’t happen to have an extra map?” Tony asked.
Mike nodded. “Follow me. I think I might have one in the garage.”
Betty handed Hayden a small bag as they watched the two men walk away. “Some homemade cookies for the road.”
“Thanks,” she told her, distracted by Tony’s muscular legs and firm—
“Uh-huh.” The other woman smiled.
Had she just been caught staring at a man’s ass? By someone who could be her grandma?
“Glad it goes both ways between you two. That boy is enchanted by you. He’s a keeper.”
Hayden didn’t know which was more startling. A six-foot plus man being referred to as a boy or that he’d appeared enchanted by her. What a sweet word. How would it feel to have a man like Tony enchanted by her? Very agreeable as long as they were using words Jane Austen would write.
“Yeah, he’s something.”
Hayden slid into the driver’s seat as Mike and Tony rounded the corner, map in hand. At least that was one problem they’d been able to solve.
Tony joined her in the car with a strained smile. Oh yeah, they were driving off in a car that neither of them owned.
“Did we steal this car last night?” she asked through clenched teeth that hopefully looked like a smile to the waving Mike and Betty.
“I’m going with we just borrowed it from a new acquaintance, since no one I know drives a ladybug car.” He glanced up from the map as she shifted the car into Drive and headed down the gravel path. “I’m assuming none of your friends do, either?”
She shook her head.
“According to the map, this is a private road that winds through the trees for about a mile. Pull over when you no longer see Betty and Mike’s fence line.”
Hayden drove another quarter of a mile until the friendly white fence turned to barbed wire. “Maybe we stashed our phones in the glove box,” she suggested as she pulled off the main road and put the car in Park.
Tony twisted the knob and as the glove box sprang open, dozens of green bills plopped onto his lap. “Holy shit.” Several more stacks of neatly piled cash remained in the glove box. “There has to be at least two thousand dollars in here.”
“I’m hoping that’s yours,” she said, afraid to hear the answer with the way their morning began. Her bank account currently sat at a nice, minimum-deposit requirement of fifty bucks.
He shook his head. “Nope. Your guess as to where this came from is as good as mine.”
Her throat began to tighten. “We’ve got to ditch the car. Wipe it down. Remove all trace evidence we were even here,” she told him, desperately trying to recall helpful hints from every crime movie she’d watched in the past decade. “Maybe we can give the rest of the cash to Mike and Betty so they forget they even saw us.”
Tony reached for her hands and drew them into his. “Hayden, would you normally steal a car?”
She exhaled in a deflated hiss. “Well, no.”
There was that reassuring smile of his again. “Something weird happened to us last night, but we wouldn’t do one-eighties on our personalities.”
She relaxed against the seat cushion. That was the first really good news she’d had since the coffee.
“Our phones aren’t in the glove box. Maybe we put them in the trunk to keep them safe,” he said, as he reached for the door handle.
“If we weren’t worried about stashing the money in the car, I doubt we would have been worried about the phones.”
“True, but I’ll check anyway.”
She popped the trunk so he could search. A minute later he crouched outside her window. “Nope, nothing.”
The sun glinted off his dark hair. She really wanted to touch it. Run her fingers through it. It would help to take her mind off their situation. Of course it also helped that he was such an easy distraction. What was it he’d said about himself? Couldn’t fault his taste? Yeah. Same here, buddy.
“Tony, I might steal a car if the circumstances really warranted it.” Where had that sobering thought come from? Wherever it had originated, she wanted to shut that part of her brain down before her mind added any other irritating revelations.
“Only after you left a note and promised to return it with a full tank,” he told her with a wink.
She pulled a piece of fluff off her shorts. “Well, that goes without saying.”
“Hayden.”
His voice gently urged her to look up. She raised her gaze to his and sucked in a breath. Something heated and elusive stirred inside her.
The humor faded from his eyes and he stiffened. “You feel it, too.”
