“DAMN my life. Even Bambi’s out to get me!”
Sarah Brandon held on to the steering wheel of her car, heart pounding in her chest, trying to pretend that she hadn’t just taken a nose dive into a ditch. If she admitted the reality of that, she would have to add in the regrettable detail of the ditch running alongside a dark and deserted back road. Once that became a fact, she would have to deal with the ominous-looking wall of trees that surrounded the scary, dark, and deserted back road. Anything could be hiding in those woods—wild animals, werewolves, Freddy Kruger—anything.
Who wanted to admit to landing in the plot of a bad horror movie? Considering it was well past midnight and she was by herself…not Sarah.
This isn’t happening.
She peeked out the driver’s-side window, checking for any serial killers who might be lurking, just waiting to pounce on her. At this angle, Sarah couldn’t see much of anything beyond the murky fronds of tall grass encircling her. Perfect hiding spot for a crazy killer.
Not that there were any psycho criminals in Madison Falls lately, but in this town, you never knew.
Sarah was still freaked out from nearly hitting the deer standing smack dab in the middle of the road. She’d swerved in time to miss it, just not quickly enough to miss the damned ditch. The buck hadn’t moved until the tail end of her Mini Cooper was ass-up at an odd angle. Sarah swore he gave her a “sucks to be you” toss of his antlers before turning and prancing off into the woods.
Bambi was right. It did, presently, suck to be her. Sarah’s door was jammed, and she refused to climb out the driver’s-side window without any shoes on. Lord knew what sort of muck would squish between her toes while she tried to hoof it out of there. In the daylight, she wouldn’t be so prissy. In the dead of night, it was another story. If she had to traipse through muck, Sarah wanted to see it first.
Where the hell did my shoes go?
Sarah remembered taking them off before getting in her car and heading home. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember where she’d put them. Her feet had been sore from doing a double shift and filling in for one of her bartenders. Not thinking she’d be standing that long, she’d made the unfortunate decision to wear high heels to work. Sarah’s Suds and Spuds was always crowded on Friday night and her business had been hopping.
Her aching feet were still paying for it.
She could practically hear her mom warning her to never drive barefoot and to always wear clean underwear in case of an accident. In her current predicament, Sarah understood the necessity of shoes. She still didn’t get the clean underwear thing. Of course she always wore it, but did the doctor actually check?
What would he say? “Sarah has sustained a few contusions, Mrs. Brandon. Not to worry, her prognosis is good. We’re pleased to report that for once, she followed your advice, and wore clean underwear.”
Sarah couldn’t really picture Dr. Anthony over at the Madison Falls Medical Center making that announcement to her mother. Even though the young doctor was kind of cute, she didn’t think he had any desire to check out her panties. Then again, no one had any desire to check out her panties lately. She shook off the thought. Sarah had more important things to worry about.
Her pulse slowed as she listened to the symphony of night sounds coming from the surrounding woods. They didn’t sound too threatening. Crickets, frogs, and the odd mosquito or two kept her company while Sarah tried to figure out her next move. She used the steering wheel as leverage to keep the seat belt from digging into her neck. At least her airbags hadn’t deployed and smooshed her into the driver’s seat. Good news for her unbroken nose, but shouldn’t they have gone off?
Twin headlights came over the rise in the road, lighting up the darkness like two beacons of hope. Thank God. She hadn’t had a chance to call anyone for help yet. Most normal people were asleep by now. Please let it be a Good Samaritan and not Leather Face. Whoever got out of the still rumbling truck was backlit in the wash of bright headlights, so she couldn’t tell who it was.
She strained to look out the back window through the reflection in the rearview mirror and made out the figure of a man…a big man. Although Sarah knew practically everyone in her small town, that didn’t stop her from holding the steering wheel one-handed while searching through her purse for her pepper spray.
She prayed it was someone with good intentions because he was making his way down the incline at a fast clip. Sarah didn’t think her breath spray, all she could find by feel, would do much damage. Maybe if the Binaca got in his eyes, it would sting a little. It would hardly incapacitate someone, though.
“Hey there, Sarah sunshine.”
An achingly familiar, deep baritone with a sexy southern drawl drifted through the window on her left. There was only one man who had ever called her “sunshine.” She didn’t want to turn her head and see Josh Logan attached to that voice. Sarah had known he’d come back a few months ago to work with his dad at the Madison Falls Garage. She’d been avoiding that establishment ever since she’d heard the news. As a matter of fact, Sarah made a point of driving the extra half hour to get her oil changed somewhere else.
Josh was a ghost from Sarah’s youthful past. He was her first failed attempt at love. He’d broken her heart when he’d left town the summer after graduation. After an entire school year of dating—dog years to a teenager—Josh hadn’t even said goodbye to her in person. She’d been left wondering what the hell happened to him. Sarah preferred thinking of him as having dropped off the face of the Earth. Reality and the man standing outside her car was telling her otherwise.
It was a bitter pill to swallow to realize that after over a decade later, and an ex-husband under her belt, her taste in men still hadn’t improved. Sarah didn’t need a blast from her past to remind her of it. Maybe I can fake deafness and he’ll go away?
