Dylan thought of the last ride she’d taken—on his face—and his half smile broadened to a full-on grin. “Fortunately, your thighs covered my ears and muffled the screams.”
“Egomaniac, much?” Lola rolled her eyes.
Dylan rolled onto his back and pulled her into his arms. “I guess a night of being told how remarkable I am, over and over again, went to my head.”
“Next time, I’m going to see to it you’re the one doing the shouting, even if I have to...” She whispered the rest in his ear, and Dylan’s cock stirred beneath the sheet.
Lola didn’t miss it. “Damn,” she mumbled. “How did your ex ever walk away from that...uh, I mean you...”
Dylan laughed, loud and hard. He tapped the tip of her nose with his finger. “You really do say exactly what’s on your mind, don’t you?”
The quirkiness and unabashed honesty of the woman beside brought out another side of him. A version that smiled often and enjoyed a good laugh.
Dylan had tried to resist Lola, especially when she was under suspicion. But those facets of her nature, more than her incredible beauty, had gotten under his skin and made a place for her in his heart.
She lifted her head and rested her chin on his chest. “I do,” she confirmed. “And for the life of me, I can’t imagine...” Her voice trailed off. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be so nosy.”
“I think it’s a side effect of you being trapped in Cooper’s Place. Everyone here is nosy.” He caressed her cheek. His ex had left for the same reason Lola would in a few days.
Despite its foibles, Dylan counted returning to his hometown as one of the best decisions he’d ever made. However, a town this size was too small for his ex to live her dreams, and it was too small to hold on to someone with Lola’s exuberant personality.
Sure, she’d had some tough luck careerwise this week, but it wouldn’t be long before the people who’d rejected her would see the error of their ways or even better offers would come along. “My marriage broke up for the same reasons a lot of them do,” Dylan said aloud. “We got married too young, before we figured out what we really wanted in life. By the time we did, we both wanted different things more than each other.”
“That’s sad,” Lola said.
Dylan felt a small ache, but it had nothing to do with his past. He and Lola were on the clock, and in a few days she’d be gone. He didn’t want to waste one precious second.
“It was also a long time ago, and the furthest thing from my mind with you in my bed.” Dylan shifted until she was on top of him.
Threading his fingers through her hair, he brushed his lips against hers in the gentlest kiss a man his size could manage.
She closed her eyes and sighed against his mouth. “God, I l-lo—” She abruptly stopped midword, and her eyes snapped open. “I really like you, Dylan Cooper.” She bit her lip. “I like you a lot.”
Dylan swallowed. “I like you, too, Lola,” he said. So very much, he thought.
Their words belied the truth they saw in each other’s eyes. Lola chuckled, but it sounded awkward to both of them.
“Anything more would be crazy, right?” she asked. “I mean, who falls in love in two days?”
Dylan didn’t answer her last question, at least not aloud. The reality was it had been a rhetorical one. Deep down, they both knew who’d found love so quickly. Regardless of how crazy it felt.
They had.
Lola squirmed on top of him, and his groin tightened, eager to show her what he hadn’t been ready to tell her.
Later that morning, Dylan set a steamy mug of coffee on the bedside table near a dozing Lola. She sniffed the air, yawned and stretched her arms over her head.
“Morning,” she croaked groggily. She cracked open her eyes and blinked. “You’re already dressed?”
Lola pushed herself up on her elbows and ran a hand through her hair. “When did you get up? What time is it?”
“It’s after ten,” Dylan said.
“Ten?” She glanced at the clock on his side of the bed for confirmation. “I never sleep this late. Then again, I’ve been on a ride that lasted all night long.”
Bombarded by images of the night before, Dylan smiled. “It’s why I slipped out without disturbing you. I figured you needed your rest and coffee.”
Lola wrapped the porcelain mug in her hands, brought it to her nose and inhaled deeply. “You’ve already been out?”
Dylan nodded. “I did my early-morning patrol, checked in at the station and with the sheriff’s office to see if they’d had any calls from Cooper’s Place last night.” He raised a brow. “Fortunately, nobody reported a woman screaming my name all night long.”
She raised a brow in turn. “Well, there’s always tonight.”
“And the rest of the morning, this afternoon and...”
“I like the sound of that.” She took a sip of coffee. “But first I need to get my purse off your patio and mix up some breakfast. I’m starved.”
“I already brought your purse inside. It’s in the kitchen, along with a batch of blueberry muffins I picked up from my mom’s,” he said. “They should still be warm.”
“Muffins!” Lola threw back the covers, revealing her gloriously naked body. A form he’d explored every inch of with his hands and his tongue.
Dylan pulled her into his arms. “So don’t you think I deserve a morning kiss?”
Lola smoothed a fingertip over his lips. “But you already kissed me good-morning, everywhere.”
Ten minutes later, Dylan was in the kitchen pouring himself a cup of coffee when Lola appeared, shower fresh and wrapped in his robe. She seated herself on one of the stools at his breakfast bar.
“I hope you don’t mind my borrowing this,” she said. “All I have is my bikini and the sarong I wore over here yesterday.”
