Naked Thrill

She shook her head.

“According to the map, this is a private road that winds through the trees for about a mile. Pull over when you no longer see Betty and Mike’s fence line.”

Hayden drove another quarter of a mile until the friendly white fence turned to barbed wire. “Maybe we stashed our phones in the glove box,” she suggested as she pulled off the main road and put the car in Park.

Tony twisted the knob and as the glove box sprang open, dozens of green bills plopped onto his lap. “Holy shit.” Several more stacks of neatly piled cash remained in the glove box. “There has to be at least two thousand dollars in here.”

“I’m hoping that’s yours,” she said, afraid to hear the answer with the way their morning began. Her bank account currently sat at a nice, minimum-deposit requirement of fifty bucks.

He shook his head. “Nope. Your guess as to where this came from is as good as mine.”

Her throat began to tighten. “We’ve got to ditch the car. Wipe it down. Remove all trace evidence we were even here,” she told him, desperately trying to recall helpful hints from every crime movie she’d watched in the past decade. “Maybe we can give the rest of the cash to Mike and Betty so they forget they even saw us.”

Tony reached for her hands and drew them into his. “Hayden, would you normally steal a car?”

She exhaled in a deflated hiss. “Well, no.”

There was that reassuring smile of his again. “Something weird happened to us last night, but we wouldn’t do one-eighties on our personalities.”

She relaxed against the seat cushion. That was the first really good news she’d had since the coffee.

“Our phones aren’t in the glove box. Maybe we put them in the trunk to keep them safe,” he said, as he reached for the door handle.

“If we weren’t worried about stashing the money in the car, I doubt we would have been worried about the phones.”

“True, but I’ll check anyway.”

She popped the trunk so he could search. A minute later he crouched outside her window. “Nope, nothing.”

The sun glinted off his dark hair. She really wanted to touch it. Run her fingers through it. It would help to take her mind off their situation. Of course it also helped that he was such an easy distraction. What was it he’d said about himself? Couldn’t fault his taste? Yeah. Same here, buddy.

“Tony, I might steal a car if the circumstances really warranted it.” Where had that sobering thought come from? Wherever it had originated, she wanted to shut that part of her brain down before her mind added any other irritating revelations.

“Only after you left a note and promised to return it with a full tank,” he told her with a wink.

She pulled a piece of fluff off her shorts. “Well, that goes without saying.”

“Hayden.”

His voice gently urged her to look up. She raised her gaze to his and sucked in a breath. Something heated and elusive stirred inside her.

The humor faded from his eyes and he stiffened. “You feel it, too.”

She could only nod, and twisted in her seat so she could stare down the road and not at him. Her heart raced and her mouth was dry; she was having a serious case of want.

Hayden’s grandma was fond of sayings about closed doors leading to open windows—this morning had felt very much as if she’d run into a closed door, but that smile of his was like a fresh breeze through an open window.

“Hayden, I don’t want to get back to the city and forget all about this...this thing between us. I don’t know what it is, but I know it doesn’t happen. At least not to me.”

“Me, either,” Hayden admitted. She glanced his way, memorized every part of his strong profile because she didn’t want to forget this beautiful man. But then she didn’t really have to. She wasn’t playing the avoidance game this time. Last night, call it instinct or lack of inhibitions, but something had drawn her to this man. And so far that hadn’t been misplaced; he’d proven to be concerned for her and had given her space when she’d needed it.

Oh, Hayden could tell herself she’d stick with Mr. Abs because it was an adventure or that she wanted to make sure there weren’t any, er, indiscreet pictures that could derail her career, but if she were being truthful, intuition also told her she didn’t have to be guarded around this man.

She got out of the car to stand beside him. “Let’s find out what happened to us,” she said.

He flashed her that amazing smile of his and her skin grew warm. Memories of waking up in his strong arms and feeling the heat of his naked body against hers flooded her senses. Made her nipples tingle. But she had no memory of kissing him, breathing him in and tasting him. She wanted to change that. Right. Now.

