Kiss Me, Katie! & Hug Me, Holly!

9

“WHERE ARE WE GOING?” Holly demanded in a voice that gave away nothing.

Riley didn’t even look at her, because if he did, he’d have to touch her.

Not yet. “That’s on a need-to-know basis.”

“And I don’t need to know?”

“Not yet.”

“You can’t do this.” Her chin was up, her eyes flashing.

So brave.

And yet Riley felt her nerves shimmering just beneath the surface. It was a tribute to how well he’d come to know her that he felt them at all.

A tribute and a curse because he was getting tired of fighting his feelings for her- which meant that what he was about to do was extra idiotic.

It didn’t stop him.

“Why can’t I do this?” he asked, his voice even.

“Because…” She stopped to fiddle with her top. A top that had gotten his immediate attention not only because it was snug and spaghetti-strapped, but because the right strap kept slipping down. “Because I need to make sure the restaurant is clean for first thing in the morning. There’s someone coming to look at the place.”

“A little grease isn’t going to sway them.”

“I want everything to be perfect.”

“So you can get out of here all the faster?”

She was silent. “I’m not in a hurry to leave,” she said finally.

“Could have fooled me.”

“Harry needs to be let out.”

He couldn’t help it, he laughed. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

“He does! And the dog, he’ll be wondering what’s happened to me.”

“The dog. Do you think you’re ever going to name him, Holly? Or would that be too close to admitting you’ve come to care about those two animals in the same way you’ve come to care about this town?”

She opened her mouth, glared at him, then shut it again.

“Speechless? Isn’t that a first?” Frustration built in him, both because she wouldn’t let him in, and because that’s where he wanted to be. He took the next corner a bit tight.

Grabbing the dashboard rather than eat it, she glared at him. “I told you why I couldn’t name him before. What if his owner had come and gotten him?”

“Then he’d have two names, and all the love he could ever want.”

“Buster,” she whispered.

“Why can’t you just admit the truth? That you’re too chicken? Too chicken to admit he’s wormed his way into your heart the same way Harry did. The same way Dora did, and all the others. You’re afraid,” he said flatly, bluntly, turning away from her pale face. “You’re afraid of feeling something for the animals, for the people, for the town. For me.”

“Buster,” she repeated softly.

“What?”

“I named him Buster for the way he’s busted into my heart. Like the people around here. Like the town.” She paused. “Like you.”

He risked a look at her now. “You sound uncertain.”

“Not about that. What I’m uncertain about is my future.”

“You don’t have to be.”

“It’s…complicated.”

“Yeah.” He took another turn and the wheels squealed.

“You’re speeding.” She pointed to his speedometer. “I think that makes you a hypocrite. If you’ll just stop and let me out, we’ll call it even.”

“Can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Probably the same reason you can’t tell me what’s really going on inside your head,” he said. “It’s called stubbornness. Pride. Ego. Stupidity.”

They were on the edge of town now, close to the cafe, and his office. She bit her lower lip and shifted to face him. “Look, Riley, I should probably tell you…I really can’t afford another ticket right now.”

“It’s not the ticket you should be worried about.”

“Yeah, well, actually it is. You see, I sort of already have a few on my record.”

“Speeding?”

“Yes.”

“Always in a hurry, huh, Holly?”

“It’s a character flaw. Anyway, another ticket would be really bad.”

“Should have thought about that earlier.”

“I wasn’t going that fast.”

“Princess, you were barely a blur on the highway. You must have been in quite a hurry to have that date with your carton of ice cream.”

That got her, he could tell by the mental daggers stabbing into him. He passed the office, but then again, he’d never had any intention of stopping there. No, from the moment he’d seen her whipping through town, he’d known what he wanted tonight.

Her.

Even if it was only for tonight, which is of course all it would be.

She straightened and frowned. “Hey. Where are we going?”

“I told you. In.”

She was more than a little pale in the moonlight now. More than a little beautiful. She stirred him in a way no one else ever had, and he only knew one thing to do. “I’m taking you to my house.”

“Your- What for?”

“I have this plan. It involves carrying you up to my bed, removing every piece of clothing you have on so that I can touch and kiss and lick my way to heaven.”

Her mouth fell open again. Her hand fluttered up to her heart, and above that, at her neck, he could see the wild flutter of her pulse.

“I don’t think-”

“Good. Perfect. Go with that.” His ranch was right in front of them now, and he parked close to the house. When he came around to the passenger’s door, Holly was staring directly in front of her, perfectly still.

He took her hand and pulled her out of the car. They stood there in the dark night, staring at each other.

“You let me think that I was in trouble,” she whispered.

“You aren’t in trouble, you are trouble.”

“You can’t make me go in against my will.”

“Nope. But I can make you want to go in.”

“No one can do that.”

“I can make you want to talk to me, too, tell me your deepest, darkest secrets. Your feelings, your wishes. Your desires, your hopes.”

“No.” She was looking at him with her tough, beat-this expression, but there, mixed in with the coolness, he saw desire, need, and especially fear-everything he was feeling, too.

He still held her hand, and he reached for the other one. He leaned close to brush his mouth to her cheek. When she turned toward him, it was the most natural thing in the world to kiss her lips.