Hot Pursuit: Hot Zone, Book 5 (2 page)

“Yet you came to Clarksville for the holidays?”

He stared at the beer bottle with an intensity that bordered on furious, as if the bottle had pissed him off. “Yeah. My girlfriend…ex-girlfriend lives up here.”

She waited. What could she say to that? Ex-girlfriend? She didn’t dare ask, at least not right away. How personal could she presume to be?

His gaze returned to hers as the old-fashioned jukebox changed to a Kenny Chesney song Lucy hadn’t heard in forever.

He seemed okay with leaving information hanging, but before she could speak, he said, “I’m thinking it’s a good thing I came here alone. I get to spend time with you.”

Heat spiraled from her stomach straight into her face. Her brain didn’t catch up with her mouth. She didn’t know what to say or how to say it. “Thank you. It’s always good to see friends.”

Lame. So lame.

For godssake she was a grown woman but her reaction was so high school. Where had her sophistication gone?

Probably right out the door with her mind the moment she’d seen Vic.

He leaned back in the booth and eyed her. “If I remember right, there was nothing friendly about our relationship in high school.”

Oh, man. She chewed on her lower lip. “I was hoping you’d forgotten that.”

His scrubbed at his chin with a big, tanned hand. A very masculine but gorgeous hand. “Not a chance. I think I was scared of girls for six months after that.”

She winced. “Like you said, we were just kids. Teenagers are so dumb sometimes.”

Teasing entered his eyes. “You feel guilty about it.”

“How can you tell?”

“Your eyes give away everything. You’d make a terrible poker player.”

“Good thing I hate poker.” She contemplated the rosy-red color in her wine glass. “I’m sorry I was such a brat in high school. Miss Tryin’ To Get And Stay Popular.”

“You weren’t that bad.”

“Yes, I was. I sold out. I compromised my integrity by going for popularity over—” Lucy couldn’t say it. What she’d done haunted her sometimes. “I bought into the crap, Vic. The stupid cheerleader stereotype instead of thinking about who I really was. Instead of being who I should have been.”

Guilt like hers didn’t go away quickly, even though she’d reminded him that teenagers often did rash things—very rash things. It had been more than fifteen years ago that she’d seen Vic, yet the memory of the last time she’d talked to him was fresh in her mind. Her so-called friends, two cheerleaders who threw their weight around on a regular basis, talked her into approaching geeky Victor and asking him on a date. No girl dated Vic the Dip, as the cheerleaders had called him. Vic the Geek Wad, as the football players had called him.

“If I hadn’t been trying to stay popular…” She shook her head again. “Stupid. Stupid.”

“What motivated you to do what those cheerleaders said?” Apparently he didn’t plan to let her off the hook.

God, did she want to explain this? Kenny Chesney sang something mellow and slow, and people swayed on the small dance floor. The shadowy booth though, made her feel a million miles from everyone.

She jolted back to reality. More than guilt propelled her to answer. Vic deserved to understand what had motivated her to humiliate him. Maybe if she admitted the truth and the whole truth, she’d feel better and could banish the guilt forever.

After a large gulp of wine for courage, she ’fessed up. “It was sheer dumb luck I became a cheerleader. We were new in town and my brother had just made the varsity football team. I wasn’t unpopular exactly, but I was greedy for more visibility. When my parents encouraged me to try out for cheerleading, I was scared spitless. I didn’t think I’d make it. I told them I wanted to try out for the flag team instead. They weren’t satisfied with flag team. When I made it, I was so damned happy in a way because I was validated, you know. It was instant-popularity time. Instant. I never had so many friends right away. In San Francisco I wasn’t exactly popular. It was a big school, and I was a small fish. Little Clarksville was a whole ’nother game.”

“Uh-huh. And once you were in a smaller high school and had left all your friends behind, it was a good chance to fit in.”

Her gaze snagged on Vic’s fingers as they slipped around the sweaty beer bottle. She knew his touch would be electrifying. A tiny thrill went through her, and she had to jerk her attention back to the subject.

“Exactly.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Dad and Mom loved it when I became a cheerleader. Their kids had made their mark on the high school. With Dad the football coach, and Mom involved with school…” What else could she say about it?

“So how did Ann and Carolyn convince you to ask me out?” he asked.

“They dared me. They said you were…”

“Yeah?”

Oh, hell. He wasn’t giving up on this. He wanted the whole damned story right now. “They said you were probably a virgin, and they thought that was an anomaly. They said you might be gay.”

