Then she remembered that the man making her feel this way didn’t care about her, that this kiss meant nothing to him, that he was merely delivering what she’d asked for and she burned with humiliation. He had awakened her sexuality, but in the process the fragile flowering of her self-esteem was crushed.
Pushing him away, she retaliated with more anger and sarcasm.
“Tell grandfather he owes you extra for the kiss. I’m sure it’s worth more than the fifty bucks he probably paid you for your time.”
Sam couldn’t have looked more stunned if she’d slapped him. He muttered an oath under his breath as he visibly tried to bring his temper under control.
“Okay, let’s just wait a minute here,” he began in a more placating tone.
By now, though, Penny was in no mood to listen. “No, you wait a minute, Mr. Smart Guy Roberts. I don’t need any of your favors.” She reached into her purse and snatched out a five-dollar bill and threw it at him. “That ought to cover the gas. As for you, your company isn’t worth spit.”
There was something gloriously energizing about releasing all her pent-up anger and frustration. She seized the opportunity to fling open the car door and leap out. She was halfway down the next block before he could get to her. He pulled alongside.
“Get back in here.”
“Not if my life depended on it.”
“Granddad is going to kill me if I show up without you.”
“That’s your problem, pal.”
“Penny, look, I’m sorry. It’s not what you think, I swear it.”
The halfhearted apology came too late. She turned and drew herself up, realizing that in the past couple of hours she’d grown up more than she had in the previous sixteen years.
“Go to hell, Sam Roberts,” she said in the quietest, most dignified voice she could muster.
And then she cut across a lawn where he couldn’t follow and ran the rest of the way home.
Later, as she cried herself to sleep, she thought her heart was broken. It was several, miserable months later before she finally chalked the entire incident up to experience. At least she had learned at an early age that no matter how badly you wanted to, you couldn’t make another person fall in love with you.
She’d also learned, or so she told herself repeatedly, that anyone as insensitive as Sam Roberts wasn’t worth loving at all.
Sam watched Penny stalk away from him, her thin shoulders thrown back, her head held high, and thought he’d never met anyone quite so infuriating.
Or as fascinating, he added with regret. She was going to grow up to be a real hell-raiser and a real beauty on top of that. Even at sixteen there was something about her that made a man’s blood race in an entirely inappropriate way. He never should have kissed her, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself and it had only made matters worse. She was furious and he was hot and frustrated.
Hell, he’d wanted to kiss her from the first moment he’d set eyes on her, but he’d placed her off limits. With her privileged background, she was the kind of girl who deserved the best, and Sam Roberts hardly qualified. Everyone knew he was the kind of guy who’d break a girl’s heart.
He thought of the hurt he’d seen in Penny’s eyes when she’d realized that her grandfather had set up this movie thing and wondered if he’d made a terrible mistake in giving in to Brandon’s coercion. Then he considered the way she’d battled back and decided that, hurt or not, Penny Hayden would always be able to take care of herself. Too bad he wasn’t going to be around her to watch the fireworks.
Chapter 1
At first glance, primarily because of his size, the man lurking in the shadowy hallway of Penny Hayden’s apartment building looked faintly alarming. Penny immediately tried to quiet the little tremor of fear that zigzagged down her spine. The man was standing in plain sight, after all, not hiding like a dangerous criminal.
He probably had a very good reason for being there, Penny decided. Maybe he was just locked out and waiting for the landlord to turn up with a key. Or maybe he was meeting someone and he’d arrived early. Those were certainly logical explanations, and she much preferred those to the violent scenarios that had flashed through her mind when she’d first spotted him.
Of course, she reminded herself as she moved down the hall with slightly more caution than usual, she did have a tendency to be entirely too trusting. It came from growing up with doting parents who’d always made her feel safe and protected. They had fueled her natural curiosity about the unknown, rather than instilling fear.
That, of course, was precisely the reason Brandon Halloran had insisted she take a self-defense class before moving from Los Angeles to Boston, where she’d be entirely on her own for the first time in her life. He’d determinedly tried to plant the idea in her head that every stranger represented danger, which was ridiculous, of course. Strangers were just people whose fascinating secrets she didn’t know yet.
On the off chance that just this once her grandfather might be right, Penny drew in a deep breath and marched past the man without her usual sunny smile. She kept her gaze straight ahead, but alert for any sudden movement, even the slightest shift of his eyes in her direction.
Unfortunately, she had terrific peripheral vision. In addition to tracking his movements, she also noticed his well-muscled physique, emphasized by a tight, faded black T-shirt, and the shaggy blond haircut beneath a backward Red Sox cap. The look was scruffy, but definitely sexy.
There was something vaguely familiar about the lazy half smile that turned his expression into something far more dangerous than she’d first recognized. Intent on mayhem or not, men with smiles like that were lethal to the quiet, studious existence she’d promised herself for the next two years. They disrupted peace of mind without even trying, to say nothing of what they managed to do to pulse rates. Women were drawn to men like that the way moths were attracted to flames. She’d always figured the deadly futility in both instances wasn’t an idle comparison. She steeled herself against becoming a victim.
“Don’t you know you should beware of strange men who’re just hanging around in dark hallways?” he inquired.
Penny’s stomach clenched, more at the patronizing tone than out of fear. Her feminist hackles rose. Of course she knew that. Did the man think she was an inexperienced idiot? There were definite ways to correct that impression. She considered several of them, then dismissed them just as quickly. Maybe he hadn’t meant to taunt her. Maybe he was like her grandfather, unable to resist any opportunity to give advice.
Penny flashed him a tentative smile. He responded by falling into step beside her. Warning signals began to flash and that prickle of unease she’d dismissed came back as a full-fledged case of panic. Just in case her grandfather knew more than she did about Boston’s lowlifes, she tried to recall something—anything from those self-defense classes. For instance, exactly how and when should she make her self-protective move? It definitely should be before the guy followed her inside her apartment, which she was more and more certain was his destination.
She spent ten nerve-racking seconds considering her strategy, debating whether it was even called for, then decided it would be sheer stupidity to take any chances. She whirled, slammed one booted foot into his shin and aimed her denim-clad knee at his groin. It didn’t exactly connect, but she was satisfied with having proven her point, anyway.
Filled with confidence and adrenaline, she reached for an arm, expecting to flip him onto his back