THIS WAS SO not a good idea, Gracie thought, even as she wrapped her arms around Riley. She was supposed to be pulling back, staying away from him, being strong and…
Screw it, she thought as she closed her eyes so she could give herself over to his kiss. He smelled good, he felt good and he tasted good. What kind of idiot walked away from that?
His fingers caressed her face even as he tilted his head and deepened the kiss. She parted for him, wanting him inside, claiming her in such a way that she could forget the rest of her world. His tongue brushed against hers, sending shivers shooting down her spine.
The warmth of his body made her want to crawl inside of him and never be cold again. He felt strong, she thought hazily as she rubbed her hands up and down his back. Strong and solid.
Desire ignited-little flames of need that consumed her common sense and left her thinking about possibilities. The desk was big and she would bet there was a lock on the door. No doubt an hour or two in Riley’s arms would cure most of her ills.
She moved closer, rubbing herself against him, wanting them to touch everywhere. Her breasts ached. She wanted him to feel her there, and between her thighs where the need was most intense.
He swore against her mouth, then dropped his hands to her hips where he pulled her against him. He was hard. The realization excited her. She closed her lips around his tongue and sucked gently.
He stiffened, then surged against her. When she released him, he pulled back enough to kiss her jaw, then down her neck. Her skin erupted in goose bumps, her legs began to tremble. If she hadn’t been hanging on to him the overwhelming need would have caused her to collapse.
It was then she felt them-the one thing that had been missing from all her other relationships for as long as she could remember. Sparks.
They erupted like renegade fireworks, arcing through her brain, blinding her and making her want to run for safety. Sparks? With Riley?
She wasn’t sure if she pulled back or he let go, but suddenly there were a good two feet between them.
Her mind raced in a thousand different directions. She felt disoriented, as if she’d been drugged, or had slept too long during the day and couldn’t quite wake up.
“Gracie?”
“I’m fine,” she said. She turned in a circle, frantically searching for her purse. She spied it under the chair.
“This was a bad idea,” she said as she crouched down to grab it. “Really, really bad. Super bad. Bad, bad, bad.”
“I’m getting that,” he said as she straightened. “You seem a little upset.”
She gave him what she hoped was a bright, happy, I’m-fine smile. “I’m fabulous. Great. Gotta go. You have a good day.”
She practically ran from his office, all the while not wanting to acknowledge the truth.
Sparks. Bright, shiny, glow-in-the-dark sparks.
Not with Riley, she told herself as she hurried to her car and practically threw herself inside. Anyone but Riley. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t even reasonable, and it certainly wasn’t nice.
She tried to put the key in the ignition, but her hands shook too much. Instead she simply leaned her head against her steering wheel and let the irony of the situation wash over her.
After years of less than interesting romantic relationships she’d finally felt the one thing she’d always wanted to feel. Unfortunately, it was with the only single man on the planet she absolutely couldn’t, under any circumstances, ever, ever be with.
Why was she surprised?
RILEY LOOKED through the weekly numbers, but his mind wasn’t on the task. Not with thoughts of Gracie filling his mind and blood filling other parts of his body. She’d gotten to him. Somehow, when he wasn’t looking, she’d managed to squeeze past his defenses and make him curious about her. He wanted to know what she thought, what she liked. He also wanted to see her naked and make love with her, but oddly enough, that was almost less interesting than the rest of it. Which scared the crap out of him.
He couldn’t forget his rules, not to mention his goals. He was passing through this town, biding his time until he could claim his ninety-seven million. No woman was worth forgetting that, not even one as intriguing as Gracie. He didn’t do relationships. Ever. And she was a happily ever after kind of woman.
One who sure knew how to kiss. And she felt damn good in his arms. He smiled as he remembered how she’d rubbed against him. If they’d been anywhere but his office…
“Stop right there,” he told himself. He and Gracie weren’t an option. She was the kind of trouble he didn’t need.
He turned his attention back to the reports and forced himself to concentrate. Thirty minutes later, he finished with his notes. His phone buzzed.
“Sheriff Kendrick here to see you,” Diane said. “Shall I send him in?”
