Chapter Ten
By the time Anna pulled into her driveway that evening her nerves were stretched taut and her stomach was churning. She’d worried all day about how to act around Gavin, what, if anything to say to him. How did a woman behave around a man when she didn’t want him to know she’d done the unthinkable and fallen in love with him?
She couldn’t let him find out. A man like him, the kind of life he surely led in California... The rock-and-roll songwriter and the mousy bookkeeper from Oklahoma. It was laughable. Pathetic. He would, at best, feel sorry for her. At worst, he would laugh at her. Maybe secretly, behind her back.
No, that wasn’t right. It didn’t fit the Gavin she knew. The man she knew wouldn’t deliberately hurt her, wouldn’t be cruel.
Neither, she believed with all her aching heart, would he be willing, or able, to return her feelings. He had an entire other life in California, one he would be returning to soon.
Oh, damn, why did she have to go and mess everything up by falling in love? They’d been having such fun. He’d opened her mind and her eyes to so many things she’d been missing in her life. Things like laughter, Phantom of the Opera, kites.
And that, she thought, was one reason she’d fallen for him. He’d taught her how to have fun. Taught her that having fun was important.
She wondered if she would even know how to have fun, much less be capable of it, after he left.
A car pulled up across the street at the Robertses’ and revved its engine, making her aware that she’d been sitting in her driveway for several minutes staring at her garage door.
She should never, ever, have gotten close to Gavin Marshall.
She got out of her car and raised the garage door. Gavin stood on the other side, as though reaching to raise the door himself.
“There you are,” he said. “You sat out here so long I...” Deep furrows appeared on his brow. Placing his hands gently on her arms, he studied her face. She could swear she felt his gaze like a warm, caring caress. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.” She tried for a smile, but failed miserably. “I...”
“Anna.” He jiggled her arms slightly. “Something’s wrong. What is it? Is it Ben? Did he call you at work? Did he show up?”
“No,” she said quickly. “No. I haven’t heard from him.”
Gavin read the truth of that in her eyes. She would always protect her brother the best she could, but she was a lousy liar. She hadn’t heard from Ben. But something was wrong. The anguish in her eyes, which she was trying unsuccessfully to hide, hurt him. “Then what is it?” he asked again.
She glanced away. “Nothing.” Slipping from his loose grasp, she turned away. “I better get the car put up and dinner started. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”
He had thought he was, but at her blatant evasion, he found himself rapidly losing his appetite. Except for her. His hunger for her had been gnawing at him all day. All week, if he was being honest. Right now the hunger raged not so much in his loins as in his heart.
This time when the alarm bells went off in his head at the thought of how much Anna was coming to mean to him, he ignored them. He was tired of worrying about what he should want, tired of denying what he did want.
She was hurting, and he was very much afraid it was because of him.
With a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, Anna changed clothes, then left her bedroom and went to the kitchen. She wasn’t the least hungry, but she would eat because Gavin would notice if she didn’t and might ask why. She needed to keep everything normal. Normal and calm. It was the only way she was going to survive the rest of Gavin’s stay without breaking in two.
She was at the sink scrubbing two baking potatoes for the microwave when Gavin joined her. “I thought I’d keep it simple tonight,” she offered politely. “Salmon patties, baked potatoes and tossed salad.”
“Anna—”
“Oh, and com-on-the-cob. How does that sound?”
“Talk to me,” he said.
“All right.” She turned off the water and took a fork from the cutlery drawer, then started poking holes in the potatoes. “What would you like to talk about?”
“About why,” he said quietly yet firmly, “you’re suddenly treating me like a stranger.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Gavin reached across her and covered her hands with his, stilling them, feeling, she was sure, the way they trembled. “Last night you said an apology would insult you. What do I do, then, Anna? How do we get back to where we were yesterday before I kissed you?”
Anna stared at his large, dark hands covering her much smaller, paler ones on the sink divider. “Is that what you want?” she asked, her throat aching. “To go back to before you kissed me? To pretend it never happened?”
“If that’s what will make you smile at me again.”
She swallowed hard. If he moved his fingers less than an inch he would feel how her pulse raced. “Smile?”
“Look at me,” he said softly.
She didn’t want to. She’d been avoiding looking him in the eye for fear he would be able to read exactly how she felt about him. But at his soft plea she could do nothing but comply.