“We could always do the old trick of making out to jog our memory,” he suggested, his voice playful.

She lifted a brow. “That’s an old tactic, is it?”

He nodded. “Tried and true, dates back way before the Jazz Age—”

Hayden cut off his words with her lips. He stood there rigid, his mouth unmoving. Then his arm encircled her waist, drawing her flush against his body. She pressed against him, and he groaned. His lips parted and she slipped her tongue inside his mouth, tasting coffee and pumpkin and something delicious that could just be Tony.

“You taste good,” she whispered against his lips.

“So do you. Amazing. Um...not that I’m complaining, but that came out of nowhere.”

“Not that you’d believe me, but I don’t usually indulge in my impulsive side. But any guy who uses the Jazz Age as an excuse to make out is a man I’d try to jog my memory with.”

“Actually I know all kinds of history,” he told her with a wink.

“All except ours. Speaking of...? Did you remember anything? I got nothing.”

He made a faux flinching movement that was too charming. “You got nothing? Surely I was better than that.”

She patted his arm. “Oh, you were a lot better—okay no. I’m not falling for that ruse. I’m keeping my opinions of your kiss to myself.”

“How will I know if I’m doing it right?” he asked, all innocence. Yeah, like this man held any doubts about his technique.

Hot. Sensual. Carnal. And those were just the first three words that popped into her head to describe the kiss. “I’ll tell you what, if I come back for more, then you’ll know if you’re doing it right.”

“Fair enough.” He eyed the front seat. “As uncomfortable as this car is, I think I should drive.”

“Why?” she asked.

His eyes softened, and a rueful smile touched his lips. “Because if we’re caught I can make them believe you had no idea I’d stolen the car. Only one of us gets arrested.”

It was strangely chivalrous. Hayden reached up, sank her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck so she could draw him nearer. The reality of his kiss was way better than the fantasy.

“Besides,” he said, his gaze dropping from hers to study something far off in the distance. “I’ve been in jail before.”

2

JAIL. BEFORE?

Hayden’s hands fell.

“Yeah. That usually does it,” he told her, his voice tired. Tony turned away from her and just like that, the figurative window slammed shut, too.

She squinted against the sunshine as she tried to read his body language. Back straight and hands fisted at his sides. Didn’t need that one lone psychology class to diagnose him as tense and agitated.

Had she been too quick to trust him? Was he really an ax murderer or the mastermind of a Ponzi scheme? What she needed was answers. And maybe an escape route.

Okay, before she got all weird about this, people were arrested all the time for bizarre stuff. Not returning a library book for twenty years. Changing the clothes on a mannequin in full view of the public. She’d even heard a crazy story about how a police officer had dragged a lady—with her toddler strapped to the car seat—right to the clinker, all for a few days’ expired driver’s license.

Did people still use words like clinker?

Focus.

People also got arrested for grand theft auto, burglary or kidnapping. Check. Check. And check?

She could reach for his hand and talk this out with him, or reach for the keys and zoom down the road away from him. Both made sense. But if Tony had planned to hurt her, he must be pretty inept because he’d really missed his chance. In fact, when he’d had the opportunity, he’d kept his distance, had in fact taken near-Herculean efforts to avoid touching her and done everything a man could do to put her at ease in what must have been an incredibly awkward situation for him, too.

He turned as she approached him, her footsteps crunching the leaves and twigs scattered along the side of the road. He towered above her, and when his brown eyes met hers, they gave no hint of his thoughts.

“I’m so used to the people around me being aware of my past, that I forget how people can judge.”

Okay, that was defensive—and an overreaction. “Listen, I’ve known you, what? Half an hour fully clothed? No one makes good decisions naked. Besides, you don’t get to casually throw out that you were in prison, and then get all sensitive when I’m nervous about it. Understandably nervous.”

He sucked in a deep breath and his brow furrowed. This must be deep-in-thought Tony. Considering she’d only known him half an hour—fully clothed—she’d already seen him, chivalrous, considerate, playful and very, very naughty.

