A Most Shocking Revelation Read online

“Yeah, if you’re so inclined.”

  She was. “Incredible. It’s in mint condition.” She looked up to find him smiling. “I don’t see you as a classic-car kind of guy.”

  “It’s the size of the engine that gets me going.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Men and their motors.”

  He laughed then, a low, compelling laugh. “You can tell a lot about a man if you look under his hood.”

  She folded her arms across her middle against the sudden bout of chills. “I suppose you’re going to say something about the big block.”

  He forked a hand through his hair. “No, but now that you mention it…”

  “Oh, please.” She sounded appalled, when in fact she was getting a bit warm just imagining the possibilities. “Do you use it often?”

  “The car?”

  “Of course I mean the car.” However, she still was considering Gavin’s personal motor.

  “Not often enough these days.” His tone bordered on suggestive, and Valerie wasn’t about to walk into that trap, even though she was sorely tempted.

  “I understand why you would want to limit the mileage,” she said. “It increases the value.”

  “It still needs to be driven, and that’s why I want you to drive it until your car is fixed.”

  “That’s very sweet, Gavin, but I can’t do that. What if something happens to it?”

  “I trust you.”

  Valerie internally cringed. “You don’t really know me.”

  “I’m getting there.”

  Oh, but he hadn’t come close. “I’m still not sure it’s a good idea.”

  “Why? Can’t you handle a stick?”

  “Better than most women.” And she couldn’t believe she’d just said that.

  “That sounds interesting.” He dropped the hood closed and nailed her in place with his grin. “You don’t have to decide to take me up on my offer right now. But I might be tied up when you need a ride. This way you’ll have your own wheels.”

  “Okay, I’ll think about it.” Truthfully she was dying to get behind the wheel and turn it loose on the rural roads. Probably not a good idea unless she was alone, considering he was authorized to give her a citation.

  Gavin narrowed his eyes. “How do you know so much about cars?”

  “I spent a lot of time with someone who was fascinated with them. That’s all he could talk about.” A sixteen-year-old boy she’d counseled. She’d learned all she could about his passion in order to get on his level, hoping to keep him from dropping out of high school, and she had succeeded. A success among the failures.

  “He taught you well,” Gavin said.

  “I’m a quick study. Always have been.”

  “Good.” He wiped his hands on his jeans. “Now you can help me with something.”

  She pointed behind her. “I thought I might start dinner.”

  “It’s already in the oven,” he said.

  “Now I’m doubly impressed.”

  “Don’t be. It’s frozen lasagna.” He turned, strode to a shelf housing several tools and pulled an ax from the top before facing her again. “This shouldn’t take that long.”

  She held up her hands, palms forward. “Okay, I’ll drive your car. I’ll even clean up after dinner. No need to use that.”

  He presented his all-star grin. “I’m just going to go out in the back forty and chop some wood for a fire.”

  Valerie felt somewhat relieved, not that she ever really thought he was going to use the ax on her. “Okay, I can help you with that.”

  “Don’t tell me—you knew someone who taught you how to chop wood.”

  “No, but again, I learn fast. You just have to show me what to do.”

  “My pleasure.”

  A long, tense silence passed before Valerie gathered enough wherewithal to say, “We should get started before the sun goes down.”

  “Yeah. Let’s go.”

  Gavin led Valerie through a metal gate and onto a parcel of land lined with mesquite trees and brush, bordered on the right by a small creek. The terrain appeared as untamed and rugged as the sheriff did at the moment, Valerie decided after a quick glance in his direction. They walked side by side, the crunch of dried winter grass beneath their feet the only sound interrupting the silence. The atmosphere was very different from her usual surroundings—traffic noises and urban chaos. She breathed in the fresh air untainted by smog. She could get used to this environment, although that wasn’t possible. After she’d done what she’d come here to do, she would return to the place she’d called home for most of her life, even if she had no one waiting for her. Even though she would be utterly alone.

