*
He was a hot guy, with a hot car, and she – Carrie Logan – was in the passenger seat.
Who’s the virgin ice-queen now, huh, Tony Caputo?
Get a grip. This isn’t high school anymore.
She pulled her thoughts back into line. She was still the same good, old Carrie. She wasn’t Ethan’s date. She’d made that extremely clear. She wasn’t really even a client, since she wasn’t paying him. So what did that make them? Business associates? Acquaintances?
Friends?
Was anyone friends with someone like him?
He pulled into one of the angled parking spots outside the hardware store and jerked up the emergency brake. But rather than undo his seatbelt, he sat there for a moment.
“Thanks, by the way.” He looked over at her. “For doing this.”
All the confused bubbles bouncing around inside her popped and fizzled.
“It’s nothing,” she said. “You’re the one doing me a favor.”
“Maybe from your point of view.”
She reached across and patted his arm. “I’m happy to do it. You’ve got that whole Bluebeard thing going on, but you know what? I suspect that underneath it, you’re not completely bad.”
He looked at her hand. Instantly, the air in the small car grew hot and thick and she was viscerally aware of how close he was to her. Only the console stood between his thighs and hers. When their eyes met, she could see caramel-colored flecks glittering in his dark eyes.
She yanked back her hand. After shutting him down the way she had, what was she doing, touching him?
“You’re something else, Carrie Logan,” he said, apparently unaffected. “But your delusions work in my favor. Let’s go.”
The atmosphere in the car cleared. Carrie removed her seatbelt, suddenly lightheaded with the shift in his mood. She wasn’t accustomed to being so closely… watched.
Or, rather, it was the sense of being seen, that unsettled her. Most people, she’d found, gave only the most cursory attention to those around them. Perhaps it was a factor of Ethan’s solitude, but when he turned his attention on her, she felt like he’d turned off every other thought in his head. Like he was a scientist and she was the most important, the most interesting, the most unusual, the most disconcerting specimen he’d ever encountered.
She felt… fascinating.
She stepped out of the car and thumped her head on the frame.
“Ow,” she said with a laugh, falling back into her seat.
Instantly, Ethan was at her side, his hands on her head, parting her hair, looking for an injury.
As his fingers explored her scalp, moving across the nape of her neck, touching the backs of her ears, heat sparked through her. She could stand there all day, letting him touch her like this.
If she let herself. She pulled away.
“I’m fine, Ethan, just clumsy and embarrassed,” she protested.
“You’re going to have a lump.” He smoothed her hair over the spot one last time, with such tenderness, such caring that a sense of the fantastical rose up inside her.
This wasn’t the touch of friendship. Was it?
He held out his hand and she took it. His grip was warm, slightly rough and his hand was so big hers seemed to disappear within it.
“You okay?” he said, looking closely at her.
She was dizzy, but not from the bump on the head. She was breathless, but not from any injury.
She was definitely not okay.
“I’m great.”
He didn’t look convinced.
“You can stay here, while I purchase the necessary items,” he said. “I’ll bring you a bottle of water.”
“My part of the deal is goodwill by association,” she said, pushing past him and closing the car door behind her. “For that to work, we have to associate. Come on. If I faint, I promise, I’ll let you catch me. Imagine the points you’d get for that.”
He grunted, something that sounded suspiciously like what might have been, in another man, laughter.
Bubbles filled her chest again.
Oh dear.
He was pushing all her buttons and checking all her boxes, despite the fact that she barely knew the man. And that her buttons and boxes were just fine, thank you very much.
“This is exactly what I was trying to explain earlier,” she added, hoping she sounded more matter-of-factly reasonable than she felt. “You’re a good guy, Ethan. For some bizarre reason, testosterone poisoning most likely, you don’t let people see it.”