“Sure.”
Riley rose and walked around his desk. He hadn’t seen much of Mac since he, Riley, had moved back to Los Lobos. His one-time friend had dropped by to warn him not to make trouble, but since then they hadn’t crossed paths more than a couple of times.
Mac Kendrick walked into the office. He stood a couple of inches taller, wore a sheriff’s uniform and a gun. He was married, happily, Riley had heard. But in his mind, Mac would always be his best friend, the guy he’d gotten in trouble with, had chased girls with and had generally had a hell of a good time with until the night Mac had stolen the judge’s Caddy and taken it on a joyride, only to get caught and hauled into jail.
Mac had never talked about what had happened, but he’d changed then. He’d stopped messing around and had gone into the military. Riley had not only lost his best friend, he’d lost the other half of his family.
“Is this an official visit?” Riley asked as Mac closed the door behind him.
“No.” Mac glanced around the office. “Nice. Never thought I’d see you working behind a desk.”
“Me, either. But it’s not so bad.” He motioned to the two sofas in the corner of the room. “Have a seat.”
Riley waited until Mac had settled before sitting in the wing chair opposite. “What brings you here? Do you need a donation for the sheriff’s retirement fund?”
Mac grinned. “I wouldn’t say no to that, but it’s not why I came to see you.” His steady gaze settled on Riley. “I hear the election is going well.”
“My campaign manager tells me we’re up in the polls.”
“Wilma, the woman who pretty much runs my department, says you’re going to win. She knows that sort of thing.”
“I appreciate the tip and I hope Wilma won’t be insulted if I keep on polling.”
Mac grinned. “I won’t tell her.”
“Good.”
“I’m surprised you’re interested in running for mayor.”
Riley made a mental note to thank Jill Strathern-Kendrick, his attorney, the next time he saw her. Not only had she kept the terms of the will secret from Gracie, her best friend, she kept them from her husband-Sheriff Mac Kendrick.
“I never did like Yardley,” Riley said.
“You’re not alone in that. Maybe change would be a good thing.” Mac glanced around the office. “I thought you’d be moving on for sure, but you’re making your life here.”
“Trying.” Riley didn’t mention that as soon as the election was over, he would be gone.
Mac turned his attention back to him. “It’s been a long time,” he said. “I always felt bad about how things ended.”
Riley touched the faint scar on his upper lip. The one Mac had given him when they’d fought about Mac suddenly wanting to walk the straight and narrow.
“Me, too.” Riley shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”
“Yeah. You want to get a beer sometime?”
The question surprised Riley. He hesitated. Mac wasn’t going to like his plans for the town. But until then…“Sure. You know where I live.”
Mac grinned. “I cruise by on a regular basis to make sure you’re not making trouble.”
“Good to know I’m being protected by Los Lobos’s finest.” Riley looked at his friend. “I’m glad you came by.”
“Me, too. Let’s set up something soon.”
“COME WITH ME,” Alexis said, her voice low.
“No.” Gracie grabbed her headset and clicked it into her cell phone so she could keep working on her gum paste leaves. She quickly drew in the veins and point on the tiny leaf, then draped it over a cornstarch-dusted former to dry in a curved shape.
“Please. Just go with me. That’s all I’m asking. Do you want me to beg?”
Gracie heard the tears in her sister’s voice and tried to stay strong, but it was tough. She wasn’t cut out to say no to people, especially not to someone who was family. Even if the relationship seemed to only run one way.
“I want you to leave me out of this,” Gracie said, although she could feel herself weakening.
“I swear there’s something going on. I know I’ve been crazy before, accusing Zeke of things and I’m running low on credits with you. I’m the boy who cried wolf, but I swear there’s a wolf in my house now.”
Gracie couldn’t help smiling. “If I remember my preschool reading, I believe the wolf was in with the sheep.”
“Whatever. You know what I mean.”
She did. Her humor faded. “Alexis, you put me in a really bad position. Mom is convinced I’m turning back into stalker girl. My picture’s on the front page of the newspaper and the legend of the ‘Gracie Chronicles’ is alive and well.”
