by Linda Conrad
*
Nina was out of bed and ready to leave long before sunup. But she had to wait for Josh to shower. That was all right with her. She could use the time to mull over the things he’d told her about himself last night.
With his heart problem, he’d had a different kind of upbringing than most. Knowing that about him made her feel closer to him. No wonder he’d become a doctor. He’d probably spent more time with them than he had with his own family and friends.
It explained a lot. The man saved people. And she was one of those whom he’d saved.
That stray thought brought another one she wasn’t thrilled about—he’d become her hero, her savior. But there it was. And why hadn’t she seen things this way before?
She kicked herself for getting carried away with the romance of becoming the damsel in distress rescued by a shining knight. Pounding her fist into a pillow, she put such thoughts aside as she had done with other such childish ideas for the bulk of her life. No one would be saving her anytime soon.
She’d been foolishly daydreaming about her and Josh becoming closer—physically closer. For the first time in her life, she wanted a man to touch her. More. To show her all the sensual things she’d been avoiding. With him, she hadn’t been afraid of letting a male get too close.
But now, if all she meant to him was just another human being to save, she’d changed her mind. She wasn’t a distressed damsel. Far from it. She’d been taking care of herself just fine for many years, thank you.
Yeah, he might be a good guy. But not the guy for her.
While standing and doing a few deep knee bends, she made up her mind to get back to work and away from the temptation he represented as soon as possible. She made herself a promise to find a way around doctor’s orders, get out of Texas and away from all her problems—fast.
Then the bathroom door opened and the minute Josh stepped out, all six foot three of him, she promptly forgot her promises. Damned if he wasn’t the sexiest guy she’d ever seen in his jeans and T-shirt. Still wet from the shower, his thick tousled hair looked darker than the usual mahogany-brown. This morning it was the color of a raven’s wing. Lush and sexy. And his sparkling evergreen eyes even smiled slightly when he looked her way.
“You all set to travel?” he asked as he gathered up her bags along with his and headed out the door.
Drooling, she nodded and followed him to the SUV like an obedient puppy. So much for wanting to leave him behind. She would much rather be glued to his side for as long as he would allow.
It ended up that after they retrieved the SUV, they drove only as far as the gas station on the other side of the parking lot. While letting the gas tank fill, they went inside to grab a few egg tacos and coffee.
But something felt off to her. The sudden weird notion that someone was watching made her stomach turn. Tentatively looking around, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
She looked out the window toward the parking lot, then swung back to check out the convenience store. Both seemed crowded for this early hour. Outside, cowboys and truckers were either having a cigarette or talking on cell phones while they walked ankle deep in a snakelike early-morning fog that had mixed with lingering wildfire smoke.
The feeling of being stalked almost overwhelmed her until she turned back to Josh as he came toward her with his hands full. Taking their food and disposable coffee cups back to the SUV, they climbed in and locked the doors.
Josh downed his food in two big bites and cranked the engine. Once they were back on the road, she finally felt calm enough to eat.
A couple of hours and many miles went by before anyone spoke. Finally, she said, “Do you think we’re still being followed?”
“Not at the moment.” Josh kept his attention on the road ahead, though he periodically flicked looks in the rearview mirror. Traffic was heavy for so early.
“So we’re on the way to the nearest airport?” Looking up, she noted they seemed to have left the highway and were driving down a side road that ran through ranches and farms.
“We’re headed for San Antonio. It’s the nearest big city and only a couple of hours away. They do have an airport there, but I’m starting to think that leaving the state may not be the smartest idea.”
“What? Why not?” Surely he couldn’t be trying to drag out this “rescue the lady” business, could he?
“Listen, Nina. Whoever is stalking you could have connections. What if he can find us just as easily in California? Flying back there may not be the smartest move. We could be walking into some kind of trap.”
“Seriously? But the team needs us. We’ll be fine if only we can get out of Texas.”
“First, you are under doctor’s orders not to go back to fighting fires for a while. And second, what’s the deal with you and Texas? I’ve heard you say things like that before. What do you have against the state? Have you lived here before?”
“I don’t remember if I did. The darned place is too big and too flat and—people die here. I want to go home.”
“Easy does it. I need to know more about you in order to help you. What do you remember about your childhood?”
She was still shaking her head without answering when a giant white pickup all of a sudden came out of nowhere and roared past, barely missing them by inches. It was a surprising move, and dangerous on this narrow country road. Josh cursed and slammed on his brakes. She held her breath and stomped her right foot to the floorboards in a useless attempt to help him stop.
The bastard in the truck threw on his own brakes, fishtailed on the asphalt and ended crossways a few yards ahead. Stopped, but blocking both lanes of the road.
“Josh!”
“I don’t like this.” He dragged right on the wheel and stomped on the gas. “Hang on. We’re not stopping.”
As their SUV flew by the truck, squeezed too close to a barbed-wire fence, Nina prayed. “Please, God, let me live long enough to get the heck out of Texas.”
Chapter 4
When Nina opened her eyes again, Josh was bringing them to a stop. Both the unreadable expression on his face and the whiteness of his knuckles clutching the steering wheel told her he was as rattled as she felt.
