скачать книгу бесплатно
He stood and pulled back the covers. She slid into bed, sitting up against the pillows instead of lying down.
“You need plenty of water,” he told her, filling a glass from a bottle she had on the small table. “You want to stay hydrated.”
She nodded as he put the glass on the nightstand. “Are you leaving?”
Her eyes seemed bigger than before. Her mouth trembled slightly and her voice shook as she spoke. She looked like a drowned kitten.
Good sense insisted that he head out now that he knew she was all right. There was no point in staying. In the morning she could get back to whatever it was she’d been doing, and he would catch a flight back to D.C. where he was expected for a two o’clock meeting.
He stared at her, then the door. Her fingers twisted the sheet. “I’ll be fine,” she whispered. “You’ve been really nice and I don’t want to take advantage of that.”
He called himself eight different names, none of them fit for her ears, kicked off his shoes and sat on the bed.
“I’ll stay for a little while,” he said, shifting close and putting an arm around her.
She snuggled against him, resting her head on his chest where her damp hair quickly soaked his shirt. Oddly, he didn’t mind.
He told himself looking after her was like caring for a child. Except she didn’t feel very childlike in his arms. Nor was his reaction to her even close to paternal.
“You know all about me,” she said after a few minutes. “What about you? Where are you from?”
“A place you’ve never heard of. Possum Landing, Texas.”
She glanced up and smiled. “Possum Landing?”
He nodded. “Lived there all my life. My brother and I were born in the Dallas area.”
“You have a brother?”
“Fraternal twin. Nash works for the FBI.”
She sighed. “I always wanted a sister, although a brother would have been nice. Sometimes it got quiet, what with there only being me.”
“Your father never remarried?”
“No. He and my mom were really in love. He used to tell me that no one could ever take her place. When I was little I thought that was really romantic, but as I got older, I thought it sounded lonely.”
Kevin agreed. His mother and stepfather had a good, strong marriage, but if something happened to one of them, he would hate to think the other was destined to a solitary life. Not that he was in a position to talk. After all, he’d managed to avoid matrimonial bliss for all of his thirty-one years.
“You’re a pretty young woman,” he said. “How come you’ve only kissed three guys?”
She raised her head and looked at him. “You think I’m pretty?”
“Fishing for compliments?”
She smiled. “If you knew how seldom they came along, you wouldn’t be asking the question.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. Why weren’t people complimenting her? Then he remembered the ugly dress and even worse-looking shoes. Maybe it wasn’t such a stretch to think she’d been overlooked.
“Yes, I think you’re pretty,” he said. “Tell me about dating.”
“You mean, not dating.” She dropped her head back onto his shoulder. “I can’t really explain it. Some of the reason I never went out much was because I was busy with school activities and different things at church. Some of it was my dad. He used to lecture me on the importance of setting an example and doing the right thing. Plus everywhere I went in town, I knew people. They reported back any hint of unacceptable behavior.”
She shifted slightly, as if getting more comfortable. The covers slipped, and instead of touching layers of sheet and blanket, he suddenly found his hand resting on her hip. Only the voluminous cotton nightgown kept his fingers from touching bare skin.
He could feel the heat of her body and the arc of the curve. Ugly clothes or not, she was a woman, down to her toes. An attractive woman who, for reasons he couldn’t explain, appealed to him.
Touching her hip made him think about touching other parts of her body…such as her breasts. Need flared inside, bringing his own male heat to life.
Down boy, he told himself. Not this night, not with this woman. Still, a man could dream.
“Sometimes it seemed easier not to go out,” she continued, apparently unaware of the change in circumstances. “Not that there are all that many guys beating down my front door.” She glanced up at him again. “I’m sure you dated a lot.”
“Some.”
Color flared on her cheeks. “You’ve probably even…you know.”
Uh-oh. He deliberately moved his hand away from her body and rested it on the mattress.
She cleared her throat. “You’ve probably been with a woman before.”
He stared at her. “Are you talking about sex?”
She blushed fiercely and nodded.
Hell. Why were they talking about this? “I’ve had my way with a woman or two,” he said.
“What’s it like?”
Now it was his turn to groan. “We are not having this conversation.”
“I know it’s not appropriate, but just once I would like someone to give me some details.”