“I know. I’m so, so sorry. Please. Just come with me. You don’t have to say anything. Just hover in the background and give me moral support. If he’s really not there, I’ll need your emotional support.”
Gracie shook her head and stabbed the leaf she’d been forming. She knew she was going to regret this, but she couldn’t seem to say the N word again. “Fine. What time do you want me to pick you up?”
“THE NUMBERS aren’t just good,” Zeke said with a grin. “They’re amazing. If the election were held tomorrow, I doubt Yardley’s own mother would vote for him.”
Riley reached for his beer. “What happened?”
“Near as I can tell…Gracie. Your numbers shot up after that picture of the two of you in the paper. Along with the old articles about her crush and what she did to get her man.”
Riley shook his head. The world was a twisted place. “So they love me now because of Gracie.”
“They love you because Gracie loves you. Or she did. Everyone enjoys a good romance. Los Lobos wants yours with Gracie to work out.”
“There is no romance.”
Zeke raised his eyebrows. “You might want to get to work on that.”
Riley looked at his campaign manager. “Let’s make this really clear. I’m not faking a relationship with Gracie for the sake of votes.”
“But…”
Riley kept his gaze steady. Eventually Zeke turned away.
“But if you were seen together, around town, that would be okay.”
Riley swallowed the rest of his beer. Talk about a strange situation. He’d gone slowly, doing his best to win over the good citizens of Los Lobos. He’d let them get used to him being around. He’d bought candy for Little League, sponsored the new jerseys, supported the local high school football team and the girl’s basketball team. He’d sent the church band to some damn parade in Italy, and he’d done it all with a smile. Now they wanted him to have a relationship with Gracie to prove himself.
Why did the idea bother him? Spending time with her wasn’t a hardship. He liked her and he wanted her in his bed. He should be grateful his plan was coming together and he would soon be in possession of his uncle’s bank and the ninety-seven million dollars.
“We’re going to have to start prepping for the debate soon,” Zeke said. “How’s next week?”
“Fine. Have we decided on a format?”
Zeke snorted. “I don’t think the evening is going to be that formal, but I’ll ask.”
“Are you sure helping me won’t interfere with your secret life?”
“I told you. I’m not having an affair.”
“As long as Alexis believes that,” Riley said, just as the doorbell rang.
He placed his beer on the coffee table in front of his chair, then stood and walked into the foyer. Zeke followed. When he opened the front door, he stared at the two women standing there. One made him want to grin. The other made him want to reach for one of Gracie’s antacids.
“It’s for you,” he told Zeke.
“I’M SORRY,” Gracie said for possibly the forty-seventh time in less than two minutes.
“It’s fine,” Riley told her and meant it.
“It’s not fine. It’s terrible. I need to leave you in peace.”
He and Gracie stood together at the far end of the foyer while Zeke and Alexis had a heated, although whispered, conversation.
“I didn’t want to come,” she told him. “Basically she guilted me into it. I’m a complete wiener dog who can be guilted into anything.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” He could imagine her giving in to a request from a friend or a family member, even when it wasn’t in her best interest.
“He said he was going to be here tonight and she wanted to be sure.”
“I gathered that.”
Gracie stared at the black-and-white tiles. “Did I say I was sorry?”
“You did and you can stop now. None of this is your fault.”
“I know, but I still feel bad. I was really trying to stay out of your way. If you’ll notice, you haven’t seen me in two days. I figured that would be best for both of us.”
He’d noticed. What he wouldn’t admit to anyone and barely wanted to believe himself was that he’d missed her.
“You still getting flack about the newspaper picture?” he asked as he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“What?” She looked at him, then away. “No. I’ve been avoiding all contact with my family. Pretty much with everyone. I thought this would be a good time to lay low. Then Alexis came looking for me.”
“We’re going to go.”
Riley turned and saw Zeke with his arm around Alexis.
“Maybe we can finish this up tomorrow,” Zeke added.
“Sure.”
Alexis looked at her sister. “Gracie, I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure. Fine. Night.”
