Carolina Heat (21 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

In a matter of minutes they were zipping along the highway, headed for Richmond.

“Sorry it isn’t red.”

“What?” Annabelle’s head was tilted back, soaking up the sun. The top of the convertible was open, and the wind tousled her hair. It was the perfect antidote to a perfectly horrid woman.

“The car—you said last night you wanted a red convertible for the trip, but you didn’t give me much notice.”

Annabelle squeezed Mark’s thigh. “I hadn’t given it a second thought. This is a wonderful surprise. I never expected you to pick me up, let alone in a convertible. I thought we were meeting at the B&B.”

“I find it good to keep you a little off balance.” Mark shot her a wicked grin. “Makes you less able to resist my charming ways. Besides, I did stop by the B&B, at least long enough to pick up a few of your things.”

“Rather presumptuous of you. I never said you could paw through my clothes.”

“Had a feeling you’d say that, so I had Mrs. Haley pack you a bag. Remember, you’re dealing with an old-fashioned, Southern gentleman. I wouldn’t dream of looking at your unmentionables. At least, not until you’re ready to show them to me.”

“Well, don’t get your hopes up.” Annabelle turned to gauge his reaction to her next words. “I don’t like to trespass on someone else’s territory, and I just heard that you’re all but engaged.”

“What? Oh, I get it. Jillian’s mother gave you an earful, didn’t she?” He shook his head in disgust. “The woman will not stop meddling. It’s a miracle Jilly turned out so normal.”

Yet he hadn’t denied anything. “Care to be more specific?”

“Do I need to be?”

“What does that mean?”

Mark raised the roof so they didn’t have to yell over the highway noise. “It means I’m a little surprised you have to ask. Do you really think I’m the kind of man who’d cheat on his fiancée? Not to mention that while I had my hands all over you, Jillian spent the entire night trying to get Ashby to notice her? Every time she passed him something she touched his hand. Every time he looked down she readjusted her top. It was getting downright ridiculous by the end.”

Annabelle knew it was true. She knew it before he’d even said it. A very tiny, insane, insecure portion of her brain had momentarily taken over and for some reason, it insisted she defend herself.

“Look, I know you aren’t that kind of a man. At least, I feel like I do. But I met you less than a week ago, Mark. Things between us are moving so fast I can’t keep up. The part of me that runs on blind instinct tells me I already know you inside and out, and trusts you implicitly. But my rational, cautious side is hard to ignore.”

“Fair enough. We haven’t followed the rules of courtship so far. I’ll give you a direct answer, as soon as you tell me what your heart is saying right now.”

“Putting me on the spot, aren’t you?” She bit her lip. Imagine, a man initiating a discussion about feelings. How could she verbalize what she felt in her heart when her mind still resisted so strongly?

“My heart is notoriously unreliable. It’s made some questionable choices over the years. But right now, this second, my heart’s calling me an idiot for bringing this up, because I’m absolutely crazy about you.”

“That, Miss Carlyle, is the most interesting fact you’ve dug up all week.”

“No, it’s the most unbelievable fact I’ve discovered. Mark, we barely know each other. We barely know anything about each other, and we live at opposite ends of the eastern seaboard!” She closed her eyes and tipped her head back against the seat. “This is crazy.”

Mark laced his fingers through hers. “Slow down a minute. You haven’t given me a chance to answer your question. I don’t want even a tiny piece of you worrying about Jillian. We’ve been friends for years, and she’s very important to me. But we do not have a romantic relationship. Her mother’s so caught up in pedigree and tradition she never bothered to ask us how we feel.”

“On the bright side, now she won’t need to. I took care of it for you. I made it clear her future son-in-law is off the market.” Annabelle chuckled at the memory. “She made me so mad. I couldn’t resist—I told her we were going to Richmond for a romantic rendezvous.”

“Shameless vixen.” His hand ran suggestively up her thigh. “I had no idea the lasciviousness of your master plan. Why wait until Richmond? I can pull off the road, park behind a grove of trees and we can get down to business.”