Or was that naked. Definitely naked.

Focus.

“You’re right,” he said.

“What’s your angle here?”

Tony shook his head, but a small smile toyed with that übersexy lower lip of his. “You are the suspicious one. No angle, just truth.”

Then he shrugged.

A shrug? As if what he’d said was no big deal? Hayden had never thought of herself as the suspicious type, but what kind of man tells a woman she’s right? Things weren’t adding up.

“So you’re saying you were wrong a moment ago?” she asked, just to make sure she’d heard him correctly.

Tony nodded, then ran his palms down the denim material of his borrowed shorts. “Hayden, this doesn’t have to be so hard. Take the car. Take the cash. I can walk into town. Just leave me enough money to make a call at a pay phone somewhere.”

“Do they still even have pay phones?”

“I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about me. I don’t think we stole the money or the car, but make your first stop in town at the police station if you’re worried.”

His eyes were clear, and that gorgeous smile of his was honest. She spotted nothing but openness, and her lips pursed together. “You’re trying to convince me you’re a good guy, aren’t you?” she asked after a long moment.

He rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “After a whole lot of work, I am a good guy.”

“And prison?”

“Technically it was jail. And that’s a story best left to tell you on the long road trip to Dallas.” Playful, sexy Tony was back.

“So what you’re saying is that I’ll learn all your secrets if I don’t strand you on the side of the road.”

He leaned toward her, bringing with him the scent of sunshine and pure masculine temptation. “Maybe not all my secrets.” His voice was a teasing rasp that made her want to surrender to that temptation. A challenge urging her on—yeah, go ahead and try to learn all my secrets.

“I have conditions,” she warned.

“Lay ’em on me.”

“We don’t spend the money except on essentials. Like gas. Not until we know the cash is ours free and clear.” Truthfully, she didn’t believe they’d stolen the money, either. It just wasn’t in her nature, and it would risk way too much to ever make taking a couple of thousand dollars worth it. The real Hayden, the one who’d still managed to hook up with a protective sexy man despite a night of craziness would never have pocketed this cash. But borrowing wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities, and loans meant repayment. Debt didn’t even begin to describe the kind of bills awaiting her after graduation and gainful employment. No sense in adding to her balance by spending needlessly on the return trip to Dallas.

“Agreed. The money stays safe.”

“Don’t lie to me. Ever.”

“Been lied to before?” he asked.

Her sigh was heavy. “Lots of times.”

“So you’ve been lied to and apparently have a problem with always being right. You need to date better men, Hay.”

Don’t I know it. “And don’t call me Hay.”

He lifted a brow. “That’s the third condition?”

“People think it’s really funny to text me that. Hey, Hay.”

“It could be worse.”

Hayden shook her head. “It’s become a favorite nickname for my friends. It’s obnoxious.”

He kissed the end of her nose, and she shivered. “Okay, no hey, Hay.”

The third condition had originally been that he keep his hands to himself. Despite whatever had happened the night before, she was a responsible adult. An engineer. Almost. People depended on her to design roads and bridges and lines that delivered water and power and heat to their homes reliably. Or would.

She took comfort in being reliable and dependable. It was the way her grandparents raised her to be. Informing a man she barely knew that sex was off the table for the foreseeable future was most definitely the responsible thing to do.

There are other kinds of reliable, her subconscious teased. Like a man who could be relied upon for a good time. If Tony could give her shivers with just an almost-innocent kiss on the nose, imagine what he could do with his hands? His lips? His whole body? Dependable orgasms, that’s what. “Yeah, no hey, Hay. That’s my third condition.”

“I drive, you navigate?” he asked with a nod.

“It’s sweet of you to offer, but it’s really okay. Especially since the car is so uncomfortable.” Hopefully he wasn’t one of those men who didn’t want the woman to drive.

