Authors: Liz Lee
“You change your mind?”
For the longest time she didn’t say a word. And then she did. “Yeah. I think I have.”
They spent the night riding around the lake laughing, sitting on a picnic table watching bugs on the water, talking about what they wanted out of life and where they were going.
Away tended to be the common theme. She wanted fame and fortune in California, he just wanted to escape. And then he’d ruined everything by asking her the question he’d been wondering all day.
“You going to tell me why you were walking down the road in your prom dress instead of dancing the night away.”
She looked at the dirt under the bench and then shrugged. “I don’t think I’m going to.”
He waited while she sat there watching him and he knew. Suddenly, inexplicably, he knew.
“Let me guess. Your hot shot boyfriend left you there.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Hardly. I left him.” She stopped talking when he smiled at her.
“How come?”
She shrugged. “He wasn’t interested in dancing at the prom with a party on the Hill. So I danced and he partied. And then I left.”
“He was looking for some hot prom night sex, huh?”
“He was looking for something all right.”
“You looked pretty ticked when I found you, but not all that sad.”
She shrugged. “I don’t care what he does or with whom. I just know who it’s not going to be with.”
“You afraid?”
She took offense. “Hardly.”
“Then why not? Why leave him at the prom with some other girl?”
She lay back on the table and he was struck again by how perfectly beautiful she was.
“This insight into the male brain is frightening, Riley.”
“I’m just asking.”
She threw her arms over her head and he had to force himself to look somewhere other than all that white skin.
They’d spent all night talking and suddenly he wanted to kiss her, to touch her soft lips with his own.
She didn’t say anything for the longest time. In the distance thunder rolled and he almost missed her words.
“Something’s wrong with me, I guess.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know. I’m different.” She bit her bottom lip and he nearly groaned aloud.
“I spend all this time with him. And we kiss because, well, you know.”
He shook his head and told himself he wasn’t dreaming. “I don’t know.”
“It’s expected. We have to kiss, and it’s okay, but it’s not all that great. It’s just a kiss, you know.”
Ah man. Riley knew she was just talking. She wasn’t asking him for anything, so he sat there silent, trying to figure a way out of this that wouldn’t land him in a whole heap of trouble. She kept talking.
“I just don’t care. That’s not normal.” She sounded upset, but as he watched her face, he didn’t think she looked that upset. He wondered if this was some sort of joke.
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
She shook her head. “It is though. All my friends talk like I’m the luckiest girl in the world and I don’t know, it’s just weird.”
This whole conversation was weird. “Yeah, well, maybe you should write Dear Abby.”
She laughed. “That’s a thought.”
Her laugh broke the moment of tension, and he let out a deep breath. For a minute there he’d thought she was going to ask him to kiss her. Not that he’d have a problem with that.
At least that’s what he was thinking until he saw the tear on her cheek. She tried to brush it away before he saw, but she wasn’t fast enough.
“Damn.” The word was whispered. He was cursing himself as much as the entire situation when she met his eyes and bit her lip. He wanted her. Simple as that.
“Damn.” He whispered the word again and this time he lowered his face to hers.
Their lips touched. At first the kiss was tentative, almost timid. And he knew he was as afraid as she was because this was the perfect Callah Crenshaw. His tongue slicked across her bottom lip and she moaned against his mouth as she pressed her body to his.
In minutes their chaste kiss changed to something far more tempting. Far more real. He wasn’t sure how long they lay on the picnic table kissing. All he knew was when he realized his hand was kneading her bare breast, they’d gone far enough. He pulled away, tried to catch his breath as fire raged through his body.
“Damn, Callah, I don’t know what’s going on with you and your boyfriend, but there’s definitely nothing wrong with you.”
The look on her face was a combination of shock, excitement and confusion. “That was incredible.”
He nodded, tried to regain his balance. “It was something alright.” He slid her dress back up over her shoulders, smoothed the material, tried to ignore the red scruff marks on her long neck.
He’d done that. He wanted to do more.
She rested her hands against his chest. “We don’t have to stop, Riley.” She pressed her lips to his and the kiss grew again until he finally pulled away, trying to catch his breath, listening to her try to catch hers.
“We do have to stop, Callah.”
She shrugged, but he saw the smile in her eyes. He should’ve taken her home then. But he didn’t want to. Spending time with her was incredible. Fun. Exciting.
They rode around town for hours and when she asked to see his house he knew what she was asking, and still he brought her home.
There they talked about their families. Her parents. His siblings. His father. How cancer had ravaged his mother. How his father blamed him. And then she’d held his face in her hands and this time they both knew kisses were never going to be enough.
And maybe he should’ve taken her then. But when she’d been naked on his bed, when he’d had the perfect opportunity, he’d looked into her eyes and known this wasn’t about him or her.
And he’d pushed her away because to do anything else would’ve been wrong.
“I guess the answer’s simple enough.”
She seemed surprised. “How’s that?”
He shrugged, took a bite of his sandwich so maybe what he was going to say wouldn’t seem so important. It didn’t matter anyway.
“It was more kicking your boyfriend out. He was everywhere that night. I didn’t want to make love with you because you were trying to get him out of your head. I wanted to be all you were thinking about when we made love. The next day when you came back, it was about us.”