She could only nod, and twisted in her seat so she could stare down the road and not at him. Her heart raced and her mouth was dry; she was having a serious case of want.
Hayden’s grandma was fond of sayings about closed doors leading to open windows—this morning had felt very much as if she’d run into a closed door, but that smile of his was like a fresh breeze through an open window.
“Hayden, I don’t want to get back to the city and forget all about this...this thing between us. I don’t know what it is, but I know it doesn’t happen. At least not to me.”
“Me, either,” Hayden admitted. She glanced his way, memorized every part of his strong profile because she didn’t want to forget this beautiful man. But then she didn’t really have to. She wasn’t playing the avoidance game this time. Last night, call it instinct or lack of inhibitions, but something had drawn her to this man. And so far that hadn’t been misplaced; he’d proven to be concerned for her and had given her space when she’d needed it.
Oh, Hayden could tell herself she’d stick with Mr. Abs because it was an adventure or that she wanted to make sure there weren’t any, er, indiscreet pictures that could derail her career, but if she were being truthful, intuition also told her she didn’t have to be guarded around this man.
She got out of the car to stand beside him. “Let’s find out what happened to us,” she said.
He flashed her that amazing smile of his and her skin grew warm. Memories of waking up in his strong arms and feeling the heat of his naked body against hers flooded her senses. Made her nipples tingle. But she had no memory of kissing him, breathing him in and tasting him. She wanted to change that. Right. Now.
“We could always do the old trick of making out to jog our memory,” he suggested, his voice playful.
She lifted a brow. “That’s an old tactic, is it?”
He nodded. “Tried and true, dates back way before the Jazz Age—”
Hayden cut off his words with her lips. He stood there rigid, his mouth unmoving. Then his arm encircled her waist, drawing her flush against his body. She pressed against him, and he groaned. His lips parted and she slipped her tongue inside his mouth, tasting coffee and pumpkin and something delicious that could just be Tony.
“You taste good,” she whispered against his lips.
“So do you. Amazing. Um...not that I’m complaining, but that came out of nowhere.”
“Not that you’d believe me, but I don’t usually indulge in my impulsive side. But any guy who uses the Jazz Age as an excuse to make out is a man I’d try to jog my memory with.”
“Actually I know all kinds of history,” he told her with a wink.
“All except ours. Speaking of...? Did you remember anything? I got nothing.”
He made a faux flinching movement that was too charming. “You got nothing? Surely I was better than that.”
She patted his arm. “Oh, you were a lot better—okay no. I’m not falling for that ruse. I’m keeping my opinions of your kiss to myself.”
“How will I know if I’m doing it right?” he asked, all innocence. Yeah, like this man held any doubts about his technique.
Hot. Sensual. Carnal. And those were just the first three words that popped into her head to describe the kiss. “I’ll tell you what, if I come back for more, then you’ll know if you’re doing it right.”
“Fair enough.” He eyed the front seat. “As uncomfortable as this car is, I think I should drive.”
“Why?” she asked.
His eyes softened, and a rueful smile touched his lips. “Because if we’re caught I can make them believe you had no idea I’d stolen the car. Only one of us gets arrested.”
It was strangely chivalrous. Hayden reached up, sank her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck so she could draw him nearer. The reality of his kiss was way better than the fantasy.
“Besides,” he said, his gaze dropping from hers to study something far off in the distance. “I’ve been in jail before.”
2 (#ulink_eeccec7f-c7e0-5854-9cbc-287ebf7a63c4)
JAIL. BEFORE?
Hayden’s hands fell.
“Yeah. That usually does it,” he told her, his voice tired. Tony turned away from her and just like that, the figurative window slammed shut, too.
She squinted against the sunshine as she tried to read his body language. Back straight and hands fisted at his sides. Didn’t need that one lone psychology class to diagnose him as tense and agitated.
Had she been too quick to trust him? Was he really an ax murderer or the mastermind of a Ponzi scheme? What she needed was answers. And maybe an escape route.
