Driving Her Crazy

by Kira Archer

  He brought it to his mouth. Got a good whiff of it. And put it right back down. Even his pride wasn’t worth the near-certain food-poisoning episode that was sitting on his plate.

  “Fine,” he said, standing up and slapping a twenty on the table. “You win. Let’s go.”

  Cher gathered up her bag, a huge grin spreading across her face. Oz stopped short. He’d never seen her smile so genuinely. It transformed her. She was already beautiful, in an impersonal way, kind of like the china dolls his sister used to collect as a child.

  But that smile…it warmed her from the inside out, softened her features, made her seem happy and carefree. Now that right there, that person he could like. He could more than like. Before he could get too excited over her, Cher pushed through the doors and the humid heat slapped him in the face like a wet blanket.

  He hurried to get back in the car and crank the air conditioning up.

  “Well, that was fun,” Cher said.

  “Okay, sorry. I didn’t think it would be quite that bad.”

  “Uh huh. Well I have no intention of getting out of this car again in this getup so do you have any other bright ideas?”

  Oz couldn’t really blame her. “Actually,” he said, remembering the sign they’d passed not too far back. “I do have an idea.”

  Cher sighed. “Fine. Just wake me up when we get there.”

  She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, laying one arm over them. Oz snorted. That pose couldn’t say “prima donna” any more than if she’d had it tattooed across her forehead.

  She kept her eyes closed, like she was afraid to see what new hellhole he was going to drag her to. He couldn’t blame her, he supposed, after what he’d just subjected her to.

  He pulled into a parking lot and stopped the car.

  Cherice peeked out from under her arm. “Where are we now?”

  “Sonic.”

  “What?” She leaned forward to look out the windshield, a small frown creasing her forehead.

  “You’ve never been to a Sonic?”

  She shook her head.

  “Well, I’m glad your first time gets to be with me.”

  Her gaze shot to his and he fought to keep his expression bland. Just innocent ol’ Oz, clueless as to what his harmless statements might imply. Her eyes narrowed, not buying it for a second.

  He gestured to the menu. “Great food, amazing ice cream, and you don’t even have to get out of your car. They’ll bring your food right to you.”

  “Really? Okay…I can get behind that.”

  Oz laughed. “Just pick what you want from the menu.”

  She nearly leaned across his lap to see the menu items and he froze. “Sorry,” she murmured. “I don’t have my reading glasses.”

  He would have thought she was playing with him, but she seemed genuinely embarrassed to be half in his lap. And she was squinting at the menu board.

  “No problem,” he said, his words sounding slightly choked. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. A faint hint of some exotic flower filled his senses and it was all he could do not to hold her close so he could breathe her in.

  She sat back a little, a slight frown narrowing her eyes, and looked like she was about to say something. But before she could, a loud noise from the direction of her stomach interrupted. It reminded him that his own stomach was about ready to turn itself inside out in a fit of hunger. So he did his best to ignore the woman in his lap and concentrate on the menu.

  “Okay,” she said, “don’t judge, but I’ll have that hamburger meal there with the curly fries and a cookies-and-cream blast thing.”

  “Are you kidding? Total girl after my own heart,” he said with a wink. “I think I’ll have the exact same thing.”

  Her cheeks flushed and her frown deepened. Like she was attracted to him but really hated it. Not surprising. He supposed he wasn’t the type of guy she was brought up to be attracted to. He might ring all her bells but he wasn’t the one who was supposed to be pulling the ropes. Too bad for her.

  He ordered and then leaned against his door, letting one finger stroke along his upper lip while he stared at her. Her eyes followed his finger, her lips parting slightly, and he couldn’t keep the smug look from his face. It must chap her ass something fierce to be turned on by him. Only he really didn’t have room to judge her so harshly because the sight of the tongue that quickly darted out to moisten her lips made things clench low in his belly.

  Time to shake things up before he took his chances and found out what would happen if he kissed those lips of hers.

  “So, what is it you really want to do?” he asked.

  She threw her hands up like some 1950s movie starlet throwing a hissy fit. Damn, but it was fun to aggravate her.

  “You don’t give up, do you?” she asked.

  Oz grinned. “No. So you might as well just answer. I can do this all day. And you can’t escape. It’s starting to rain again,” he said, pointing out the window where a few fat raindrops lazily ran down the glass.

  “What difference does it make?”

  “I want to know.”

  She looked out the window, her finger tracing little circles on her leg. “I don’t have it pinned down yet. But I’d like to be…I don’t know, like a life coach, maybe.”

  She couldn’t have surprised him more if she’d announced she wanted to be a headliner at some strip club. In fact, that he might have actually understood. She’d make good money and piss her parents off. Win-win. But a life coach? Her?

  “A life coach?”

  “Yes,” she said, though she frowned a bit. “Or…maybe start my own company that expands on what I’m already doing. It could be the whole package.”

  “Shopping and life coaching?”

  She sighed like he was totally missing the point and she didn’t want to explain it to him for the thousandth time. “It’s not shopping.”

  “So, clothes and advice?”

  “Something like that.”

