Shea smiled. “I know I can.”
Jesse moved next to her. “Me, too.” Then, weirdly, he nudged Shea in her side. He tried not to be obvious, but Annie saw it. Her pulse jumped when Jesse asked Tucker to join him outside.
“Maybe you should take a toothbrush with you,” Shea said.
“What!” Annie groaned. Dammit, someone must’ve seen the kiss last night. “Are you crazy?”
Despite the flush on her cheeks, Shea took a step closer to Annie and leaned in. “Maybe get some underwear. Abe’s Variety has both, you know. Then you wouldn’t have to drive back to Safe Haven.” Shea smiled. “Jesse and I can stay as long as you need us to. Honest.”
Annie could hardly believe Shea’s suggestion, and Jesse’s part in this little maneuver. She wished she’d never kissed Tucker. No. That he’d never kissed her. Did everyone in the county know about it? Could a rumor spread that fast?
What was she thinking? This was Blackfoot Falls. Of course it could. Even worse, the kiss wasn’t a rumor. It probably hadn’t helped that she and Tucker had been ogling each other during the meeting. Jeez, she’d never live this down. Never.
Luckily, what the people of this tiny town thought of her wasn’t high on her list of things she cared about. Tucker was. So was his imminent departure. God, why did she have to like him so much? Men simply did not make her heart pound anymore. Or send heat surging through her veins. But then she hadn’t met anyone like him before. In her experience, rich, powerful men didn’t give up their valuable time to help bring a foal into the world or get their hands dirty saving a helpless goat.
Even though she didn’t deserve to be with a man like him, the fact that this was it, that they’d never see each other again once he left, was eating at her resolve faster than the summer sun melted a Popsicle. Her priorities had shifted even as she tried to reason with herself. He’d already given her a check, no strings attached, and the foundation was a separate entity. One obstacle out of the way. Was that why he’d chosen the meeting to present the check? It didn’t matter. In her heart she knew…She needed tonight with Tucker as much as she needed the tractor to work.
Maybe more.
“You’re right, I should duck into Abe’s,” she said, having trouble meeting Shea’s gaze. “If you’re sure.”
“Please.” Shea rolled her eyes. “Even I could tell you guys wanted to crawl all over each other.”
Annie felt her own blush. “Oh.”
“Yeah. Hurry up. I’ll be talking to Tucker about when we should expect to hear from the foundation.”
Annie wanted to hug her, but instead she waved at Sadie across the room, then darted out the door, ready and willing to head into a night she’d never forget. And hang the consequences.
TUCKER WAS ABOUT AS PLEASED with himself as a man could be. He had an amazing woman sitting at his side and the promise of a perfect night of nothing but spoiling her rotten in every way he could think of. Mostly, he hoped, by giving her many, many orgasms.
He’d never have asked Annie to spend the night with him. At best, he’d hoped she might ask him into her cabin after the volunteers left in the evening. But then Shea and Jesse had offered their help, and Annie had disappeared into the variety store. There were enough clues in her body language to let him know she’d picked up a few essentials. When Shea said, “See you tomorrow,” the deal was sealed in his mind.
“I can’t begin to thank you for the generous check, Tucker,” Annie said as they merged onto the highway. “Your faith in Safe Haven won’t be misplaced, I swear.”
Tucker gave her a look that was a little too smug.
“I’m being sincere,” Annie said.
His expression softened at her offended tone, and he realized what she must think. “Sorry. I know you are. I meant no offense. It’s just…I’ve been caught up thinking about all the things I want to do after you take care of business. Things I want to do with you.” He reached across the SUV and took her hand. “For you.”
“Oh,” she said, after a few seconds. “Carry on, then.”
He laughed. “I intend to.” After a quick squeeze, he returned his hand to the wheel because he’d been waiting for a place to pull over. There was no traffic to speak of, and he had no trouble moving onto the shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is it the car?”
“The SUV is fine,” he said, driving onto a patch of gravel and away from the two-lane road. “What’s wrong,” he said, killing the engine and turning to Annie, “is that I haven’t kissed you since last night.”
Undoing his seat belt, he leaned over, mentally cursing bucket seats and intrusive consoles, and slipped his hand behind Annie’s neck. He didn’t have to pull her close; she came eagerly to meet him in the middle.
She skipped tentative altogether and went straight for mind-blowing with a quick but insistent swipe of her tongue, vanquishing any doubts he’d had about the true purpose of this escape.
He couldn’t have stopped his groan if he’d tried. That he remembered her taste, that her scent had already become vital, made him glad he’d closed his eyes, because looking at her now would make him want far more than a kiss.
The moment her hand touched his chest, he gripped her more firmly, took over the kiss and slipped his tongue between her teeth. Her whimper excited his already stirring cock, and as they explored each other, the sounds of their desire filled the interior of the cab, making everything more intense.
Her roving hand reminded him that he could touch now, touch more than he’d dared last night. If the pull of actually getting her into bed hadn’t been so enticing, he might have listened to the voice in the back of his head reminding him the back of the Land Rover was roomy, and how no cars had driven by since he’d pulled over.
Instead, he cupped her breast with his left hand. Over her shirt, over her bra. And learned the shape of her, the feel of her against his palm. This wasn’t a grope and dash…it was a prelude, something to take the edge off until he could give her the perfect setting. Although his body wasn’t too thrilled with the decision.
She drew back just as he was marveling at how hard her nipple was through two layers. “We should probably go.”
Giving in, he opened his eyes, and dammit, the look of her lips, all moist and pink, was enough to make him hard. “You all right?”
“Better than all right. But I want—”
“Everything?”
She smiled, kissed him quickly on the lips, then sat back in her seat, pulling her seat belt across her chest. “Think we can do everything in one night?”
“We can sure as hell try,” he said, then he put the car in gear and turned back onto the freeway, the memory of her kisses lingering like the slow, pleasant burn of twenty-year-old Scotch.
“WHEN I WAS SEVEN, I WANTED to be a fireman.”
Annie immediately pictured him in one of those sexy calendars, wearing all of his gear except for his shirt. He’d have made the cover for sure. “What happened to change your mind?”
“Batman.”
“Really? How’s that working out for you?”
He grinned. “Great. Although the commute to Gotham is killing me.”
She turned more toward him, feeling as if she were in a dream, because this was not her life. Every time she started to sink back to reality, the one she’d find soon enough in Blackfoot Falls, she snapped