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Probably the rest of her life she’d look back and wish circumstances had presented her with the option to throw caution to the wind with Stone Parker.
To forget the pain of Tony turning his back on her.
To embrace all the warmth and urges Stone stirred.
Because she’d like him to kiss her. Had not been able to stop the late-night thoughts about what it would feel like to be kissed by him.
Now, he’d said he wanted to kiss her.
How was she ever supposed to get him out of her head when he’d verbalized things she’d fantasized?
“Carly?”
His voice was so close, her name whispered against her cheek.
“Hmm?”
“Open your eyes.”
She bit the inside of her lower lip. “I can’t.”
“There’s a lot of things you say you can’t do, lady.”
“Exactly. You should run.”
“I don’t believe there’s anything you can’t do.”
He was definitely closer. She’d swear she just felt his breath tickle her ear.
“For the record,” he continued, “I’m not going anywhere.”
The brevity of his words dug in deep, breaking through barriers that were best left alone.
“Not unless you tell me to,” he clarified. “Then I will leave you alone, because I’m not some psycho stalker, just a man wanting to date a beautiful woman.”
Tell him to go away.
Tell him sticking around is futile.
Tell him...
Stone’s lips brushed against her hairline, near her ear. Soft, gentle, tentative. Not a sexual kiss, but one full of longing and question and space. Space that gave her control of what happened next.
Carly’s eyes shot open, stared into his eyes, and she wondered at what she saw there.
Desire, confusion, so much she couldn’t label.
“Tell me you aren’t curious, Carly. Tell me I’m crazy when I look in your eyes and see a kindred desire. Tell me to put you in your car, watch you drive away, never think of you again, and I’ll try to do just that.”
Tell him.
Not to do so would be selfish.
Self-destructive.
But her lips refused to cooperate so she said nothing.
“Tell me what you want, Carly.”
She didn’t know what she wanted.
Not true. She wanted him to do exactly what he’d said he wanted to do. She wanted him to kiss her.
Crazy.
She wasn’t free to have a relationship. To pull some unsuspecting man into her chaotic life wouldn’t be fair.
Plus, with two jobs and her mother, she barely slept as it was. Where would she fit in a relationship?
She opened her mouth, determined to tell him she only wanted a professional relationship, that he needed to forget about her and whatever it was he thought he’d seen when she looked at him.
So why did she hear her address spill from her lips?
She was crazy. She couldn’t let him into her house, couldn’t let Joyce or her mother hear his voice.
Surprise lit in his eyes, then, with a smile, he nodded. “I’ll follow you home and carry in the box.”
What had she done?
And why?
Because she wanted to know what it felt like to kiss Stone?
It wasn’t as if she were actually going to kiss him.
Only in her deepest darkest late-night fantasies and even then she barely gave her mind license to imagine Stone’s lips against hers.
She’d made a horrible mistake by giving him her address. Just what did he think it had meant? If he was thinking he was staying the night, he was going to be in for a rude awakening when he realized an invalid woman also lived at Carly’s address.
Carly got into her car, leaned forward, and rested her forehead against the steering wheel.
Clearly, she’d lost her mind.
Or maybe, because she hadn’t been able to verbalize the reasons why they could never be, her subconscious had taken control, and was going to confront Stone with the harsh reality of why he needed to forget her.
That harsh reality had certainly scared off the last man Carly had brought home.
* * *
Had Carly given Stone a bogus address?
If she had, Stone couldn’t say he’d be surprised.
He hoped she hadn’t, but had to wonder. She’d thrown it out at a point where the last thing he’d expected was an invitation to her home.
She hadn’t technically invited him to her house, but hadn’t that been what giving her address to him had essentially been?
As he’d only moved to Memphis a month before and was still learning the city, he programmed the details into his GPS and noted she only lived six minutes from the hospital and about fifteen from him as he lived over the bridge on Mud Island.
At least, he’d know pretty quickly if she’d told him the truth. And if she hadn’t?