“I also figured you wouldn’t want to drive the whole distance, and since you know the Dallas area better than I do, you could take that leg of the trip.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan, Mr. uh—what’s your last name?” Yeah, very responsible. She’d just been considering orgasms with a man whose last name was a blank.

“Garcia. I told you that earlier, remember?” He opened the passenger door for her and she slumped down hard against the seat.

Garcia. Documentary filmmaker. She’d refused to share her last name. “Oh, yeah, I do now.” She rubbed at her temples as if that would snap the events of the past twenty-four hours back into place. “My short-term memory is fuzzy.”

“Same with me,” Tony informed her as he slid behind the wheel. He rolled the seat almost all the way back to accommodate his legs and turned the ignition to fire up the car. “What did you eat for breakfast?”

“Pumpkin spice muffins and biscuits with a load of gravy,” she told him, no temple rubbing needed. “No problem remembering that. I’m guessing whatever was responsible for taking our memories of last night was mostly out of our systems by the time we ate.” Or food played way too much of a role in her life to be forgotten. Probably both.

Tony’s fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he drove. “Okay, so we have memory loss. What about that fire-breathing tattoo? Still no discomfort?”

Just the kind one got from knowing she had a dragon permanently drawn on her butt. And knowing that Tony had seen it, scales and all. But no, it wasn’t painful. She wiggled around in her seat just to be sure. “Still nothing.”

“Memory loss and pain relief. Could be anything.”

They broke out of the trees and Tony turned on his blinker to merge onto the state highway. Billboards advertising diners and roadside motels greeted them along a lonely stretch of road.

This rural part of Oklahoma didn’t look that much different from Texas—blue skies and flat plains dotted with cows and horses stretched to the horizon.

Silence settled between them, edgy and filled with so many unanswered questions. They’d been go-go-go since they’d woken up this morning, and now there was time to think. Time to feel. Although her memory of last night was gone, and her recall of this morning sketchy, her body sure did remember sensation. Touch. Taste. She craved more. More of Tony. Her nipples pebbled and Hayden crossed her arms against her chest.

“How about some tunes?” she suggested, her mouth dry. Maybe once they found a town, they could stop at a convenience store and grab a couple bottles of water and she could cool down.

Tony played around on the radio, trying to find a station, but he only got static and a lone swap-meet program. He quickly switched it off when it became clear all the offerings would be farm related.

“I guess the state car license-plate game is out,” she offered with a small laugh, trying to make light of the situation.

He shook his head, and his eyes crinkled with a smile. “The only car for the past ten miles was going the other way.”

“When I was little, my grandma and I would play two truths and a lie.”

“Now that doesn’t seem fair.”

“Oh?”

“I promised I’d never lie, and I always keep my promises, Hayden.”

A delicious tingle of sensation trembled down her spine and settled in the small of her back. Snippets of their conversation from this morning, hazy though they might be, filtered into her mind.

I promise, I’m a good guy.

What kind of idiot forgets making love to the most beautiful woman he’s ever been with?

I don’t want to get back to the city and forget all about this.

Even working a double at the diner couldn’t have prevented her from ignoring the heady stuff he was tossing her way. Ripples of want tumbled through her body. Yeah, she definitely wanted a repeat of last night—only this time she was determined to remember it. But first she wanted to find out more about the man she was going to romp on later.

“So...um...jail.”

He chuckled, low and rumbly, which predictably bombarded her with a new layer of want. Why was she so into this guy? Great looking, sure. Smart and funny, true. But she’d dated other men bearing the lethal three before. Sometimes all even in the same guy.

Pheromones?

The mystery?

She almost snapped her fingers. The mystery of him—that had to be it. How they’d hooked up coupled with his shadowy past, how could she resist?

“That’s not a story I tell to people I barely know.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. You’ve seen me naked. You know me well enough.”

Tony glanced her way, his dark eyes meeting hers, and then dropping to her lips. Her breasts. She sucked in a breath. He fixed his gaze on the highway again, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the steering wheel. Hard.

Good. She didn’t want to be the only one battling against the collapse of common sense due to hot sexual vibes.