Okay, before she got all weird about this, people were arrested all the time for bizarre stuff. Not returning a library book for twenty years. Changing the clothes on a mannequin in full view of the public. She’d even heard a crazy story about how a police officer had dragged a lady—with her toddler strapped to the car seat—right to the clinker, all for a few days’ expired driver’s license.
Did people still use words like clinker?
Focus.
People also got arrested for grand theft auto, burglary or kidnapping. Check. Check. And check?
She could reach for his hand and talk this out with him, or reach for the keys and zoom down the road away from him. Both made sense. But if Tony had planned to hurt her, he must be pretty inept because he’d really missed his chance. In fact, when he’d had the opportunity, he’d kept his distance, had in fact taken near-Herculean efforts to avoid touching her and done everything a man could do to put her at ease in what must have been an incredibly awkward situation for him, too.
He turned as she approached him, her footsteps crunching the leaves and twigs scattered along the side of the road. He towered above her, and when his brown eyes met hers, they gave no hint of his thoughts.
“I’m so used to the people around me being aware of my past, that I forget how people can judge.”
Okay, that was defensive—and an overreaction. “Listen, I’ve known you, what? Half an hour fully clothed? No one makes good decisions naked. Besides, you don’t get to casually throw out that you were in prison, and then get all sensitive when I’m nervous about it. Understandably nervous.”
He sucked in a deep breath and his brow furrowed. This must be deep-in-thought Tony. Considering she’d only known him half an hour—fully clothed—she’d already seen him, chivalrous, considerate, playful and very, very naughty.
Or was that naked. Definitely naked.
Focus.
“You’re right,” he said.
“What’s your angle here?”
Tony shook his head, but a small smile toyed with that übersexy lower lip of his. “You are the suspicious one. No angle, just truth.”
Then he shrugged.
A shrug? As if what he’d said was no big deal? Hayden had never thought of herself as the suspicious type, but what kind of man tells a woman she’s right? Things weren’t adding up.
“So you’re saying you were wrong a moment ago?” she asked, just to make sure she’d heard him correctly.
Tony nodded, then ran his palms down the denim material of his borrowed shorts. “Hayden, this doesn’t have to be so hard. Take the car. Take the cash. I can walk into town. Just leave me enough money to make a call at a pay phone somewhere.”
“Do they still even have pay phones?”
“I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about me. I don’t think we stole the money or the car, but make your first stop in town at the police station if you’re worried.”
His eyes were clear, and that gorgeous smile of his was honest. She spotted nothing but openness, and her lips pursed together. “You’re trying to convince me you’re a good guy, aren’t you?” she asked after a long moment.
He rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “After a whole lot of work, I am a good guy.”
“And prison?”
“Technically it was jail. And that’s a story best left to tell you on the long road trip to Dallas.” Playful, sexy Tony was back.
“So what you’re saying is that I’ll learn all your secrets if I don’t strand you on the side of the road.”
He leaned toward her, bringing with him the scent of sunshine and pure masculine temptation. “Maybe not all my secrets.” His voice was a teasing rasp that made her want to surrender to that temptation. A challenge urging her on—yeah, go ahead and try to learn all my secrets.
“I have conditions,” she warned.
“Lay ’em on me.”
“We don’t spend the money except on essentials. Like gas. Not until we know the cash is ours free and clear.” Truthfully, she didn’t believe they’d stolen the money, either. It just wasn’t in her nature, and it would risk way too much to ever make taking a couple of thousand dollars worth it. The real Hayden, the one who’d still managed to hook up with a protective sexy man despite a night of craziness would never have pocketed this cash. But borrowing wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities, and loans meant repayment. Debt didn’t even begin to describe the kind of bills awaiting her after graduation and gainful employment. No sense in adding to her balance by spending needlessly on the return trip to Dallas.
