Authors: Carlene Love Flores
His hand covering hers over his thigh
pressed down hard while her ego inflated back to normal size.
She felt better and worse at the same time.
“Yes, I do.”
This was the strangest
attraction she’d ever had to fight.
Her
mind warned her to ignore the urge to slide her hand the few inches up and
along the inside of his thigh, no matter how curious she was about that part of
him.
She barely knew him, but his warm
hand right now, trapping hers beneath it, forcing it to stay on the bulging,
tight muscle of his thigh while he spoke about restraint, was too much.
It was like he was telling her not to touch
him but begging her not to take her hand away.
Oh hell, had she already converted him to her craziness?
She hoped not.
Then it occurred to her, it could be he was
just that strong, and that was what she found so attractive.
His thigh muscle tensed beneath their
hands.
She delighted in being the one to
feel it first.
If she told him how badly she wanted to
test his will right now, he’d probably tie her up and toss her in the back,
then drive her straight home to Gramma’s where they’d be safe.
It was too bad.
She wasn’t afraid with Lucky and he’d shown
an interest in her without making her feel dirty or cheap.
“Okay, so don’t take this the wrong way,
but what kind of guy do you think I am?”
He tried to play it serious but cut into a huge grin right away.
“Ha-ha.
Apparently a very cute but restrained one.
Let’s not forget that you’re the one who
started all this last night, Mr. Let-me-just-hold-your-hand.”
“You know, for the record, I didn’t plan
that.
You have no idea how shocked I was
when I saw you outside Slanger’s.
Jaxon
told me you were his personal assistant and so of course all these images of a
bossy older lady who could care less about some younger guy is what I was
expecting.
When I saw you in your Jeep,
I was—well, you looked really nice.
I
was trying to keep my mind out of the gutter and then your grandma—she scared
the hell out of me.
She’s no joke.”
She hadn’t thought of Gramma or Jaxon;
she was enjoying her time with Lucky at the moment.
But the mention of their names brought her
back to at least some semblance of who she should be in this situation.
It didn’t sound like Lucky was going to take
advantage of her, no matter how okay she was with it.
“Oh, don’t let her fool you.
She’s got just as big a bleeding heart as
me.
She’s just better at keeping it in
check until she knows a person’s worth.
She likes you.”
“And you, you tend to get hurt
easily?
You trust too soon?”
“I trust in the wrong way.
I’ve got good instincts, but I tend to ignore
them.
I know
,
it’s not a very smart way to be.”
Lucky reached over and took her hand in
his.
Her chest heaved from the fuller
breath she had to take to calm her heart rate back down, but in the next
instant, she imagined hugging his hand to her breast, and kissing each of his
fingertips.
Would she need to encourage
him or would his manly instincts come alive
on their own
?
Her toes curled at the thought while his hand
continued to unknowingly scorch hers.
She’d never enjoyed being touched this much by anyone before.
“I want you to be smart with me.
Don’t let me hurt you,” he said with
sincerity.
“Do you plan on doing that?”
She gave his hand a squeeze, faltering for a
moment, and then swallowed and prepared for the truth.
“We never do.
But sometimes it just happens.”
Trista nodded as she turned from him and
started up the Jeep’s engine.
She drove
back to Gramma’s, thinking about being smart.
But she wanted him, his goodness that may or may not hurt her, even in
the face of their new found sensibilities.
Chapter
Four
“It’s that time, Trista Jeane.
Do you have all your belongings?” asked
Gramma as she held a wadded up tissue in her hands.
When Trista came out of the front
bathroom, she had seen that Lucky was sitting at the dining table with Gramma,
sipping the last of his coffee.
His face
was pensive, a sharp contrast to the bright smiles she’d quickly grown
accustomed to and she hoped the reason was not that he’d been lectured.
She remembered hearing about the one Jaxon
had received at the end of his first visit.
Jaxon had appreciated Gramma’s well-drawn lines and had assured her that
he favored them equally.
Trista hoped
Lucky hadn’t made the same honorable promises.
“Yep, it’s that time.
Thank you so much, Gramma, for
everything.
I love you and I’m gonna
miss you.”
Trista wrapped her arms
around a thin but sturdy frame.
“Me too...sweet pea.
Me too.”
She could have cried as Gramma hugged her
back and then turned to Lucky with her arms wide open.
“It was nice to have you here, Lucky.
Good luck with your business meeting and
thank you for making the ride with Trista.”
“Yes, ma’am.
Thank you, for everything,” he said as he
dipped his head.
Gramma stood on her front porch and waved
them off.
“So how long is this drive?”
Lucky sat in the Jeep, testing out his
legroom.
He grunted as his boots butted
up against the vehicle’s interior.