  “I don’t see any cows,” she told him as they walked on.

  “Haven’t had time to build a herd, but I plan to buy a few head in the spring.” Gavin stopped at a pile of tangled wood. “I’ll just chop some of this up and we can carry it back.”

  After pulling a pair of gloves from his back pocket and shrugging them on, Gavin raised the ax and landed it squarely on one heavy limb, then hacked it once more until it broke in two. He grabbed up both pieces and laid them to one side.

  Valerie stood back, fascinated by his strength, the way he split the limbs with such ease. Everything he did seemed effortless, from his cowboy strut to his charming smile that he now aimed at her.

  “Want to try it?” he asked.

  “Okay, but I don’t think I’m going to be as good at it as you are.”

  “I’ve had lots of practice. And you might surprise yourself at that.” He propped the ax, blade down, between his knees, pulled off his gloves and offered them to her. “Put these on.”

  She slid her fingers inside the too-big gloves, suddenly very aware of the difference in their sizes. He had to be at least six-two, and she was barely five-four. His hands were three times as big as hers, and although she sported some muscle, he had solid biceps and triceps and all those “ceps” that mattered most.

  He held out the ax handle-first. “It’s all yours.”

  Valerie took the hatchet as well as a deep breath and turned to the pile. “You better stand back, Sheriff. This could get interesting.”

  She raised the heavy ax high above her head and aimed for one large branch. With all her strength she sliced the wood and received a noisy thwack, but the blade wouldn’t budge. “It’s stuck,” she said as she braced her foot on the bough and tugged.

  Before she could prepare, Gavin was against her back, reaching around her, one hand resting at the bend of her waist, the other on her wrist. He pulled the ax from the limb easy as you please but still didn’t release his grip on her. Valerie glanced back at him. “How did you do that?”

  “Let me show you.” His voice had a provocative quality, as if he would gladly serve as her guide in any endeavor, both the nice and the naughty.

  He lifted her arm and brought the ax back down, splintering the limb in two with only one attempt.

  “I don’t think I’m cut out for this,” she said, her tone laced with frustration. She didn’t like to fail at anything.

  He pressed closer to her and Valerie froze. “Have you noticed you always seem to be behind me?” she said in a breathless voice.

  “Yeah, but I know how to remedy that.” He slid his hand up her arm to her shoulder and then brought his lips to her ear. “Put down the ax and turn around.”

  All the wisdom in the world couldn’t stop her from answering his low, compelling command. All the reasons why she shouldn’t seemed to float away on the crisp breeze. She lowered the ax to the top of the pile—in slow motion it seemed—and turned into his arms.

  “What now?” she asked, although she saw the answer in his dark eyes.

  “I’m going to do what I’ve wanted to do to you since the first day I saw you.”

  Without even a moment’s hesitation he framed her face in his palm and lowered his mouth to hers. Just a kiss, she told herself. Just an uncomplicated kiss—and there was nothing uncomplicated about it. He le
isurely parted her lips with his tongue before slipping it inside. He kept it soft, kept it unhurried, kept her pulse fluttering. His palms drifted to her hips, and hers managed to find their way beneath the flannel to the T-shirt.

  When he went deeper, explored more fully, Valerie recognized this kiss was an epic occurrence. An experience to be savored. A mind-ripping kiss…that she had to halt now.

  Valerie pulled back and brought her hands to his chest, intending to push him back. Instead her palms encountered the corded muscle, the rapid beat of his heart, and she couldn’t find the will to take them away.

  She’d try a meager protest, about all she could handle at the moment. “We shouldn’t be doing this, Gavin.”

  He surveyed her face before kissing her forehead. “Why not?”

  “What will the neighbors think?” And that was quite possibly the lamest thing she’d said in her twenty-seven years.