The front door closed behind them. Gracie sighed.
“I can’t decide if they’re going home to have makeup sex or fight some more.”
“I don’t want to think about either.”
He wasn’t interested in anyone’s sex life except possibly Gracie’s and his own. Memories of the last kiss they’d shared still lingered and while he knew it would be a damn stupid idea to pursue the matter, his brain wasn’t necessarily in charge.
“You’re being really nice about this,” she said as she gazed at him.
He liked looking at her. He liked her blue eyes and the way the curve of her mouth, or lack of curve, gave away her feelings. He liked how she stared at his earring with equal parts fascination and fear. He liked that she made cakes, loved storms and could be bought for the price of a restaurant-grade oven.
“I’m glad you stopped by,” he said.
“What?” She blinked. “Oh, yeah. Right. Me stopping by. With Alexis.”
Her cheeks turned pink and she dropped her attention back to the floor.
“Well, Alexis is gone and I should probably head out, too.”
He didn’t want her to go. Even though they weren’t going to have sex-despite how much he wanted her-he wasn’t ready to be alone.
He frowned. No, that wasn’t true. He was fine with being alone. He wasn’t ready to be without Gracie. Not yet.
“Want a tour of the old place?” he asked.
Gracie had expected Riley to say a lot of things, from “Get out of my house,” to “Come upstairs with me and let’s get naked.” She hadn’t expected him to want to play tour guide.
While she knew the most sensible course of action would be to leave, she smiled her acceptance.
“I’d love it.”
He put his hand on her shoulder, then slid it under her hair so he cupped the back of her neck.
“This is the foyer,” he said.
“I figured that. The tiles are a giveaway. It’s big.” She glanced up at the elegant, crystal chandelier hanging down from the two-story ceiling. “How do you dust that?”
“Not a clue.”
His fingers moved against her skin, making her even more aware of him. The touching made it difficult to think or speak or do anything but purr and rub against him.
“Living room,” he said pointing to the left with his free hand.
She walked in that direction. He kept pace with her, although he dropped his hand to the small of her back.
Carved double doors led to a large room with hardwood floors and old, but beautiful, Oriental rugs. Old-fashioned furniture filled the space. Heavy velvet draperies covered the windows.
“How dark is this room during the day?” she asked. “Those drapes wouldn’t let in a speck of light.”
“No idea,” he said. “I don’t get in here much.”
Beyond the living room was some kind of parlor, then a bedroom suite with a sitting room and bath.
“For the maid,” Gracie said.
“I have a cleaner who comes in twice a week.”
The massive kitchen hadn’t been remodeled since the 1950s but was big enough to host banquets. Rows and rows of cabinets stretched to the ceiling-some of them fronted by the original leaded glass. There seemed to be about fifty acres of counter space. It was old, chipped tile, but if replaced with granite it would be beautiful. Double sinks stood on both sides of the kitchen and there was a walk-in pantry that would comfortably house a family of four. Talk about heaven.
“This needs some serious fixing up,” she said. “Let me know if you need suggestions. I have been known to spend a whole afternoon drooling over appliance catalogues.”
“I’m more into take-out or heating up something in the microwave.”
She supposed that made sense, what with him being a guy and all, but the possibilities made her envious.
“I can ignore the however-many bedrooms this house has, and the library and the antiques, but the kitchen is tough to walk away from.”
“Make me an offer,” he said.
She leaned against the counter. “I don’t think I have enough in my checkbook.” She tilted her head. “You’re not kidding, are you? You’d sell this place.”
“Sure. It’s not my home.”
“Where is home?”
“Whatever rig I’m on at the moment.” He pulled up a bar stool by the large island and offered it to her. He took the second stool for himself. “I’m used to sleeping in cramped quarters with six other guys working rotating shifts. An oil rig is a twenty-four-hour-a-day operation.”
She couldn’t imagine such a place. “You said something about the South China Sea. How did you get there from here?”
“When I took off, I headed north and ended up in Alaska working on a sports fishing boat. I met a couple of guys in a bar. They were looking to hire a crew for a rig they’d just bought from an oil company. The big guys said there wasn’t any more oil. These two didn’t agree.”