“What happened, Anna?” With his free hand he touched her cheek. “What’s wrong? What did I do to make you push me away?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “You didn’t do anything. I’m not pushing you away.”
“It sure feels like it to me.”
She couldn’t take his nearness anymore without doing something completely foolish, such as laying her head on his shoulder and weeping for all they could not have.
“I’m sorry.” She turned away and placed the potatoes in the microwave. “I guess I’ve just had a lot on my mind today, worrying about Ben, about when he’s going to get here.”
“Are you in a hurry for him to get here? For me to leave? Is that it?”
“No,” she protested quickly. Too quickly, she feared. “I mean, no, I’m not in a hurry for you to leave. But we both know you can’t stay here forever. How much longer will you give him? What if he doesn’t come at all? If he finds out you’re here he’s likely to stay away on purpose just to avoid you.” She took a deep breath around the knot in her throat. “Maybe I should—”
“No.”
At the harsh word, she turned toward him. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Don’t I?” The muscle along his jaw flexed. “You were going to offer to pay me the cash he owes me. I told you before, it’s not your debt. I won’t take your money. I thought we were past that, dammit.”
“How can we be,” she asked quietly, trying to keep the emotions from invading her voice, “when that’s the only reason you’re here?”
His eyes, those wild blue eyes, pierced her. “Is it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded. “You know it is.”
“Look.” He sighed and ran his splayed fingers through his hair. “Yes, I came here looking for Ben. But dammit, Anna, something else is going on here between you and me. Or it was until I blew it. I’m sorry for that. More sorry than you’ll ever know.”
“You’re sorry you kissed me?”
“Not for a minute.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “But it seems you are. That’s what I’m sorry about.”
It would be best for both of them if she let him think she was sorry he’d kissed her, but Anna didn’t have it in her to let the lie live. “I’m not sorry, Gavin.”
Slowly Gavin pulled his hands from his pockets. “You’re not?”
Gathering every ounce of courage she could find, Anna shook her head.
Easy, Gavin cautioned himself. He had to go easy. When what he wanted to do was grab her up in his arms and kiss her again. “Then what’s wrong?” He couldn’t keep himself from slipping his arms around her.
When he moved to pull her close, she wrenched away. “Don’t,” came from her lips in a panicked whisper.
She might as well have slapped him. Pride demanded that he turn and walk away. If she didn’t want his touch, fine. He wouldn’t bother her with it again.
But other emotions, the ones that had weakened his knees the night before when he’d kissed her, held him firm. Demanded that he not give up so easily what they’d shared. “Don’t what?” He tried to keep the nerves from his voice. “Don’t touch you?”
She closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath. When she opened them again, she refused to meet his gaze. “Under the circumstances, I think that would be best.”
Sometime during the last few seconds it had become vital for Gavin that he not let her push him away so easily. Not let her push him away at all. Didn’t she know? Didn’t she have any idea how rare it was for two people to experience what they’d experienced last night when they’d kissed? How could she turn away from that?
“To hell with circumstances.” Fear came out in his voice as anger. “Best for who?”
“For both of us.”
Her face paled. He was sorry for that, but he wasn’t going to back off. “That’s bull and you know it,” he told her. “This is what’s best.” He snared her arm and pulled her to his chest. Her eyes flew wide. She opened her mouth. He swallowed whatever protest she might have voiced by the simple, gratifying method of covering her mouth with his.
The whimper that came from her throat might have caused him a moment’s hesitation except that he recognized that it was not a sound of protest. It was an expression of need, of want, of surrender. He tasted it on her lips and tongue, felt it in the way she melted against him almost instantly. Felt it, all of it, inside himself. This was right. This was the way they belonged—together, body to body, mouth to mouth, heart to heart.
The realization shook him. But not enough for him to let go of her.
The kiss and all it meant, all that it made her want, shook Anna. More than enough to have her tear her mouth free and gasp for air, for sanity.
Gavin wasn’t having it. As if her mouth were a magnet, his lips followed, reaching again for hers.
“No,” she cried, pushing on his chest with both hands. “Don’t do this.”
He released her so quickly that she stumbled backward against the kitchen counter.