  “First, I only have one real neighbor, and his house is two pastures over.” He kissed her cheek. “Second, he’s a good friend—Logan Voss—and he wouldn’t care.” He kissed her other cheek.

  “Third, even if he did care, that wouldn’t matter to me. What just happened between us does matter to me. A hell of a lot.” He laid his lips on hers again, kissed her until she felt as if the frozen ground could open up and consume her and she wouldn’t really care.

  Reality returned, forcing her out of his arms. “It’s just not a good idea, us getting involved beyond friendship. I might not be here much longer.”

  He looked sorely disappointed. “Did you find a new place today?”

  “No, not a thing. But I didn’t mean at your house, I meant in Royal. I might move on soon.”

  He slipped his hands in his pockets. “You’re the free-spirit sort, huh?”

  No, she wasn’t. She never really had been, although a few minutes before, she’d felt more liberated than she had in a long time. Maybe even a lifetime. “I’m not sure I fit in here.”

  “What if I want you to stay a while, both in Royal and in my house?”

  Oh, how tempting that would be. “I don’t know—”

  “Only until after the holidays. Then you can decide.” He reached out and stroked her cheek, once chilled from the night air setting in, now warm from his kiss.

  She hugged her arms close to her middle. “We should see about dinner now. Hopefully your oven isn’t on fire.”

  He checked his watch. “It still has another twenty minutes, so it’s not burning.” He raised his gaze to her. “I can’t say the same for myself.”

  She saw the longing in his eyes and she almost fell victim to it. Almost walked back into his arms. Only through sheer resolve did she keep from doing just that. “I need to take a shower before dinner, if that’s okay.”

  “Me, too, so I guess we should head back.”

  At least he hadn’t asked to join her in the shower, although that image came to Valerie in fine detail. Very fine detail.

  After he gathered up some wood, refusing her offer to help carry it, they started back to the house, not a word passing between them until they were inside. Only then did Gavin face her. “One more thing you need to know about me, Val.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m a determined man and I’m going to do everything within my power to convince you to stay.”

  When he turned and headed toward the hearth, Valerie escaped into the bedroom. She used the closed door for support for a few minutes before she walked to the drawer to retrieve her journal. Her hands trembled when she put pen to paper, but writing her thoughts might make the situation seem less surreal.

  Gavin O’Neal offered me the use of his classic car, showed me how to chop wood and kissed me. An amazing kiss that I couldn’t begin to describe. It was wrong, but then, it seems everything I’ve done lately has been wrong. My inability to keep my cool, my questionable plan, my kissing the sheriff. Definitely wrong. Then why does it feel so right?

  The sound of clanging bells drew Valerie up the stairs to the loft. She took her time on the ascent, recognizing she should probably turn back around and go to bed. Dinner had been nice, even if a bit tense. That tension should be reason enough to avoid him. But the prospect of spending just a few more minutes in Gavin’s presence kept her going, step by step, until she reached the top. Until she reached him.

  Dressed in a black T-shirt covering faded jeans, he stood with his back to her at the pinball machine on the far wall. His brown hair curled slightly at his nape, spurring Valerie’s vision of him as a curly-haired toddler who’d probably charmed anyone who’d crossed his path, even back then. He had captivated her from the moment he’d walked into the diner, delivering smiles and compliments as easily as she’d doled out coffee. She’d given him a lot of grief for self-protection, fearing that she would find herself lost to him. And she worried that was exactly where she would be heading if she stayed.

  But stay she did, turning her attention to his large hands, so strong and square yet very gentle when he’d held her. His forearms, covered in a fine veneer of golden-brown hair, had prominent veins threaded through them, enhanced by his movements as he worked the machine without mercy. Everything about him was blatantly masculine, and he made her feel incredibly feminine. Before she’d met him, that might have bothered her, yet she was beginning to welcome it. Welcome being in his presence, even if that defied good sense.

  Shoring up her courage, Valerie walked to the side of the machine, keeping her hands at her sides in an effort not to smooth the concentration from his face. “Are you winning?”

