Page 27 of Slide

Chapter Seven

The diner was busy, but the service was fast and the food looked amazing.

Lucy took a sip of her coffee. “Mmm, good.” The nerves that had been dancing in her belly from the moment she opened her eyes and found Adam staring down at her had finally lessened. Okay, hiding in the car instead of asking outright if she could go was a coward’s move, but she knew it was the right one. No way would he have agreed to take her. He’d made that clear when he’d found her and threatened to take her home. God, she still couldn’t believe she’d managed to fall asleep back there. The music blaring most of the drive should have been enough to keep her awake, but somehow under that sleeping bag, breathing in Adam’s unmistakable scent and with classic rock pumping throught the speakers, she’d felt sort of cocooned. The music made it impossible to think or dwell over what she was doing, and the next thing she knew, it was morning.

She glanced across the table. Adam looked edgy as hell, feathers more than a little ruffled. He’d eaten his breakfast in silence and was now waiting for her to finish hers. The whole time he’d been fidgeting or playing on his phone or acting like the scenery out the window was just too interesting to be missed.

He was uncomfortable. She’d gotten her way and he wasn’t happy about it. She should probably feel bad about that, but she couldn’t work up the energy, because she knew exactly why he was feeling uncomfortable.

Now she had to work out how to get him to drop his guard, just a little bit, so she could find a way in. The man was determined to keep her at a distance. He’d even stayed half a yard away from her as they’d walked into the diner. Adam didn’t trust himself with her. She hadn’t missed the not-so-subtle glances, the heat in his eyes, the obvious wood he’d been sporting since he’d found her.

Forking a mouthful of French toast into her mouth, she moaned. “You sure you don’t want some? Fruit and toast isn’t enough for a man like you.”

“I’m fine.”

She moaned again with her next bite and he immediately shifted in his seat. She ducked her head to hide her grin.

“Where the hell does all that food go?” he snapped suddenly, sounding irritable. “You can’t eat like that all the time.”

“Fast metabolism. Gotta maintain these curves somehow.”

His hands were resting on the table and his fingers twitched at her words.

Was he imagining his hands on her body?

Adam shot to his feet. “I’ll go pay.”

The rest of the day was disappointingly uneventful. He drove in brooding silence. The guy wouldn’t even look at her, except one time when she tried to change the radio station to something this century. She liked classic rock as much as the next girl, but not all damn day.

Lucy blinked the tiredness from her eyes. How long had she been asleep? She glanced at the clock. It was just after nine at night. And going by the sign on the side of the road, they’d hit Silverwood, a smallish town about an hour from Denver. Small, yes, but tonight not so quiet. There were cars everywhere and people lining the streets.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she wanted to scream when she saw it was Daniel. There were other messages and missed calls as well. Why wouldn’t he leave her alone? How many times would she have to tell him she hadn’t lied, and that she wasn’t coming back, before he’d backed the hell off?

Quickly she turned it off and shoved it back in her pocket, then pointed at one of the overflowing parking lots. “What’s going on?”

He shrugged and didn’t even bother opening his mouth. God, maybe this hadn’t been such a wise idea. Scratch that, of course what she’d done wasn’t wise, using her big brothers’ best friend for one last wild adventure—a man she was in love with, a man who had pushed her away every time they’d come remotely close. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe she’d overestimated her ability to seduce this man, maybe…

His gaze slid to her knee then higher to her thigh, and higher still, and he licked his lips like he was contemplating a steak dinner—steak was Adam’s favorite—before he turned back to the road. It was dark in the car and he hadn’t even seen her watching him sneak a peek. Had he been looking at her when she slept?

A delicious shiver traveled through her and she sat straighter in her seat. “Are we stopping here? You look like you could do with a rest.”

Long, thick, permanently grease-stained fingers flexed around the steering wheel then were dragged through his hair. “Yeah. As good a place as any, I guess.”

They cruised down the main street, drawing stares. They’d been getting looks everywhere they went. She guessed it was inevitable in a car like this. Finally, he pulled into a hotel. He’d passed several fairly nice ones, but for some unknown reason chose one that looked like a throwback from the seventies.

The H on the hotel sign was at an odd angle. “Umm…”

“I need a ground floor room with parking in front.”

“The car?”

“The car.” He shoved the door open and, without looking back, headed to reception. He was back a few minutes later, jaw like granite and a scowl that would make her run for the hills if she didn’t already know the guy.

He climbed back in and drove a little way along to park in front of one of the rooms.

“Is this your room?”

He shook his head, and that jaw got harder still. “Our room. There’s some fucking flower festival here this weekend and everything’s booked out. Including this dump.”