“Don’t what?” he demanded. “Don’t kiss you? Don’t want you? The kissing I can control if I have to. The wanting I can’t. It’s not something I can just turn on and off. I don’t want to turn it off. I don’t want to stop wanting you. Don’t tell me you don’t feel the same, because we both know you’d be lying, and you’re a lousy liar, Anna.”
“It doesn’t matter what either one of us feels,” she cried.
“The hell it doesn’t. It’s the only thing that matters.”
“Don’t swear at me, Gavin Marshall, just don’t you swear at me.”
“Then don’t try to convince me you weren’t kissing me back just then, and loving it every bit as much as I was.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she repeated, her heart breaking. “Gavin, you’re leaving. Any day you’ll pack up that ratty duffel bag of yours and take yourself out of here. None of this will matter then. You’ll leave me the way everyone leaves me. My parents, my brother. Every time I let someone get close to me they leave. I can’t even keep the same plumber for longer than a year,” she cried. “So what’s the point?”
Her words shouldn’t have surprised him. Didn’t, really. She was right, he would leave. But the emotion in her voice, the pain he heard, twisted in his chest like a knife sunk in to the hilt. “Yes, I’ll have to leave soon. I have a career, responsibilities to other people, to myself. Is that supposed to mean that we just—what? Turn our backs on whatever this is that’s happening between us and pretend it doesn’t exist? Not even give it a chance, give us a chance to enjoy each other while we can?”
“A chance,” she said woodenly, turning away from him at the ding of the microwave.
“Is that what you want?” He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around until she faced him. “Promises? Some sort of guarantee that everything will work out? You want me to tell you I love you?”
“Not unless you mean it.”
“I won’t say it—wouldn’t—unless I mean it. I can’t say it to you because I just don’t know,” he said earnestly. “I’ve never been in love before. Maybe that’s what all this is leading to, but how can we tell if we don’t give it a chance? Give us a chance? For crying out loud, Anna, we’ve known each other barely two weeks.”
Two weeks? It seemed, to Anna, like a lifetime, as though he’d always been there. Except that she could recall all too clearly how empty her world had been before he’d barged in with his wild blue eyes and his smile that took her breath away. She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. Two weeks. She’d only known him two weeks. “You make me feel foolish.”
“I never meant—”
“No, you’re right. We barely know each other.” So maybe, she thought with a debilitating combination of hope and dread, maybe she wasn’t really in love with him at all. Maybe she was merely infatuated.
Thoughtful now, she turned back to the microwave and removed the potatoes. After wrapping them in foil and setting them aside, she squared her shoulders and faced Gavin.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been overreacting, acting like a fool.”
“Ah, come on, now...” He reached for her.
Anna braced her hands against his chest. “That doesn’t mean I’m ready to take up where we left off last night.”
Gavin sighed and rested his forehead against hers. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m trying to rush things.” He raised his head and gave her a crooked smile. “What do you say we just take it slow and see what our guts tell us?” His smile widened. “My gut’s telling me we could make beautiful music together.”
Anna groaned at the atrocious pun, then let out a chuckle as she stepped back. “That’s terrible. I think your gut’s telling you it hasn’t been fed lately. That,” she said, returning his smile, “I’m willing to do something about.”
As she turned away to start dinner, Gavin felt a wave of panic threaten to swamp him. He’d just agreed—suggested, damn his hide—that they would slow things down between them. But she was right, he would have to leave soon. How were they supposed to know if this thing between them was as powerful as he thought it was if they didn’t give it a chance? And they were running out of time.
But then, maybe he was in this alone. Maybe she didn’t feel what he felt, that sharp kick in the gut when he looked into her eyes or heard her laugh, or watched her frown.
He couldn’t leave her without knowing if what he felt was real. If she felt it, too. This was too important.
Sorry, Anna, but it looks like I lied to both of us. I’m not going to pull back. I’m going to come after you with everything I’ve got. Because I have to know. I have to know if this is real.
“You want to go where?”
Gavin had expected the shock, the resistance. It had taken him all day after their talk last night to come up with the perfect way to keep Anna off balance. If it was calculating of him, so be it. He wanted her off balance. Wanted her so off balance that she fell directly into his arms. Only then would he know the truth.
And if tonight didn’t throw her off enough to have her lowering her guard and letting him in, then he would at least be assured that he’d shown her a good time.
“Frontier City,” he said with a smile. “It’s an amusement park up north of town.”