“Agreed. The money stays safe.”
“Don’t lie to me. Ever.”
“Been lied to before?” he asked.
Her sigh was heavy. “Lots of times.”
“So you’ve been lied to and apparently have a problem with always being right. You need to date better men, Hay.”
Don’t I know it. “And don’t call me Hay.”
He lifted a brow. “That’s the third condition?”
“People think it’s really funny to text me that. Hey, Hay.”
“It could be worse.”
Hayden shook her head. “It’s become a favorite nickname for my friends. It’s obnoxious.”
He kissed the end of her nose, and she shivered. “Okay, no hey, Hay.”
The third condition had originally been that he keep his hands to himself. Despite whatever had happened the night before, she was a responsible adult. An engineer. Almost. People depended on her to design roads and bridges and lines that delivered water and power and heat to their homes reliably. Or would.
She took comfort in being reliable and dependable. It was the way her grandparents raised her to be. Informing a man she barely knew that sex was off the table for the foreseeable future was most definitely the responsible thing to do.
There are other kinds of reliable, her subconscious teased. Like a man who could be relied upon for a good time. If Tony could give her shivers with just an almost-innocent kiss on the nose, imagine what he could do with his hands? His lips? His whole body? Dependable orgasms, that’s what. “Yeah, no hey, Hay. That’s my third condition.”
“I drive, you navigate?” he asked with a nod.
“It’s sweet of you to offer, but it’s really okay. Especially since the car is so uncomfortable.” Hopefully he wasn’t one of those men who didn’t want the woman to drive.
“I also figured you wouldn’t want to drive the whole distance, and since you know the Dallas area better than I do, you could take that leg of the trip.”
“Okay, sounds like a plan, Mr. uh—what’s your last name?” Yeah, very responsible. She’d just been considering orgasms with a man whose last name was a blank.
“Garcia. I told you that earlier, remember?” He opened the passenger door for her and she slumped down hard against the seat.
Garcia. Documentary filmmaker. She’d refused to share her last name. “Oh, yeah, I do now.” She rubbed at her temples as if that would snap the events of the past twenty-four hours back into place. “My short-term memory is fuzzy.”
“Same with me,” Tony informed her as he slid behind the wheel. He rolled the seat almost all the way back to accommodate his legs and turned the ignition to fire up the car. “What did you eat for breakfast?”
“Pumpkin spice muffins and biscuits with a load of gravy,” she told him, no temple rubbing needed. “No problem remembering that. I’m guessing whatever was responsible for taking our memories of last night was mostly out of our systems by the time we ate.” Or food played way too much of a role in her life to be forgotten. Probably both.
Tony’s fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he drove. “Okay, so we have memory loss. What about that fire-breathing tattoo? Still no discomfort?”
Just the kind one got from knowing she had a dragon permanently drawn on her butt. And knowing that Tony had seen it, scales and all. But no, it wasn’t painful. She wiggled around in her seat just to be sure. “Still nothing.”
“Memory loss and pain relief. Could be anything.”
They broke out of the trees and Tony turned on his blinker to merge onto the state highway. Billboards advertising diners and roadside motels greeted them along a lonely stretch of road.
This rural part of Oklahoma didn’t look that much different from Texas—blue skies and flat plains dotted with cows and horses stretched to the horizon.
Silence settled between them, edgy and filled with so many unanswered questions. They’d been go-go-go since they’d woken up this morning, and now there was time to think. Time to feel. Although her memory of last night was gone, and her recall of this morning sketchy, her body sure did remember sensation. Touch. Taste. She craved more. More of Tony. Her nipples pebbled and Hayden crossed her arms against her chest.
“How about some tunes?” she suggested, her mouth dry. Maybe once they found a town, they could stop at a convenience store and grab a couple bottles of water and she could cool down.
Tony played around on the radio, trying to find a station, but he only got static and a lone swap-meet program. He quickly switched it off when it became clear all the offerings would be farm related.