“Someone is after us.” She fought to regulate her breathing.
He pulled off to the shoulder and put the SUV in Neutral. “We’ve gone several miles down the highway and no one is back there. Maybe that truck blocking the roadway was nothing, but the whole scenario looked too much like a trap.” His voice was husky, rough and far too low.
Throwing her a cautious, too-sober look, Josh reached out and took hold of her hand. “Nina, I…”
The second she felt his touch her entire body began to tremble. Everything seemed crazy and out of whack. A murderer might really be after her? And what about Josh? He could be killed, too, and it would be all her fault.
“I need air.” She flipped off her seat belt and swung out the door and onto the gravel and grass.
“Nina, wait.”
“Give me a moment.” Standing beside the SUV, she bent over and propped her hands on shaky knees.
The need to run nearly swamped her. But running seemed out of the question due to her not getting enough air into her lungs. Instead, she began to pace, trying to force her traitorous body to respond on demand as usual.
“Nina.” Josh was there, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. “Don’t panic. Calm down. We’ll find a way out of this.”
Too close. He’d barged inside the space she kept all to herself. The space a man never entered.
Startled, she gazed up at him and blinked back the dregs of panic that had only begun to subside. When their eyes met, an electric charge jolted between them.
Josh must have noticed it, too. Dropping his arms, he took half a step back and looked shaken. Again, just the same as she felt.
But the realization that he was unnerved, too, somehow made her want to be reckless. She’d dreamed about a sexual encounter wi
th him. And the heat she felt igniting between them now was strong enough to light anyone’s bonfire.
Josh gazed at her as if she were going to be his last meal on earth. His eyes caressed her face. Breathless, she waited for the kiss she could see coming in his eyes. But he stood his ground instead and slightly shook his head. Maybe he didn’t really want to kiss her. Or maybe he was a lot stronger than she felt.
Right. He’d be smart to back away from the temptation. This was too fast. Too crazy. Too foolish. After all, just look at their situation right this minute. They were standing by the side of the road in broad daylight with a murderer chasing them.
They could die for lack of paying attention. Furthermore, she could think of a million other reasons why kissing him would be a bad idea. Not now—not ever.
Yet neither of them moved. Her entire focus soon narrowed down to his lips. She’d never wanted anything quite this much.
“Josh, you’re driving me nuts.” Her knees went weak and she gripped his arms for balance.
But her touch seemed to break the spell as he reached out a hand to palm her cheek. “Nina, I… We…” Then he pulled her tightly against his chest once again.
She held her breath. Hoping. Wishing. Forgetting everything.
Finally, at long last, he covered her mouth with his.
His lips felt heavenly. Gentle yet firm while his strong arms held her cocooned within his warmth. She felt his heart beating in time with hers, hammering out an erotic tempo.
A kiss full of promise. Worth dying for. All the things she’d dreamed about. Wayward thoughts like those raced through her mind until she felt herself sinking even further into him and stopped thinking altogether. She let the tingling feel of blood pulsing through her veins totally consume her.
More. She was desperate for more of him. Needing to be as close as possible, she leaned in and felt the hard length of him pressed against her belly. He wanted what she wanted.
So when he lifted his head and whispered, “Easy there,” she couldn’t make her brain start working.
“Josh?”
He took a step back but held her firmly by the shoulders. “That got a little too intense.” The look on his face spelled pure frustration. “I won’t say I’m sorry we let it get out of hand, but unfortunately we have to move. Get off the highway and back to the SUV. Now.”
Josh was in big trouble here. The woman of his dreams as close as this, obviously wanting him, and he had to find a way to back off? He dredged deep for fortitude, reminding himself how vulnerable she was at the moment. He wanted her to want him, but not now. Not here.
Breathe. Think.
He dragged her back with him to the SUV and waited until she’d buckled up. Then he climbed in behind the wheel, cleared his throat and stepped on the gas.
“We have to change the way we’ve been doing things.” He didn’t mean about the kiss. He hoped to hell that would continue.
“Change what?”
“Grab the map out of the glove box. I think there’s an interstate not too far ahead. We’ve gotta find a way to become less identifiable. We shouldn’t have left the crowded highway full of traffic—and other black SUVs. And our next move has to be a change of vehicles.”
He waited for her to open the map, meanwhile trying to get his bearings. But it was tough to concentrate when her kiss still lingered on his lips.
“How can we change the vehicle we’re driving? You’re not planning on stealing a car, are you?”
He swallowed back a chuckle. “That’s not a bad idea. I think I could probably make a good car thief. My brother used to restore old cars and taught me a lot about them.”
Grinning, he raised and lowered his eyebrows but didn’t get a smile out of her. “Remember, our Hotshot unit rented this SUV. We’ll hole up somewhere and call the rental agency. They can bring us another vehicle.”
“Hole up somewhere? Where? In Texas? How long?” She seemed a little breathless and the panicked look was back in her eyes.
They needed to talk. He had to find out about this obsession she had with Texas. It didn’t seem likely that it was connected to the murder, but he needed to know everything about her. For more reasons now than just saving her life.