Anna gave him a look of exasperation. “I know what and where it is. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
Stunned was more like it, if he read her expression correctly. Stunned, and wary. Leery, even. “How many times have you been there?” he asked.
“Been? To Frontier City? Me?”
“No, I’m talking to the dog across the street. Yes, you.”
“There’s no need for sarcasm.”
God, he loved it when she got all prim and prissy.
“I’ve never been,” she stated rather proudly.
“That’s what I figured,” he said with a laugh.
“And why,” she asked, “did you figure it?”
“Because you never do anything just for fun. That’s what tonight is for. Just for fun.”
She smiled then, slowly, her eyes lighting. “Will I have as much fun as flying a kite?”
“Guaranteed.”
“Then just let me change clothes, and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Wear jeans,” he called as she headed for the bedroom.
She put on jeans, sneakers and a short-sleeved summer sweater tucked in at the waist. She was ready to go in ten minutes.
What she was not ready for, when they reached the garage, was the mode of transportation he’d selected.
“You won’t need your purse,” he told her.
She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Why not?”
“Number one, you don’t want to be lugging it around all evening. Number two, we’re taking the Harley.”
“Not on your life.”
Gavin tilted his head and studied her. “You’ve never ridden it.” No need to ask. The truth was in her eyes.
“With good reason,” she stated flatly.
“Name one.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“Says who?”
“Everybody,” she said, waving an arm.
“Name one authority that states, and backs up with facts, that riding a motorcycle is more dangerous than any other mode of transportation.”
“I don’t have to name one. I can see for myself.”
Gavin shook his head. “Of all the things you’ve faced in your life, I can’t believe you’re going to let something so ordinary as a motorcycle get the best of you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not getting the best of me. And neither are you. We can take my car.”
“Chicken?”
“Sensible.”
“Chicken. Come on,” he urged. “You’re the one who reminded us both that I’ll be leaving soon. And I will. I got an e-mail from Jerry this afternoon. Ben’s in Reno.”
Anna grappled with mixed feelings. She wanted Ben to get away from the gambling. She wanted to see him, talk to him. But she wasn’t ready for Gavin to leave yet. “Is he coming home?”
“That’s my guess. He knows I’m looking for him now, but he doesn’t know I’m here.”
“Maybe he’ll go back to L.A.”
Gavin shook his head, his eyes somber. “He was losing all night last night at the craps tables. He’s going to come here for money. Don’t let him ruin this one night for us. He’ll get here when he gets here. Ride with me, Anna.”
Anna shivered. The way he said it—Ride with me—his voice soft and husky, brought visions of pale bodies gleaming on dark sheets. Shocked at the images in her brain, she started to flatly refuse. Then she shocked herself again by saying, “All right But if you kill me on this thing, I promise I’ll come back to haunt you.”
“Atta girl. I’ll even let you wear the helmet.”
“Of course you will, since I’m sure the only reason you brought one is because they’re required in some states.”
“You got that right.”
Anna looked up at him, concern replacing humor in her eyes. “It doesn’t seem wise to take such a risk with your life as to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.”
Gavin stroked her cheek with a thumb. “I suppose not, to someone who thinks she doesn’t believe in risks. I’m flattered that you’d worry for me. But I weigh the risk, and I chose, when I can, to have the wind in my hair. Helmets are too damn hot and heavy, as you’re about to find out.”
At the reminder that she had actually agreed to ride that beast of a motorcycle, Anna’s mouth dried out. As Gavin slipped the helmet onto her head and fastened the chin strap, her hands started to shake. “I’m, uh, not too sure about this.”
Since he happened to have both hands beneath her chin just then, he used them to tilt her head up until she met his gaze. She expected to see laughter in his eyes, but it wasn’t there. Only a tenderness that made her heart ache.
“Trust me, Anna,” he said quietly. “I would never, ever, do anything to hurt you.”
He wouldn’t have kissed her on the lips, or so he told himself, but the helmet was so big on her that it nearly covered her cheeks.
Before he kissed her the way he wanted to—and ran the risk of really scaring her—he turned and mounted the Harley. With a hand held out to her, he said, “Come on. Swing your leg over and let’s go have some fun.”
The seat was higher and wider than it looked. By the time Anna was mounted behind Gavin she was out of breath.