“Long.”
“Okay, and are we driving straight
through?” he asked.
Trista kept her eyes on the empty road as
she stumbled through an answer.
“No, I
uh, I have to make a stop but once we do that, we can drive all the way to the
coast if you want.”
“So where’s our first stop?” He fired off
another few questions.
Worried that the rounds would continue if
she didn’t give him more information, she tried to explain her vagueness.
“Sorry, I should have given you the
itinerary.
I’m on a mental vacation from
planning and being managerially inclined right now.”
“Those are some big words.
You seem kind of stressed.
Are you okay?
Want me to drive?”
She was stressed, but the depth of his
voice calmed her, a little.
“No, I’m
fine.
I think
best
when I’m driving.
Anyway—our first stop
is Oklahoma.
It’s about eleven hours
from here so feel free to nod off if you want.
We’ll stop there for the night and probably the next day.”
Please sleep
and stop asking me all these questions
, she thought, but to no
avail.
“So what’s in Oklahoma?”
Bright eyed and bushy tailed, he seemed like
he could keep at it for a while.
With one hand on the wheel and one
digging into her unruly hairline, she reverted to curtness.
“My momma’s grave.”
It sucked switching personalities like that
on him but she couldn’t afford to be soft and sweet right now.
Lucky quieted then.
An
hour passed.
He hadn’t
drifted off to sleep yet, but instead sat there staring out the window, looking
like he’d welcome conversation with just about anyone or thing.
Be
nicer, Trista.
“So
Lucky
, why
didn’t you just fly out to California?”
“Uh, yeah, I don’t fly.”
The subtle shake of his head sent uneven
shocks through his ponytail, which made her all the more curious.
“As in you don’t like to fly or…”
“As in it scares the shit out of me,
excuse my language.”
His jaw tightened.
“Really?
Wow, I never would have guessed that.”
“Yeah, it’s not something I go around
bragging about to women I’m trying to impress.
Especially not to someone like you, who I’m guessing
flies pretty regularly.”
“I once was on a flight that lasted for
sixteen hours.
Australia is beautiful
but it almost cured me from ever boarding a plane again.”
“You see, that would literally kill
me.”
He rubbed his palms together, his
long fingers splayed wide.
“How do you know?
Have you ever tried flying?”
“Once when I was
seventeen.
It was the first and
last time Jaxon invited me to come visit him out there in California until
now.
He even bought me the ticket.
I sat down on the plane and had a panic
attack.
The stewardess was so scared;
she thought I was having a heart attack.
They let me off and sent me to the first aid station in the
airport.
As soon as I was past the
plane’s doors, I felt fine.
Just a
little bruised ego.”
“Wow, so you’ve really never flown
anywhere?
I won’t tell you about the
time our plane was struck by lightning then.”
“Please don’t.
And no, I’ve never flown anywhere.
Sorry.”
“It’s okay.
But wow, do you ever wonder what it is that
triggered your reaction?”
“I don’t know.
It’s not like I’ve had a bad experience to
blame it on.
It’s hard to explain but
have you ever been going somewhere or doing something and out of nowhere, your
entire body seizes up and you just feel like you need to get out of there?”
She knew exactly how that felt and she
slowly nodded her head to answer him.
Her wrist burned and she rubbed it methodically against the fabric of
her dress.
How had he been able to
describe her unique feeling, one that she alone had fought to leave in the
past?
God help her if Gramma had said
too much to him before they’d left.
Or Jaxon, for that matter.
“Great, you think I’m a wuss now,
right?
Don’t worry; I’m all man down on
the ground.
You really are safe with
me.”
His hand felt warm on her shoulder.
“I believe you.”
She wasn’t smiling anymore, just blinking
slowly as she continued to watch the road.
Lucky retired fully to his seat and let her be.
Could he sense she was holding something
back?
They had at least a few days ahead
of them on this road trip.
She wasn’t
sure how much information she owed Lucky about the business she had to tend to
in Oklahoma.
Since she’d be going to
Duketown alone, there’d have to be some explanation concerning why she’d be
deserting him at their hotel the next day.
She looked over at him and admired the
black western shirt he wore with red stitching detail near the collar and the
way he comfortably let his right elbow hang out the open window.
A vein lay slightly elevated under the skin
of his bare forearm, demanding her female attention and inviting her body to
heat up.
There was no question of how
strong those arms were or of how long he’d be able to hold a lover close to
him.
He
must have a strong heart, too
.
Was
he really as good a guy as he seemed?
She had to look back to the road and
missed being able to stare at him as they flew down Interstate-40.
She would hate to have an accident and then
scare him off of traveling in general.
He might never leave the state of Tennessee again.