Under the Magnolia (5 page)

He stretched his legs out and leaned
back into the chair with a soft sigh. "No clue. I know none of
the drug enhancement studies have worked to make TK more reliable.
Aside from that..." His eyes were bleak when they met hers. "I
try not to pay too much attention."

It was hard to see him look so
disheartened. "Why?" she whispered. "Are you worried
about what would happen if people found out?"

"I could always go back to
Atlanta," he told her evasively, shifting his gaze away from
her. "Maybe get assigned to a special unit. But I like my job."

She hadn't let him get away with
that sort of thing in high school, and she didn't now. She rose to
her knees and moved to the other end of the couch, reaching out a
hand to rest on his. "You think I won't understand?"

"On the contrary," he said
softly. "I think you'd understand entirely too well, Addie Jo."

Addie took a deep breath and let it
out before tightening her hand around his. "It doesn't matter to
me, you know. Obviously."

Wes laid his other hand over hers.
"I know. I guess the secretive thing is just a hard habit to
break."

"Yeah." His hand was warm
on hers, strong and just a bit callused. It was all too easy to
imagine his fingers sliding over her body, to imagine how
good
it would feel. Her libido reminded her that there was extremely hot
sex in their future, and she fought the sudden urge to slide into his
lap.

Danger and adrenaline
.
It wasn't a possibility she wanted to face, but it was there. In a
town as small as Carter's Bay, a nasty falling out could be
unbearable. She worked for Wes’ mother, and he spent every
single lunch hour in her grandmother's restaurant. If they let the
allure of shared secrets and the danger of the storm lure them into
doing something…

Waiting a night or two wasn't going
to hurt them.

He sighed again and pulled his hand
from hers. Her disappointment was quickly supplanted by breathless
desire when his hand rose to her cheek, his thumb rubbing over her
skin. "Things don't always work out the way you think."

"Sweet Jesus, Wes. If we're not
going to have hot sex, you have
got
to stop being all...hot. And romantic. And irresistible."
Oh,
that
was smooth. Why don't I just babble a little more?

For a second, he looked just as
thrown as she felt. Then he flashed her a smile. It was the same
smile she'd seen him give other women, usually right before they
offered him their panties. "Sorry, sweetheart, but I need a
little time to downshift from confessions to hot sex."

Addie laughed and fell back onto the
couch, dragging the pillow over her face. "We have got to keep
it under control. I can't face your mother tomorrow if I violate her
little boy in the basement of the old Carter place."

He
made a strangled noise and swore. "
Damn
,
Addie Jo."

She frowned and tugged the pillow
away only to realize that her robe had slid open, baring her legs to
the tops of her thighs. Her cheeks flamed as she scrambled to drag
the blanket over her nakedness, glaring at him. "Stop it. I just
said I was behaving."

"That’s a shame," he
said in a hoarse voice. "Given a little time to get used to the
idea, there are far worse ways to pass the time than getting naked
with the woman of your dreams."

Her heart jumped. "Is that what
I am?"

His laugh was more than a little
self-conscious. "I used to wish my chemistry grades were a
little worse," he admitted, "just so I'd have an excuse to
ask you to tutor me. But you were always so busy with
what's-his-face. The computer guru."

Addie groaned. "Chuck. God,
what a waste of my teenage years. You know, I don't think he ever
actually noticed that I was a girl. I suppose I should be glad.
Anyone that impressed with himself was bound to be a terrible
boyfriend."
And even
worse in bed.

Wes snorted. "You were quite a
fan of his back then."

"Oh, let's not go judging
people based on who they liked in high school." She shifted over
on the couch, clearing a space for him in what she hoped was subtle
invitation to move to sit next to her. "Or do you want to talk
about the head cheerleader and the prom queen?"

She could tell she'd made her point
when the tips of his ears turned red. "Fine. What about since
then?" He rose from the chair and moved to sit next to her,
stretching his long legs out in front of him again.

"What? Men?" Addie
snorted. "You know how dating in this town is. Between the
matchmakers and the gossip, I might've hid from the men even if I
didn't
have an unfortunate habit of talking about the future in my sleep.
Besides, I've been pretty focused on teaching and my thesis, which
I'd like to finish before I'm sixty."

"Not men, Addie," he said
softly, his eyes boring into hers. "
Me
."

Oh. My. God.
She had to try twice to stammer out her reply. "Career Day,"
she finally managed. "It—when you came to Career Day.
Afterwards, when you were helping me clean up that mess that Bradley
and John made..." He'd frightened the troublemakers to within an
inch of their young lives then stayed to clean up broken beakers with
her, flirting the whole time.

It was hardly the first time he'd
flirted with her, but before it had always seemed like casual teasing
between friends instead of anything sexual. But her grandmother had
sent her to school with a pecan praline pie that morning—Wes’
favorite—and they'd stayed in her office well into the evening,
laughing and talking over pie and coffee. By the time he'd walked her
to her car, the world had been alive with possibilities she'd never
considered before.

He laughed and rested his arm on the
back of the couch, his hand barely brushing her shoulder. "That
was some damn good pie. And some damn good company." His breath
feathered against her cheek. "But that was months ago."

Heat shot through her, and her voice
sounded low and hoarse even to her own ears. "Maybe I was a
chicken, too."

"Maybe," he agreed as his
thumb brushed her cheek. "Do you mind if I kiss you again,
Addie?"

Just a kiss. Just one little
kiss...
It was a bad
idea, but that didn't stop her from wrapping her arm around his neck
and dragging him into the most deliciously erotic kiss of her life.

