“Are you sure you don’t remember me?”
The man reeked of charm, which made him all the more appealing. Autumn stared on as he licked his lips with more finesse than LL Cool J, then set his mouth in a broad grin. Did he work in her building? Had they met at Rawlins and McGill? Autumn thought back to earlier in the day. She had handed the file to the Mr. Whithers’s receptionist, Eugenia, and after a few minutes of polite conversation, returned to the parking lot and collected her car. She hadn’t even been in the law firm a full five minutes. “I’m quite certain we have never met before,” Autumn replied, her mind working overtime. She tried desperately to place him. Something about the man was oddly familiar and he was eyeing her as if they shared a secret.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for a damsel in distress. I guess my mom read me one too many fairy tales as a child,” Larry acknowledged good-naturedly. “So when I spotted a young woman…”
Suddenly everything clicked. It was him. The Good Samaritan who had changed her flat tire. Her eyes narrowed. Autumn could hardly believe that the hunk standing before her was the same foul-smelling man who had helped her just two hours ago. But he was. Giving her eyes free rein, she subtly checked him out. He had cleaned up nicely. Clean, trimmed nails, no traces of mud or dirt anywhere, and he smelled like lemon and coriander, not spoiled milk. The stained white T-shirt and shorts had been swapped for a fitted suit, stylish leather dress shoes and a few pieces of simple jewelry.
Autumn couldn’t believe her luck. If this wasn’t one of fate’s twisted jokes, she didn’t know what was. Over seven hundred thousand people lived in Washington, D.C. Anyone of them could have come to her aid, but she had been rescued by the very man Melissa wanted to set her up with. Larry. Larry Saunders. This had made-for-TV movie written all over it. Autumn tilted her head to the side. Melissa was grinning from ear to ear like someone who had pulled off the con of all cons. Autumn’s mouth settled into a deep frown. If she didn’t know any better, she would think Melissa had rigged her tire and then sent Larry to come and save her. Autumn almost burst into wild laughter at the absurd workings of her mind. She was definitely losing it.
“When I saw shapely legs peeking out of the passenger door, I almost drove off the road,” he confessed in a hushed voice.
Larry examined Ms. Flat Tire closely. His eyes traveled down her curvy frame and back up again before she could label him a creep. “So we meet again.”
“I guess so,” was all Autumn could say.
This time, when her knight in shining armor extended his right hand, she took it, in part to keep from keeling over onto the grass and in part to prove to herself she wasn’t the least bit affected by being in such close proximity to him. Even if her body was telling her otherwise.
“Larry Saunders. But like I told you before, my friends call me L.J.”
“What does the J stand for?”
“Jeremiah. And what’s your name? Little Miss. Reckless Driver?”
Autumn couldn’t hold back her smile. His eyes were alive with laughter when she said, “For your information, I’m an excellent driver, Jeremiah, and I have the merit points to prove it.”
No one called him Jeremiah except his grandmother, but L.J. loved the way it sounded rolling off this woman’s lips. Strong. Powerful. Herculean even. He had adopted the moniker L.J. in the fifth grade after his cousin, Dominick, said it sounded a hundred times cooler than Larry or Jeremiah. But his abhorrence for his middle name dissolved as soon as Ms. Flat Tire said it. With a lovely face and a body to match, the woman could call him Chewbacca for all he cared. Titillated by the silkiness of her voice and wanting to hear more, he squeezed her hand. “Now it’s your turn. What should I call you?”
Ready and willing, Autumn thought. Acutely aware that they were still holding hands, and that they had a band of nosy spectators behind them, she pulled away. “Autumn. Autumn Nicholson. And thanks again for this afternoon.”
“It was my pleasure. But you can properly thank me on the dance floor.”
Autumn took the bait. “Just say when.”
Chapter 3
L.J. couldn’t remember the last time he had been this entertained. Seated between Yvette and Autumn, he couldn’t have asked for better dinner companions. Yvette, who reminded him of his sister, Kellianne, was the exemplary round-the-way girl. She embraced everything from the raunchy lyrics of The Notorious B.I.G. to the well-regarded poetry of Langston Hughes. Autumn, who sat to his right and dazzled him in her papaya-colored dress and sparkly crystal earrings, was utterly enchanting and had the girl-next-door thing down to a science.
L.J. had spent so much time hamming it up with the two women he had scarcely tasted the three-course dinner. With dessert coming to an end, he was ready to call it a night. It had been a long day and although he was having an awesome time with Yvette and Autumn, his body was screaming out for sleep. He had arrived in Washington late last night, awakened at dawn, put in a full eight-hour day at his uncle’s farm and then come straight to the engagement party. If he didn’t get some shut-eye soon, he’d be sleeping in his bowl of piña colada pudding.
L.J. hated skipping out so early—it wasn’t even ten o’clock, but he was struggling to stay awake. He was nodding at everything coming out of Yvette’s mouth, but he had been sleeping with his eyes open for the last half hour. When Autumn turned to him and asked if he was having a good time, L.J. forced himself to focus. Maybe I’m not as sleepy as I thought, he decided as he responded to her question. He wasn’t going anywhere until he’d had the dance Autumn had promised him earlier.
L.J.’s chance to dance with Autumn came ten minutes later. When the bridal party was summoned to the dance floor to join Melissa and Peter, L.J. shot to his feet and helped Autumn out of her chair. Praying the DJ would play a slow tune so he could hold her in his arms, he led her out to the dance floor. He draped his arms around her sinewy waist as the familiar melody of “Always and Forever” filled the room. L.J. inhaled her aromatic, fruity perfume as their bodies came together. Autumn felt even better than he had imagined. Silky. Delicate. All woman. She had curves like a twisting road and each shift of her generous hips made his pulse soar. And that wasn’t the only part of his body rising. A bashful man would have pulled away to conceal his body’s reaction, but not L.J. He drew Autumn closer. The feel of her soft flesh under his hands made his entire body yearn for the taste of her lips.
L.J. prided himself on being a man of conviction. When he made a decision he stuck to it. But he was also man enough to admit when he was wrong. And he had been dead wrong about Autumn. After she had rebuffed him and sprinted over to her car, L.J. had labeled her a snob. He had grouped her with all the other stuck-up women he had ever met in Washington. But when he had returned to his uncle’s house, and caught sight of his gruesome reflection in one of the hallway mirrors, he’d staggered back in shock. He looked like he’d been sloshing around in a pigpen. Dirt and mud coated his clothes, grease stains masked his face and he smelled like spoiled meat. No wonder Autumn had recoiled when he’d asked for her name!
Autumn closed her eyes. Resting her head on his shoulder, she decided this was heaven. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this good in a man’s arms. For the past two years she had fortified her second virginity better than a Brink’s truck and had subsequently limited all physical contact with the opposite sex. No hugs. No intimate touches. And no dancing. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed the comforting touch of a man’s hands until L.J.’s fingers caressed her back.
What are you doing? Have you forgotten rules ten and eleven? Autumn lifted her head as swiftly as she’d let it fall. She didn’t know L.J. from Adam but here she was getting up close and personal with him on the dance floor. She disregarded the questioning looks from her friends, but inched back anyways. The last thing she needed was word getting back to her parents that she had been