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“No, I wouldn’t. And neither would you.”
She should have simply walked away, but some devil inside wouldn’t let her do that. “Bed first. Then I’ll make up my mind. I’m not buying a pig in a poke.”
He gazed down at her and a vaguely dangerous smile caught the corner of his mouth. “For now, we’re both keeping our clothes on. But if I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know.”
Chapter 17
As Emma walked next to Kenny along the less populated part of San Antonio’s beautiful Riverwalk, it occurred to her that Lady Sarah Thornton might have been foolish for having returned to England when she’d so clearly loved Texas. There was something special about this state that she couldn’t help but respond to: its energy, its people, and its sheer, raw size. She found herself taking a long, deep breath for no reason, almost as if her lungs had developed a larger capacity. Somehow she felt bolder here, and, in a way she couldn’t explain, less limited.
The last five days had been magical. Kenny had shown her two of Texas’s most colorful cities: Austin, then San Antonio. In Austin, he’d regaled her with anecdotes from his college days as he’d shown her the University of Texas campus. When she finished her work at the library, he’d taken her through the state capitol building and given her tours of the city’s parks and shops. At night, they’d visited wonderful restaurants and listened to Austin’s best music.
San Antonio had been even more wonderful. In the mornings, while Kenny practiced at the range, she finished up the last of her research at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo. Then they spent their afternoons together. She’d never laughed so much, or argued so much either. Her body felt warm and languid from Kenny’s lovemaking, and she couldn’t imagine how she would ever live without it or without him.
A cloud of depression settled over her. Her time in Texas was nearly over. These last few days had been enchanted, but it was Friday and she would be flying home on Sunday evening.
She turned her face into the breeze, unwilling to spoil what little time she had left with introspection. Instead, she considered the guided tour of the Alamo Kenny had given her that afternoon. As he’d led her through Texas’s most famous shrine, she’d realized all those volumes of history and biography she’d seen scattered around the house hadn’t been put there by Patrick as decorative accents.
His hand felt large and comforting curled around hers. She admired a lovely old building on the other side of the river, then smiled up at him. “You’re a real history buff, aren’t you?”
“Why do you say that?”
“For one thing, you know a lot more about Texas history than most people.”
“I wanted to major in history in college, but my high school grades were so crummy that my counselor recommended against it.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Not really. He was probably right. Even taking easy subjects at UT, I pretty much made straight C’s. And then I dropped out my senior year to turn pro.”
“Yes, well, I should imagine it’s difficult to do much better than C’s when you hardly ever went to class.”
He darted her a curious glance. “How’d you know that?”
“By spending five minutes in your company. Really, Kenny, I’ve never known anyone so afraid to challenge himself.”
He dropped her hand and looked aggravated. “You happen to be standing here with a man who’s won two majors in the past three years. I know everything there is to know about challenge.”
“But winning tournaments is different, isn’t it?” She took his hand back and gave it a comforting squeeze. She knew this weekend was especially hard on him with the Masters being played at Augusta, but he’d maintained a stoic silence on the topic. “The golf course is probably the only place in the world where you’re not afraid to let people see you working hard.”
“That’s because it’s the only place in the world where I do work hard.”
She smiled at him and pressed her cheek against the side of his arm for just a moment. “Give it up, Kenny. You work hard at lots of things. Your exercise program, for example. It’s only because you make everything seem so easy that you don’t look like you’re doing anything.”
“You are so full of it that—”
“I should be fertilizer, I know. You want people to believe you’re lazy. It’s almost as if you think yo
u don’t deserve anyone’s good opinion.”
“Bull.” Tension ticked at the corner of his mouth, and she knew she’d hit a nerve.
There were so many topics neither of them wanted to talk about, including his suspension and her problems with the Duke of Beddington. For the past five days, she’d been drifting along in a sensual haze, acting as if tomorrow would never come. She’d seen no signs of anyone following them, and now, with her return only two days away, she had to face the fact that she’d been behaving irresponsibly. She hadn’t tried to contact Hugh or done a single thing to upset him. It was as if she’d been lulled into a sensual world where the future didn’t exist.
A flutter of panic ruffled her stomach, stealing away some of her pleasure in the day. “Are you certain you can’t remember the names of anyone who was in the drugstore that night?”
“I told you the last time you brought this up that I was concentrating on finding the right shoelaces, so I wasn’t paying attention.”
“But surely you spoke to someone.”