“Put your feet here, and here,” he instructed. “Now comes the fun part—snuggle right up against my back and wrap your arms around me.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Why, Anna Collins.” He grinned at her over his shoulder. “You made another joke.”
She pursed her lips. “Did I?”
Gavin laughed. “I don’t have a bike of my own these days. It’s been a long time since I’ve had anyone on behind me. You really do need to hang on,” he added.
She knew that. She was afraid enough of riding on the back of this testosterone-pumped bicycle that she had every intention of holding on tight. She just wished that it didn’t feel so wonderful to slip her arms around him and press herself against his broad back.
When he started the engine it rumbled to life with that throaty growl peculiar to the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. As Ben had explained to her time and again, there was no other sound quite like it.
There was also, to Anna’s way of thinking, nothing quite like feeling all that power come to life beneath her. The vibration shot through to her core, at once terrifying her and thrilling her.
Then the motorcycle moved, and she squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms around Gavin as tightly as she could.
She was sure she was going to die.
Her heart had trouble keeping a steady rhythm for the first couple of miles. Long before they hit the interstate, however, she realized she was not going to die. There was something hedonistic about sitting astride that much power. Like riding the back of a sleek jungle cat, its wildness held in check by the barest of threads and the will of the man in front of her.
Yes. Heady. Wild. Erotic.
And Gavin was right. The helmet was uncomfortably hot and incredibly heavy. Sweat stung her scalp, and her neck was starting to ache. But Anna knew she didn’t have the nerve to take it off to relieve the ache and let the wind have her hair.
It was barely six-thirty when they reached the parking lot of Frontier City. The sun was still high and hot. When Gavin killed the engine and Anna climbed off the back of the beast, her legs wobbled.
“Easy does it,” he said, but he saw the excitement in her eyes and knew she’d loved the ride. Maybe almost as much as he’d enjoyed feeling her wrapped around his back like skin over muscle. Thank you Mr. Harley and Mr. Davidson.
It was a night of magic. The park was crowded with families, teenagers on the loose, couples on dates. People everywhere, of every possible description, laughing, eating, riding the rides, having fun. Gavin pulled Anna right into the thick of it.
At an especially shrill shriek, they looked across a small pond to see a teenage girl falling from a tall tower, nothing between her and certain death but a bungee cord.
“The Geronimo Skycoaster.”
“I’m not doing that.” Anna took a step back from the wooden railing surrounding the pond. “I’m not doing that.”
Gavin slung his arm around her shoulders and laughed. “Me neither. People say I’m crazy, but nobody’s ever called me insane. Ah, but look at that,” he said, pointing. “Did you say you were hot?”
Anna followed the direction of his pointing finger to see what looked like a hollowed-out log filled with people come speeding down a rail into the pond, water flying everywhere, raining down on the riders. “Uh, Gavin...”
“Come on. I do believe the Log Flume is calling our name.”
And so it began. As Anna stepped into the “log” and Gavin slipped in behind her, she kept reminding herself of Donna’s words. Enjoy the ride while you can. Tonight Anna intended to take that advice literally. Even if it killed her.
It didn’t kill her. It was fun.
The ride took them around the carousel, through an admittedly fake-looking wilderness area, and through a covered bridge. Anna was just starting to relax when, in front of her, the ground dropped away. She’d all but forgotten the plunge into the water at the end of the ride. She screamed all the way down, with Gavin’s laughter in her ears. She screamed again when they hit the water and it spewed up and rained down on them. When the car pulled to a slow stop at the end of the ride a moment later, her knees were so weak that Gavin had to help her out.
She was grinning like an idiot. “Can we go again?”
Gavin hugged her to his side and laughed. “We can go as many times as you want. What say we try a few other rides while we dry off, then come back.”
Ridiculously disappointed at not getting to experience that heart-stopping plunge again, Anna nonetheless agreed.
Her disappointment was swiftly forgotten at the next ride. They hit the Prairie Schooner, and snickered over the play on words. It wasn’t a covered wagon, but a stomach-jarring, up-and-down, backward-and-forward ride on a pirate ship.
The Time Warp left her breathless as they swung up and over, dangling for an endless moment upside down high above the park. Anna squeezed Gavin’s hand with bruising strength and screamed. She loved it.