Annabelle swatted his hand away. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Too late. I’ve been thinking about it since the first moment I saw you.”

“Mark, I’m serious. I can’t fall into bed with you on a whim.”

He put his hand back on the steering wheel. “This isn’t how I planned to have this conversation. Come to think of it, there wasn’t going to be a conversation. Just the two of us passionately kissing until we can’t stand it anymore. Kind of hoped my actions would speak for me. We both know whatever’s happening between us, it isn’t a quick fling or least of all sex on a whim. You cheapen it by even suggesting it.” Mark swore in frustration and leaned on the gas pedal. The car shot down the highway. He pushed the button to retract the roof at the same time.

“Do you feel the speed, Annabelle? Do you feel the wind on your face? Gravity pushing you back into your seat? It leaves you breathless and gasping and reckless and uncertain and excited.” He grabbed her hand once more. “Magnify all those feelings a hundred times, and it still doesn’t come close to what I’ve felt in the last week.”

Slowly he eased off the gas and fell in with the rest of the cars on the highway. “Sure, we’re moving fast, just like this car, but we’re still in control. The thing is, I don’t want to slow down. I think you’re amazing, and I can’t wait to see where this goes.” He shouted over the traffic noise. “Annabelle, I’ve never felt like this before.”

“Well, neither have I.” She hurled the words at him, glad the roof was down. Glad she had an excuse to raise her voice and let out all the pent up emotion. “But these are the worst possible circumstances. We have the extra adrenaline of danger mixed in with whatever else we’re feeling. For God’s sake, someone tried to kill us yesterday. This is no time to be distracted by falling in love” Annabelle winced and covered her eyes in mortification. “Oh, no, no, no. Tell me I didn’t say that out loud. Please save me from eighteen kinds of embarrassment and tell me you didn’t hear a thing.”

“And here I thought we were making real progress. Relationships are supposed to be all about communication. What kind of man would I be if I told you I wasn’t listening?” He laughed and reached across to lay his hand on her thigh. “Darlin’, love is a gift, not a distraction.”

The ring of Mark’s cell phone startled both of them. He noted the New York area code and passed it to Annabelle.

“You will buy me a crazy expensive present for my birthday.” Jonathan’s voice snapped her immediately back into work mode.

“What is it? What did you find out?”

“Did you hear me, sweet, extravagant sister of mine?”

“Jonathan, your birthday was three weeks ago, and I gave you season tickets to the Yankees. Tickets I spent two years haggling with three different players to get.” Exasperation tinged her voice. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Fine,” he said sulkily. “Don’t play along. But for missing the opportunity to use the aforementioned tickets tonight, not to mention leaving my air-conditioned building to come down there to the most humid city known to man…well, you’ll owe me. Big. As in next year, I get a supermodel to share my season tickets.”

Annabelle motioned for Mark to pull over. “Why are you coming to Richmond?”

“It’s a long story. Well, probably not so long, but with the mood you’re in right now I doubt you’d appreciate the subtleties of my little yarn.”

Annabelle was on the verge of reaching through hundreds of miles of phone cable to strangle her brother. “How about you give me the high points?”

“Weren’t you listening? I’m coming to Richmond; flying down tonight. Or to be precise, flying into Dulles and driving the rest of the way. I’ve a few things to tie up, so it’ll be late when I get there. Don’t wait up, but if you could get me a room, I won’t have to crash on the foot of your bed at one in the morning.”

“Fine. I’ll get you a room. But you still haven’t told me why you’re coming to Richmond.”

His voice finally sobered. “Hey, when the chips are down and you need me, I come running. I did some digging and immediately hit a rather unexpected brick wall. Once I’m there it’ll be easier to sort out. I get the feeling we’re under a time constraint and you need the help.”

“All true. I do appreciate it, more than you know. We’re staying at the Jefferson Hotel. I’ll make sure they leave a mint on your pillow—or a mint julep. Whatever it is they do down here.”

“I expect details regarding your choice of pronoun just now. See you at breakfast.”

“So you averaged a total of what, one word to his fifty?” Mark asked.