That theory was shot to hell when he murmured, “Hey there, darlin’. You okay?”
Sarah snapped. “Do I look okay to you?”
In her frustration, she’d managed to turn her head to look at him. He was barely lit by the console lights. Still, the full impact of his blue-eyed gaze hit her like a slug to the chest. Oh. My. It was Josh all right.
He still had that same chiseled jawline that she used to love tracing with her lips. The bastard hadn’t even had the decency to go bald and fat. No, Josh had gone the opposite route. He was in better shape now than when they were in high school. The lean, rangy build of a teenager had morphed into the broad, muscular build of a very fit, very hot, grown man. From what Sarah could see, his tawny brown hair was still thick too.
Where’s the justice in that? Can’t karma at least give him a bad comb-over?
The glare of a flashlight beam shifted across her face and practically blinded her before Josh pointed it toward the rest of the car’s interior.
“Well, now, you look better than okay. You look gorgeous to me, sweetheart, but your car’s kissin’ the dirt. Are you hurt at all?” His gaze traveled from her droopy ponytail down to her bare feet. “Where’s your shoes?”
“I have no idea.”
“You have no idea if you’re hurt? Or are you talkin’ about your shoes?” Josh checked her over again for any obvious signs of injury.
Sarah let her breath spray drop back into her bag and tightened her grip on the steering wheel with both hands. “I don’t know where my shoes are…and I’m fine.” Relatively.
Josh tugged at the door handle and it didn’t budge for him either. He reached in through the window and Sarah sucked in a startled breath.
“What are you doing?” Her strident voice made her sound like a scandalized schoolmarm.
He paused with his arm stretched over her torso. “What do you mean? I was attemptin’ to get you out of the car, sunshine.”
“I can unbuckle my own seat belt.” She could, after her hands stopped shaking.
Josh pulled his hand back and rested his forearm on the door, deliberately showing off his impressive biceps. Probably. “Have it your way. Get your own belt. You’re still gonna need a boost up out of there.”
Sarah scanned the interior once again in search of her wayward pumps, to no avail.
“Give me your purse.” His voice was a little too demanding for Sarah’s liking.
She tensed when his hand came through the window again. He was making her nervous. “So, Josh, you’re into women’s accessories now?”
“What? No! I’ll hold it so you can have both hands free. You can have it back after you unbuckle your seat belt and climb through the window.”
Sarah didn’t care if that made perfect sense. She shook her head in an effort to dispel the reality of her new situation. All she’d managed with that little maneuver was to chafe her neck on the nylon strap holding her to the seat. Figures. Under the circumstances, Sarah didn’t think she could be held responsible for shoving her purse at Josh a little harder than necessary.
Josh accepted it with an oof and draped her handbag over his shoulder. He was definitely secure in his masculinity. “Remember to shut off the engine.” He made a “come here” gesture with a flick of his fingers, and Sarah balked. No way. Getting closer to him would be bad, monumentally so.
Josh set his hands on his hips in annoyance when he realized Sarah still wasn’t moving. “You can’t stay in the car all night.” He shifted his feet on the squishy ground. “I guess you can’t walk in this sludge without shoes on either. Here’s what we’ll do. How about you climb out and I’ll give you a piggyback ride up to my truck?”
He did an about-face so all Sarah could see were the worn back pockets of his jeans. From what was framed by her open car window, Josh still had a nice butt too. Damn him.
Sarah sat there in the shadows staring at that sexy rear end for a good minute.
Josh’s impatient groan interrupted her denim survey. “Come on now, the mosquitos are chewin’ me to bits. Just climb on out of there, put your arms around my neck, and wrap your legs around me…” His words trailed off.
That brought up an erotic image of another time she’d been wrapped around him. Prom night up at the Falls, they’d been fogging up the windows in the backseat of his old black Mustang. There’d been nothing between them but hot skin, tangled limbs, and fervent touches…Yeah, Memory Lane needed a roadblock. Starting now.
“Fine! I need some room to get out, so move your butt.” Sarah would suck it up and get it over with so she could get some much needed distance. They’d been done for years. Over and then some. Touching Josh out of necessity now should be no big deal. No problem. She was a grown woman now. Besides, he was an ass…with a nice ass. Shut up, Sarah.
Josh took a grudging step forward and braced himself with his hands on his hips.
This was such a bad idea for more reasons than Sarah could name, but she couldn’t stay in a ditch all night. Forget it. Sarah turned the key off in the ignition. She wasn’t driving out of there anyway. Time to make the leap.
* * * *
Josh barely kept himself from flinching when he felt the firm grip of Sarah’s small hand on his shoulder. The outward calm he’d been showing had been completely fake and scraped together for her benefit. Truth be told, his heart was still hammering against his ribs from seeing her Mini Cooper stuck in the ditch.
