She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He was sitting beside her in the passenger seat with his injured leg out straight, tapping his fingers in time with the upbeat country song. When he saw her looking at him, he gave her a slow, sexy smile that made her entire body shiver with delight. In a word—cool.
Kevin was something special. She’d started to figure that out the very first night when he’d refused to take advantage of her drunken invitations to kiss her and more. He’d been funny, gentle, kind, respectful and last night he’d managed to make her feel like a princess, even as he’d once again refused to take her to his bed. Well, he had taken her to his bed, but once the lights were out their activities had been strictly rated G.
Part of her understood his reluctance, even if she would never admit it. She supposed that making love with a twenty-five-year-old virgin was something of a responsibility. But what she couldn’t seem to make Kevin understand was that she trusted him completely. His comment that she should care about the man before giving herself to him only made her trust him more. That bit about not doing it in a roadside motel hadn’t made any sense. Location wasn’t the point. But caring about the man—he was right with that.
What he didn’t seem to get was that she cared about him. How could she not? He’d seen the truth about Allan in forty seconds and it had taken her nearly five years. He’d called Allan a jerk and had defended her. Kevin was the most amazing man she’d ever met. How was she supposed to resist him?
He thought she wanted to have sex just for the experience, but he was wrong. Okay, maybe things had started out that way. When she’d first hit the road, she’d been determined to be as bad as possible and part of that had been to find the right guy to show her what was what between a man and a woman. But somehow Haley didn’t think she could have been with just anyone. And Kevin wasn’t just anyone.
She found herself wanting to tell him things she’d never told another person. She wanted to hear all about his life and to be the keeper of his secrets. She wanted to spend time with him. She wanted to make love with him.
Just thinking about it made various body parts tingle. Somehow she was going to have to get him to see that she was more than just an innocent on the lookout for a life-altering experience. She and Kevin had a connection—one she couldn’t explain. For all those years she’d thought she was in love with Allan, she’d never once felt the same bond.
Beside her, Kevin pulled out his cell phone. “When we get closer to Oklahoma City I should be able to get a stronger connection. I need to check in with my office. And I want to call my mom and let her know when to expect me.” He glanced at her. “Anyone you need to call?”
“Not until tonight,” she said, trying not to feel guilty.
When she knew everyone had left the church she would leave another message for her father, telling him that she was fine. She’d been gone a week—no doubt he was worried about her. As for what Allan might be feeling, she didn’t want to know. She was still angry with him. To be honest, she was also angry with herself for not canceling the wedding months ago when she’d known she didn’t love him and that getting married would be a mistake.
“Your father?” Kevin asked.
She tightened her hold on the steering wheel as she nodded.
“Where’s your office?” she asked before he could question her further.
“D.C.”
“What do you do there?”
“Not deliver prisoners.” He shifted his leg a little to the left. “I picked the short straw this time.”
“Is it usually dangerous?”
“Depends on who is being transported. This is the first time I got called back for a riot.”
“When did you decide to go into law enforcement?”
Kevin considered the question. There hadn’t been any one event that had sent him in that direction. “Sometimes I think I did it as a joke,” he admitted. “I’ve told you that I was a screwup as a kid. My days in military school showed me a life I didn’t want to be living. So I cleaned up my act. When I got to college, I looked around for a major. Criminal justice appealed to me. I figured I knew the bad guy’s side of things, maybe it would be interesting to check out the other half.”
“You must have liked it.”
“I did. When I graduated, I knew I didn’t want to go to law school. The Dallas police department had done some recruiting. I applied and they took me.” He remembered his surprise when he’d been notified. “I kept waiting for them to realize they’d made a mistake.”
She glanced at him. “They didn’t make a mistake. You were a good cop.”
Typical Haley—always believing the best of him. “You don’t know that.”
She smiled. “Of course I do. You wouldn’t have moved up to the Marshals if you’d been bad at law enforcement.”
“Good point,” he said wryly. “I did okay. Got a couple of promotions, then heard about the Marshals. I applied and they accepted me.”
He’d spent the past several years waiting for them to find out the truth, but so far he had them all fooled. They still thought he was one of the good guys.
“My boss keeps offering me a promotion,” he said without thinking.
“You say that like you’ve turned it down before.”
“Yeah. Twice.” Kevin rubbed his sore leg. “It’s more of a desk job, coordinating fieldwork. I took the test for it, which was stupid. Or maybe passing was stupid.” He didn’t tell her that he’d aced it, coming in on top.
“Aren’t you interested in a new challenge?”
He chuckled. That’s exactly how Haley would view change—as a challenge. She was a lemons-to-lemonade, the glass-is-half-full kind of gal.
“I thought I was interested.”
“So what’s the problem? Are you afraid you’ll miss being in the field all the time?”
“Maybe.”
He felt uncomfortable and wished he hadn’t brought up the subject. When he had problems, he didn’t like to talk about them with anyone. Instead, he worked them through on his own.
