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“Yes?” he drawled.
She buried her face in her hands. Damn, she wasn’t a good liar, never had been.
The warm hand on her shoulder told her Evan had moved. Tingles spread down from her shoulder, for a moment his touch made her feel safe and secure. Tell me your secrets.
She’d made a second chance for herself, and only she could determine if it would be a life made of lies or truth. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at him. The sexy small-town sheriff. “My name’s not going to be in your computer.”
His eyes narrowed, but his tone was calm. “Why not?”
“Because I haven’t given you my real one.”
“Why not?”
“I’m hiding and I’m not ready to be found yet.”
“From whom?”
“I’d rather not say right now.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh.”
Lydia didn’t want to lie. Instead she batted her eyelashes and brushed her tongue across her bottom lip. His eyes tracked the movement like a spy satellite tracking fleet movements. She leaned forward and shrugged her shoulders until the V of her blouse dipped lower.
“Honey…”
“Yes,” she said, trying to sound sultry.
“Even if I take you up on your invitation, I’m still going to want answers.”
If he took her up on her invitation, she’d go down fast. One fiancé hadn’t given her enough experience to handle this man and his earthy sensuality.
“I wasn’t issuing an invitation per se.”
“What were you doing?”
“Distracting you.”
“It almost worked.”
“What would it take to be successful?”
He leaned down until his breath brushed her face and she could see the flecks of sapphire in his gray eyes. She wanted to scoot away from him. Every survival instinct she had screamed for her to retreat, but this was the new Lydia and she wasn’t backing up.
“More than lust, less than love.”
His words cut through her. All men wanted less than love. “I’m not any good at lust.”
“Hell, honey, you were doing just fine.”
She shrugged.
“Ready to tell me more?”
“Not now. Can I have a reprieve?”
He nodded. “Until tonight.”
“Agreed, tonight. Where will I be working?”
“Come on. I’ll show you.”
She followed him down the hall, noticing the fit of his uniform pants was close to illegal. He had a nice butt. She wondered if his flesh would be rock-hard, like the muscles of his naked chest had been last night. Her fingers tingled with the need to caress him again. Though this time with intent and purpose.
“Your desk will be here,” he gestured to a battered model covered in manila folders and sloppily stacked papers.
The real world was a messy one, she realized. “I don’t think I’ll be here long enough to get through all of this paperwork.”
“It looks worse than it is.”
“That’s what you said about the dogs.”
He gave her a sympathetic look. Silence grew between them. She should stop looking at his mouth and wondering how well he kissed—spectacularly, if the darkly arousing secrets in his eyes were any indication. He had firm-looking lips. Kind of went with the rest of his hard body. She wondered what his mouth would feel like on hers.
Would he kiss with restraint as her fiancé had? Or with passion?
But he was out of her league. More than lust and less than love was not what she was looking for from a man.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he said.
Darn it. What was she going to say? The old Lydia had a stock of ditzy answers that made everyone around her think she was a shallow socialite. But last night she’d had a blinding realization that life held more for her than an arranged marriage and it was up to her to find it. It was time to leave the ditz behind.
“I was thinking about you,” she said, before her courage could desert her.
“What about me?” he asked, taking a step closer. The sounds of the common room just outside this little office cubicle suddenly seemed a world away. His shoulders blocked the entrance, nearly spanning it.
He was a big man, she thought. Big and strong and honest as the day is long. Though she longed to feel his arms around her, she knew she never would. This was a man who would not tolerate lies, especially from someone he’d been intimate with. That made her a little sad.
The thought shocked her because she hadn’t realized how much she wanted him until that moment. Lust was a new emotion to her, and she wasn’t sure she liked it.
“Lydia?”
She glanced up, meeting his icy gaze. She should hedge and lie. No, she thought fiercely. Not about this, not about the feelings he evoked in her. She’d stick to the truth about everything except her identity.
“What were you thinking?” he queried again.
Taking a deep breath she told him the truth for the first time since they met. “I was wondering what your mouth would feel like on my own. And then I remembered lust not love.”
He froze. Obviously not expecting honesty from someone who was feeding him half lies the way a con man sells security. He cocked his head to the side and stepped forward, moving with surety and grace. No tentative steps such as she would have used.
She felt the warmth of his body before he came close enough for his chest to brush her breasts. She tilted her head to look up at him. His silver-gray eyes were narrowed and those firm hard lips were parted.
She felt the exhalation of his breath as he leaned forward. Smelled the coffee he’d drunk earlier while she’d been on the phone. Closing her eyes she let her senses absorb every sensation of the moment.