“I guess the state car license-plate game is out,” she offered with a small laugh, trying to make light of the situation.
He shook his head, and his eyes crinkled with a smile. “The only car for the past ten miles was going the other way.”
“When I was little, my grandma and I would play two truths and a lie.”
“Now that doesn’t seem fair.”
“Oh?”
“I promised I’d never lie, and I always keep my promises, Hayden.”
A delicious tingle of sensation trembled down her spine and settled in the small of her back. Snippets of their conversation from this morning, hazy though they might be, filtered into her mind.
I promise, I’m a good guy.
What kind of idiot forgets making love to the most beautiful woman he’s ever been with?
I don’t want to get back to the city and forget all about this.
Even working a double at the diner couldn’t have prevented her from ignoring the heady stuff he was tossing her way. Ripples of want tumbled through her body. Yeah, she definitely wanted a repeat of last night—only this time she was determined to remember it. But first she wanted to find out more about the man she was going to romp on later.
“So...um...jail.”
He chuckled, low and rumbly, which predictably bombarded her with a new layer of want. Why was she so into this guy? Great looking, sure. Smart and funny, true. But she’d dated other men bearing the lethal three before. Sometimes all even in the same guy.
Pheromones?
The mystery?
She almost snapped her fingers. The mystery of him—that had to be it. How they’d hooked up coupled with his shadowy past, how could she resist?
“That’s not a story I tell to people I barely know.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. You’ve seen me naked. You know me well enough.”
Tony glanced her way, his dark eyes meeting hers, and then dropping to her lips. Her breasts. She sucked in a breath. He fixed his gaze on the highway again, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the steering wheel. Hard.
Good. She didn’t want to be the only one battling against the collapse of common sense due to hot sexual vibes.
“It’s probably the same story with hundreds of kids. I didn’t fit in. No one gave a shit at home. I was angry about everything for no reason and for a thousand reasons all at the same time. I’d been labeled a troublemaker back in high school.”
His sigh was heavy, self-deprecating and yet indicating a distance from his old self in a way. Great. Hot, sexy and contradictory.
“One day I ditched school and took my mother’s car.”
“What did you do?” Although it probably made her sound like the biggest bore out of Boresville, she’d have no idea what to do if she stole a car. Try to hide it for later? Rob something else?
“Just drove around with the music loud. I thought I was pretty damn cool, bucking the system and messing with my mom, until I sideswiped a car.”
“Oh, no.”
“Well, I was barely fifteen so it was bound to happen. I was arrested, but the cops only locked me in an interrogation room and played a bad-cop-badder-cop scenario, probably to try to scare me straight. But I was hell-bent on a path of destruction. They ran the plates and called my mom. I could hear her voice as she talked to the police officer. She asked if they had a jail cell. �Put him in it,’ she’d told them.”
“Tough love.”
“Just tough.” He rubbed his fingers along the stubble on his chin. A tell? That was the second time he’d made that gesture.
“There are days when I actually feel sorry for my mom. Had to have been tough, pregnant at sixteen and dropping out of school. Her parents—I won’t even call them my grandparents—kicked her out of the house when she refused to put me up for adoption. My bio dad was off impregnating some other girl by the time I was born. My mom always had great intentions and even bigger illusions. I’m sure she was imagining I’d be that one bright spot in her life to give her unconditional love.”
Hayden had always believed that to be the parents’ job. Her mom and dad had died young, but she’d always known they’d loved her. Same with Gran and Grandpa, who’d delayed their early retirement plans to raise her.
“Instead she got a carbon copy of herself. Moody, defiant and forever rebellious. I actually think those cops felt bad as they locked me up.”
“How long did you stay in there?”
“Long enough to get a black eye from another inmate and to realize I wasn’t as tough as I thought I was, but that lesson didn’t stick. A few hours later, someone from Children’s Services came to take me to juvie.”
