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