Small-Town Cinderella

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“What?”

“What, what?” She hadn’t said anything. Oh, crap, what had she said?

Frowning, Drew asked, “How is asking to give you a ride home trying to fool you?”

Relieved she hadn’t spilled anything too embarrassing, yet still annoyed, she snapped, “You didn’t offer to drive me home. You asked to take me home. As in, ‘Let’s go back to your place.’ You think I don’t know a come-on when I hear one, Drew Pirelli?”

Just like she knew very well when she hadn’t heard one, but she found herself entirely unwilling to let him off the hook so easily.

“That’s not— I didn’t—” A pained expression crossed his face, and he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. Blowing out a breath, he started again, “Debbie, I—”

Feeling another apology coming on, she threw up a dismissing hand and started walking. Not that she would risk driving home, but she had a coat in her car and if she had to wait who knew how long for a cab, she’d rather not have to stand around shivering.

But she only made it a few steps before the ground slipped out from beneath her feet. And not because she’d fallen. Her startled gasp ended in a mousy squeak as Drew swept her up into his arms. The stars spun wildly overhead, and without thought she clung to his shoulders. Their gazes collided for a heat-filled second before his mouth crashed down on hers in a stunning kiss.

If that night on the balcony had been wedding fever, this was a different level of heat altogether. The kiss tasted of frustration and passion, a fight-fire-with-fire kind of burn that promised so much more—

The earth may well have moved, but Debbie didn’t realize Drew had until he plopped her into the passenger seat of his car. His breathing still ragged from the kiss, he repeated, “You’re not driving home.”

Despite the way the world was still tilting around her, every ounce of independent woman roared inside her. Realizing her hands were still fisted in his shirt, she pushed him away. “I cannot believe you just did that!”

Drew’s jaw tightened as he leaned closer, until she could catch a hint of his aftershave mixed with the woodsy night air. “Believe it.”

The vehicle’s dome light wasn’t very bright, but in its faint glow, she saw something in his hardened expression. Something that made her pulse pound even harder. Something that made her wonder if she was seeing Drew in a different light...or if something had changed in the way he was seeing her.

And she had the feeling that as surprised as she was by his actions, he’d surprised himself even more.

Chapter Four (#ulink_d0501ace-77c8-541f-9e85-1c14d6abf729)

I cannot believe you just did that!

Debbie’s outraged words rang in his head on the silent drive back home. Drew couldn’t believe it himself. His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he glanced over at Debbie. She was looking out the side window, giving him little more than a view of the back of her head, but he could imagine the fire in her blue eyes. She had every right to be pissed and to give him the cold shoulder, but her silence at least allowed him the time to get his emotions back under control.

Damn if he couldn’t hear Angie laughing at him now.

His former girlfriend had accused him more than once of not having emotions. If I walk out this door right now, you won’t even try to stop me, will you? she’d demanded during the fight that led to their breakup. Truth was, he had tried to stop her. He’d talked about how good they were together, how much they had in common. He brought up the time they’d both invested in the relationship and asked if she really wanted to throw that away.

But even as the words were coming out of his mouth—logical, sensible words—he’d known it wasn’t enough. Whatever Angie wanted, he didn’t have it within himself to give it to her. And that was the reason why he hadn’t stopped her when she did finally walk out that door.

Never once had it occurred to him to physically pick Angie up and kiss her to try to convince her to stay. Watching Debbie walk away...that instinct had been undeniable.

And it didn’t make sense! Debbie wasn’t his girlfriend. She was his friend. And while he wouldn’t have let her drive home even if he hadn’t known her her entire life, he could have stopped her another way. Hell, all he’d had to do was take her purse and the keys inside. Simple, easy, logical. And yet that solution had never occurred to him.