Crash Into My Heart (3 page)

Adrian
slid
his large
body down into the tight-fitting driver’s seat with grace and ease. He pulled his door shut and started up the car.

“Put on your seatbelt,
koulka
. This machine flies.”

Koulka
?
Janice struggled to locate the shoulder harness. After
seconds
of
clumsy effort, Adrian
reached across and
pulle
d out the
restraint
, snapping
her
in
.
He straightened the twisted strap,
r
u
n
ning
his hand
lightly
across her chest.

He grinned
at her
outraged
expression.

“Hang on.”

Janice was sure
the man
was trying to impress her with the power of
something
,
as he
launched his vehicle
forward
. They crested the hill before she’d taken a breath. She
attempted
nonchalance
,
but
he
chuckled
.
H
e
’d seen
the way she clutched
the edge of her seat.
Clearly, she’
d survived one accident
only
to die in the next.
After several miles,
h
e slowed to a more leisurely
speed
.

“Where
do you live
?”

“Where are
you headed?”

“
Up p
ast the valley
.”

Janice thought for a moment. They would pass several businesses
on the route
through town
that
connect
ed
with the freeway. She could have him drop her at the first
station
. She’d have cell reception the
re
and could
call for a tow truck,
and
someone
to pick her up. O
r she
could simply have him drop her
at home, just minutes
from
the freeway.
In
choosing the second option, she wouldn’t have to
find
anyone to pick her up, but
he
would know her address.

I
t was
easier to
have him
take her home
. N
ot that it meant anything if he did
.
He was out of her league. It’s not like he’d be interested in a
public school
history teacher.

Her voice was stiff
. “Would you mind
dropping me off at my house?”

“Guide me there,
koulka
.
I’ll
get you home safe
.”

***

Adrian couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun.
What
a prickly, presumptuous
M
iss
P
r
iss
. A
damned
fine-looking one, but a
p
riss
nonetheless. She was so easy to rile up. He didn’t even have to try.

He frowned. That was probably not a good thing.
Nevertheless, h
is derailed weekend
suddenly looked
much more interesting
with
the
tasty little treat
currently
buckled into his car.

“
M
aybe you’d
tell me your name
now
.”

“My name is irrelevant
.”

Adrian shook his head, puzzled.
Usually women fell all over themselves to be friendly.

“That makes no
logical
sense.”

“I don’t need to make sense. I’ve just been in a serious car accident.”

Adrian looked her over
,
deliberate
ly lingering on her bare
thighs
.
She noticed and
tucked
her skirt
down
.
He looked back at the road.

“You seem
relatively
uninjured.”

Adrian wondered if she
might be
more hurt than
she appeared
.

“My car is totaled. I’m going to have black eyes for weeks…”

“Do you think you’re in shock?
Maybe I should
take you to the hospital?”

“No. Take this next turn
left
, please.”

Adrian signal
ed and moved left
.

“I mean
t
the other way.
”

“N
o problem. My mother and sister
can’t distinguish rig
ht from left either,” he told her, riling her up a little more.

Her voice was predictably peevish.
“I know the difference.”

“Yeah, just not which word goes with which
direction
.
”

“
I was just—“

Adrian finished her sentence, “—in an accident. Yes, I am aware of that since I’m the one who rescued you.”

“You didn’t
rescue
me. I rescued myself.”

“
Who found you stranded
in your car
?”

“You’re giving me a lift in the direction you were already
traveling
.
H
ardly a rescue effort.”

The woman obviously liked
arguing
. He loo
ked away from the road to
study
her
again
. Her
up-do
display
ed
her neck and ears
.
Her ears were perfect.
Dainty.
He thought about licking that
graceful curve
, nibbling on
her
bare
ear
lobe.
She
wore almost no make-up
. She was natural-looking. Fresh scrubbed.

“Watch the road!”

Adrian
lazily
swung his gaze back to the empty, straight road ahead of them.

“What’s wrong,” he asked.

“You were about to
cross
the line.”

“I’m completely
in my
lane
.”

“Well, you were about to stray somewhere,” she mumbled.

He chuckled.

“So
.
Y
ou do have a sense of humor.”

“What’s
that
supposed to
mean
?”

“So far, all you hav
e done is
complain
.”

She
stared at him
. “That is
not
true.”

“What’s your name?’

Her
expression
grew mutinous
.

“Janice.”

“
See. That wasn’t so hard.”

She
stuck her chin out
. “Y
ou’ll never know if it’s my real name.”

“It is.”

“How do you know?”

“You look like a Janice.”

“That’s
ridiculous. There’
s no such thing as a Janice look.
”

“All the
Janices
I’ve known have been blonde and thin.”

She harrumphed.

“First of all, I’m not
really blonde
.
I have
highlights.”

“
You’re
not
natural
?”

She ignored his question.

“Second, I
imagine that
all
the women you’ve known have been blonde and thin. I
seriously
doubt they’ve all been named Janice.”

“
True.
About the name.
”

“
Anyway,
I prefer n
ot to talk about myself
. Take a right at the stop sign ahead.”

Adrian slowed,
and turned
. They’d been traveling on a quiet road that appeared to mark the
edge of
town. Just a mile up,
housing tracts
broke up the desert landscape.

“Shall I talk about myself
then
?
”

“Oh, most certainl
y
.
You look like a man who likes
talking about himself.”

“Do I?”

Adrian shifted
and the car shot forward
.

***

Janice could
n’t understand why she
kept arguing
with
the man
.

Adrian Margolis had to be the most attractive man she’d ever met.
She resisted the urge to
check
the mirror under the sun visor. She
must
look awful.
Her nerves were rattled. Her heart
still raced
from when he’d picked he
r up and carried her
. His touch had sizzled. She honestly couldn’t
re
call
reacting to any man like that ever.
Not even
Karl
.

Karl
! How could she be thinking
sexually
about a ma
n
after
Karl
?
Since his fatal accident
, s
he vowed she would never love any man like she’d loved
him
.
But s
ex wasn’t love
.
Did that
mean she couldn’
t have a
meaningless
fling
?

She tried to shut down the direction of her thoughts, but they careen
ed
wildly out of
her
control. It’d been four years. Not even the
distraction of the
boy
s
and work
made up for t
hat ache that
sometimes
started
when the day was
finished, the lights out,
the
house silent.

T
onight, the house would be
lonely
with the kids away visiting
their grandparents
. In fact, s
he faced two weeks of
solitary
nights.
Caring for the
boy
s
staved off
her
general
loneliness. She
didn’t expect
complete
life
satisfaction
as a single woman.
But men were a lot of work. S
he hadn’t met anyone
since
Karl
who she could
imagine spending the
evening
with watching movies
, much less
invit
ing
to
bed.

Until
now
.

She cast a covert look
Adrian’s
way. He was about her age, maybe
older. He was fit, confident. She could imagine unbuttoning his shirt and runnin
g her hands over his
hard
chest
.

What was she thinking? He would never find her
attractive,
especially all beat up and battered. She swung the mirror down to
inspect
her face.
S
he couldn’t tell whether the shadows were from the hour of the evening or from the accident.