“It just so happens I have business in Butte today and I can just as easily do it this morning as later in the day. So you’re really not taking me out of my way.”
“Thank the Lord for that,” she said. “We certainly wouldn’t want to interrupt a schedule as packed as yours.”
“You didn’t.”
“There you go again. You weren’t planning on going to Butte this morning. Now you are. So why is it that you don’t like me, then would do something nice for me, your father asked. Is that it?”
“Could be,” he said. “Could be something else.”
“What something else?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said. He’d already said more than he planned to. That had just slipped out. He didn’t intend to say it out loud. Rosa Clayton wasn’t anybody he wanted to be around for long periods of time. Especially, long periods of time in the confines of the truck’s cabin. He could smell her perfume, or was it bath soap or just the essence of her? He didn’t know, but it was doing strange things to his mind and his body. She had on jeans, but he knew she had long beautiful legs. He knew exactly what they looked like. He’d seen them in countless magazines and on television commercials. She was definitely beautiful, but he’d had his fill of beautiful women. He knew how they were. How they acted. And how they were no good for a man.
Rosa Clayton was more than just a beautiful woman. There was something about her that had men turning their heads. She had a certain amount of class mixed with a body that could make a man beg. There was an aura about her that couldn’t be duplicated. It was something you had to be born with. And Rosa Clayton had it.
But Adam had a certain amount of resistance to beautiful women. And Rosa was testing it to the limit.
Chapter 3
The Butte Airport was on the far side of the city. Rosa phoned there looking for a rental, but opted for the downtown office. As they approached Butte, Adam swung the truck off the highway and headed into the city. Rosa found everything spiraled off Main Street and sprawled for miles around. Apparently, people out here got more than their forty acres and a mule and were holding on to it. Butte looked much like it had in the 1800s when copper was king.
The city wasn’t a mass of high-rise buildings. Most were made of brick and few were higher than a few stories. Like most of what Rosa had seen since arriving, the imposing mountains in the distance lorded over everything.
Adam parked and jumped down from the driver’s seat. The agency’s door was a few steps away. Coming around the front of the truck, he pulled Rosa’s door open. She noticed him glancing at her legs. Although she wore pants, they fit like gloves. She didn’t move to get down, but she sat watching him until he raised his eyes.
An invisible fissure seemed to open, connecting them. Their eyes met and held. Rosa couldn’t have moved if she wanted to. She expected a reaction from Adam, but she wasn’t expecting to find her insides shaking as if she’d been dropped from a helicopter.
It had been there all the time, Rosa realized, a certain chemistry that drew people together. Unfortunately, people didn’t get the choice of whom they wanted to have chemistry with. It was just there. And it was between her and Adam. There was also a certain amount of physics between them in the form of friction. As he took her hand and helped her down, she realized friction produced heat and fire. Both of which were making themselves known within her.
“You should be all right from here on,” he said, dropping her hand as if he felt the heat flashing through her.
“I have several appointments to attend to,” he said.
“I’ll be fine.” Rosa nodded. She felt awkward and thought Adam did, too. They both wanted to get away from each other. She stepped back and went though the glass doors of the rental car agency. She didn’t breathe until the doors closed and Adam was no longer close to her.
Rosa stood a moment with her hand on her heart. It was beating faster than normal.
“May I help you?” a man said from behind a counter.
Rosa looked up. It took her a moment to regain her composure.
“You’re Rosa Clayton,” he stated, awe evident in his voice. Often she wanted to reply to that question, saying, “I know that.” But she only smiled and nodded.
He reached across the high counter to shake her hand. “Welcome,” he said. “I’m William Harrison. I have everything ready. Although…” He trailed off.
Rosa looked around to see what it was that arrested his attention. Several men across the room quickly averted their eyes. Rosa knew they were staring at her, but she didn’t mind. She smiled pleasantly. A woman farther down the counter smiled back at her.
“What is it?” she asked. “Is there a problem with the Jeep?”
“No, there’s no problem. I just wondered if you want the Jeep you asked for.”
“Don’t you have it?”
“Oh yes, we have it, but we also have a different car that I think you might be interested in. Would you like to see it?”
The expression on his face was as intriguing as that of the Cheshire Cat. Rosa nodding, thinking she wanted to see what he thought was her kind of car.
She gasped when she saw it, gleaming in the sun, blood-red with rounded fenders that begged to be touched. It was a Corvette and looked out of place on the dusty lot filled with pickup trucks and SUVs. Sliding her hand along the car’s door, she could only think about how it would drive. Sex on blacktop sprang to her mind.
“It did that to me, too,” William said. She had forgotten he was there.
“Would you like this one instead? The price is a little higher than the Jeep.”
Rosa didn’t care. She opened the door and slipped into the driver’s seat. The control panel called to her, her foot going immediately to the accelerator, her hands to the steering wheel. Breathing in, she recognized the new car smell. Rosa checked the odometer. It read ten miles. The car was brand-new. It didn’t matter what it cost, she thought. She wanted this one.