She tried to imagine Tony as a scared teenager whose mother hadn’t loved him, and Hayden’s heart and emotions and everything girlie inside her began to soften and melt.
Don’t. Don’t do it.You are not his rescuer who is going to show him true love and give him hope. He is not going to be a better man all because of the woman who sees past the tough, hard facade he’s erected to barricade his heart from the cold, unfeeling world.
That dreamy scenario didn’t even work in movies anymore. She didn’t believe in others saving you. You saved yourself. Besides, he seemed to be doing just fine.
“How long were you in juvie?”
“A week and a half. I got probation and a promise that my record would be expunged if I kept my nose clean. Ha—that didn’t last long. My mother was ordered to take parenting classes that she attended drunk. So yeah, storybook family of the year we were not.”
“What was your big turnaround then, because clearly you’re...”
His eyes crinkled at the corners again. “What?”
“Um.”
“Hot? Funny? Sexy?”
“Actually, I was going to say doing pretty okay.”
“The word every man wants to hear from the woman who woke up naked beside him. Okay.”
Hayden gave him a playful shrug. “Maybe if I’d had something to remember from last night...”
“Whoa. You’re going to play it like that.”
Actually, she’d had no idea how she was going to play it until that near dare rushed out of her mouth.
“Almost sounds like the lady is issuing a challenge.”
Dependable orgasms.
The subconscious thought popped up and threatened to derail her common sense. But what was the downside here? Tony was hot, clearly understood boundaries and as he lived in California, he’d be gone soon. So maybe he was the perfect candidate for a little pregraduation celebratory fling.
“Maybe it is a challenge.”
Tony’s right hand dropped from the steering wheel and he reached for her hand. His fingers twined through hers, warm and strong. His knuckles grazed her thigh and little goose bumps tingled to life.
“Challenge accepted.”
3 (#ulink_b80273a5-f776-5971-b641-515950a328e0)
“SO HOW’D YOU go from juvie to documentary filmmaker?” she asked, her fingers still entwined with his. Project Getting To Know The Man You Plan To Romp On Later was officially in effect.
“You’d think the world would be easy for a mouthy guy with a piss-poor attitude, a distrust of anyone in authority and a confrontational approach at school. That is, when I attended school.”
Hayden laughed, which she was supposed to do. Fact to file—Anthony Garcia liked to cover up hard memories and pain with humor.
“By the time I was a sophomore, I was ditching school more than I ever went. One of Mom’s boyfriends thought it was funny to change the locks and so I stopped going home altogether.”
She gave his hand a light squeeze, and he squeezed hers right back.
Warmth. Understanding. Connection.
“Probation doesn’t last when you’re found squatting in rentals, blowing off school and getting high. They dragged me in before the same judge from before and she gave me a choice. Jail or the CW Transitional Center. I was almost stupid enough to say jail, because self-destruction was a way of life for me by then. Another one of the few things I shared with my mom. But the center was my last shot, and something inside me made me keep my idiot mouth shut. I remember the first day there, I— Damn! Would you look at that.”
Hayden straightened in her seat and glanced left and right but only saw the outlying indicators of a small town. Gas station, a roadside strip hotel and a car dealership. “What?” she asked.
“There’s my car.” He pointed to a sleek navy roadster, older but obviously well loved, parked in front of the dealership. Brightly colored helium balloons were tied to the side mirrors and a large placard announcing For Sale was stretched across the dashboard. “Or that was my car.”
Tony flipped on the blinker and pulled the Ladybug into the row of spaces outside the floor-to-roof glass windows advertising no credit checks, 0 percent down and low cost financing.
A man sporting the smooth fabric of a very expensive dress shirt and a muted silk tie shoved open the door and scurried toward them.
Hayden stifled a groan. She’d rather give up chocolate for a month than step on a car lot. Who loved feeling stressed, pressured and patronized? She hated buying anything that didn’t have a set price anyway, and salesmen seemed especially adept at locating and zeroing in on her weaknesses, ensuring she got the worst possible deal available every time.