Without answering her directly, he urged her to focus on one task at a time. “How far to the interstate?”
*
The traffic seemed a lot heavier on the interstate than Josh had noticed before. It made him wonder what was going on. But he was grateful for a chance to get lost in the crowd.
Within a half an hour, he drove them into a gigantic truck stop parking lot. The whole while since he’d driven away from the side of the road, Josh had been kicking himself for being stupid. He must’ve lost his mind when he’d kissed her.
Actually, he must’ve plain lost his mind entirely. If he’d had use of all his senses, he should’ve thought of changing vehicles sooner. And why had they been driving in broad daylight instead of waiting for dark?
The most seriously stupid move so far was failing to talk Nina into calling in help from law enforcement instead of kissing her. They couldn’t handle this kind of threat all by themselves.
Convincing her of that had to be his second order of business.
He parked between two temporarily parked semis: a tractor with double trailer and a large over-the-road moving van. Both trucks rumbled, their engines running, but both were locked up tight while their drivers took a break. This hidden spot between them should keep the SUV out of sight until they could change it out.
“Hungry?”
Her eyes were wide as she stared out the window at the reverberating behemoths. But she managed to shake her head as an answer to his question.
“Well, I am. And truck stops supposedly have terrific food. Let’s go find out after I call the rental company.”
*
Nina waited impatiently for Josh. She’d already been seated in a booth in the back of the truck stop’s restaurant for a good twenty minutes. He’d insisted she order something to eat for both of them while he went off to call the rental company.
She didn’t feel much like eating. Sitting with her back to the rest of the restaurant, she slid down in her seat and hoped that would be far enough to keep her out of sight.
The place was crowded, but most of the patrons appeared to be ordinary truck drivers. Still, all these strangers coming and going made her nervous.
Josh appeared back at the booth before the food arrived and slid into the seat opposite her. “We have trouble.”
“What?” Visions of men chasing her with shovels in their hands entered her mind and made her hands tremble.
Josh pressed his lips together and then forced a smile, obviously trying to calm her. “It’s not that bad. But most of the airports in this area are shut down due to poor visibility. Smoke coming from the wildfires is screwing up all sorts of local transportation. Apparently everyone who was supposed to fly has rented a car, truck or van instead. That’s why the roads seemed so crowded earlier.”
“So we can’t fly. But we can drive out of Texas like everyone else, can’t we?”
“Well, no, that’s the trouble. Seems our rental agency doesn’t have any vehicles left to rent. I even waited on the phone while they checked with other companies. Nada. There’s not a car or truck to be had in this half of the state.”
“So, we stick with the SUV. We can still drive that.”
Josh reached across the table and took her hand in his own. “Nina, there has got to be some reason why we can’t seem to shake our stalkers. And my best guess would be it’s our SUV that’s betraying us. After I hung up with the rental agency, I went outside and checked it over, thinking our stalker might have bugged it somehow. But I couldn’t find anything.”
He hung his head and stared at the water glass sitting on the table before him. “Still, the bad guys must have managed to peg that vehicle as uniquely ours and keep finding it no matter what we do to hide. We just can’t take the chance
of driving it anymore.”
“What are we going to do? Walk?” She threw a glance over her shoulder at the rest of the people sitting in the room. Every male in the place seemed to be staring at them.
Josh chuckled again and squeezed her fingers, seeming to want to transfer his strength to her. “I talked the reservationist at the rental car agency into finding us any means of transportation today. I explained how desperate we were and that if she came up with a car for us, they could end up getting our SUV back to rent out again. She said it might take a few hours but she promised to locate something. We’ll be okay here in the meantime.”
“Not here. It feels too out in the open. Please.”
Just then the waitress arrived with their food. Josh let her hand go but kept his gaze focused on her face.
When the waitress finally left the table, he said, “Let’s eat and then we can get a room in the motel next door until our new transportation arrives. We really shouldn’t drive the roads until after dark anyhow.”
She blew out a breath. “Another motel room?”
When he only shrugged in answer, she gave up worrying about their near future. “Fine. I guess we don’t have much of a choice.”
Whatever happened, happened. Spending an afternoon in a motel room with Josh, hidden from their stalker, wouldn’t be that bad at all.
*
Josh was still determined to get Nina talking about her past. He just couldn’t do it while she fidgeted nervously with her food in the restaurant.
They finished their meal without much in the way of conversation and then registered for the motel that was located a few hundred yards from the truck stop. On the way there, they stopped at the SUV and picked up their bags and personal things.
“You want me to carry the heavy stuff?” he asked as they relocked the SUV’s doors.
“I’ve been handling my own stuff for most of my life. I don’t need your help.”
He wanted to say that he’d be willing and able to help her with anything, everything, from now on. But right then a dry wind ruffled her hair and blew a stray strand across her face. With both of her hands full of bags, he used the excuse to touch her again and gently tucked the errant strand behind one of her ears. But his rebel fingers did the predictable thing, lingering against her cheek. He couldn’t help himself, couldn’t seem to move a muscle, just openly watched as her face heated in response to his touch.