She understood she would stand out in Waymon Valley. Among the trucks, pickups, and SUVs she’d seen during the party at Vida’s and along the roads, this car would surely be noticed. But then she didn’t have to tell people who she was. The car was something people would expect her to drive. At least she rationalized this as she said, “I’ll take it.”
A few minutes later, Rosa heard the swish of the glass door opening behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Adam enter the small room and advance toward her. She took a long, slow breath and gathered herself for the emotional onslaught his presence predicted. After the encounter getting out of his truck, she was unsure how her own body would react to his.
Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who noticed the heralding of his arrival. A noticeable intake of air came from a woman farther down the counter. He strode over to Rosa with the ease of a man who walked through familiar territory. Nodding at the woman, he stopped next to Rosa.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“We’re just finishing up,” she said, taking note that the woman down the counter was openly staring at him. He’d been back in Waymon Valley two years and this was a small community. Rosa thought that by now the citizens would be used to his presence, but then Adam Osborne would cut a striking figure any place on earth.
He looked at the man at the counter. “William, how’s it going?”
“No complaints,” he responded. The two men shook hands and Adam leaned against the high counter. “I wanted to make sure everything was in order before leaving.”
Rosa didn’t comment.
William handed her a copy of the paperwork and dangled the car keys in front of her. Rosa took them, along with a map of Butte and its surrounding area. Coming through a half door next to his workstation, William said, “I had it cleaned and moved around to this door.” He raised his arm and pointed to a side door. As Rosa and Adam started for it, she heard a rustle behind her. Several women who had joined the clerk at the counter. Obviously they were trying to get A
dam’s attention. He glanced back and smiled.
Rosa stopped and looked at them, then at Adam. “Tell me,” she asked, “what is your technique?”
“What?” He frowned.
She glanced at the small group. “Bread crumbs? Do you leave a trail and they just follow?”
“It doesn’t seem to work with you,” he commented.
Rosa couldn’t speak. Her mouth went as dry as the sand in Death Valley. Adam held the door open and she passed through it, unable to ignore the smell of him. He wore no cologne she recognized, but there was an essence about him that was unmistakable and not at all unpleasant. Rosa understood it as charisma. She’d seen it on the television screen when he delivered his news reports and she saw it now in person.
Outside sat the red Corvette, its convertible top already down.
Adam let out a low whistle, the same type Rosa had heard whenever she passed a congregation of men, usually those at a construction site, sporting big guts and no shirts. He walked around the car, taking in the smooth lines of it.
“Good thing you’re traveling incognito,” he said sarcastically.
“You like it?” she returned. Suddenly she wanted his approval.
“It’s gorgeous.” His eyes were on her when he said that. Rosa colored under her skin. She felt the warmth penetrate her face.
Slipping into the driver’s seat, she closed the door. She felt the rich upholstery against her back. The car felt great, as though it already belonged to her. She remembered the first time her brother Digger had gotten a car. It looked like a reject from the junkyard, but he restored it over a long, hot summer and she was right there to help him. Or get in his way. She wasn’t sure which.
“You gonna follow me back?” Adam asked.
“I thought I’d look around before going back. Maybe do some shopping, find a Starbucks, get some coffee and watch the news for a few minutes before heading back. You needn’t worry. I have a map.” She picked it up from the passenger seat. “And a cell phone.”
“No Starbucks in Butte, but there’s a coffee shop owned by one of my aunts not far from here,” Adam told her.
No Starbucks, Rosa thought. She liked coffee, but she didn’t crave it the way she did the news.
“Your father said he had a lot of relatives in this area.”
“Hundreds,” he agreed. “The shop is a few blocks from here, on the corner of Grant and Elm.”
He reached over her and grabbed the map. Rosa’s intake of breath noted her surprise. Moving back, he hunkered down and pushed the paper in front of her. “You’re here.” He pointed to the spot on the map that had a red arrow indicating the car rental agency. “Grant and Elm is right here.”
Rosa took the paper. “I’m sure I can find it.”
“Okay,” he laughed, apparently at her discomfit. “If you’re not there by tomorrow, we’ll send a posse.”
“I’ve been around the world, remember? I’m sure I can drive five blocks.”
“I’m sure you can,” Adam teased. “But just for your reference, the Valley is that way.”
The shopping area was easy to find after Rosa left Adam. She pulled the car away from the curb and noted how easy it was to drive. It took her mind off the reason for her rapidly beating heart. She was sure there were malls close by, but the downtown had survived the suburban sprawl and its subsequent contraction. Rosa didn’t buy much. Mainly she looked in the windows. She’d shopped in some of the best boutiques in the world. She wasn’t looking for haute couture here. In Butte she would supplement the clothes she needed for this area. She could use some boots and long-sleeved shirts for the cool nights.
