Page 26 of Shielding his Legacy
“She asleep?”
“Finally.”
“Want to come up here? It’s hard to hear you and I don’t want to talk too loudly and wake her up.”
Even that simple suggestion that she move closer to him was enough to make butterflies riot in her stomach. She was powerless to refuse. “Okay.” Unbuckling her seatbelt, she considered the best way to get over the bench seat that separated them.
Her head grazed his shoulder as she climbed over. “Sorry,” she murmured, the intensely intimate scent of his body making her long to swing her leg around until she sat astride those muscular thighs, his view of the road be damned. What was wrong with her? Her desire for this man was completely off the hook.
Reaching up, he offered his hand. “Let me help you.”
“I’ve got it.” Her right leg cleared the back of the seat first, but the other got stuck at the very last moment, snagging her progress just as she let go with her hands. She landed with her face in his lap, her left foot caught on the headrest behind her as she swore under her breath.
“You okay?” he asked as she scrambled to get herself out of that particular spot with all the haste of a cat getting out of a pool. His hand touched her back as heat flooded her face and she writhed around, wrenching her foot away from the offending headrest and righting herself in the passenger seat with a huff.
A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest.
“It’s not funny,” she snapped, reaching for her seatbelt and feeling like she’d gone six rounds with Tyson.
His laughter intensified, his shoulders shaking though his mouth stayed closed. She swatted his arm. “Stop it.”
Now his mouth opened, his laughter rich and alluring despite her irritation. “My foot got stuck,” she said, feeling stupid but beginning to see the humor in the situation as her mouth spread in an involuntary grin. “It’s not funny.” She smacked him again, harder this time.
“I’m sorry,” he claimed, holding up his hand in mock defense, his continued mirth and the sing-song tone of his voice showing he clearly wasn’t sorry at all. “When you dove headfirst for my crotch all sorts of things came to mind.”
“I most certainly did not dive for your, your—” she protested, even though she knew it was true. “My foot got stuck.”
He could barely contain himself, he was laughing so hard.
Embarrassed, she unbuckled herself for the third time in as many minutes.
His hand reached for hers, but she pulled it away.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Back to my seat. She never sleeps long anyway.”
“Eva, I’m sorry. Don’t go.” He took her hand, holding tight when she reflexively pulled back, those big green eyes imploring. “Please.”
She was being childish, and she knew it. A more sophisticated woman would laugh along with him, maybe sidle up next to that perfect body and blithely change the subject while running her fingertips up his arm. But she wasn’t sophisticated, and she’d never done anything blithely in her twenty-three years on earth.
Not knowing how to undo her behavior, she scootedaway from him and withdrew her hand. “Sorry for overreacting.”
He didn’t respond, only ran a hand through his hair and changed his position on the seat, splaying his legs wide. A subtle shift in the air made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.
She settled against her seat and redid her seatbelt, wondering what she might have done to cause the sudden change in his mood. She was probably reading too much into things, but this man was so unpredictable, she often felt off-balance. They drove along in silence for several miles. “Where exactly are we going?” she finally asked.
“Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks. About an hour and a half farther. Friend of mine’s got a cabin up there that’s vacant for the winter. It’s seasonal, but it has a fireplace to keep us warm. We can hole up there for as long as we need to while HERO Force figures out who’s after you.”
“Wait, it doesn’t haveheat?”
He shot her a sideways glance and a grin. “It has a fireplace.”
Her gaze locked on his for a beat, her stomach fluttering with anticipation of the scene he described. Gavin’s place in the Catskills had been rustic, but high-end. This place sounded primitive, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t love the idea of huddling around a blazing fire for warmth.
Or other things.
Gavin’s phone vibrated, a cat meme flashing on the screen and disappearing before Eva got a good look at it. “Ugh,” he groaned. “Not cat pictures again.”
