She’d been quiet for a few minutes and I thought she’d drifted off to sleep when she spoke again. “Hey, old man, I like you.”
I glanced at her. “I like you, too, kid.”
Her eyes were closed as she said, “I meanlikelike you. Inappropriately like you.”
I blew out a long breath as I stared out at the dark road ahead of us. “Same,” I whispered, but I was pretty sure she was out cold and didn’t hear it.
I had to be honest with myself and admit my feelings were at least half the reason I would rather drive all night than check into a hotel with Cara. Getting us safely to Maryland as quickly as possible was now the mission. Because the more time we spent together with all this inappropriate liking going on, the greater the possibility that one or both of us would act on it.
CHAPTER 12
CARA
Iwoke up bathed in gray light with my bed moving under me. A few seconds later I opened my eyes and stared over at the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, sitting in the driver’s seat of my car with his eyes fixed on the road.
Damn it. I was falling for Nick Roman. And it wasn’t because of his pretty face. Well, not only because of it. The man liked my art. He’d zip-tied my asshole ex to a steering wheel. He’d held me when I’d burst into tears, not because of what had happened yesterday but because of what had happened over the past five months and even the seven years before that. And he hadn’t once made me feel like an idiot for my poor life choices. In fact, he’d done the exact opposite, and had shared his own painful past to make me feel better.
My heart jumped into my throat as I realized just how deep and fast I was falling. And hadn’t I…? Yes, I had. I’d admitted my feelings to Nick last night. And I remembered him saying the word “same”. The problem—one of many problems, actually—was that I didn’t know whether that had actually happened or I’d dreamt it. That left me with only one option. I’d have to ignore that it had ever happened.
I sat up and stretched, and pretended I didn’t catch him stealing sideways glimpses of me arching my back and lifting my arms over my head. “Are we in Oklahoma?” I asked.
“Crossed the state line about ten minutes ago.” He grinned. “You really do sleep like the dead.”
“But the important question is did I snore?”
He winked at me and my heart stopped for a couple of seconds. “A gentleman never tells.”
I swallowed hard to keep my tongue from lolling out of my mouth. Note to self: waking up next to Nick, even if we weren’t in a bed, made me horny as hell.
“I’ll take that as a no,” I said, hoping he didn’t notice how turned on I was.
He threw his head back and laughed, which only made it worse. The man found me funny. He’d laughed enough over the past few days to prove it wasn’t a fluke. We shared the same sense of humor. That was nearly as powerful an aphrodisiac as staring at his perfect profile with his chiseled jaw-line covered in scruff.
“I’m sure you’re starving,” he said.
“What?” Did he know what I was thinking, after all?
“Given your love of breakfast,” he clarified.
“Yeah, I’ll pass.”
“I figured,” he said. “We’ll reach the hotel I booked last night in about an hour. We can take showers. If you want, you can grab a few hours of sleep in a bed.”
I shook my head. There were many things I wanted to do in a bed at that moment, but sleep wasn’t one of them. No way was I going to lie down anywhere in his vicinity and trust myself not to beg him to join me. “No need. I’ve had plenty of sleep. You must be exhausted, though.”
“Getting tired, but I’m good for a few more hours. The next town on your photo shoot list will come up an hour after the hotel. I’ll stay awake long enough for that, then catch some shut-eye on the drive.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Have you made any decisions about what you’ll do after that, now that we’ve re-routed?”
“Working on it.” It wasn’t a lie, exactly, but I if there was ever going to be a time to state my case for sticking to our original route, this was it.
Then Nick turned up the stereo and I realized there’d been classical music playing since I’d woken up.
“This is beautiful,” I said. “Do you know what it is?”
“Third movement of Beethoven’sMoonlight Sonata.”