However, what Rosa found herself buying was souvenirs to send to her family and an evening gown. It was a beautiful dress and stood in the window of a small store. Going inside, she got the dress and, after the clerk got over who she was, tried it on. It fit as if a designer had made it for her to model in his next collection. The dress label was from a competitor, but Rosa let that go and bought it anyway. It was scarlet, strapless, and fitted in the front. However, the back portion of the skirt was full. It made her feel elegant, the way she did each time she put on evening gowns to model. This one wasn’t for modeling. It was for some special occasion yet to be determined. She smiled knowing that finding a place to wear it in Waymon Valley was as practical as renting a red Corvette for the summer. But practicality wasn’t on her mind today.
Storing the dress and other purchases in the car’s trunk, Rosa spent another hour looking in the windows and picking up some personal items. Her stomach told her it was time to find that coffee shop.
She couldn’t help smiling as she took the driver’s seat. She wished she could get the car in front of the computer so she could show her brothers, live and in color, what she’d rented, but she supposed a photo would have to do. She pulled away from the curb and started driving, not really looking at the direction she was taking, more interested in the traffic and the architecture of the buildings.
When her stomach growled again, she started looking for Grant and Elm. She passed the coffee shop before she saw it and drove around looking for a parking space. Finding one, she parallel-parked and patted herself on the back as she left the vehicle. She hadn’t parallel-parked in years, but she got into the space on her first try.
“Well, well, what have we here? Where are you going, pretty lady?”
Rosa looked up as a guy spoke to her. There were four of them and she could see they had trouble on their minds. The oldest one couldn’t be more than seventeen. They eyed her up and down, giving her chills.
“Not in the mood, boys. It’s time you went home. I’m sure you’re missing your Similac fix.”
“Similac,” one of them said in a deep voice that had obviously changed years ago. He started toward her.
“Hey!”
The guy stopped. All of them turned at the sound of the voice that came from Rosa’s left. Adam was across the street, striding toward them.
Rosa raised her hand, palm out, stopping Adam. “I’ve got this one,” she said, then turned back to the four guys in front of her. “Okay, guys, split up. Go home.”
“Guys, I got this one,” one of them mimicked her. He was tall, thin, muscular, beautiful. He took a step toward Rosa. Adam did the same. Both of her hands went up, one toward the young man, her would-be attacker, one toward Adam. She’d been in situations like this before. Her brothers had trained her how to handle them. Unfortunately, the four young guys in front of her, and Adam on the edge of the street, didn’t know that. “I told you,” she said to Adam. “I got this.”
She turned back to the young man. They checked Adam out and dismissed him. After all they had strength in numbers. Or so they thought.
“If you’d like to have children at any time within the next fifty years, I’m warning you,” Rosa said. “Turn around and go home.”
He laughed. His friends laughed and they took another step forward. Rosa looked him straight in the eye. Her face showed no humor. She took a step in his direction. She stood with her legs apart, her weight balanced evenly in the center of her body. A moment later he broke into a run. Just before he got to her, Rosa moved. Too late, he couldn’t stop. Momentum propelled him forward like a guided missile. As he reached her, she rolled her body, scooping him over her back. He landed with a thud on the hard ground. His friends gasped. He sucked air into lungs that had expelled it in a fast whoosh.
The rest of them came toward her. Adam moved, too. Without looking in Adam’s direction, she stopped him with an outstretched hand. The three attackers advanced on her. She grabbed one of their hands and wrenched it around. His body somersaulted in the air, then went down. He hit the ground with a moan of pain. The second propelled himself into the air. She stopped him with a well-placed kick with her booted foot. The impact had him hopping backward and wheezing in pain. Tears sprang to his eyes and his knees buckled. The last one looked at her and the carnage on the ground. Raising his hands in defeat, h
e ran off.
Rosa turned and looked at the three remaining young men. “Men,” she said, shaking her head. “You never listen.” For a moment she watched the writhing group. Then she turned and walked into the coffee shop, not even looking at Adam, missing the huge smile on his face.
“Make that two,” Adam told the clerk serving Rosa coffee.
“Hi, Adam.” A wide smile appeared on the clerk’s face.
“Pandora,” he acknowledged. “Meet the newest resident of Waymon Valley, Rosa Clayton.” To Rosa he said, “Pandora Ellis. She’s my cousin.”
“I know who she is,” Pandora said. She looked at Rosa and smiled shyly.
“Pandora is a very intriguing name,” Rosa said.
“My father claims it was because I was born to keep secrets.”
“More intrigue,” Rosa said.
“I have no secrets, so I have no need to expose them.”
Pandora set their coffees on the counter and Adam pulled out a bill to pay for them.
“You’re coming to the party, right?” Adam asked.
“Sure,” she said. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
“See you later,” he said to his cousin. “Tell Aunt Marge I say hello.”
Pandora nodded and moved to help the next customer.
Adam took both cups.
“Whose party?” Rosa asked.
“Dad’s.” He moved toward a table near the windows. “It’ll be his seventieth and apparently the whole town is getting into the celebration.”
“That’s wonderful,” Rosa said. “I’m sure Bailey is loving all the attention.”
Last Night's Kiss Page 5