“Actually, I’m the one guilty of being presumptuous, again.” He glanced down at the plates and basket of muffins on the breakfast bar’s granite surface, and then back to her. “I knew you didn’t have any clothes, so I brought your suitcase over.”
Lola dismissed his concern with a wave of her hand and then immediately pulled back the cloth covering the muffins and grabbed one. “That’s fine by me. In fact, I appreciate it. You saved me from doing a one-night-stand walk of shame back to the B and B wearing the same clothes, well, bikini, I had on yesterday.” She spread a pat of butter over the muffin. “I can just imagine the rumors that would cause around here, and I wouldn’t want to ruin your reputation.”
He watched her take a huge bite of the muffin. She closed her eyes as she slowly chewed.
“I think you did that five minutes after we met in the hospital waiting room.” Dylan shrugged. “Everyone in town already believes I can’t keep my clothes on around you, and last night, I proved those rumors to be true.”
“I like you without clothes.” Lola winked.
Right now, Dylan wished he had Lola’s gift of unabashed openness. “But I didn’t bring your things here just so you’d have something to change into,” he hedged. “I’m sure you’re going to want to hightail it out of here as soon as you complete that ridiculous community service sentence, and I don’t blame you. Still, I was hoping as long as you’re in town, you might like to stay here, with me.”
Dylan felt as awkward as a teenager asking out a girl who was out of his league. He looked across the kitchen island counter at the stunning face she was currently stuffing with a second blueberry muffin.
Hell, Lola Gray is out of your league.
She licked a crumb from her fingertip and hopped off the stool. She rounded the counter, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“I can’t think of anything I’d like more than riding out my time here with you,” she said.
Dylan wrapped one arm around her slim waist and
pulled her to him until her slight curves melded against him. “It’s only fair I warn you it could get bumpy,” he said, so she knew he’d caught her meaning.
Her arms slipped from around his neck until her hands rested on his shoulders, taking Dylan back to making love to her in the shower.
“Then I’ll just have to hang on tight, while I enjoy the ride.”
They were down to one last muffin when Dylan poured them each a second cup of coffee, and Lola was eyeballing it.
“What about those shake packets in your purse?” He sat on the vacant stool next to her at the breakfast bar.
Lola snatched the last muffin from the basket. “I’ve not only been fired from my job, I was let go from one I hadn’t even started,” she said. “So today, I’ll eat whatever I please. Maybe tomorrow, too, I’ll need my strength to get through those community-service hours.”
Tension settled in Dylan’s shoulders as he thought about that fiasco of a hearing in Mayor’s Court, and what he’d heard this morning of his uncle’s plans for Lola to fulfill her sentence. Dylan knew how rumors stretched the limits of incredulousness, especially in Cooper’s Place, but he was pretty sure this one held more than a kernel of truth.
“Keep in mind, I’m not trying to second-guess your decision, but...”
“Too late.” Lola polished off the last of the muffin.
Dylan smiled and then shook his head. “Are you positive you don’t want either your brother-in-law or my attorney friend to get you out of this community service nonsense?” he asked. “I doubt what Uncle Roy did was even legal, and it could be easily dismissed.”
“It’s only a couple of hours. Besides, I do my best thinking when I’m working, so it’ll give me time to figure out my next career move.”
She swiveled the stool he was sitting on until his back was to her, and then she began to massage his stiff shoulders with her fingertips. “Relax, Dylan. It’ll be fine.”
“But you don’t understand.” Dylan took a moment to fill her in. “He’d initially planned to have you picking up litter along Main Street. However, after Rosemary Moody stopped by Mom’s yesterday and saw the fire pit you built...”
“Rosemary would be the one who thought I did denture adhesive commercials, right?” Lola continued to knead his shoulders.
“That would be her,” Dylan said. “And by the way, I saw the fire pit this morning, I don’t think I could have done a better job.”
“Thanks, but I still don’t get how my building it affects my community-service sentence.”
“My uncle wants his next inauguration to be held in the town square, and he’s been banging the drum to reallocate the town’s budget to have it spruced up.” Dylan could see where the white picket fence surrounding the square could use a fresh coat of paint. The gazebo, too. “Anyway, the public works department has the supplies, but labor has been the sticking point. The town can’t afford the overtime.”
Lola’s fingers stopped working their relaxing magic. “Ah, I get it now. I’ll be supplying the labor tomorrow.”
“Now do you understand my concern?” Dylan looked over his shoulder at her. “He’s one of the reasons you lost that opportunity to guest host America Live! It’s not fair that you end up painting the very gazebo he takes his next oath of office in.”
Lola scrunched up her nose in concentration. “Has he even been reelected yet?”
Dylan shook his head. “But he always runs unopposed, so it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion.”
She snorted and resumed rubbing his shoulders. “What this place needs is a new mayor,” she said. “I know he’s your family and all, but Roy Cooper is an...”
“Ass.” They said the word simultaneously and broke into laughter.
Dylan turned around in the chair and took her hands in his. “So you see why I’m uncomfortable with this community-services business?”
“I’m a big girl, Dylan. I can fix my own messes.”