She wouldn’t be getting them from him, that’s for sure.
Haley sat up and looked at him. “You’ve been really nice, but I’m feeling much better after the shower.” She yawned. “I guess I’m tired. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
“I know.” He thought about leaving and realized he wasn’t all that much in a hurry to go. “I’ll head out in a little while.”
She smiled at him, then. A warm, welcoming smile that stirred something in his chest. Something he hadn’t felt before. Then she picked up the remote on the nightstand before settling back against him.
“Do you know they have cable here? We never had cable. There’s lots of really cool channels. Even one of those shopping shows.”
“Great,” he muttered. “Maybe we could finish watching the ball game instead.”
“Wouldn’t you rather shop?”
“Not really.”
She laughed. “Okay. Baseball, then shopping. How’s that?”
“Sounds good.”
Kevin didn’t remember falling asleep, but suddenly he came awake. Several bits of information flashed into his brain at once. First, he was in a strange bed, on top of the covers. He knew the woman in his arms, but not how she got there. Second, a man on television was holding up what looked like a pair of diamond earrings and listing all sorts of reasons one should purchase them. Third, his cell was going off.
He flipped on the lamp on the nightstand and pulled the phone from its spot on his belt. The emergency message chased the last clouds of sleep from his brain.
He listened to the information, swore, then hung up. Haley had stirred enough to ask what was going on.
“I have to go,” he said as he pulled on his shoes. “There’s a riot at the prison. I need to get there now.”
Haley’s blond hair had dried in spikes that stuck up all over her head. She blinked sleepily.
“A riot?”
“Yup.”
Which was exactly how his day had been going. He paused and bent long enough to scribble a number on the pad by the phone.
“This is my cell number,” he said as he straightened. “Leave me a message in the morning to let me know you’re okay. Agreed?”
She sat up and nodded. Her big eyes studied him. “I didn’t thank you for everything.”
“Thank me on the phone. I gotta run.”
Kevin was out the door before Haley could think of anything else to say. She clicked off the television, then slid over to turn out the light. His side of the bed was warm. She curled up in the dark and thought about all that had happened in the past few hours. She smiled as she realized she’d finally slept with a man. All things considered, the experience had been pretty wonderful.
Chapter Three
Haley woke with the sensation that she was late. Before her eyes had focused she was trying to figure out if it was choir practice or her morning to visit the shut-ins or—
Then she blinked and realized she didn’t recognize her bedroom.
In the split second it took to view the unfamiliar dresser, the window in the wrong place and the television, the events of the previous evening flashed through her mind like a silent music video. The montage included her entrance into the bar down the street, those scary men who had tried to get her to sit with them, and her rescue by Kevin Harmon. From there she recalled the margaritas, her reaction to the drinks and—
Here the memories got a little fuzzy. Or maybe it was just that she didn’t want to remember, because honestly, it was too embarrassing to think that she’d actually thrown herself at a man. Worse, he’d turned her down.
Haley groaned and buried her face in her pillow. The exact sequence of events wasn’t clear, but she definitely recalled something about wanting to be forbidden fruit, then having to throw up. They hardly combined to make a good first impression. And through it all, Kevin had been perfect.
She sat up suddenly and brushed her too short bangs off her forehead, then stood cautiously and waited to see what her stomach was going to do. But except for an icky taste in her mouth, she felt fine. Certainly a whole lot better than she’d felt the previous night. Lying on that bathroom floor had been the closest she’d ever come to wishing for death. At least for herself.
Okay, she thought as she crossed to the bathroom, last night had been both good and bad. The good had been meeting Kevin. He’d taken care of her, treated her wonderfully, had brought her back here and stayed to make sure she was going to survive. More than that, he’d spent the night with her.
She smiled at the memory of falling asleep in his arms. Romantic things like that didn’t happen to women like her.
She’d also found a drink she liked—although maybe two doubles were more than she could handle—and she’d actually spent time in a bar. If she kept this up, eventually she would be worldly.
Haley paused in front of the bathroom sink to pin back her hair, only to remember that she’d cut it all off on her way out of Ohio. She used a headband from her small cosmetics bag to hold her bangs off her face, then turned on the water.