Wes had kissed his fair share of
women, and probably a few others besides, but something about the way
Addie's lips parted under his was unbearably arousing. Her kiss was
bold and assertive, yet still soft and sweet. It was a maddening
dichotomy he had associated with Addie for the last fifteen years.

He shifted, trying to get close
enough to press her tightly to his chest, to feel her curled up
against him, but the pillows and blankets between them got in his
way. He pulled his mouth from hers long enough to toss the bedding to
the floor, and his arms flexed as he picked her up and drew her into
his lap.

She squirmed a little, shifting
until her knees dug into the couch on either side of his hips. Addie
didn't wait for him to kiss her again but claimed his mouth, making
soft noises against his lips.

Wes’ hand landed on her leg,
left bare by the parting of her robe, and the intimacy of their
situation hit him full in the face. If he didn't stop, they'd be
making her vision come true sooner than he'd planned...and in the
middle of one hell of a crisis, too. He broke the kiss and looked up
into her dazed brown eyes. "Addie—"

A loud crash of broken glass and
whistling wind interrupted his words. It sounded close, and the
large, barely secured picture windows of the lobby sprung to mind.
"Dammit," he ground out, already lifting her off his lap.

She climbed to her feet and
tightened her robe as her eyes slid to the door. "I was too
distracted to notice if they boarded the windows or not."

He'd mentioned it, but she'd been in
sorry shape when they'd arrived. "Not very well. It could be
downed trees or debris." He reached out and grabbed his rain
slicker and flashlight, hesitating only a moment before taking up his
gun, as well. "There's a deadbolt on the door. Lock it behind
me, and only open it back up for me."

Addie stared at him with her mouth
gaping open, and he could almost
see
her temper rising. "The protective thing was nice when I was
actually feeling shaky, but don't push it, Wes. I
will
kick your ass."

That
wasn't the reaction he'd expected. "Is there some reason you
think I wouldn't tell a six-foot tall trucker, in whom I had no
sexual interest whatsoever, the same thing, or are you just that
touchy?"

She glared. "The six-foot tall
trucker probably isn't working on a Master's degree in meteorology.
If there were bank robbers or kidnappers up there, you would
absolutely be the boss of me, but that's a hurricane. I can do
hurricanes."

He fought the urge to call her
"little lady.” "Do I still get to be the boss of you
if there are looters up there, looking to score from a posh and
ostensibly deserted resort?"

Addie blinked, her mouth snapping
shut. Then she tilted her head and considered his words for a moment,
her expression finally shifting from annoyed to accepting. "Okay,
I guess that's why you're the cop and I'm the scientist. I can't
begin to imagine why anyone would be stupid enough to drive into a
storm just to
steal
stuff."

"Agreed." He gave her a
wink. "Though there are a lot of people who can't understand why
you'd
risk your neck to drive into one, either." He glanced at the
door. "I have to go check this out. Just...wait here. Please?"

"Okay," she replied
softly, smiling at him. "Be careful."

He nodded then quickly headed out
and toward the stairs. He held his gun at the ready, his flashlight
above it. The hotel hadn't been locked when they'd arrived, and he
hadn't bothered to secure it behind them, but people looking to take
advantage of a bad situation rarely bothered to check doors. Smashing
windows was far easier, especially when there was no one around to
care.

Wes didn't encounter anyone on his
way up to the lobby, and he found a large cabbage palm intruding
through a broken window and onto the glossy tile floor. A quick
examination of the glass in the immediate area revealed that it
didn't seem to have been disturbed, and only their own wet and muddy
footprints marred the tile.

He blinked rain out of his face and
peered out of the broken window. The storm must have been drawing
closer, but he couldn't see a damned thing for all the wind and rain.
Maybe, in a little while, Addie could come up and take a look at
things.

Leaving the palm tree in its new
home, he turned and trudged back down the stairs, only stopping to
grab a fresh towel. He'd barely finished knocking when she jerked the
door open, and he gave her a rueful grin as he rubbed the towel over
his wet hair. "No criminals up to no good. Just a tree."

"Good." Addie tugged him
into the room and closed the door behind him, sliding the bolt into
place. When she turned to him, her eyes were a little sheepish. "I'm
sorry I snapped at you before. You know how I can get. I can't stop
thinking like a scientist."

Her apology was unnecessary and made
him feel vaguely bad for no discernable reason. "It's not a big
deal. I have a hard time getting my own head out of cop mode, too. If
it were easy, I'd have probably realized that the chances of that
being anything other than bad weather were slim to none."

She nodded and moved past him to
curl back up on the couch, her legs tucked under her and her robe
modestly arranged. Her expression turned serious as she cleared her
throat. "Since you're going to be spending the night wi—in
the same room as me, you'll probably need to know what to do if I
wake up freaking out."

Wes arched an eyebrow at her before
crossing to the employee refrigerator and examining its contents. It
held the usual collection of Tupperware containing leftovers of
questionable freshness, along with a selection of soft drinks and a
few containers of yogurt. "Why, does your head spin around, or
something?" he asked absently as he examined a delicious-looking
slice of pie. A note on the top of the plastic container threatened
death to anyone who touched it.

"You have to be careful,"
she warned. "If you touch me before I'm awake... I broke my
boyfriend's nose in college. Even if it seems like I'm awake, I might
not be."

Addie was in pretty good shape, but
the thought of her being able to get that decent a hit in on him was
downright depressing. "I'll be careful.” He pulled a soda
from the refrigerator and waved it at her. "You want one?"

She eyed him in consternation.
"You're not at all concerned?"