Well, that should tell him that she wanted him to leave her alone.
Only she didn’t want that. He knew she didn’t.
She hadn’t even been able to say the words.
He’d flirted with her at the hospital on more than one occasion. She’d flirted back. Not overtly, but her smiles and sassy eye flashes and little laughs at his jokes had all been leading up to something. What had happened yesterday that had her scurrying back?
No matter how many times he replayed the conversation, he couldn’t fathom what had put her on the defensive.
Not quite liking the looks of the run-down neighborhood and having been warned not to go wandering around parts of Memphis he was unfamiliar with, Stone questioned again if Carly had given him a made-up address. He turned onto her street, and, best as he could tell, the houses on the street were small, older, but decently cared for.
His GPS told him he’d arrived at his destination and he pulled up his SUV outside a small once-white frame house that even in the dark he could tell needed some major TLC. Much more so than the surrounding homes.
That surprised him.
Carly was meticulous in her care of patients and all that she did at her job. To ignore upkeep on her home didn’t fit what he believed about her. He could be wrong, but he struggled to wrap his mind around the neglect that registered.
He wouldn’t have guessed her to live in the house of obvious worst repair on her street.
Then again, maybe she rented the place and her landlord was the slacker.
As a nurse, she made a decent salary to where she could afford to move if she was renting and things weren’t up to par. If she had some long-term lease that had her trapped in the run-down house, maybe he could call on a lawyer friend to get her into something better maintained.
He would help her find another place.
A place closer to his on Mud Island.
There was another car, a much newer sedan, parked in the drive beside hers. Did she have a roommate?
She must have just pulled into the short gravel driveway right before him as when he turned off the SUV’s engine and opened his door, Carly got out of her car.
“You really didn’t need to do this,” she said immediately, before he could ask about the other car. “Yes, it’s bulky, but I would have gotten the box inside without any problems. I was doing just fine before you came to my rescue.”
“No need to risk hurting your back when you have me.”
Whether she wanted him or not, he planned to help Carly because he suspected more was going on than met the eye with the woman who’d captured his imagination.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u8c791de1-0a01-5d21-a209-100977a3f194)
STONE WAS AT Carly’s house.
Now that he was there, what was Carly supposed to do with him?
Let him carry the box to her porch and send him away?
It was what she wanted to do, what she was tempted to do.
Somehow she didn’t think he would agree to it though. He had that “let me be your knight in shining armor” look that she’d seen in the movies her mother enjoyed watching, but that Carly had never seen in real life.
Until now.
If Stone went inside, it was quite possible her mother would be asleep and Carly could avoid that explanation. But Joyce would be there and ready to head to her home to spend the evening with her husband.
Joyce seeing Stone would raise questions. From Joyce, but perhaps more so from Stone.
Maybe she could have him set the box just inside the doorway and get him back outside prior to Joyce realizing they were there. Before Stone realized there was someone else in the house.
Unlikely, but she could try.
Or she could just tell Stone everything.
Which made her stomach hurt.
She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her or feel obligated to offer help. The past had taught her people might think they wanted to help, but most only offered idle words.
She had this. She could take care of her mother.
She could, she was, and she would.
Or was it that she was afraid he’d pull a Tony?
Wasn’t that what she actually needed him to do? What would be best for her and Stone?
So, why was she hesitating?
“It’s no problem,” Stone assured her, pulling Carly back to their conversation as he lifted the box out of her backseat.
“Thank you.” She shut the car door then moved ahead of him to unlock her front door.
She turned, wondering if Stone would be agreeable to drop the box in the foyer and leave.
Maybe she was a runner after all, because if she could escape this moment, her tennis shoes would be getting a desperately needed workout.
Stone carried the box, stopped just inside the doorway and asked, “Where would you like me to put this?”
She pointed to a small wooden bench that had once upon a time belonged to her long-gone grandparents. “Right there is fine.”