  He aimed his grin on her, a smile calculated to take her breath—and it did. “I am now.” Stepping aside, he asked, “Do you want to try it out?”

  “I don’t want to interrupt your game.”

  “You won’t, so take a shot.”

  “Okay.” She shifted in front of the machine and gave the black plunger a solid pull. The silver ball pinged against the bumpers, and before she could slam it with the flippers, it slipped into the awaiting drain. “I’m not any good at this.”

  “You just have to concentrate.” He moved behind her and slid his arms around her waist. “Anticipate what comes next.”

  Valerie could almost guess what would come next, and when Gavin pushed her hair aside, no guesswork was involved. “Your hair smells good,” he told her as he nestled his lips against her neck.

  This time Valerie pulled back the plunger with so little force, the ball barely rolled an inch. “How am I supposed to concentrate when you’re doing that?”

  His laughter was low and gruff, effectively sending a series of shivers down Valerie’s spine. “Maybe I don’t want you to beat me.”

  “Not much chance in that,” she said, trying to ignore the warmth of his breath at her ear, without success.

  He braced both palms on either side of the machine and pressed against her. “Okay, I’m not touching you. Try again.”

  This time she laughed. “What do you mean you’re not touching me?” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “You’re behind me again.”

  “Then step away from the machine, turn around and step against me.”

  Like a susceptible woman in the hands of a master hypnotist, Valerie answered his command. Now they were in full-frontal contact, and she was definitely feeling the effects of his power over her.

  She clasped the front of his T-shirt and tipped her forehead against his chest. “I don’t understand any of this.”

  He tugged her head up with his palms, forcing her to contact his lethal dark gaze. “Understand what?”

  “Why I’m standing here with Royal’s prime catch—who, for some unknown reason, has decided to keep company with someone like me.”

  “Why not you?”

  Any minute now she was going to lose all of her well-rehearsed arguments. “Because we’re so different.”

  “We both like fast cars,” he offered.

  “And you probably like fast women. Now I know it might appear to
you that I fall into that category, but I’m not myself around you.”

  He didn’t look too pleased. “So that’s it? You think that I think you’re an easy target? A fast woman?”

  Precisely. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I let you kiss me without any argument whatsoever.”

  “All you have to do is look at me and I’m ready to climb all over you.” He tucked her hair behind one ear. “But not once have I ever thought anything but good things about you. Regardless of what does or doesn’t happen between us, that’s the way it’s going to stay.”

  Guilt sent her gaze away from him. “If you say so, but what I really want is…”

  “Tell me what you want, Val.”

  She forced herself to look at him. “Your respect.” And that was the absolute truth.

  “I do respect you,” he said adamantly. “You’re a remarkable woman. Strong. Fun. Sassy. Anything but easy. Definitely sexy.”

  Sexy? She’d never seen herself that way—except when she was with him. “So when the chase is over, what happens after that?”

  His smile warmed her to the core. “Never can tell. I might just decide to keep you.”

  She didn’t believe that for a minute, but all her doubts drifted away, despite the possible consequences, when he laid his lips on hers. His gentle, probing kiss contrasted with the strength of his arms where her hands had landed to anchor herself. She’d never known a man who could be so convincing. Never known a man who could make her feel so very much alive and desirable.

  Without missing a beat with the kiss, Gavin picked Valerie up and took her to an unknown destination, and right then she didn’t care, even when she felt the hard surface of the poker table beneath her bottom. Only then did he leave her mouth to ask her, “When we’re together this way, how do you feel?”

  She could give him this truth, even if she couldn’t give him her complete trust. “You make me feel things I haven’t felt in a long time.” If ever.

  With one hand he parted the placket of her shapeless oxford shirt and ran a slow finger along her collarbone. “Have you ever thought about us being together this way?”

  “Yes.” That simple admission took a truckload of effort.