Mistake Me Not

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Lacie had begun to panic; he’d been gone for more than half an hour. All sorts of possibilities flitted through her mind. A car could have hit him. Maybe another driver’s road rage got him into a fight or maybe he’d gone for something to eat and abandoned her.

While she sat there almost motionless, traffic piled up around her, packing them in from behind. She’d had to drive a small amount, a couple of feet at a time, though it took a while to get comfortable with controlling this mammoth.

The passenger door opened and he slid into the space she’d previously occupied. “See you’re a natural,” he said.

“You scared me,” she said. “You’ve been gone for ages.”

“It’ll take us a few minutes, but if you can get onto the shoulder there’s an exit about a mile and half up—”

“The shoulder,” she said. “We’ve moved about ten feet in half an hour.”

“There’s a tanker spill,” he said. “About eight miles down. It doesn’t look like anyone will be going far for a while.”

“You went eight miles in half an hour?”

“Didn’t have to go that far,” he said. “I met an official who gave me the information.”

“Eight miles?” she said.

“I spoke to him a mile or so down the road.”

“Is there another way?” she asked. “If we take the exit?”

“Might be,” he said. “But I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”

“I suppose,” she said.

“Let’s get off this road and regroup, there’s a steakhouse down there. What do you think?”

“Okay,” she said. “But you should drive.”

“I don’t mind.”

“I do,” she said uncomfortable in the beast of a truck while its tamer sat there prone.

“Okay,” he said. “Stay there.”

In a flash, he was out of the vehicle, around it, and then the door at her side opened. He didn’t give her the chance to exit, instead he lifted her out of the seat and across the center console into the seat he’d just vacated, and he’d done it as if she weighed the same as a bag of sugar.

“I would have been happy to get out,” she said, reaching for her seatbelt to stop herself from looking at him.

“It’s not safe out there on a highway like this.”

“You went out in it.”

“I’m not safe either,” he said, getting them across and onto the shoulder much quicker than she would have.

They trundled down the shoulder at a steady, slow pace until they were on the exit slipway and free.

The steakhouse was next to a rest stop. They both ordered and ate while maintaining conversation. He’d told her about some cases he’d worked, keeping the details vague, and she’d laughed at his stories. The fact that she accepted everything he’d said brought him to the conclusion Sorcha hadn’t disclosed too much about Sheppard’s life.

At his mental reminder of the misidentification, Ryder stopped laughing at the joke she’d been telling about her aunt and the strawberry stain.

“Are you okay?” Lacie asked, covering his hand with her own. The air crackled, and he found himself once again cataloguing her every nuance and expression. “Did I upset you?”

“No,” he said. “Sorry, I was thinking about something else.”

“Is it because I mentioned Sorcha?” she asked. “Oh, I’m an i***t. I’m sorry.”

“No,” he said. “It’s nothing about Sorcha. I’m over that.”

“You’re over Sorcha?”

“Yeah,” he said.

Cringing at the lie, he’d tried his best to avoid further deceit.

“You don’t have to hide,” she said with such sympathy the dinner he’d just eaten threatened to reappear. “It’s okay. Sorcha and I have been friends for almost a decade. I’ve seen how losing her affects men like you.”

“Like me?” he asked, jumping on her own previous question.

“Yes,” she said, unfazed. “You’re a good-looking man, you obviously have confidence, and strength, and a natural ability.”

“A natural ability for what?”

“Drawing women in,” she said. “Men like you are used to being coveted. It stings when someone rejects you, especially when that someone is Sorcha.”

“You think a lot of your friend.”

“I do,” she said, sipping from her beer. “She’s beautiful, and poised, and everything any man would look for. She deserves love.” Lacie fidgeted with the corner of the napkin left on the table. “She’s spent all this time looking for it and…”

“And?” he asked, sensing the depth behind what Lacie wasn’t saying.

“Nothing,” she said, pasting on a false smile. “Should we get back on the road?”

“It’s late now. We’re another couple of hours drive from the next address. Your friend likely won’t be awake when we get there. I also can’t guarantee what the roads will be like. Anyone avoiding the Interstate will be—”

“On the road we’ll want. Okay.”

“I’ll take you home,” he said, sliding to the end of the booth while taking his wallet from his back pocket.

“I’ll get this,” she said, snatching up her purse. “It’s not fair that you should cover expenses incurred while—”

“I had fun,” he said, opening his wallet to pull out the bills needed to cover the cost of the meal. “This wasn’t business.” Her mouth opened, but from the way her eyes searched, he knew she had nothing to say. “Are you ready?”

