The Manning Grooms

Page 35

He didn’t look at her. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Considering what happened the first time, it seems unnecessarily risky.”
“I see,” she murmured, disappointed.
“Summer, listen,” he said impatiently. “You’re beautiful and very sweet, but I’m too old for you.”
“If you’re looking for an excuse, James, you’re going to need something better than that.” This was the second time he’d brought up their age difference, and it made her mad. “Forget I asked,” she said heatedly. “It was a stupid idea.”
“That’s exactly what I said.” He turned the ignition switch, and the engine fired to life.
“You’re probably going to tell me you didn’t feel anything. Go ahead and lie, but we both know that’s exactly what it is—a lie.”
James expelled a labored sigh. “I didn’t say anything of the sort.”
“Then you’re afraid.”
Summer noticed the way his hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“I prefer to think of myself as cautious.”
“Naturally,” she mumbled.
What surprised Summer was how much his rejection hurt. No doubt James viewed her as immature and naive. Pushy, as well. She was probably the first woman who’d ever asked him out and the only one who’d sought a kiss.
Shame burned in her cheeks. The sooner they were back at the hotel and she could escape, the better.
The engine revved, but they weren’t going anywhere. In fact, James had pulled the car onto the side of the road.
“You might as well know,” he muttered, turning off the car. “I’ve had one hell of a time keeping my hands off you as it is. It doesn’t help that you’re asking me to kiss you again.”
Having said that, he drew her into his arms. His lips were hungry and hard, his kiss long and deep. He broke it off abruptly.
“There,” he whispered. “Satisfied now?”
“No,” she whispered back, and directed his mouth back to hers.
This time the kiss was slow and sweet. Her mouth nibbled his, and she was completely and utterly amazed by how good it was.
“Summer,” he said, “we’re going to have to stop.”
“Why?” she asked, and her tongue outlined his lips.
James groaned, and she experienced an intense sense of power.
“I don’t have a lot of control when it comes to you,” he admitted.
“I don’t mind.”
“I wish you hadn’t said that.” He kissed her again, deeply, and when the kiss ended, she was clinging to James, mindless of anything but what was happening between them.
James rested his forehead against hers, his breathing uneven. After he’d regained some control, he locked his arms around her and drew her close. For the longest time all he did was hold her.
It felt like heaven to be in James’s arms. Summer felt cherished, protected…loved.
“I was afraid of something like this,” he said quietly.
“Something like what?”
He groaned. “Think about it, would you?”
“I am thinking about it. I don’t understand the problem. I like it when you kiss me and touch me. I assumed you liked it, too.”
“I do,” he said. “That’s the problem.”
“If you say you’re too old for me, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”
He chuckled at that. “All right,” he said, brushing the hair away from her face. “I’m not too old for you in years, but in attitude.”
“Well, that’s easy enough to change. We’ll start first thing in the morning.”
“Start what?” he asked, clearly confused.
She kissed him, letting her lips play over his. “You’ll see.”
Three
James was waiting in the lobby early the following morning. Summer’s face broke into a disgruntled look when she saw him. Hands braced on her hips, shaking her head, she walked around him.
“What?” he asked, thinking he might have left part of his shirttail out.
“Where did you say we were going?” she asked.
“Red Rock Canyon.”
“Do you always wear a shirt and tie to feed wild burros?”
James wore a shirt and tie to everything. “Yes,” he answered.
“That’s what I thought. Then I’d like to suggest we stop at a mall first.”
“A mall? Whatever for?”
She looked at him as if she questioned his intelligence. “I’m taking you shopping,” she announced. “If you have any objections, you’d better voice them now.”
“Shopping,” James repeated slowly. That was probably his least favorite thing to do. He avoided malls whenever possible. “But why?” he asked innocently. He wasn’t giving in without a fight.
“Clothes,” she informed him, then added in case he hadn’t figured it out, “for you.”
He frowned.
“You don’t have to do this,” Summer said. “I think you look wonderful in a suit and tie, but you’d be far more comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt.”
So this was what she meant about altering his attitude. She hadn’t mentioned that it involved torturing him by dragging him in and out of stores.
“James?” She gazed up at him with wide eyes. “Are we going to the mall or not?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her he felt perfectly relaxed in what he was wearing. He would’ve said it, too, if she hadn’t blinked just then and her long, silky lashes fanned her cheek. Without much effort this woman was going to wrap him around her little finger. James could see it coming, but he lacked the strength to offer even token resistance.