“That happens in the church,” she said, and pulled on her sunglasses as the sun broke through the clouds and flooded the car with light.
Kevin put on his own glasses and tugged down the brim of his hat.
“Some missionaries head out into the world, do their three-or five-year tour, then come back. But others love what they do so much they make it their life’s work. They can’t adjust back to the ‘regular’ world, or they don’t want to.”
He understood the analogy, but knew that wasn’t the problem. Sure fieldwork could be exciting, but mostly it was tedious and detail-oriented. TV cop dramas never showed all the grunt work that went into cracking a case.
“It’s not that,” he admitted slowly. The truth formed in his mind and he wondered if he could tell her. With anyone else, he would say no. But his gut said she would understand. Crazy, considering she was about the least sophisticated person he knew.
“I know what I am on the inside. One day they’re going to find out, too, and then all this will be over.”
He couldn’t see her eyes, but the corner of her mouth twitched. “You think you’re just a bad seed waiting to sprout again?”
“Sort of. I don’t like the seed reference.”
The twitch turned into a smile. “Would something more macho be preferable?”
“Yeah. Macho and dangerous. A seed? Come on.”
“I can’t think of anything better, sorry.” Her smile faded a little. She glanced at him. “How long has it been since your last legal infraction or whatever you want to call it?”
He shrugged. “Fifteen, sixteen years.”
“That’s about half your life. If you were going to suddenly transform back into a menace to society, don’t you think it would have happened by now? No one can avoid his real nature for very long. So either that isn’t your nature or you have extraordinary skills in subjugating your evil side.”
The simple truth of he
r words slammed into him like a speeding bullet. He turned the idea over in his mind, then mentally groaned. Well, hell.
He felt foolish, sheepish and relieved all at once. Damn if he hadn’t been hiding from ghosts all these years. He’d been so caught up in his past, in the fear of what he could have been that he hadn’t once thought about what he was. What he’d become.
“Pretty smart for a girl,” he mumbled.
“Thank you.” She wiggled in her seat. “Brains and beauty. However will you resist me?”
He was not going there. Resistance was hard enough without her bringing it up. “How’d you figure me out so easily?” he asked by way of shifting the subject. Most women told him he was emotionally inaccessible. Obviously, Haley didn’t agree.
“I just saw who you were. From the first second we met, you’ve been nothing but kind and gentlemanly. How could I keep from believing in you?”
Her words make him both proud and apprehensive. He’d seen the light in her eyes when she looked at him and he didn’t want to do anything to make it fade. But despite finally figuring out he was unlikely to start a life of crime at any second, he still wasn’t the right guy for her. Reformed bad boys weren’t known to be good relationship material.
“Don’t make me into a hero,” he warned.
“Too late. You became that the first night we met when you rescued me from those men and didn’t take advantage of me. You cemented my opinion last night when you once again chose honor over, um, you know.”
“’You know’?”
She sighed. “You’re trying to get me to say the S-word and that isn’t going to happen.”
He chuckled, then turned serious. “I wouldn’t take advantage of you, Haley. I couldn’t.”
She pulled off her sunglasses and glanced at him. The light was burning on high.
“I know,” she said. “That’s why you’re one of the good guys.”
As he looked at her, he felt something tugging in the center of his chest. A connection he’d only ever felt once before, with his twin brother. For years he and Nash had been close enough to be halves of the same whole. But as they’d grown up, that had changed. They’d separated, becoming their own persons. Kevin never thought he would feel that bond again.
Only this time it was different. His relationship with Haley wasn’t brotherly. It was far more dangerous. Maybe for both of them.
Hands off, he told himself as she returned her attention to the road. If he was going to live up to her expectations of him, he would have to remember the rules. Rule number one: he would leave her as he’d found her.
Kevin checked his watch. It was just after three. “We can drive through, Mom,” he said into his cell phone. “I’d be home late tonight.”
“Don’t even think about it,” his mother told him firmly. “You’ve been shot. Your stepfather and I want to see you, but we’ll wait until you arrive. Take it easy. You probably shouldn’t be traveling in the first place, so I don’t want you to push things.”
Kevin thought about Haley’s leisurely pace and the way she watched after him. “I’m in good hands. You don’t need to worry.”
He heard the smile in his mother’s voice as she spoke. “I’m allowed to worry. It comes with having children. But I’ll admit I worry a lot less than I used to.”
After all he’d put her through in the years he’d spent growing up, she deserved a little peace of mind. “Then I’ll see you in a couple of days. I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too. See you soon.”
They said goodbye and hung up. Kevin tucked the cell phone back into his pocket and watched Haley walk out of the bathroom and head for their table. As she slid in across from him, she glanced at his empty plate.
“See. I told you it would be good.”
She’d insisted they stop for afternoon dessert when she’d seen the sign for homemade berry pie. For a skinny thing, she sure packed away the food. She’d ordered her pie with ice cream on the side and had polished off every bite. Not that he was in a position to cast stones, he’d done the same thing.