On leaving the booth, she hooked her hand into his elbow and let him lead her outside. Now that they were used to the zing at physical contact, he got to like it. More than that, he liked that she wasn’t afraid of it, or caught off-guard by it anymore.

“There’s a motel,” she said, pointing to the neon sign at the end of the lot. “Why don’t we stay there?”

“I like a woman who’s direct,” he said, making her smile glitter again.

An ease had formed between them. Neither of them was unaware of the other nor had they dwelled on his last comment in the restaurant, which was good because he’d meant it.

“I’ll pay for your room,” she said. “It will save us waking up and starting the journey from scratch again. There was no point in driving this far just to turn back.”

“If that’s what you want, Dusty.”

“Do you have other business?” she asked. He adjusted trajectory to head for the motel. “I would be happy to speak to your girlfriend and make her aware of the situation. I wouldn’t want her to worry.”

“I don’t live with a girlfriend.”

“Of course not,” she said, shaking her head. “Do you live alone?”

“I live with my partner actually,” he said then wanted to kick himself, he was supposed to be Sheppard.

“Oh,” she said.

He didn’t have to look at her to know she was smiling again. “Oh what?”

“Nothing,” she said. Her free hand came up to cover her mouth as she averted her gaze to her feet.

“You can’t say that with that look on your face and not explain yourself.”

“Sorry,” she said.

He halted in the shadow of the motel-office. “Tell me.”

“I just…” she said, looking from left to right. “It kind of explains something that’s all.”

“Kind of explains what?”

“You’re handsome, and you have appeal, and…”

“What?” he demanded.

She scrunched her expression. “Promise not to get angry?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Tell me, and then we’ll see.”

“Sorcha mentioned the uh… the difficulty that you two had in bed, and I suppose if you don’t swing that way—”

“Difficulty in bed?” he barked.

“Don’t be offended,” Lacie said, laying a hand on his chest, looking at him with that sympathy again. “Your sexuality is your business, and if you were going to test your heterosexuality with anyone Sorcha would be the prime candidate. Any man who isn’t pleased by her must have an underlying reason.”

Sheppard hadn’t pleased Sorcha. Now the woman who’d plagued his mind, and his pants, all night believed he was gay and lousy in the sack. As Ryder formulated a response, his impatient body took over and stepped closer to urge her against the concrete motel-office wall. Her surprised gasp brought her chin up, giving him the perfect chance to capture her inhale with his mouth.

Her lips parted in the surprise; he used the opportunity to sweep his tongue against hers. Her rigid body relaxed at the same time those fingers on his chest curled into the cotton of his tee-shirt. This was primal, all instinct. Hot and wet, their mouths danced, testing texture, taste, resistance.

Laying a hand on the wall above her head, he pressed his weight to hers earning himself a desperate mew from her ravenous throat. That delectable little body pushed up, so he crouched to meet her unspoken demand, bringing them nearer to each other. Whatever had crackled between them now combusted. A growl rumbled from within him, he pushed deeper; lips, tongues, teeth clamored in desperation to mate, to be joined and never parted.

Someone nearby laughed. “Get a room!”

Ryder tore himself away, shamed at taking her so thoroughly in such a shadowy, squalid setting. The trouble was his eyes wouldn’t focus. The hand he had on the wall above her head wasn’t enough to keep him upright. So he rested the other on her waist; some of her weight shifted to him. Although his body still pinned hers, she was as in need of an anchor as him.

Blinking back to reality, he sought those plump, pillowy lips now red and swollen after his attack. Gritting his teeth, he tried to quell the animal in him that wanted to complete the transaction right there. Her eyes weren’t open yet, she was suspended as though in wait for part two.

Sliding his hand from the wall, he touched her cheek with the back of his fingers. Obviously, she was having as much trouble with re-entry to reality.

“I want to have s*x with you,” she whispered.

His shoulders straightened. He wondered if he hadn’t fallen somewhere, hit his head, and tumbled into his perfect fantasy. If he had, he didn’t want to wake up.

“I like honesty in a woman,” he said.

Still stroking her face, his other hand slid up her waist. Hooking the hand behind her shoulder against the wall, he drew her into his arms.

“That’s bad,” she murmured.

“Baby, it’s okay.”

Her eyes popped open, stricken with grief and horror. “No,” she said. “No, it’s not.”

“It’s okay.”

Keeping her body trapped between his and the wall was meant to keep them grounded. Right now, he was floating with her. His entire universe became about those wide green eyes and the silent whispers from those engorged lips.