  She glanced over at him, and despite the fact that he wanted to throttle her ninety percent of their time together, the look on her face made his heart twist. He’d found a puppy once that had been abused. It had been huddled in a ball, drawn in on itself, its eyes full of fear and pain when he’d first reached out to it. Cher had that same look in her eyes; like she expected him to kick her, and she just wanted to hide.

  “No wise cracks?”

  Oz shook his head and swallowed past the sudden tightness in his throat. “No. I think that’s great.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. A little odd maybe,” he said, winking at her. “But great.”

  Cher smiled and a little of the ache in Oz’s chest eased. He might not think she was qualified for the job, but at least it seemed geared toward helping people, in some weird way. Maybe there was a real person under all that glitz and glamour.

  “So, why don’t you be a life coach or start up your business, then?”

  “I’ve looked into it. And I do volunteer.”

  “No, I mean for real. Quit shopping. Go do your thing.”

  She shook her head. “My parents don’t think it is a good use of my time.”

  “And being a personal shopper is?”

  Cher snorted. “No. And I’ve told you, that’s not really what I do. But I think the only reason they’ve left me alone until now is because they haven’t figured out what to do with me yet. Opening a business, or being a life coach? I’d have to go to school, get certified, and spend a ton of money to get everything I need to run the type of operation I’m thinking of running. It’s a major undertaking. A career. One that would be completely unacceptable for them. There is no advantage for me or the family that they’d understand.”

  “But it would be advantageous, to you. You’ve got to start living your own life at some point. So go do it.”

  “Oh sure. I’ll just go home and interrupt my sister’s wedding to tell my parents that to make up for completely failing at everything else
they wanted for me, I’m going to dedicate my life to continuing what I’m doing, only on a much larger scale. That’ll go over real well. I’m sure my sister will appreciate the knock-down drag-out fight in the middle of her wedding.”

  “Why not? You have the right to do what you want with your life, don’t you? Do it. I dare you.”

  “Good plan. I’ll just go destroy my life on a dare.”

  “Don’t they want you to be happy?”

  Cher looked down at her lap, her nose wrinkling in a delicate sneer. “Not nearly as much as they want to preserve and glorify the name of Debusshere.”

  Oz shook his head. “Sorry, I just have a hard time believing any parent would rather their kid be miserable her whole life than go against some grand plan for the betterment of the family.”

  “Yeah, well like I said, you wouldn’t understand. My family has had our whole lives planned out since before we were born. What schools we would go to, what friends we’d have. We were on a preschool waiting list when we were still in the womb. You have no idea what it’s like to have the kind of pressure on you that I do. When you come from a family like mine, what you do matters.”

  Oz snorted, any lingering amusement or sympathy for her gone. “So, apparently when you’re just a poor second-class citizen like I am, living paycheck to tiny paycheck, what you do with your life doesn’t matter.”

  Cher’s mouth dropped open. “No. That’s not what I meant, at all.”

  Yeah. That’s what was so sad about it. She obviously didn’t see anything wrong with what she’d just said. It didn’t even occur to her that it might be just the slightest bit offensive.

  “Well, Cher, no matter what you think, when you’re ready to live your own life, all you really have to do is go for it. I guess we’ll see if you ever have the balls to do it.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Since I do not have balls, I guess you’ll be waiting a long time. And will you please stop calling me Cher. My name is Cherice.”

  “Fine. Sorry. Cherice.”

  “Thank you, Nathaniel.”

  “Oz.”

  Cher just groaned.

  …

  His eyes twinkled in amusement and that insanely kissable mouth pulled into that sexy little half grin. Cherice’s heart did that inappropriate flutter again, which kicked up a hundred notches at the thought of her lying in his lap a few moments earlier. His firm, warm, very appealing lap. She sat back with a slight frown, but her cheeks were uncomfortably warm. What was wrong with her? She should not be reacting to him like that. And what the hell was he doing throwing around winks and half stripping in front of her and rubbing that lip and…and…sniffing her?

  She had half a mind to…oohhh the food is being brought right to our car! How had she never been to one of these places before?

  Nathaniel handed her order to her. She eyed the huge pile of food, knowing she should probably be a good girl and eat her meal first. “Screw it,” she muttered, scooping a huge spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “Oh my God, this should be illegal.”

  Nathaniel’s eyebrows rose. She didn’t even care. She’d barely eaten anything all day and she hadn’t had anything so sinful in months. Or longer. She shoved another spoonful in, swallowed it down, and then grabbed the bridge of her nose and groaned.

  “Ow. Brain freeze.”

  Nathaniel burst out laughing. “Slow down there, Cher. We’ve got plenty of time.”

  “Cherice,” she mumbled around another scoop-full of ice cream.

  “Try dipping the fries into it.”

  She grimaced. Nathaniel just laughed and bit into his own burger. “I swear it’s good. Try it.”

  She held out a fry and the shake. “You first.”

  “My pleasure.” He grabbed the fry, loaded it with ice cream, and popped it in his mouth. “Delicious,” he said, licking his fingers.

  Cherice licked her own suddenly dry lips, her gaze glued to his. It did look delicious. The ice cream. The ice cream looked delicious.