It was both the truth and a lie, but enough of the truth was there to convince her. He wasn’t about to tell her the whole truth. How he might have been young and stupid, but he’d known enough to understand someone as pure and innocent and sweet as Callah Crenshaw had no business in his bed. And how when she’d shown up the next day and the next, and the next, he couldn’t push her away. How he couldn’t do that until the day cancer finally killed his mother. The same day he’d heard about the scholarship waiting for her in California.
Callah listened to the story and couldn’t help but be swept back to that night. How had she ever ended up married to someone like Charlie Benson?
She wanted to kick herself for ever giving a man that kind of control over her. “For what it’s worth you’re a better kisser now.”
He laughed. “Honey, you have no idea.”
She shivered and not because she was cold. The kiss they’d shared at the lake cabin had been as real, as intense, as any she’d ever experienced. She wanted more.
“You gonna prove that statement or just go throwing it out there to drive me crazy?”
He smiled and her pulse thrummed to ten million and twelve. “If I told you, it might ruin the whole anticipation thing we’ve got going on.”
She laughed. “Well, I’m all for anticipation. But I’ve decided it might be overrated. If I ask you to come home with me, are you going to push me away again?”
Riley laughed. But nothing about this was funny. This incredibly sexy woman was in danger. And if this made her feel better, so be it.
“Honey, I promise I won’t be pushing you away. But how about we take things slow and easy? You’ve had one hell of a day.”
“For someone who talks about being the baddest of bad boys, you sure are into playing protector.”
She was right, and he didn’t understand why. “You seem to have that affect on me, Callah.”
“I’m not asking for an apology, Riley. I just want you to tell me you’ll take me to bed if I invite you inside my house. That you’ll make me forget about everything.”
Damn she was hot. He’d started the flirting earlier to get her mind off the danger she was in, but this wasn’t flirting. This was real.
Glenda asked if they needed anything and the conversation was interrupted with ketchup and napkins and re-fills. And then Glenda was gone and the tension was back. Hotter than before.
“Well?” She dragged a tatertot through ketchup and popped it in her mouth, and he tried not to go caveman and take her right there.
“We’re just having a late dinner, Callah.”
“And I’m asking if you’re willing to stay with me until breakfast. At least.”
At least.
He took a sip of his water then smiled. “How about I keep the answer to myself until we get to your house?”
She popped another tatertot in her mouth. “You’re just a big chicken, aren’t you Riley Sorenson? All talk. No action.”
Oh Baby.
He laughed. “Not going to work, Callah.”
Callah rolled her eyes and sipped her hot chocolate. God, she felt so stupid. What had she been thinking?
“Okay. I’m done. I can’t do the sexy vamp thing anymore. It’s not me and I sound ridiculous.”
“Honey, I promise, if you sounded ridiculous, I’d let you know. It’s taking every ounce of self-control in my body not to jump your bones right here on the diner table. Trust me. You’ve got vamp down pretty damn good.”
Heat coursed through her body and she couldn’t stop her smile. “You say the nicest things.”
He laughed and stole her last tatertot.
“That was a sorry dog trick.”
He chewed slowly then smiled. “Yeah? You gonna make me pay?”
Oh yeah. She definitely wanted the make him pay. She resisted the urge to fan her face. Everything about this conversation was foreign to her, but the heat he generated nearly overwhelmed her. For all his assurances, she knew she had to stop. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m totally out of my element.”
He rubbed the edge of her lip with tip of his thumb and her stomach fell to her toes. “You’re doing a hell of a job for an amateur. But I guess if you want, we can work on getting you in your element later.”
She thought she might just die right there on the spot because that meant he was taking her up on her offer.
Oh man.
He leaned in close to her ear and whispered. “Breathe, Callah.” And this time she did fan her face.
Riley took a bill out of his wallet. Left it on the table and grabbed her hand.
They started out the diner door, but Glenda ran out after them. “Hold up, Riley. I’m supposed to give this to you.”
She held out a napkin and he tried to stop Callah from reaching for it, but it was no use.
One line. Black ink.
Be careful.
Dammit. Not again. He searched the empty diner and fought the urge to hit the wall. “Who left this?”
Glenda looked troubled. “The man sitting there when y’all walked in. He watched for a couple minutes then left this. Told me to deliver it before you left. He didn’t want to interrupt y’alls conversation.”
Be careful.
Callah’s face was white. The fear back. Dammit.
“Callah.”
“Is everything okay?” Glenda looked from him to Callah and back. “Should I call the police? I knew there was something fishy going on.”
Riley shook his head. Looked around the diner once more, but no one was there. Not even the agents assigned to protect Callah. Why? He didn’t know. But he wasn’t going to let her be hurt. Not now. Not ever if he could help it.
“No. We’ll be fine. Thanks Glenda.”
He swore he’d make that the truth. Somehow.
Chapter Nine
As the moon shone bright in the early morning sky, a damp heaviness filled the air and Callah just wanted to get inside where maybe she could forget. Where maybe she would feel safe. The scintillating promises from earlier an almost forgotten memory. But when she started to push the door forward, Riley stopped her.
“Hold up a sec. Let me look inside first.”
Across the street she saw the blue sedan, and she knew the agents were there.