They hit them all, the Swingin’ Six Guns that flew them out and around with centrifugal force on the end of what looked like a pitifully weak steel arm. The Silver Bullet with its huge, death-defying loop more than sixty feet in the air and Lord only knew how fast. The Terrible Twister, the Wildcat. And more water at the Renegade Rapids—a giant inner-tube ride down man-made rapids.
They watched the staged gunfight at the OK Corral and ate cotton candy. At the Ring Toss, Gavin won Anna a small stuffed monkey.
They hit the milder rides, the Tilt-A-Whirl, even the carousel. The evil gleam in Gavin’s eyes as he rammed into her in the Dodge City Bumper Cars had Anna screaming with delight as she spun her wheel and gave as good as she got.
Then it was back to heart-pounding thrills on the Wardance, the Sidewinder, the Diamond Back—all the scary, thrilling stuff in one ride as it took them backward and forward, tossing them into a three-sixty loop in the middle of both trips and plastering them into their seats with the sheer force of gravity.
“Food,” Anna begged as she wobbled away from the Diamond Back and past the Old West buildings fashioned after a frontier town. “I can’t keep this up without food.”
Grinning, Gavin placed a knuckle beneath her chin and studied her face. “After that ride, your stomach can handle food?”
“I’m starving.”
He startled her with a quick kiss on the lips. “I love a woman with a strong stomach.”
“Yeah, well, this stomach just got word from my nose that there’s barbeque around here somewhere.”
Following their noses they found the Santa Fe BBQ Restaurant in the geographically impossible location right next to the OK Corral, which everyone knew, Anna informed him, was nowhere near Santa Fe.
Gavin tweaked her nose. “We’re going to the Old Time photo place and you can be the schoolmarm.”
“Pardon me, little lady.” A tall, lanky young man in a white cowboy hat, wearing a six-shooter strapped to his thigh and a tin star on his chest, stepped out in their path. “Is this here varmint a‘botherin’ you?”
Snickering, Anna recognized him as one of the stunt-men /actors from the earlier gunfight. “Gee, I don’t know,” she told him, batting her eyes. “Is he wanted for anything?”
Playing along, the “sheriff” stroked his chin with thumb and forefinger, studying Gavin through narrowed eyes. “Face looks kinda familiar. Mighta seen him on a Wanted poster.”
“Not me, Sheriff, honest.” Delighted with Anna’s response to the fun, Gavin held up both hands. “It was my evil twin brother who robbed that stage. I’m an innocent man.”
“Humph. Just see that you stay that way, young fella.”
When he moseyed off to hassle a man drinking a beer, Anna collapsed against Gavin in laughter.
By the time they finished eating, the sun was going down, firing the western sky in a dozen different shades of red, coral, mauve and rose.
“Perfect.” Gavin grasped her hand and took her to the Ferris wheel. He was disappointed to realize the cars on this one were built to accommodate several people seated in a circle facing each other. He didn’t want to share the ride with strangers. There were certain aspects of a Ferris wheel ride that were, in his book, not to be tampered with.
He got lucky when they ended up the first in line for the next car. He nudged Anna on board, stepped on behind her, then turned back to the attendant and blocked the gate. “Come on, man, have a heart.”
The attendant, a forty-something man with a balding forehead and biceps the size of tree trunks, peered over at Anna, then shook his head. “I got rules.”
Disappointed, but not defeated, Gavin let the man seat them and lower the bar to hold them in. Then the man turned back and stepped out of the car. “Course, I don’t gotta follow ’em.” With a wink, he closed the gate and sent them off on their own.
“Nice man.” Gavin settled back and slipped his arm around Anna’s shoulders, pulling her close to his side as they advanced to let the next in line board the following car.
Anna grinned up at him. “Do you always get what you want?”
“I try my best.”
As they slowly rose, notch by notch as the other cars filled, they looked out over the crowds, the rides, the games. The glorious sunset.
Anna thrilled to it all, knowing she would remember this night for the rest of her life. “Thank you for tonight,” she said to him.
With the cars filled, the wheel started its lazy turn, taking them slowly up toward the top to the accompaniment of tinny calliope music.
Gavin leaned his head down toward hers. “I’m glad you’re having fun.” He meant to kiss her lips, but she turned her head at the last instant. “Anna?”
Anna looked up at him and it seemed they were the only two people in the world as the ground fell away below, with nothing but a darkening sky above and the warm southern breeze in their faces.
