Читать книгу Hers for the Weekend - Tanya Michaels, Tanya Michaels - Страница 10

JOSH FOUND PIPER in the parking garage. She was loading the trunk of her car and glanced up with a smile when he called out a hello.

“Hi.” She took his duffel from him, then unlocked the back door of the car to hang up his garment bag. Shutting the car door, she turned expectantly toward him. “Didn’t you bring anything else?”

“Nope. I have everything I need.”

“In a garment bag and one small duffel?”

Nodding, he peered through the car window at Piper’s luggage. It appeared she’d packed the entire contents of her apartment. Maybe to avoid being robbed while she was out of town.

“I noticed the car was sagging,” he kidded her, “but I thought we just needed to fill up the tires before we hit the freeway.”

“I have presents to take home for the kids in the family, plus a gift for my sister, who’s pregnant, another for my cousin who got engaged, one—”

His laugh cut her off. “It’s your car. Bring as much as you want.”

She slid in the driver’s side and reached across to unlock his door.

Soon they were zooming down the road and Josh was clenching his fists in his lap. Usually, whenever he and Piper went somewhere, he drove or he took his car and met her there. Or he walked, or did whatever else was necessary to avoid riding with her when she was behind the wheel.

It wasn’t just her tendency to drive at warp speed that bothered him; he detested being in situations where someone else was in control. He was a lousy passenger and he knew it. People disliked “backseat drivers,” especially stubborn, independent people like Piper who hated to be told what to do.

I am going to keep my mouth shut, he told himself. As far as he knew, Piper had never had a single accident. She didn’t need him to tell her how to drive.

His well-intended resolution lasted for about five minutes. Piper’s head was nodding in time to the fast-paced song on the radio, her braid bobbing against the collar of her pale yellow shirt, and with each chorus, the car accelerated a little more.

“So,” he blurted, “what’s the speed limit on this road, anyway? We shot past the sign so fast I couldn’t tell.”

She glanced at the speedometer and immediately slowed the vehicle down.

He couldn’t repress a sigh of relief. It was irrational to get nervous when he was in someone else’s car, but for the first eighteen years of his life, he’d had no control whatsoever. He hated not being in charge of a situation. Usually, he managed to project an easygoing image, but his heart pounded every time he had to fly on a plane or ride with another driver.

For a while, his irrational feelings had even affected his job history, driving him to quit voluntarily before something beyond his power might force him to go. A few months ago, he’d started freelancing his services and it had started to pick up. He was regularly approached with jobs that were big enough to keep him busy, but too small for firms like C, K and M to expend energy on. Lately, he’d had to turn down as many assignments as he accepted, but he never backed too far away from his freelancing—and not because he needed the money. Life had taught him that little was permanent. Not jobs, not families, not lovers. Why get attached to people? Why give someone else the opportunity to leave him? He’d lost enough already.

First his parents, although he’d been so young that he remembered them mostly as faces in the photographs he owned. There’d been a string of foster families he’d stayed with only long enough to start caring before being yanked away and sent elsewhere. Living with the Wakefields had been the last time he’d really dared to hope for a family. After they’d moved, he’d decided becoming close to people was just an invitation to get hurt. He’d once dated a woman, Dana, who had tempted him to try to let someone in. He’d wanted to, he really had, but he’d never been able to adjust to the level of intimacy she’d needed. So she’d become just one more person to walk out of his life without looking back.

Piper zoomed beyond Houston’s city limits, and for a moment he silently applauded her speed. Too bad he couldn’t outrun the bitterness of his past with the same ease.

Maybe conversation would help alleviate his tension. “Is there anything in particular I should know about you?”

“What?” She sounded perplexed. “You know me pretty well already.”

“Well, yeah, but is there something more personal, like you have a birthmark the shape of the state of Louisiana?”

“I do not have any weird birthmarks.”

No doubt her skin was as creamy and flawless as her curves were intoxicating. “Okay, then some other obscure detail. Your favorite brand of bubble bath?”

“I’m more the hot shower type.”

Her words erased the image he’d been conjuring up of thin, foamy bubbles barely covering her. But the shower comment only made him think of two people intertwined in a steamy tile stall—two very specific people who had no business being naked and wet together.

“Is there any reason you’re trying to make me sound like a Playboy centerfold?” she challenged teasingly.

“Centerfold?” Cursing his exemplary visualization skills, he battled back an image of Piper scantily clad and provocatively posed.

“You know, those ridiculous interview bios.” She adopted a higher-than-normal airheaded tone. “My name’s Piper, and I enjoy champagne and bubble baths.”