Vic grunted. “Uh, no. As you found out, I’m not gay.”

Oh, she’d found out all right. “Ann and Carolyn told me that I needed to drive you to a secluded place and seduce you. They said that if I didn’t, they’d make sure my senior year was a living hell. Plus, I think I was secretly thrilled someone was lusting after me. That you acted as if you liked me.” She laughed softly. “Not sure why you did though. I was a little bitch.”

She saw his chest rise and fall with a deep breath. His arm lay on the table near hers. “Nah, you weren’t that bad. Besides, you realized I wasn’t such a bad guy and you actually liked me.”

Heat crawled into her face. “Yes.”

“And that’s when I finally got up the nerve to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world and discovered you didn’t mind it.” He said the last part with a silly grin.

She giggled as the memory of their sloppy kiss returned. “Oh, yeah. Loved it.”

His dark eyes challenged her, drew her closer. Nearer to a fire. “I was a horrible kisser, but it was damned heaven touching you.”

Yeah, an awful kiss. She’d never forget it though. How could anyone forget a kiss rife with that much fear and angst on her part, and outright teenage horniness on his?

“And contrary to what I’d heard about most teenage boys, you weren’t an octopus who couldn’t keep his hands off me. You were such a gentleman.”

He lifted the beer bottle in a salute. “My daddy brought me up right.”

“Mine didn’t.”

He frowned. “Were they trying to keep up with the Jones’s?”

“Yes. That meant their kids should too.” She blinked, her eyes burning with sudden tears that didn’t make sense. She’d never told anyone this, any of the stuff she’d explained to Vic. It felt like a release a long time in the making. “I’m really sorry that I bought into everything in high school. The whole popularity garbage. I hurt you and that wasn’t cool.”

His smile was forgiving. “We all do stupid shit when we’re teenagers. I know you’re not that kind of person now. I’m over it.”

Was he? Then perhaps she should be too. She sighed, the release in her heart and mind a warmth she would never forget.

“Do your parents still live here?” he asked.

“No, they’re spending early retirement on a series of cruises. They think my photography career is bogus. They hope I’ll come to my senses someday and do something worthwhile. My brother is a doctor, and that makes them proud. He’s a chiropractor, and yet they really wish he’d been a surgeon.”

He leaned in closer and trailed one finger over her cheek in a tender caress. “So after we
didn’t
have unsatisfying teenage sex in my car, you took the tape recording of our conversation and our kiss to your cheerleader friends.”

Why did he have to remind her of the details? The awful details. “Yes.”

Ann and Carolyn had slipped the tape to a friend, who had made sure it accidentally leaked out on the intercom system. Not all of the conversation. But that silly, awkward, terrible kiss…oh, man.

Administration halted it and heads rolled. She’d never forget the embarrassment. “My parents grounded me for three months. No car. No dates.” Dark memories surfaced. “Every idiot boy in school thought I was an easy lay after that.” She tried a smile but failed. “But your reputation did a spiral upward. All those boys thinking you’d
got some
.” She covered her face for a moment. “I ruined my senior year by going along with that stupid stunt. For putting you through that.”

He reached for her hand, held it against his thigh, a gentle and consoling touch. “Sometimes stupid takes a long time to forget. I just wanted to clear the air. We don’t need to dwell on it.”

Deep inside an ache burned. Two aches actually. One held huge remorse for what had happened that night. The other for thinking that a one -night stand could ever remove the stain of heartache. Did she think sleeping with some guy she didn’t know would wipe away the anger she felt for Danny Mendoza’s betrayal with Felicia? She’d contemplated sleeping with Vic to wipe away bad feelings, but now old memories brought up her own betrayal of Vic as a teen.

She felt like the greatest heel in the universe. She made penitence for it the only way that felt right. She took a plunge.

Lucy kissed him.

Chapter Two

Lucy fell into heaven.

Vic had apparently learned a lot over the years about kissing. Oh, yes. He smelled like over six feet of hot pheromones. Leather, musk. Man. Tough and tender.

