Page 31 of Romancing the Rumrunner
Jessie pushed against her own door, which protested a bit but finally opened, allowing her to slip out. She walked to the front end, her hand over her mouth.
Tony joined her. He took off his hat and slapped it against his leg, letting out a long whistle. “Yeah, the old girl has definitely seen better days.”
“Oh, very funny. You slay me.”
Which only made him laugh out loud. He couldn’t help himself. He reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into him for a quick kiss. She froze the moment their lips met and another bolt of heat flashed through him, turning what he’d intended to be a quick, playful peck into something much more dangerous. Another moment and he’d have her back in the car with her skirt over her head. And that was not the way he wanted their first time to be.
What the hell was he thinking? Their first time? They couldn’t be together. In any way. She was right. What had happened between them was a mistake. His feelings about this job were muddled enough. Now that he’d had a taste of her, though… He took a deep breath. Apparently, he couldn’t resist making life difficult for himself.
He let go of her and she stumbled back a bit, her hand patting her hair as though putting that to rights would erase his momentary indiscretion.
“Mr. Solomon…Tony…I…that wasn’t…”
“My apologies,” he said, though he felt anythingbutapologetic. “I have no excuse. I just couldn’t stop myself. You are just so adorable in your prim and proper suit with your hair sticking out all over your head.” He ignored her gasp, laughing again when her hands flew to her hips. “You are quite fetching, Miss Harlan, standing there with your hands on your hips like a disapproving school marm.”
Jessie opened her mouth to berate him, no doubt, but stopped when she looked down and saw that she was standing exactly as he’d described. Her lips twitched into a smile but she crossed her arms and turned her attention back to the car.
“So what do we do about this mess?”
“Oh, I expect the police will be along shortly. I’m sure someone has reported it by now and the coppers love to fill out their reports and issue their warnings.”
“Police?” Jessie’s face paled and Tony hurried to reassure her.
“No worries,” he said, reaching out so he could run his hands up and down her arms in a soothing gesture he didn’t realize he was doing until she stiffened and pulled away from him. For a moment he’d forgotten she had very good reason to want to avoid the police. The reminder sobered him considerably.
“We’ll just tell them I was driving,” he said, and she blinked up at him in surprise. “It was my fault you were driving after all. Only right I take the responsibility. Besides, if I hadn’t jerked on the wheel, you probably wouldn’t have hit the pole. So it really is my fault, after all.”
Jessie hesitated but finally nodded. And just in time. A police car pulled up, rolling to a stop next to them. They must have purposely waited in order to make it seem like they’d needed to be summoned because Tony was well aware that there was a tail on Jessie at all hours of the day or night.
Jameson climbed out of the car, along with an officer Tony didn’t know. Jessie seemed to know who he was, though. She gave the man a cool nod and ignored Jameson entirely, moving to stand closer to Tony. He hid his surprise that she seemed to want his protection, but he was more than willing to give it. He reached out to take her hand and pulled her a little behind him, not so much that it looked like he was shielding her, but enough that she wouldn’t be in the officers’ full line of sight.
“Well, what seems to be the trouble here,” Jameson said.
Tony looked at the car resting against the post, its front tires still spinning occasionally in midair, and then back at Jameson.
“I should think that is obvious.”
Jameson’s eyes narrowed. “What exactly happened?”
Tony opened his mouth to give Jameson the spiel he’d made up, but Jessie spoke first.
“I wasn’t aware federal officers were in charge of dealing with automobile accidents now.”
“We were in the area, thought we’d stop and see if we could help.”
She gave him an icy smile and for the first time Tony got a glimpse of the woman who might be mixed up with a mobster. He had a hard time reconciling this version of her with the woman he’d kissed just moments before. Before he could think too hard about it, his Jessie was back again, giving Jameson a sheepish smile.
“Well, Agent Jameson, it’s my fault entirely.”
She squeezed his hand and Tony clamped his lips together to keep from berating her. It was too late to spin his story now. If he interrupted to refute her, it would just look worse.
“Would you care to elaborate, Miss Harlan?”
“Well, Mr. Solomon here had just been a lamb all morning, taking me shopping and treating me to lunch, and I’m afraid I was a little pushy about where we’d eat and Tony might have overdone it just a bit and well, when he got in the car he was feeling rather poorly so I offered to drive so he could relax. Only, I didn’t mention that I didn’t really know how to drive and I made a wrong turn and ended up in this old lot and then that truck over there,” she said, pointing to where the truck driver had pulled over on the other side of the lot and was talking to another officer, “he pulled into the lot and I had glanced over to make sure Mr. Solomon was doing all right and I’m afraid I didn’t see the truck until it was too late.”
Tony and Jameson both stared at her in open-mouthed amazement. Tony, at how effortlessly, if uncharacteristically vapidly, she spun such a plausible tale to explain why their car had tried to climb a pole. Jameson was most likely struck dumb for the same reason. Though granted, Jameson was often struck dumb. It was his natural state.
Jameson finally blinked. “Is this what really happened, Solomon?”