“I know you can.” He gently squeezed her hands. “But I’m an even bigger man, who in a short period of time has grown to like you very much.” Dylan paused to let her absorb his real meaning, before exhaling. “However, it’s your decision to make, and I’ll stand by it.”
He brought her hands to his lips and kissed them.
“Thank you.” She slid off the stool.
“Now get dressed.” Dylan stood. “I’m going to have the sheriff’s office cover any calls today, so we can spend it together. I want to show you more of Cooper’s Place than my mother’s backyard and Marjorie’s pink jail cell.”
“Perhaps we can persuade Ginny to make another lemonade layer cake and maybe more of that buttermilk fried chicken you, she and Marjorie practically inhaled right in front of me the other night,” Lola said.
“That won’t be a problem. She’s already insisted on you coming for Sunday dinner,” Dylan stated. “She also said for you not to bring any protein-mix packets or talk of cockamamie diets at her table.”
Lola giggled. “I’m not going to even think about my diet, until I leave town.”
The smile on her face dimmed. It reflected how Dylan felt inside. “Let’s just focus on enjoying today and getting your community service done tomorrow.” He grabbed his cell phone off the kitchen island. “I’m going to call the sheriff’s office dispatcher, while you get dressed.”
“Oh, you might also want to ask them for some assistance with the media tomorrow,” she said.
“Media?”
She nodded, and then walked to the corner of the kitchen where he’d left her suitcase. “Cell-phone videos of your uncle sentencing me to community service are all over the internet. Like it or not, the media will be here tomorrow morning,” she said. “Joe Schmoe doing a menial task to serve a community service sentence is no big deal, but the latest Lola Gray fiasco will be a media event.” She snorted. “Luckily, I don’t have a job to get fired from this time.”
Lola rolled the suitcase past him on her way to the bedroom. Dylan reached out to stop her.
“Any job where you’d have to temper the wild, impulsive and marvelously over-the-top side of your personality isn’t worthy of you.”
“But those are the very things that tend to get me in trouble,” she said.
Dylan shook his head. “No. Those are the things, even more than your incredible beauty, that make you truly remarkable.”
Chapter 14
Lola managed to elude the media Monday morning.
However, she knew the reprieve was just temporary. The television crews would remain camped out at the entrance of the town’s public works building for only so long, awaiting her community service walk of shame. Eventually, they’d get tipped off or catch on that she was actually a few streets away in the town square and had begun serving her sentence over an hour ago.
Removing the pink baseball cap from her head, she swiped at the sweat on her face with her forearm and took a step back to inspect her work. The overhead sun beamed down on her. It also revealed spots on the gazebo’s latticework she’d missed with her paintbrush.
She bent over to dip the brush into the pail of white paint, but stopped when she saw a large shadow on the grass. A shiver of pure delight shimmied through her. Only one man could cast that big of a shadow.
“You don’t have to keep checking on me.” She looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, he was standing behind her in uniform, aviator shades shielding his eyes from the sun. “I’m fine.”
“Who says I’m here checking on you?” Dylan asked. “It could be I just like looking at a pair of long legs in sexy cutoff shorts.”
He sidled up to her and gave her a bottle of cold water. Lola sent him a grateful smile as she twisted off the cap and took a long swig.
“I would have thought you’d seen enough of my legs over the weekend,” s
he said.
“Barely saw them at all, considering they were either hugging my waist or draped over my back,” he said. “But I’m not complaining.” He nudged her side with his elbow. “I didn’t hear you complaining, either.”
Their weekend together, though low-key, had been amazing both in and out of bed, Lola thought. Her work as the face of Espresso had afforded her the privilege of being fawned over in the most exciting cities in the world on nearly every continent. However, those places couldn’t compare to the day she’d spent with Dylan, seeing another side of Cooper’s Place, or the two incredible nights she’d spent in his arms.
Lola smiled up at him. “I was too well fed to do any complaining.”
Not only had Ginny prepared the buttermilk fried chicken Lola had requested, she’d made a wide array of irresistible side dishes, and both her lemonade layer cake and a blueberry cobbler for dessert.
“No kidding.” Dylan chuckled. “You dived face-first into that cobbler and ate it faster than the winner in a pie-eating contest.”
His comment caught Lola off guard, and the gulp of water she’d just taken spewed right back out of her mouth. “I—I wasn’t that bad,” she sputtered.
Dylan looked down at her mouth. “Your lips are still blue.”
“Well, there was plenty of lemonade cake for everyone else.” Lola sniffed.
There had also been plenty of people there, she thought, still taken aback that Ginny’s simple Sunday dinner had been more of an impromptu welcome party. Half the town had been there. Lola had recognized many of them from when they’d crowded into the police side of the public safety building to get a look at her, and she’d seen others in Mayor’s Court.
However, unlike those sightings, she’d gotten to know them yesterday, both over dinner and earlier, when Dylan had showed her around town. Avis, the nurse from the hospital, was also the best pitcher on the medical facility’s softball team and largely responsible for them winning a first-place intramural trophy two seasons in a row. Tammy, the waitress from the diner, was writing a mystery novel. An Ohio transplant originally from Florida, Jeb was bilingual and spoke fluent Spanish.
Heated Moments Page 14
