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Must be the South Carolina humidity he’d mentioned, she thought. Because if she admitted it was the man she’d have a lot of soul-searching to do.
He handed the phone to her. “You’ll have to send me these.”
She slid it back into her pocket without taking another look, although she knew she’d painstakingly go through all the photos later. She wouldn’t be able to resist. Just as she seemed unable to resist anything Justin dangled her way.
“Just so long as you don’t show anyone,” she said.
Why she’d added the caveat she wasn’t sure. It had just come out. Maybe as a protest against how he pulled her out of her comfort zone. Maybe because her heart was still pounding like crazy at seeing the photos, at how they looked like a “real” couple, at how happy she looked.
In both photos her face glowed with something that had been missing for a long time. Happiness. But her smiles in the pictures shouldn’t impress her. They were just reflections of who she was: a woman content with her life—right?
Justin tightened his hold on her legs, then resumed his progress toward the bridge, almost as if he thought she was going to tell him to put her down again. She should. His carrying her was just childishness.
“Why don’t you want me to show the pictures to anyone?” he asked. “Are you ashamed for people to know you were with me?”
Her stomach twisted. “It’s not that.” She scrambled for a reason. “It would just give the wrong impression.”
“What wrong impression would that be?”
“That we’re involved.”
Another hesitation, then, “Aren’t we?”
Riley closed her eyes. She was surrounded by Justin. He was filling all her senses. His smell, his strength, the sound of his breathing as he carried her the short distance to the bridge, the feel of his muscles working against her body...
“Life will be simpler if we aren’t.” The exposed honesty of her admission shocked her.
The fact that he didn’t push her to elaborate shocked her even more.
Reaching the bridge, he relaxed his hold on her legs and Riley slid off his back.
When she was on her feet, Justin turned. “Anytime you want to be carried rather than going it alone, just let me know.”
Rather than answer him, or any of the questions swirling through her mind, Riley scooped Daisy up into her arms and took off, tossing over her shoulders, “Race you to the end.”
* * *
Justin was smart enough to know that Riley had hoped he’d take off and leave her when she’d issued her challenge. She’d certainly picked up her pace from their earlier jogging. But he knew she wasn’t trying to win a race. She just wanted to make conversation difficult.
He was okay with that. Maybe he even needed a moment to gather his wits after holding her. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to touch Riley without feeling his blood heat. Holding her, even on their juvenile piggyback ride, had sent his insides into an adrenaline rush.
Her legs around his waist had given him instant flashbacks of a far more erotic wrapping of those long legs around him. Had sent him into an instant longing to take her back to his place and explore those legs at his leisure. To explore all of her. Her body and her mind, too.
He wanted to know what made her tick...what made her who she was. He’d learned a lot today. But he wanted to know more. Lots more. Everything, he admitted. He wanted to know everything there was to know about Riley.
And with time, he would.
Because, whether she wanted to or not, Riley liked him. She had admitted she didn’t want to, which was maybe progress in getting her past whatever made her think she shouldn’t. Surely, with patience, she’d realize liking him wasn’t a problem? But her thinking she shouldn’t like him, shouldn’t want him, was a huge problem...
“By the way,” she said now. “You didn’t happen to find a gold cross on a chain?”
He glanced toward her. “No. Did you lose one?”
She nodded. “At some point over the past few days. I’d thought it might be in your Jeep or—well, you know...”
“I haven’t seen one, but I haven’t looked. It has sentimental value?”
“It was a gift.”