Her inhibitions crumbled as her body melted against his, soaking in the delicious need that opened inside her. He accepted her kiss without reservation. One hand came up to cup her face while the other kept possession of her hand. His mouth was hot, gentle. As his arms came around her and drew her into his muscular frame, she felt twenty kinds of protected. All that strength turned her on, drew her higher and hotter than anything she’d experienced before in a first kiss. Exceptional power cradled her close, as if he held an item so precious to him he couldn’t bear to part with it. She was swamped by the excitement, overtaken, her defenses destroyed. The powerful protection she experienced in this moment made no sense when she’d only just met him…again. Still, her body accepted it. Her mind following along as if he’d given her a drug. As if his hard, masculine body was a fortress made for her alone. Restaurant sounds faded around them. Liquid heat invaded her veins and gave life to the steady ache that had burned inside her since she’d seen him tonight. She didn’t grip him or hold him, but allowed Vic’s warmth to lure her into a languorous warmth and comfort.

She melted and the kiss turned deeper, to show the appreciation her body and mind felt. When his tongue tasted her, she welcomed the intimacy, brought him into her with a shocking acceptance. His tongue swept over hers, no longer teasing. He wanted. He took.

Yet he gave so much more.

She shivered, overwhelmed by the delicious sensations, the excitement that sprang upward and filled every inch of her.

She drew back at the same time he did. They touched foreheads, eyes closed. She shivered, but not with cold. In an instant she was aware of her body’s reactions to his kiss. Her breasts felt rounder, fuller, her nipples tight. She was achy and hot between the legs, wanting his touch, his fullness inside her. Lucy’s imagination exploded in a second. She wanted to know what he’d look like naked.

Oh, man. She had it bad.

Lucy could think of one word. “Wow.”

“Yeah.” His voice sounded raw, and almost stunned.

Breaking out of her mesmerized state, she gently disengaged herself from his arms.

She almost told him she had a proposal for him. Almost broke right down and said what she’d planned to say to a perfect stranger tonight.

Sleep with me tonight.
Or in a rougher way,
Have wild monkey hanging-from-the-rafters blow-the-lights-out sex.

She’d found the perfect man for it.

His eyes were bright with the fever, the same fever she felt. She couldn’t deny that he wanted her.

“Sorry,” he said. “I got carried away. A bar isn’t the place to do this.”

She shrugged, self-consciousness finding her. “You’re right. Not the place.”

Silence hung there. Balanced. Almost tipped over. The strain of keeping quiet made her want to scream.

“Hope that made up for all the crap in high school,” she said.

A smile cracked that hard, I-want-sex expression. “No. I don’t think it does.”

Her mouth flopped open. “What?”

Kenny had stopped singing in the background, and some sweet-sounding young thing trilled about hard times in the old town tonight. Lucy’s brain snagged on the tune at the same time she tried to wrap her thoughts around what Vic had said.

Once more a sparkle entered his dark eyes. “I’m teasing you.”

She released a short, hard breath, followed by a half laugh. “Brat.”

He clapped his hand over his heart. “Ow. That hurt. But I’ve been hurt worse.”

Insight jumped her. She sipped her wine and chose her words wisely. “By your ex-girlfriend?”

His gaze flew up to hers. Regret and maybe the tiniest bit of fear resided there. “Yeah.”

“Tonight?”

“No. A while before that.”

“Ouch. I’m sorry.” Something inside her softened and reached out. “That sucks.”

“Is that why you walked in here alone? Don’t you have any friends in town? A party to go to?”

Damn, he’d turned it back to her, and her throat felt tight. Her thoughts scrambled. “My friends are having a big party. They invited me. I’m not there because my rat-bastard boyfriend decided to be a rat bastard.”

He frowned, and this time, he looked like he could eat lead. “What did he do?”

The fierce roughness in his voice made her feel shielded, a sensation she’d never experienced with any man before. Did she want to become this personal? Did she want him to hear this?

She found herself talking. “Danny Mendoza. He used to work in the stationery store next to my studio. He’s in the Army Reserves and he was called up.” She shrugged. “He was…is a nice enough guy.”

“And?” he asked when she paused.

Her breath caught with emotion, anger superseding sadness. “I’ve been corresponding with him for a year by email. We had some pretty intense discussions and have a lot in common. A lot of…attraction. He came back from Iraq and asked me to meet him for a date Christmas Eve. He said that he has some really strong feelings for me. We had dinner, had a great time. He told me I was special and that he wanted to get to know me better. He had a lot of things to do this week and said he couldn’t see me again until tonight. I decided to surprise him with a late Christmas gift. A book he’d wanted. I went over to his apartment early to surprise him. Instead, I’m the one who got the surprise.”