“We need some kind of a plan before we get out,” Tony said.
“When he comes up to us, no matter what he says...just act natural. Like it’s absolutely normal for us to be here today.”
His lips twisted and he raised a brow. “You’re really good at this whole subterfuge business.”
“It’s all I got,” she told him with a shrug.
“Works for me. Unless...” His voice lowered, and he looked behind his shoulder quickly.
“Unless what?”
“How natural should we react when the police pull up beside us because we took this car for a test drive last night and never came back? Or maybe we just walked around the dealership and snatched the keys from someone’s desk and ran. Damn, I shouldn’t have parked so far away from the exit.”
Her chest constricted in alarm. “Tony, why in the world did you pull in here? Forget your old car. Put Ladybug in Reverse and gun it.”
Then she spotted the playful twinkle in his eyes. “Okay, cut it out,” she demanded with a wag of her finger. “I know you’re messing with me. Are you sure it’s documentaries you make? With that imagination maybe you should be writing films.”
“Well, those two scenarios did cross my mind. There was a time in my life when...” His words trailed off.
“Oh, stop it.” She had another fact to add to the file marked Project Getting To Know The Man You Plan To Romp On Later—Tony liked to tease. She’d squirrel that away for later and simply enjoy the moment of appreciating his playful smile. Yeah, before they were arrested, because it would all be downhill from there.
He engulfed both her hands in his, his palms warm and comforting. “I’m positive you wouldn’t steal a car, Hayden. And just to reassure you, my lawless days went the way of my baggy cargo shorts and soul patch. I’m a good guy now.”
That was the second time he’d assured her he was one of the good ones. Clearly, her knowing that was important to him. Although she hoped he wasn’t too good.
She reached for the door handle. “I guess now’s the time to see our fate.”
The smile slowly faded from his face and the teasing glint vanished from those deep, dark eyes of his as he looked at her. “I see my fate.”
Her heart pounded in her chest and her chin would have dropped if he hadn’t suddenly winked and opened his door.
“Ah, Tony. So glad you’ve come by again. Is Hayden with you?” asked the approaching salesman, with both hands in the air in welcome. Ah, yes, already in pretend best-friend mode. At least he wasn’t secretly pocket dialing the police for help.
Hayden’s shoulders slumped and her breath came out in one long, relieved hiss. No way would they be greeted so enthusiastically if they’d done anything illegal last night. Tony glanced her way and gave her a wink as if to say, told you it’d all work out.
“And the car looks...interesting,” the salesman managed to say.
Poor Ladybug. Even a man trained to lie for a living couldn’t give the girl a real compliment. Hayden climbed out of the car and joined the two men inspecting the black dots on the shiny red hood.
Their salesman sported a lanyard proclaiming his name was Jeff and he’d been salesman of the year three quarters ago. Jeff scratched at his head. “I wasn’t sure how well the touch-up paint would work making the spots, but it came out pretty much how I imagined.” Still not a compliment. “Did you use all six bottles?”
Tony and Hayden looked at each other. “Hayden, I don’t remember, did we?”
Great, thanks, funny guy. That was his idea of playing it normal?
She nodded her head with a smile. “We sure did. Isn’t it pretty?”
“It’s something else, I tell you.” Which, of course is southwestern speak for it’s awful. “But you were insistent. Anything for the ladies, am I right, Tony?” He slapped Tony on the back.
Now it was Tony’s turn to nod his head and act normal.
“But you were happy to trade your car in for, uh, what were you going to call it?”
“Uh, Ladybug?” she offered.
“That’s it. Tony, hey, man, are you okay?”
Tony’s face had grown pale.
“I traded my car for that?”
Was that incredulous pain in his voice? Tony looked as if his favorite football, baseball and basketball teams had all lost at the same time on the last play in the final round.
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