“It’s better than I usually average. Jonathan is brilliant and often equal parts amusing and annoying. And I’d move the sun and the moon for him, just like he would for me.”

“You two are lucky to have each other.” Mark eased them back into traffic.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I was convinced for years he was the main carrier of all boy-cooties in the world, and he still goes out of his way to drive me crazy. Gives him some sort of twisted pleasure, I guess. But we do things together. Ten years ago it didn’t seem like a possibility. Now we do coffee, or grab takeout in front of really bad movies. I try to help him with his girlfriends, but he’s into serial dating right now. Which doesn’t require much in the way of sisterly advice.”

“Sounds like a friendship.”

“Huh,” Annabelle pursed her lips. “I never thought of it in those terms. But, if you insist on putting a label on it—”

“And I do,” he interrupted. “We researchers can be transfixed for days at the thought of correctly labeling inter-personal relationships.”

She shot him a sideways look. “You’re a very strange man.”

“Don’t evade the question by stating the obvious.”

“Fine. If I stopped describing Jonathan as my brother, I’d probably introduce him as one of my closest friends. But don’t you dare tell him, or he’ll start demanding better presents.”

“Fair enough. How do you think he’ll react to meeting me? Pistols at dawn?”

“Nothing that drastic. We live our own lives. He’ll be surprised. You might say before this week, the chances of my teaming up with anyone would be classified as significantly less than zero.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed your independent streak.” He dodged her quick poke in his ribs.

“Sarcasm from you? It’s supposed to be my line.”

“Sometimes I can’t resist. Does it really make you uncomfortable having me along?”

Annabelle leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “You do ask the tough questions, don’t you?”

“And you dodged it like a pro.”

“Caught me,” she laughed. “It feels different. Like a new coat you try on, and it’s heavier than you’re used to. On the other hand, it’s twice as warm as the old coat, which is probably a good thing; you just need to get used to it.”

“What you’re saying is that to you I’m a heavy, puffy winter coat?”

She bit her lip. “That came out less like the compliment I intended.”

“No, I can be a parka. If you’d compared me to something insignificant like a sock or a glove, now that would’ve been hard to take. But a big, substantial parka, well, I’ve no complaints.”

“Clearly I need to brush up on my Flirtatious Comments 101.”

“Anytime you need someone to practice on, you let me know. Ready for breakfast?”

She shook her head. “I already ate.”

“Darling, a cup of bitterly strong coffee does not a breakfast make.” Mark slowed to negotiate the curve of the off ramp. “When I stopped to pick up your suitcase, Mrs. Haley made me promise to get some food into you. She was worried you’d slipped past her without ‘touching a morsel of food’, I believe were her exact words.”

“I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but have you seen the size of her breakfasts? After last night’s barbecue, I couldn’t face it.”

He came around and opened the door for her. “Nevertheless, a gentleman doesn’t go back on his word. You
will
eat something. Don’t look at it so much as breakfast as it is ulcer prevention. But don’t go overboard here. I have a treat in store for you this afternoon.”

Annabelle paused, one leg out of the car. “This is really where you want to eat?” She was dubious about his choice. They were parked in front of a Waffle House. The garish orange sign was a highway fixture across most of the country.

“This is precisely where I want to eat. Don’t even think of turning up that fancy nose of yours. People drive hundreds of miles out of their way to get a smothered waffle.” He guided her through the doors. Annabelle giggled when Mark was unable to stifle his own shock at the wall of smoke which immediately engulfed them.

“Now wait just a minute,” she said. “Living in New York doesn’t mean I’m incapable of enjoying life’s simpler pleasures.” She warmed to the topic and her voice rose accordingly. “You can’t make sweeping assumptions based on a person’s zip code. After all, I don’t assume you’re a half-wit because you speak with a drawl.” At the end of her tirade Annabelle found herself seated at the counter, coffee cup plunked in front of her wordlessly by a sullen teenager. The girl’s face was covered with at least a dozen piercings. She brandished menus, but Mark waved them away without a glance.