His mind and his body hadn’t reengaged communication. He lowered his head and kissed her again. Softly, hiding the passion that bubbled between them, she needed comfort, and reassurance. She let him kiss her like that, like a boyfriend who’d kissed her a million times before, as though it was the most normal thing in the world for him to press his lips to hers.

“This has never happened to me,” she confessed. His hand moved from her face to her hair. The impulse to touch her was automatic; it was so all encompassing that he was overwhelmed with the urge just to be, just to exist with this woman.

“It’s okay,” he said again. “We’ll take our time.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No. We can’t. But… you don’t understand.”

“Tell me.”

His lips touched her temple, her brow, her hairline.

“I’ve never wanted to go to bed with a man before,” she said. “I’ve never…”

His hand was still on the wall hooked behind her shoulder. He shifted it further around her to pillow her head against his knuckles rather than the concrete wall. The maneuver had the bonus of bringing her chest flusher with his.

“Are you telling me you’ve never—?”

“No,” she said. “I’ve had s*x. I just… it’s been something they’ve wanted.”

“You’ve never felt desire?” he asked. “Passion for a partner?”

She shook her head. Her silken hair rubbed his knuckles; he parted them to let the strands tickle between his digits.

“I’m flattered,” he said. “I’ve known it since the moment I met you.”

“What?”

“That I want to take you to bed.”

“That’s why it’s so sad,” she said, blinking those imploring eyes.

“Sad,” he said. “It’s not sad. I’m not only interested in using you for s*x if that’s what you think.”

“That’s not what I think.”

“I’m not gay—”

“I noticed,” she whispered.

She managed a smile then drew her lower lip between her teeth, which made him want to mimic the action.

“I’m not involved.”

“We can never… I can’t believe the first time I start to understand what all the fuss is about and it’s… never mind.”

Pressuring her palms to his chest, she wanted him to release her, but he wasn’t ready to move yet.

“We don’t have to jump straight in the sack,” he said. “This feeling won’t go away. It’ll get better with the more time we spend together. We can get to know each other and see where this goes.”

“You’re trying to look after me,” she said, relaxing her arms again. “Why do you do that?”

“What?”

“Look after me,” she said. “You buy me dinner. You won’t let me out of the car on the road because it’s dangerous. You went to check out the block before we went inside, and you wouldn’t give me the addresses in case they were dangerous. Why do you look after me?”

“You’re special,” he said. “Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t. You’re hard on yourself but see the best in people. I have a feeling you’ve been used to standing on your own two feet for a while. You’re not used to deferring to anyone. You look after yourself, and yet… there’s an innocence about you, you let people take advantage of you far too easily.”

“It’s such a cruel irony,” she said then took a deep breath, further crushing her breasts against his chest.

“Irony?”

“That the one man I finally find myself interested in isn’t available.”

“I’m available, baby,” he said.

“Not to me.”

“Because of Bruce?”

“Bru… no, not because of him.”

“You don’t have to fear me. I’ll prove myself. You don’t have to take Sorcha’s…” and just like that he understood. “You won’t date me,” he said. She shook her head. “Because of Sorcha.”

“She’s my best friend,” Lacie said. On another deep breath, her body sagged. “It’s late.”

She eased him away and he couldn’t do a thing to stop her. If he told her the truth now, she’d run a mile for sure. She probably wouldn’t believe him because if Sheppard had been here now instead of him, Ryder would guarantee that Sheppard would lie. Shep would say anything to get a woman he wanted into bed.

Ryder clenched his fists. An uncharacteristic flare of rage bolted through him. Normally he’d just avoid Sheppard, and usually he felt more shame for the loser than anger. Sheppard played women, but he didn’t discriminate. Shep would play anyone to better his own ends.

“I’m going to get a room and take a long bath,” she said. “Will I see you here in the morning?”

“I’m not going to ditch you.”

He took his truck keys from his pocket and held them towards her, but she only looked at them. Taking her hand from her side, he dropped the keys to her palm then curled her fingers around them.

Ryder edged in the direction of the motel-office door. “I’ll go in and get two rooms next to each other.”

“No one knows we’re here. I hardly think there will be any trouble—”

“People don’t expect trouble,” he said. “Do you know where you are? Do you know the area?”

“Well, no, but—”

“I don’t know it well enough,” he said. “I’ll get the rooms.”

“No, I’ll get my—”

“It’s covered,” he said, going for the office door, but she kept his hand.

“You’re doing it again.”

“What?” he asked pleased to see her discomfort fade and her smile return.

“Looking after me.”

He brought the petal soft skin of her knuckles up to his lips. “Stay in the window where I can see you.”