“It’s probably the same story with hundreds of kids. I didn’t fit in. No one gave a shit at home. I was angry about everything for no reason and for a thousand reasons all at the same time. I’d been labeled a troublemaker back in high school.”

His sigh was heavy, self-deprecating and yet indicating a distance from his old self in a way. Great. Hot, sexy and contradictory.

“One day I ditched school and took my mother’s car.”

“What did you do?” Although it probably made her sound like the biggest bore out of Boresville, she’d have no idea what to do if she stole a car. Try to hide it for later? Rob something else?

“Just drove around with the music loud. I thought I was pretty damn cool, bucking the system and messing with my mom, until I sideswiped a car.”

“Oh, no.”

“Well, I was barely fifteen so it was bound to happen. I was arrested, but the cops only locked me in an interrogation room and played a bad-cop-badder-cop scenario, probably to try to scare me straight. But I was hell-bent on a path of destruction. They ran the plates and called my mom. I could hear her voice as she talked to the police officer. She asked if they had a jail cell. ‘Put him in it,’ she’d told them.”

“Tough love.”

“Just tough.” He rubbed his fingers along the stubble on his chin. A tell? That was the second time he’d made that gesture.

“There are days when I actually feel sorry for my mom. Had to have been tough, pregnant at sixteen and dropping out of school. Her parents—I won’t even call them my grandparents—kicked her out of the house when she refused to put me up for adoption. My bio dad was off impregnating some other girl by the time I was born. My mom always had great intentions and even bigger illusions. I’m sure she was imagining I’d be that one bright spot in her life to give her unconditional love.”

Hayden had always believed that to be the parents’ job. Her mom and dad had died young, but she’d always known they’d loved her. Same with Gran and Grandpa, who’d delayed their early retirement plans to raise her.

“Instead she got a carbon copy of herself. Moody, defiant and forever rebellious. I actually think those cops felt bad as they locked me up.”

“How long did you stay in there?”

“Long enough to get a black eye from another inmate and to realize I wasn’t as tough as I thought I was, but that lesson didn’t stick. A few hours later, someone from Children’s Services came to take me to juvie.”

She tried to imagine Tony as a scared teenager whose mother hadn’t loved him, and Hayden’s heart and emotions and everything girlie inside her began to soften and melt.

Don’t. Don’t do it. You are not his rescuer who is going to show him true love and give him hope. He is not going to be a better man all because of the woman who sees past the tough, hard facade he’s erected to barricade his heart from the cold, unfeeling world.

That dreamy scenario didn’t even work in movies anymore. She didn’t believe in others saving you. You saved yourself. Besides, he seemed to be doing just fine.

“How long were you in juvie?”

“A week and a half. I got probation and a promise that my record would be expunged if I kept my nose clean. Ha—that didn’t last long. My mother was ordered to take parenting classes that she attended drunk. So yeah, storybook family of the year we were not.”

“What was your big turnaround then, because clearly you’re...”

His eyes crinkled at the corners again. “What?”

“Um.”

“Hot? Funny? Sexy?”

“Actually, I was going to say doing pretty okay.”

“The word every man wants to hear from the woman who woke up naked beside him. Okay.”

Hayden gave him a playful shrug. “Maybe if I’d had something to remember from last night...”

“Whoa. You’re going to play it like that.”

Actually, she’d had no idea how she was going to play it until that near dare rushed out of her mouth.

“Almost sounds like the lady is issuing a challenge.”

Dependable orgasms.

The subconscious thought popped up and threatened to derail her common sense. But what was the downside here? Tony was hot, clearly understood boundaries and as he lived in California, he’d be gone soon. So maybe he was the perfect candidate for a little pregraduation celebratory fling.

“Maybe it is a challenge.”

Tony’s right hand dropped from the steering wheel and he reached for her hand. His fingers twined through hers, warm and strong. His knuckles grazed her thigh and little goose bumps tingled to life.

“Challenge accepted.”

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