“Maybe my examples stunk. All I meant was, are there little things people might expect me to know about you? Things a lover would know?”

Her gaze shot from the road to Josh, and the word lover hung between them like an unfulfilled promise. Or a warning.

After a second, she shook her head. “Convincing my family we’re involved is one thing, but trying to convince them we’re having a scorching affair would be more complicated, not to mention a little creepy. These are my parents, after all. Besides, people may think I’m dating, but I never hinted that the relationship was serious. We just need to take small steps to make it look real. You might have to, um, hold my hand or put your arm around me or something.”

“I can do that.” Despite all the times he’d deliberately avoided those exact, seemingly simple, things.

“And…” She swallowed. “It might not hurt if they see you kiss me once.”

“Kiss you.” Her summery citrus scent teased him, and for the second time in as many days he wondered what she’d taste like. Oranges? Sweet? Tangy?

“Just a quick peck or something,” she said. “No need for a major kiss.”

Showed what she knew about him. If he was going to do it, he would do it right.

“We got off track here,” she said a bit breathlessly.

He’d have to take her word for it. His thoughts had strayed so far afield that he didn’t even remember the original conversation.

“You were worried about personal trivia,” she reminded him. “But no one’s gonna quiz you about me. They’ll want to know all about you.”

His least favorite topic. “Hope I don’t disappoint them. I’m not a very interesting guy.”

She shot him such a knowing look, he added, “But if there’s anything you think you should know to make this more believable, feel free to ask. I don’t mind.” He ignored her snort of disbelief.

Relief pooled inside him when she didn’t call his bluff.

Instead, they lapsed into silence, the kind he would feel obligated to fill with any other woman. But Piper didn’t expect him to be witty or charming. She didn’t mind when he was obnoxious and cranky, and she could be obnoxious in return. Gradually relaxing, he leaned his seat back and closed his eyes, letting Piper’s humming and the motion of the car lull his nerves.

He didn’t wake up until he heard the sirens behind them.

PIPER’S GAZE FLEW to her rearview mirror, and her heart sank. Ignoring Josh’s muffled laughter at her colorful language, she pulled the car over.

She’d been stopped twice in one week! “My insurance company is going to send a guy to break my kneecaps.” She rolled down her window, looking up to meet the steel-gray eyes of a very tall patrolwoman.

With her platinum-blond hair and high supermodel cheekbones, the officer was probably a Nordic goddess when she smiled. At the moment, though, she was scowling. “License and proof of insurance, please. Do you know how fast you were going?”

Piper didn’t think it would look very good if she admitted she had no idea. Before she could say anything at all, Josh leaned across her, addressing the officer.

“Afternoon, ma’am,” he said, exaggerating his normal Texas drawl. “I just wanted to apologize. I’m the one who’s got to be somewhere, and my sister was hurrying for me. I shouldn’t have encouraged her to drive so fast.” He flashed a full-voltage smile. “You should give me the ticket.”

Piper mentally rolled her eyes. He was only going to irritate her. And what was he going to say when she asked where they had to be in such a hurry?

But the woman didn’t ask. Instead, her cold gaze turned smoky, and she smiled. “I don’t think there’s a need for anyone to get a ticket today. Your sister just needs to slow down.”

Josh’s voice was pure honey. “Thanks so much, Officer—?”

“Blake. Julie Blake.”

“I suppose it would be too forward to ask if you’re in the Houston phone book, Julie Blake?”

Unbelievable! The previously stone-faced officer actually blushed.

If they’d been in Josh’s car instead of hers, Piper would have tossed her cookies right there on the dashboard.

After Officer Julie assured them she had a listed number, wished them a good day and sashayed back to her own vehicle, Piper let Josh have it. “What is wrong with you? Are you just one giant gland?”

“Hey, I appreciate the gratitude, but don’t get all mushy or anything.”

“Gratitude?” She forced herself to drive away slowly. “For what—the lesson in flirting? Thanks, but I’ve caught the Josh Weber seminar plenty of times.”

“I wasn’t fl—Okay, I was, but only to try and help save your kneecaps.”

“What if your charm hadn’t worked? What if you’d just made her mad?”

Josh stared at her. “Have you ever seen my charm fail?”

The question would have smacked of arrogance were it not for one thing: she never had seen his charm fail. Women adored him. Even she, who should know better, had been forced to admit lately that she wasn’t completely impervious to his flirtations.

“I think you’re jealous,” he said, a smirk in his voice.

Exasperated, she almost threw her hands in the air, but decided not to, in the interests of steering. “Jealous? Of the Scandinavian patrolwoman?”

