Her Sexiest Mistake

she couldn't even see her league.

'How did you get here?' Kevin asked Hope.

'For my sixteenth birthday a couple months ago, she sent me money. Five hundred dollars.'

Kevin let out a low whistle. 'Score.'

'I bought a car. An eighty-nine Dodge Diplomat. I drove out here using the return address from the card she sent, but the ink got smeared when I got pulled over and spilled a Coke-'

'You got pulled over?' Mia asked, horrified.

'Only once,' she said defensively. 'I was speeding by accident.'

'Oh, my God.'

Kevin shot her another zip-it look. Mia just shook her head, feeling sick. The kid had driven across the country, by herself. Good God, what if it had been her street name that got smeared? Hope might have gotten lost entirely, and then been at someone else's mercy, someone possibly not as kind or understanding as Kevin had been to find her prowling through his things.

'I think my car died in front of your house,' Hope said morosely. 'It was on its last legs anyway.'

Mia let out a choked laugh. The implications of it-of a young girl on her own, and all the inherent dangers she must have faced-made her nauseous. Anything could have gone wrong, and for a moment, thinking about it, she could hardly speak. 'Why didn't you call me?'

'I dunno.' Another kick of the wood. 'You've never called me.'

Over Hope's head, Kevin looked at Mia. 'Never?' he repeated in an even tone that didn't need any recrimination in it because it was all in his eyes.

'Never,' Hope said.

Kevin's eyes were cool now. 'Huh.'

Oh, yeah, he was done wanting her. She opened her mouth to defend herself, to try to explain the complicated reasons for the lack of physical contact and that she and Sugar had never been close.

It sounded like a cop-out.

It was a cop-out.

'Does your family know where you are?' Kevin asked.

Hope shook her head. 'It's just my mom. She probably thinks I'm at a friend's house.'

'For days?'

'It's only been three, but yeah.' Beneath the makeup, she went red. 'I-we've had some… problems.'

'Like?'

'Um…' Another kick of those black boots on her wood floor. 'It's complicated.'

'Did it involve the police?'

'Sorta.'

Oh, that was it. Mia tossed back the wine.

'All right, my little snooper,' Kevin said. 'Wait here.' He cocked his head at Mia and offered a smile that didn't meet his eyes. 'Mia? A minute?'

Both Hope and Kevin looked at her, seeing her wet hair, her lack of clothes, her tightfisted clench on the now empty wineglass.

And she'd never felt more naked, more vulnerable in her life.

Kevin's eyes didn't zero in on her body, as she'd have liked, but stayed on her face, his mouth grim. Just last night he'd had his hands and mouth and body all over hers in wild, hot, reckless abandon.

Now this. Under different circumstances, she might have relished making him feel an inch tall, but without her armor she felt helpless.

Finally, taking matters into his own hands, Kevin smiled reassuringly at Hope and pulled Mia by the arm into the kitchen.

Yanking free, Mia went directly to the counter and poured herself another glass of wine. 'I can handle it from here.'

He cocked a brow as he leaned his hips back against her table. An insolent, know-it-all pose. 'Can you now? Apple?'

She looked right into his eyes wanting to kill him with one glance, but at the last minute she held back, knowing damn well if she let him know how much it bothered her, he'd love it.

'What's the matter?' he asked. 'Cat got your tongue, Apple?'

'Call me that again and you'll be walking funny tomorrow.'

He let out a slow grin, even as she silently kicked her own ass for revealing her hand. 'I can handle it from here,' she repeated.

'She's a runaway. A niece you don't even know, apparently.'

'Oh, and you know all of your family?'

'You bet your sweet ass I do. They're family,' he said simply.

Yeah, he was the kind of guy who attached and attached deeply. A man who liked his family, faults and all, a man who knew kids and cared about them. He'd probably give a stranger the shirt off his back, even when the economy was decent and any bum sitting on a corner begging could get a job flipping burgers if he wanted. 'Look, Hope's momma and I… we had our problems. We're not close.'

'Lots of families aren't close. They don't go sixteen years without seeing each other.'

'Well, my family does.'

'Where does Hope come from?' he asked. 'The accent is… what? Alabama?'

She was already feeling stripped bare, and it had nothing to do with being nearly naked. To hell if she was going to give him that information.

'You know what?' he said, tossing up his hands. 'Fine, don't tell me. Don't tell me anything.' He strode toward the door, then at the last minute turned back. 'Just don't sweep this one under the carpet, Mia.'

'And what does that mean?'

'It means that this isn't like last night. You can't just get into this for the fun and the heat and then jump back out when it suits you. This time when someone gets hurt, it's going to be a kid.'

'Who got hurt last night?'

He stared at her, then shook his head, mouth tight, eyes unfathomable. 'Forget it. But that's one mixed-up kid out there. She's fragile. Needy.'

'Are you kidding me? She's tough as nails. And she needs no one.'

He just shook his head and muttered something that sounded a lot like How can someone so smart be so stupid?

After the day she'd had, this made her see red. 'Get out.'

'Yeah, I figured that one was coming.' But he didn't move. 'Listen, I'm going to do something I told myself I wouldn't.'

'What, stop dragging your knuckles?'

'I'm trying to help.'

'Well, don't.'

Shaking his head, he put his hand on the door, but then once again turned back. 'I realize you probably don't hear these words very often, Ms. On Top of Her World, but trust me on this one. You are wrong.'

'I can handle this.'

'This? Jesus.' He shook his head. 'It's not a business deal, Mia. Or a guy you're stomping the shit out of. It's not a 'this' at all. It's a girl.'