Page 97 of Four Dates and A Forever
And—ahman—just the crinkling of the cellophane wrapper was enough to send all kinds of good feels to the brain. And then, because a jar of emergency peanut butter deserved some chocolate, she dusted off her hands and grabbed a fist of candy kisses from her camera bag.
The savory smell of peanuts and salt filled the car as she dipped the first kiss in and popped it in her mouth.
“Oh my gawd!” She sighed, closing her eyes to savor the momentary bliss. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and it was fast approaching dinner time. With the setback of the flat and the lack of an assistant, her next meal would likely be well after midnight.
When she ran out of kisses, she dipped her finger in the jar and scooped out a mouthful, then licked it off.
She was on her third pass when the sound of gravel crunching under tires came up behind her. Piper turned to find a sleek black car headed her way.
“Thank you, Jillian,” she whispered because help had finally arrived—and in Piper’s world, that wasn’t always the case.
With one last dip of the finger, she hopped out of the car and into the rain. Raising the jar in greeting, she gave an embarrassed little wave. The car got closer, and she sucked the remaining gooey goodness off her finger and stepped toward the road when—
“Holy shit!”
The sedan roared right past her with all four hundred of its horses powering at full tilt and nearly taking her out in the process. The car was so close it created a wind tunnel intense enough to rip the jar right from her hands. And cover her from head to toe in a fine speckling of mud.
“What the hell?” Piper yelled as the break-lights blared a steady red and the car skid to a stop a few yards ahead in the middle of the road.
Piper grabbed her blazer and tied it around her waist, then ran to the car. She’d barely reached the driver’s side when the window slowly rolled down, exposing the driver within.
He was big and muscled, his body filling all the space in the car. Under the dome light she could see that his suit was freshly pressed, his dark wavy hair carefully manicured. He had the look of a man who controlled his world.
And he was gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous that made people want to stop and stare. Not that Piper was staring. Nope. She didn’t do gorgeous. And she most certainly did not do suits who nearly ran her over.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice low and gravely.
“Do I look okay?” she asked because he looked as if he was about to climb out of the car and see for himself.
“You look like someone who was standing in the middle of the road during a storm, at dusk, wearing black,” he said. “What? Were you playing chicken or staging a car heist?”
“No, I was waiting for you.”
This seemed to amuse him. He looked at her over the rim of his wraparound sunglasses and grinned—a big, smug grin that pissed her off. “You were waiting for me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she said, wondering how he’d managed, in sixty seconds, to get under her skin. “Just looking for a ride.”
“Well, hop in.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I did nearly run you over,” he said, a humor to his voice saying he’d purposefully chosen to ignore the purposeful lack of gratitude in her words.
“You might not want to admit that,” she advised. “Some people are jerks and would use it against you.”
“Are you one of those people?”
“A jerk? Usually.” She made a big show of dusting off her dress, which only made a bigger mess. “But life is too short to deal with lawyers.”
His lips twitched. Not quite a smile, but enough to let Piper know it was at her expense. “Noted.” His voice went soft. “But seriously, are you okay?”
His genuine concern deflated any hostility she’d been clinging to. She held her arms out to the side and when she looked down she nearly laughed. “Well, my dress is ruined.”
He took off his sunglasses and—sweet Mary mother of God—his eyes were the exact color of the sky, a deep stormy blue with bright specks, like the lightning moments ago. Then there was the carefully crafted five-o’clock shadow.
“And yet, you’re smiling,” he said.
“My usual MO would be to swing the tire iron in your direction.”