“You went with them just like that?”
He grinned. “For a piece of the action. Lucky for me, they were right. The work is damn hard, but it’s worth it. I learned all I could and took over the second rig they bought for a bigger share. Ten years later I was a partner and we were a company to be reckoned with.”
“Bad boy makes good. You must be proud.”
He shrugged. “It’s how I make my living.”
“But you’re running the bank now.”
“Right. The bank.”
She glanced around at the large kitchen. “This isn’t anything like you’re used to, is it?”
“There’s a lot more square feet. I don’t know. The old house is pretty empty. There are dozens of rooms I’ve never seen.” He rubbed his fingers across the island countertop. “My mom would have liked it, though. She grew up here.”
“Really? I didn’t know that. Why didn’t…”
Gracie pressed her lips together. Not her business, she reminded herself.
Riley looked at her. “You can ask. The reason she and I didn’t come here when we moved back to Los Lobos is that her brother, my uncle, never forgave her for marrying my father. Her parents had passed away when she was pretty young and her brother, Donovan, had raised her. She ran off with my father when she was maybe seventeen. Donovan told her to come back or she would be cut off without a cent. She chose love over money.”
She wanted to say that sounded so romantic, but there was something in Riley’s voice. Something that made her hold back.
“What happened?” she asked.
“She got pregnant and lived in a run-down house in some dusty town in Arizona for ten years. The love of her life never bothered to marry her and one day, when I was nine, he disappeared. We came back here. I think she wanted to reconcile with her brother, but good old Donovan wouldn’t have any part of it.”
His expression tightened and his mouth thinned.
“You can’t forgive that,” Gracie said softly.
“It’s one item in a long list.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It all happened a long time ago.”
“But still.” She slipped off the chair and moved close enough that she could rest her hand on his forearm. “I wish I could make it better.”
In a matter of seconds, everything changed. Gone was the wounded guy and in his place was a predator. His eyes darkened, his body tensed and she would swear that the temperature in the room climbed about twelve degrees.
Riley stepped down and reached for her, but instead of pulling her close, he coiled his hand around her hair.
“Not a good idea,” he told her.
She had to swallow before she could speak.
“Um, what’s not a good idea?”
“Making me feel better. You’re not my type.”
He wasn’t pulling her hair, but he wasn’t letting her go, either. She felt completely in his control, which was kind of thrilling.
“So what is your type?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Volunteering?”
“Curious.”
“Sure you are. Okay-I like women who are easy. What I call the three F’s.”
“Three F’s?” What? “I can probably figure out one of them,” she said, assuming it had to be the F word. “What are the other two?”
His dark eyes seemed to invite her closer. She felt compelled to move toward him until they were almost touching. Almost, but not quite. Funny how Riley had been so nice to her that she’d forgotten he could also be dangerous.
He leaned into her until he could whisper in her ear. “Are you sure you want to know?” he asked, his breath tickling her.
She nodded.
“Find her, fuck her, forget her.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know what to say or even what to think.
“You’re not someone I could forget,” he murmured. “You’re the kind of woman men buy flowers for, and rings. You’re the kind of woman a man wants to make love with. That’s not my game, Gracie. Never has been.”
He straightened and released her hair. “You should probably go now.”
“What?” Go? Leave? She shook her head and stepped back. “Right. Good idea. Excellent idea.”
She felt like a small bird being charmed by a swaying snake. The side of her brain in charge of personal preservation told her to run. But the rest of her wanted to find out how it would feel to be seduced by the likes of Riley Whitefield.
She stared into his eyes. He was so gorgeous, and a great kisser. Maybe he could just kiss her one more time. Maybe…
“If I start, I’m not going to stop,” he said flatly.
She jumped with the realization that he could read her mind, then turned and dashed out of the kitchen.
The trip home happened in record time. She longed for some quiet and a cup of tea as she sorted through what had just happened. But when she pulled into the driveway of her rental, she saw it was not to be. Vivian stood on her front porch.