“How long will it take?” he asked, and glanced at his watch, trying to give the impression that the burros only made their appearance at certain times. They did, but not in the way he was hoping to imply. The minute they suspected visitors had something edible, they appeared.
“We won’t be more than an hour,” she promised. “Two at most.”
He was being fed a line, and he knew it. They’d be lucky to make Red Rock Canyon before nightfall.
“All right,” he said with a sigh, wondering how a mature, reasonable male would allow a woman he’d barely met to dictate his wardrobe.
A relationship between them was unrealistic for so many reasons. The age factor, for one. And then she lived and worked in southern California, while his life was in Seattle. He didn’t know much about acting, but it seemed to him that if she was serious about her career, California was the place to be. Long-distance relationships rarely survived.
“You won’t regret this,” she said with a smile.
She was wrong. James already regretted it.
The only shopping mall he knew of in Vegas was the one located on the Strip between two of the largest casino hotels. He drove there and pulled into the underground parking.
When he turned off the ignition, Summer leaned over and kissed him.
“What was that for?” he asked, although he realized he should be counting his blessings instead of questioning them.
“To thank you for being such a good sport.”
Little did she know.
To his surprise, Summer stuck to her word. It took less than two hours for her to locate everything she felt he needed. James followed her around like a dutiful child—and discovered he was actually enjoying himself. He let her choose for him, and she did well, generally picking styles he might have picked himself.
“I feel like I squeak when I walk,” he said as he led the way back into the underground garage. Almost everything he had on was new. Right down to the running shoes and socks. He’d changed in a washroom at the mall.
“You look twenty years younger,” Summer told him.
“In which case, you could be accused of cradle-robbing.”
She laughed and slipped her arm through his. She pressed her head against his shoulder, and James derived a good deal of pleasure from having her so close. He was still trying to figure out how he was going to keep his hands off her.
“Sometimes it feels like I’ve known you forever,” she whispered.
James felt the same way. It was as if she’d been part of his life for a very long time. “I have the feeling I’m going to have a huge long-distance phone bill once I get back to Seattle.”
Summer closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
“What was that about?” He unlocked the car door and loaded the shopping bags into the backseat.
“I’m grateful, that’s all,” Summer told him.
“Grateful?” James asked, joining her inside the car.
She was quiet for a moment. “I don’t respond to other men this way—the way I have with you. I can’t give you a reason or a logical explanation. In the last year, since we’ve been writing, I’ve felt close to you. It’s as if you know all there is to know about me. My secrets, my faults, everything.
“That night a year ago, when we met, was probably the most devastating of my life. I don’t know what I would’ve done if it hadn’t been for you. Generally I’m the first person to dismiss this sort of thing, but I believe we were destined to meet.”
James had wondered about that himself, although he’d always seen himself as a rational man. Of all the people in that massive New Year’s crowd, they’d found each other. It had to mean something. He didn’t doubt that fate, kismet or whatever you wanted to call it, had brought them together.
“I’ve never experienced the things I do when you kiss me,” she confided.
She wasn’t alone in that, either. He started the engine and pulled into the traffic that continuously flowed along the Strip. Concentrating on his driving rather than looking at Summer helped him restrain his emotions—and his impulses.
If they’d stayed in the parking garage much longer, James knew they’d have had a repeat performance of the night before.
Kissing her again had been a big mistake. He’d spent half the night fighting off the image of her in bed with him. If he took any more cold showers, the hotel was going to complain about the amount of water he used.
Summer’s voice was unsure when she spoke. “I thought that after last evening you wouldn’t want to see me again.”
James nearly drove the car off the road. “Why would you think that?”
She lowered her gaze to her hands, which were folded primly in her lap. “Well, I behaved so…brazenly.”
“You?” She obviously didn’t know how close he’d come to losing control. Superior court judges weren’t supposed to lose control. James couldn’t remember the last time something like this had happened. Probably because it never had…
“It’s good to know I’m not in this alone. I don’t think I could stand that.”
“Trust me, I’m experiencing the same feelings you are,” he told her in what had to be the understatement of the century.
“We’ll both be going our separate ways in the next few days. Until just now, I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from you again.”