“I don’t think ‘Blake’ is Scandinavian.”

“I couldn’t care less who you throw yourself at. You and Miss Swedish Cheekbones could—”

“I meant,” Josh interjected, “jealous because I’m so much better with the opposite sex than you are. Face it, you’re no expert on catching men.”

“You make guys sound like fish. Or, more appropriately, a disease. For your information, and my mother’s, my sister’s and the entire population of Rebecca, Texas, I don’t even want a man! So why would I work toward catching one?” Gee, don’t hold back, Piper.

Though she’d surprised herself with her vehement response, Josh took her overreaction pretty well, simply shaking his head. “You know what? You’re right, and I’m sorry.”

She bit the inside of her lip. “Oh, great. Apologize and make it completely impossible for me to stay mad at you.”

“I do my best. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know why I’d say anything about you finding a guy when…”

“When what?”

“Nothing.”

Piper risked glancing up from the road, but Josh’s face gave nothing away. His eyes were shuttered, his mouth neither scowling nor even hinting at his usual flirtatious smile. In fact, it was almost eerie how expressionless his gaze was. Not vacant, but flat…as though he had no emotions at all.

Well, this trip was off to a fabulous start so far.

She pulled into the parking lot of a gas station. Silence reigned. Even if she’d known what to say, the very set of his shoulders deflected conversation. Not for the first time, she wondered what it must be like to love someone who could shut you out so completely with an instant, invisible wall.

But what must it be like for Josh, trapped on the other side of that wall?

Piper smiled at the ridiculous thought. He lived the life most bachelors dreamed of, and seemed perfectly content with it.

As she slid her credit card through the slot at the gas pump, Josh got out of the car. He crossed the parking lot, and Piper watched a group of college-age girls gape in open admiration. The man couldn’t help his own appeal. She shouldn’t have called him a giant gland when he was doing her a huge favor.

She was just a little on edge. This was her first trip home in years, and though she’d never admit it out loud, a herd of butterflies was stampeding in her stomach. The idea of pretending to be involved with Josh for the next few days was hardly steadying her nerves.

Still, she couldn’t let him know the effect he had on her. Best case scenario, he’d tease her mercilessly until she had to kill him and hide his body on some deserted Texas road. Worst case, she’d make him uncomfortable and ruin their friendship.

She’d just finished filling the car when Josh appeared at her side, a brown paper bag in his hand.

“How about I drive for a while?” he offered. “And before you bite my head off, my offer has nothing to do with you going Mach 10. You know how antsy I get when other people are behind the wheel, and this way you don’t have to do the whole trip yourself.”

She surrendered her keys, knowing she probably shouldn’t drive, anyway, when she was so preoccupied with her dubious homecoming. As she slid into the car and fastened her seat belt, he thrust the bag in her direction.

“I got these for you,” he said. “I thought you might need them this weekend.”

The paper crinkled as she unfolded the top and looked inside. Half-a-dozen Chocomels.

Piper grinned, the earlier tension between them gone. “You are the greatest, Joshua Weber.” She savored the first bite of chocolate. “You know, I got to thinking about what you said earlier. You were wondering if we should know trivial facts about each other.”

“Yeah, but you said they weren’t important.”

“They aren’t. Not the trivial ones, anyway. But there are other things that might be. I hardly know anything about your childhood, and my family might think that’s odd.”

Okay, using her relatives as an excuse to pry was both flimsy and obvious. Luckily, Piper was curious enough not to be picky.

“You know where I grew up. You know I’ve lived in Texas all my life and went to the University of Texas on scholarship.”

She folded her arms over her chest and waited, unwilling to be put off with vague answers.

He sighed. “How specific did you want me to be?”

“Maybe something a little more personal than the state you lived in.”

“I didn’t expect this from you,” he said quietly, the very softness of his tone making her feel as though she’d betrayed him.

Perhaps she had. She’d known beforehand how he’d feel about this.

“Fair enough.” She relented. “You don’t want to talk, we don’t have to. But my family’s going to ask you questions this weekend. I’ll support however you want to handle them, but you should probably give the matter some advance thought.”

A few minutes of silence passed, and Piper turned to watch the flat autumn landscape roll by outside her window.

She almost jumped in her seat when Josh unexpectedly volunteered, “I lived in a total of six foster homes. The last family, the Wakefields, actually looked into adopting me. But they got transferred to Europe before the legal stuff could take place, so I stayed in an orphanage until college. A fraternity contact led me to a job in Houston, and you know the important stuff from there.”