  She realized he was staring at her staring at him and jerked back. He grinned, took a fry and dunked it in her shake, holding it out to her.

  “Come on.”

  She leaned forward, keeping her gaze glued to his. The salty, sweet deliciousness of the ice-cream-smothered fry was a surprise.

  “It’s good,” she mumbled around the food.

  “Told you.” He smiled and licked the finger that had just been holding the fry. “Eat up. We gotta get back on the road. We’ve still got about six-and-a half hours before we get to your parents’ place.”

  Cherice put another fry in her mouth, barely tasting the food. All her attention was riveted on the finger sliding in and out of Nathaniel’s mouth. Her stomach flipped while the rest of her body tightened as if waiting for him to drag that finger along her skin.

  What the hell was she thinking? She ripped her gaze from him and focused on her food, though her appetite had taken a nose dive. She decided it was the result of inhaling greasy fries smothered in ice cream and had nothing at all to do with the massive guilt trip she was riding for lusting after the finger-licking married man sitting next to her.

  They tossed their trash and got back on the road. It didn’t last long, though.

  “The West Virginia Welcome Center is a few miles up the road. Picture time,” he said, grinning.

  Cherice groaned, but inwardly she still thought it was pretty cute that he was taking the pictures for his son. She would have preferred they had a little nicer weather for it, but she really couldn’t complain too much since he was the one running out to stand in the rain under the signs. She hoped the signs for Maryland and Pennsylvania were the ones that hung over the freeway or they’d be stopping every ten minutes. They didn’t have much of Maryland to go through.

  Nathaniel pulled into the Welcome Center lot and parked the car. Thankfully, the rain had let up for a few minutes. Of course, that meant the humidity was off-the-charts stifling. But she’d at least be able to take his picture without both of them getting soaked.

  Looked like they’d need to wait their turn for the sign, though. An elderly couple was attempting to take a selfie of the two of them in front of it. Cherice smiled and stepped forward.

  “Would you like me to take a picture of the two of you?” she asked, holding out her hand for their camera.

  “Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you,” the woman said. “Would you mind taking a few?”

  “Not at all.” She smiled at them and glanced at Nathaniel. He smiled at her, but it was more of a thoughtful expression than amused.

  Cherice snapped several pictures of the couple. They were just downright freaking adorable. Married forty-five years and still looked as in love as they must have the day they married.

  “Your turn!” the woman said after Cherice handed her back her camera.

  “Oh, no that’s all right,” Cherice said. “We were just going to take his picture.”

  “Oh that’s silly. Come on, both of you.”

  The woman herded Nathaniel and Cherice together in front of the sign, deftly plucking Nathaniel’s phone out of his hand.

  “Now, put your arm around her, young man. Don’t be shy!”

  Nathaniel just laughed and did as he was told. Cherice bit back another argument. The woman didn’t seem like she’d take no for an answer, so it was probably just easier to go along with it and get it over with. Though standing there with Nathaniel’s arms wrapped around her was making her react in ways she really shouldn’t be reacting to a married man. She shouldn’t be thinking about how warm his hand felt against the small of her back. Or of how strong his arms felt around her. Or wondering if his lips felt as soft and full as they looked. Or if that faint musk scent was cologne or soap or just him. Nope. Shouldn’t be thinking any of those things.

  The woman snapped several pictures and then handed the phone back to Nathaniel with a smile.

  “You two make a lovely couple. I hope you have as many years together as my Frank and
I have had.”

  Cherice shook her head, her stomach bottoming out. “No, we’re—”

  Nathaniel wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him, cutting off her attempt to set the woman straight.

  “Thank you, ma’am, that’s very kind of you. You two travel safe now.”

  Cherice stayed stiffly in his arms while they walked back to the car and he opened her door for her. But the second he got in the car, Nathaniel cut her off before she could get the words out.

  “It was a whole lot easier to go along with it than waste a bunch of time explaining that we’re just strangers on a road trip together. Sorry if it embarrassed you that they thought we were together.”

  He started the car and paid a lot of careful attention to getting out of the parking lot and back on the road. He didn’t look at her once.

  “No, that’s not why…”

  “It doesn’t matter. Mind if I turn the radio on?”

  He hit the power button and cranked it up before she could answer.

  Cherice sat back in her seat, frowning. What the hell had just happened?

  Chapter Seven

  His overreaction at the Welcome Center had almost gotten to Oz enough that he wanted to apologize for snapping at Cher. Her instant denial when the old lady had assumed they were a couple had stung his pride.

  But at the end of the day, it didn’t matter if she was ashamed of him or not. They weren’t a couple and never would be. Six more hours and they’d probably never lay eyes on each other again, so what difference did it make what her opinion of him was? Either way, he didn’t feel like spending the next few hours ignoring each other.

  And then she opened her mouth again.

  “Do you think there are any places to get some clothes out here? These are totally ruined. It doesn’t have to be anywhere nice or anything. Just wherever you’d usually go would be fine.”

  Oz grunted. “Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth?”

  She raised a startled gaze to his. “What did I say?”