“Kiss me, Anna.”
Once again Donna’s words echoed in her mind. Enjoy the ride while you can. Arching her neck to reach him, she whispered, “Yes.”
As the Ferris wheel crested and started a slow descent, their lips met. The fire that shot to the pit of her stomach reminded Anna of the night she had handed him the phone and their hands had brushed. Sparks. Electricity.
They’d been heading toward this night even then. Toward this magical time out of time, when nothing mattered but the two of them. There were no responsibilities, no bills to pay, no brother to worry about. No clock ticking away their time together.
Just Gavin’s arms around her, his hip next to hers, his mouth devouring hers as if he were starved for the taste of her. Her own needy hunger answering his, her fears shoved aside. No room for them here.
She dug her fingers into his shoulder and gripped him hard, ignoring the hoots and hollers from those standing in line for the next ride as the wheel carried them down, down, along the ground, then started back up. She floated with it, with him, but the sense of freedom came from his mouth on hers rather than from the ride. Oh, but his mouth was magic. Soft, smooth. Gentle now. Easing away.
Her eyes fluttered open to find his watching her with a question, and a hint of wariness, in their deep blue depths. In answer, she smiled. “You taste like cotton candy.”
Relief flashed through his eyes, as though he’d been afraid she would object to his kiss. After the way she’d acted yesterday, she couldn’t blame him.
But tonight she wasn’t Anna Collins, dull, dependable bookkeeper. Tonight she was...Cinderella. He was her own personal Prince Charming, and she was having a ball.
She refused to let herself think about what would happen when the clock struck midnight.
When they left the Ferris wheel, Gavin took her hand and headed up the street. “Come on. Let’s find that photographer and have that old-timey photograph done.”
She had to rush to match his long-legged stride. “Is it one of those places where we stick our heads through holes in giant pictures?”
“Uh-uh. This one’s got costumes.”
She batted her eyes at him. “I don’t think I want to be a schoolmarm. I’ll be the dance hall queen and you can be the dashing gambler.”
Without missing a stride, he gave her a quick kiss. “We can be anything you want.”
She laughed. “Actually I don’t think I have the nerve.”
“Sure you do.”
“We’ll see.” But just then one of the stands at the corner caught her eye. It only took her a second to decide. If she wasn’t herself tonight, and if she really could be anything she wanted... “Stop.”
Gavin whipped his head around to find out why she was suddenly tugging him in the opposite direction. “What?”
She looked at him with pure devilment in her eyes. To see her this way, laughing and outgoing as she’d been all night... This, Gavin knew, was the real Anna, the one she kept buried because she’d built her entire life around duty and obligations and a brother who drained her spirit. Tonight she was so animated, so alive and vibrant, she took his breath away.
“You think we should?” she asked, motioning toward the stand in front of them.
Gavin’s grin came fast and spread wide. “You’re on your own this time. I don’t go in for things like that.”
“Ah, come on,” she wheedled. “I won’t have the nerve unless you do it, too.”
His smile softened. “You’ve got a hell of a lot more nerve than you think.”
She laughed. “I think I’m finding that out. But I still won’t do it alone. Come on.” She started dragging him toward the stand.
What the hell, Gavin thought, letting her pull him along. What was one little tattoo, anyway?
In the rearview mirror, the bright lights of Reno grew smaller as the Corvette flew east into the night. Next stop, Oklahoma.
Stayed a little too long in Reno, Ben admitted silently. Just like he’d done in San Francisco.
Sorry, Anna, he thought, chagrined. I wasn’t going to come to you, but now I don’t have a choice. He’d stepped in it good and proper this time. He was up to his eyeballs, and that was a fact. Yesterday he had heard that Gavin was looking for him. It was going to be bad enough facing him after taking his car. Ben could admit now that that had been a damn stupid thing to do.
But he couldn’t go back without also paying off what he owed Gav. He had to have that money in hand. For once in his life he had found something more important than gambling and good times—Gavin’s friendship.
And my latest stunt may have ruined it all.
He had one chance now, and that was Anna. Anna would fix it. She always fixed things for him.
She was sure gonna be surprised to see him, he thought with an uneasy glance toward his passenger seat. Oh, yeah, she was gonna be surprised, all right.
But this would be the last time, he vowed, that he would go to her for help. The very last time. He hoped.