“You were right,” he said. “It was homemade and delicious.”
The café was straight out of the fifties, with red-vinyl bench seats in the booths along the front window and several counter seats up front. The waitresses wore pink uniforms with starched white aprons and the jukebox held real forty-fives. Currently Elvis was asking for someone to “Love Me Tender.” The scratchy music made Kevin feel as though he was back in high school. Had that been the case, he would have slipped his letter jacket over Haley’s shoulders so the whole world would know she was with him.
“Did you call your boss?” Haley asked, rearranging the condiments by the window.
“Uh-huh.”
“And?”
She looked at him, her hazel-blue eyes wide with anticipation. So that was why she’d been gone for so long. She’d been giving him privacy.
He shrugged. “I told him I should be back at work in a couple of weeks.”
Haley rolled her eyes. “I don’t care about that. What did you say about the promotion?”
“I said I was interested.”
She straightened and beamed at him, then thrust her hands across the table to clutch his. “Oh, Kevin, I’m so glad. You’re going be terrific.”
High praise considering she didn’t even know what the promotion entailed. But that was Haley. For reasons he couldn’t understand, she had total faith in him.
Her fingers pressed against his and she squeezed. The contact warmed him from the inside. Funny how after such a short period of time she could get to him. He found himself wanting to pull her close and hold her against him. Not for sex, although he still wanted her in his bed, but just to feel the beat of her heart. Being around Haley felt…right.
That thought scared the hell out of him so he released her hands and tossed a couple of bills onto the table to cover their check.
“Where do you want to spend the night?” he asked. “We could probably go another eighty miles before stopping.”
Haley shook her head. “We have to stay here.”
He glanced around at the café. The pie had been good, but not that good. “Why?”
She pointed out the window. He looked across the street, saw the sign and groaned.
“You’re kidding,” he said, even though he already knew she wasn’t.
The large, sprawling wooden building looked like what it claimed to be—a country-western bar. The big marquee up front proclaimed Talent Night At Honky-Tonk Blues. The winner is promised fame and fortune. Or at least a hundred bucks in prize money.
He returned his attention to her. “You’re not serious.”
She nodded vigorously. “Absolutely. I play a mean piano. I could win.”
Kevin slumped down in his seat. Hell. Just what he needed. Haley back in a bar and playing church tunes for a rowdy crowd.
The whole situation was worse than he’d thought, Kevin realized five hours later as he and Haley crossed from the motel they’d checked into and headed for Honky-Tonk Blues. Not only had the parking lot filled up with pickups and SUVs, but the sounds coming from the bar warned him the place was anything but quiet.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked Haley as he held open the wooden door.
She answered, but the words were pulverized by the wall of noise that slammed into them when he opened the second door.
They stepped into a pounding beat of music punctuated by loud conversation, rowdy laughter and plenty of cowboys who instantly gave Haley the once-over.
Kevin didn’t have to glance back at her to remember she was dressed in a denim skirt that barely fell to mid-thigh, another of those damned tight T-shirts and high- heeled strappy sandals that made her legs look endless. She was walking, breathing temptation.
But while she was in his company, she was his responsibility. So when a tall, skinny guy in a cowboy hat headed in their direction, Kevin grabbed Haley’s hand and pulled her toward a table t
hat had just been vacated by three women with big hair.
“You can still change your mind,” he said when they were seated. He had to yell to be heard over the throbbing music.
Haley shook her head as she glanced around at the oversize room. He followed her gaze and saw couples moving together on a crowded dance floor. Behind them was the stage where a pretty decent band provided the noise and the rhythm. A bar lined the far wall. People were six deep waiting to be served. Banners hung down from the ceiling proclaiming tonight to be Talent Night.
“You ever play in a place like this?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.
“Not really. I’ve played in church, of course. And did recitals at school.”
Figures. “So you didn’t moonlight in a rock-and-roll band in high school?”
She looked at him and laughed. Her eyes lit up with humor and her soft mouth parted slightly. At that moment he wanted to kiss her more than he had wanted anything. He also wanted to whisk her away because there was no way she was going to be able to tame this crowd. He winced when he thought of the potential disaster.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said.
Her gaze narrowed. “You’re right. I don’t have to do anything. But I’ve spent the past twenty-five years doing what everyone else has told me to do. I think I’ll spend the next twenty-five years doing just what I want.”
He wasn’t about to force her, so all he could do was flag a passing waitress and ask who they talked to about entering the contest.
Fifteen minutes later he’d finished a beer and was thinking that maybe he should have ordered something with more alcohol. Being drunk would take the edge off his tension, not to mention douse the ache in his leg. If he was drinking tonight, he wouldn’t be taking any painkillers, which meant getting drunk had a lot of appeal.
Haley signed her name on the bottom of the release form and stood, prepared to head for the stage. There were going to be six acts tonight—she would be the last.
Completely Smitten Page 12