“Lydia?” he asked, his voice a husky rasp.
She opened her eyes and saw in his gaze intent. Though he didn’t speak, she knew he’d wondered what it would be like to kiss her. Her, a woman with no money or power tied to her. Just an average woman. Her heartbeat sped up and she lifted her hands to his shoulders.
The cotton of his uniform, starched to perfection, was a new texture. She slid her fingers across the fabric, feeling the strength of the man before her. This wasn’t a man who’d allow himself to be purchased.
This was a man who lived life by his own rules. And as his head lowered slowly toward hers, she realized this was a man who could teach her more of life than just the passionate side she’d never experienced. By example he could teach her how to carve her own niche in the world.
She stood on her toes to reach his lips as they descended. Losing her balance, she fell forward, her breasts brushing his chest. Her nipples tightened and her blood seemed heavier as it flowed through her veins.
He angled his head, she closed her eyes.
“Sheriff?”
“Dammit.”
He pivoted to face the open doorway. Lydia drew her hands down and laced her fingers together.
“Phone,” one of his deputies said. Evan ran a hand through his hair and walked away without looking back at her. What had almost happened?
Lydia leaned against the edge of the cluttered desk and wrapped her arms around her waist. Her heart was racing, her blood pounding and her most feminine parts were crying out for more of that man. Evan Powell made her feel alive. She realized she was staying in Placid Springs for more than a desire to earn her own way. She wanted to spend more time with the sheriff.
A warm breeze blew through the open windows of the cab of Evan’s truck. Lydia stared out the window as if the view held the secrets to the universe. She had been pensive and withdrawn since their conversation this afternoon. He wondered what she was hiding from.
She had the pampered look of a rich wife. Which gave him pause. No matter how much he wanted her or she flirted with him he wasn’t poaching in another man’s territory.
He’d never questioned his control. It had been his constant companion since his ex-wife’s desertion. But even rock-solid control and the possibility that Lydia might be married wasn’t enough to keep him from wanting to reach out and touch the slim thighs revealed by her skirt.
Lydia’s soft voice as she sang along with the radio played along his senses, with the warm breeze and earthy scents setting off longings he had no right to. He wanted to pull the truck off the road and revel in his senses. To fill them until he was drunk on the sensations of woman, world and endless time.
Dammit, Lydia called to his soul the way D.C. had called to his secret hidden dreams. She represented everything about the world outside of Placid Springs that he wanted but didn’t have. Everyone in the small town had stopped by to see her and talk to her about the cow accident. Did you see the pretty lady in Evan’s office?
The lady didn’t belong with him any more than she did this small town. But he wanted her.
Damn, he wished he’d never thought of kissing her. But since he had, his mind kept supplying him with images and imagined textures. Images of her straddling his hips, her skirt floating over his thighs while she rode him to completion. The imagined texture of her skin and her mouth. The soft wet, living silk of female.
“Evan?”
Forcing his concentration to the present and away from hot dreams, he glanced over at her.
“I’m sorry about those papers,” she said.
She’d mixed up the fax and the shredder machines. Whatever Lydia had done in the life she was running from, she had not been a top-rate office assistant. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Are you going to fire me?” she asked after minutes had passed.
“I’m not.”
“Are you upset about something?
“I’m not upset. What kind of a wimpy word is that to use on a man?”
“I don’t know, Marlboro Man, why don’t you tell me?”
“It was a long day,” he said at last. “I like the silence.”
“Are you sure that’s all?”
“Yes.”
“You can talk to me about your problems. I’d be happy to be your sounding board,” she said, placing her hand on his thigh.
“No, thank you.”
“Really. It’s something I’m good at. Unless of course you don’t like me.”
“Look, Lydia. I like you.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“You’re funny and sexy and everything I like about big-city women. But you’re not staying here. For us to do more than work together would be a mistake.”
“I was talking about work.”
He glanced pointedly to the hand resting on his thigh. “You were flirting.”
Hastily she removed her touch. She laced her fingers together in her lap and owned up to the truth. “Yes I was. I thought you were interested in more than lust, less than love.”
“I said that’s what would have made me stop questioning you.”
“Not interested?” she asked.
“You’re a complication I don’t need. I’m not a casual man, Lydia.”
“I know.”
He slowed the truck and turned onto his property. As they bounced along the rutted road, silence permeated the air much the way rotted fruit does.
He bounced to a stop, and Lydia was out of the truck before he had the key out of the ignition.
“Lydia—”