The bad things about last night had been getting sick and throwing herself at a man who obviously didn’t find her attractive. As she splashed water on her face, she tried to figure out if she could have said or done something to make herself more appealing to Kevin. Was it something specifically about her, or was she not his type? Not that she knew what being someone’s type meant. She didn’t have a type that she knew of, except for “not Allan.”
She straightened and pulled the hand towel from the rack. Kevin had been nice and had stayed until he’d gotten called away. So he couldn’t have disliked her too much.
“There is no way you’re going to figure this out,” Haley told herself as she started the shower, then stripped off her nightgown. “The inner workings of the male mind are a complete mystery.”
That decided, she stepped into the warm spray and contented herself with the memory of him holding her close as they stretched out together on the bed.
Thirty minutes later Haley was dressed, packed and eating a breakfast consisting of coffee made in the in-room pot and a granola bar she’d brought with her. She would have liked something more substantial, but she hadn’t seen any fast-food places on her way into town and she hadn’t worked up the nerve to eat alone in a regular restaurant. Plus, she wasn’t sure how her stomach was going to react to a big meal just yet. Maybe it would be better to take things slow.
She sat on the bed and peeled back the wrapping on her breakfast, all the while staring at the phone number written on the small pad. Kevin’s cell number. Before he’d left he’d asked her to phone to let him know she was all right. Part of her wanted to hear his voice again, but part of her was still pretty embarrassed by everything that had happened. He’d done more than enough. She shouldn’t bother the poor man.
Indecision made her shift on the bed. As she nibbled on the bar, she reached for the television remote and clicked on the TV to distract herself. A well-dressed, thirty-something woman spoke directly to the camera.
“We’ll go to that footage in a moment. Our live shots confirm what the authorities are telling us. The prison riot seems to have ended.”
Haley stared at the screen. Prison riot? Hadn’t Kevin said something about delivering a prisoner?
“As you can see from this video taken last night, several prisoners started a riot that turned violent. There were over two dozen injuries, including at least three gunshot wounds. One U.S. Marshal was taken to a local hospital at about five this morning.”
As the woman spoke, the camera panned over heavily armed authorities trying to subdue angry prisoners. From there, the shot focused on a man on a stretcher. The camera zoomed in on his face. Haley dropped her granola bar and came as close to swearing as she ever had in her life. Despite the blood on his face and the thick, blood-soaked bandage around his leg, she recognized the man being rushed to the ambulance.
It was Kevin.
Okay, she was an idiot, Haley thought an hour later as she paced in the hospital waiting room. What had she been thinking when she’d decided to check on Kevin at the hospital? Or had she been thinking?
One second she’d been stunned by the live news report and the next she’d been loading up her car and asking the guy at the motel’s front desk how to get to the hospital. Now that she was here, what was she going to do? She didn’t know Kevin. Not really. He was a competent grown-up who didn’t need her checking on him and probably wouldn’t appreciate her visit.
She crossed to the door and nearly left, then turned back and walked the length of the room. Okay, she was here. The nurse said she could see him in a few minutes. She would go into his room, thank him for the previous night and duck out while she still had some small measure of dignity.
“Are you here to see Kevin Harmon?”
Haley turned toward the speaker and saw a nurse standing in the doorway.
“Yes.” Haley approached the woman. “Is he all right?”
“Actually he’s doing surprisingly well, for a man who was shot.” She smiled. “He’s in Room 247. Right down at the end of the hall.”
“Thanks.”
Haley clutched her purse to her stomach and headed down the hall. As she walked, she tried to figure out what exactly she was going to say. After “Hi,” her brain sort of stalled. She supposed she could pretend he was just another sick parishioner. She’d visited hundreds of them over the years.
Yes, that was it. She would think of Kevin as just one more member of her father’s congregation. Not the man who had rescued her and then turned down her offer of carnal knowledge of her person.
The hospital door stood open. Haley knocked softly as she entered. There was only one bed in the room. The man in it turned his head as she entered, giving her a clear view of his face. Her feelings of concern turned to dread as she took in his bruised face and the bandage around his head. Where it wasn’t bruised, his skin was pale in contrast to his thick, dark hair. His eyes were only partially open. One leg was propped up on a pillow and a thick bandage encircled his thigh.
“Kevin?”
He managed a slight smile. “You should see the other guy.”