Sarah’s little toy car wasn’t any bigger than a matchbox as it was. When he drove up and saw that it was her wrecked vehicle, Josh almost jumped out of the truck before putting it in park. The thirty seconds it took to get down in the ditch and see that she wasn’t hurt took ten years off his life. Feeling her touch now jacked up his heart rate even higher.
Her left hand latched on and squeezed the ball of muscle on his shoulder as she pulled her way out of the damaged car. The sweet, hot hint of her breath tickled the back of his neck when she gave a final kick off the door and wrapped her slender arms and legs around him. His hands automatically went to her thighs to brace her on his hips.
Good God.
Pleasure mixed with torture had a name, and it was Sarah. The soft swells of her breasts pressed so intimately between his shoulders that he had to lean forward in reaction to the sensation. He was getting lightheaded. Had he forgotten to breathe?
Josh had to pull his shit together before Sarah pegged him for a fool.
He forced himself to stand a little straighter and hitched her up on his hips. “Put on some weight since last time, darlin’?”
“Fuck you.” Those unbelievable words popped out of Sarah’s sweet mouth before she slapped a hand over it. When she lost her balance holding on one-handed, she squeezed her thighs harder against his torso to stay upright. She had on some sort of long shorts or capri pants. At least her legs weren’t bare. Feeling Sarah’s soft, smooth skin under his fingers? That would have dropped him to his knees for sure. Josh was still tempted to goad her into saying something else shocking so she would grip him harder.
He was a masochist.
“Tell me how you really feel, darlin’.” He hid his surprise with sarcasm. Sarah hadn’t been big on swearing before. If she was going to throw an F-bomb at anyone now, Josh figured he was the one who deserved it. Sarah hated him and with good reason.
Josh wasn’t sure if there was anything he could say or do to get her to forgive him. Their first face-to-face meeting wasn’t supposed to be like this. Since coming back to Madison Falls, he’d imagined confronting Sarah in plenty of different scenarios, and piggybacking her out of a ditch after midnight wasn’t one of them. Even that went beyond anything he could have made up in his head.
It didn’t matter. Sarah needed his help, and Josh considered himself lucky that he’d happened by when he did. The circumstances weren’t ideal for dredging up past mistakes and Josh knew that. He also knew that it was long past overdue that he made things right with her. Having her delicious body wrapped around him in the process wasn’t exactly a hardship either. Sweet torture, yes, but not a hardship.
Sarah remained quiet during his trek up the slope of muck, dirt, and overgrown grass. He was being an idiot and he knew it. She weighed practically nothing. Josh was only breathing hard because her silky blonde hair was brushing the side of his neck. He hoped that, in the dark, she wouldn’t notice the goose bumps skittering down his arms. With the midsummer heatwave, it was still over seventy degrees out. There was no chilly night breeze to blame for his reaction.
Once they reached the crunch of gravel at the side of the road, Sarah loosened her grip.
Not so fast.
Josh didn’t want to let go of her yet. “Hold on, sunshine. Wouldn’t want you to bruise those pretty little feet of yours. I’ll carry you to my truck so you can take it easy while I get you squared away.”
“Stop calling me sunshine!” There was a slight tightening of her legs that had him once again wanting to provoke her by saying that endearment again and again. Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine. What he wouldn’t give to turn Sarah facing him and prop her up against the hood of his truck. He’d irritate her, and she could squeeze the living hell out of him with those sexy thighs.
Josh wasn’t going to make any more promises he couldn’t keep, so he didn’t respond to her demand. He pried open the passenger door on his tow truck and backed up until Sarah could boost herself up on the bench seat. She scrambled off of him as soon as she was close enough to the seat to make the transition safely. He was reminded that he still had her purse when she reached over and snatched it off his arm. Like I’m going to keep it?
He closed the door once she was situated and hopped in on his side. He threw the truck in gear and maneuvered it close enough to hook the back of her car. From the looks of it, it would be a simple snag and tow. There was absolutely no traffic so they had the road all to themselves.
Before Josh could open his door, Sarah laid a hand on his arm to stop him. As soon as she’d made contact, she snatched her fingers back as if his skin were on fire. Either that or she thought he had a rampant case of cooties.
Sarah took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. Her voice held a certain stoic calm. “Is there any way I could pay for the tow without going through my insurance?”
Josh noticed that she held her checkbook on her lap. She thought he was going to make her pay him for helping her out?
Josh shifted away from her and shoved the driver’s-side door open.
“No charge on the tow. I was out on a call anyway.” That was the reason he’d been out driving around in the middle of the night. “Old Walt Mahoney had a flat tire. Said he didn’t want to mess with his bursitis by jackin’ up his car. He probably left the bar not a half hour before you.” Josh lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug, trying not to show that her gesture insulted him. When it came to Sarah, he’d never charge her for anything. “I was passin’ by. It’s just a friend helpin’ a friend.”
Sarah slipped her checkbook back into her bag and stared straight ahead. “We’re not friends.”
Ouch. Josh wasn’t going to show a reaction to that either.
“Yeah? Sorry, sunshine, but that’s about to change.”
He jumped down and slammed the door, cutting Sarah off before she could respond and tell him to go to hell.