go."
"But, Dylan - "
"The lady needs an escort home."
Kitty felt her face heat. The lady. "Really, I'm fine - "
But he was already bidding his friends good-bye. They made polite noises to Kitty too, but saved their last comments for Dylan as they climbed into their vehicles.
"Kayaking, definitely," one said. "Just like old times."
"Don't forget poker," said another, jingling the change in his pocket. "Unless you've gotten any luckier at cards, Dylan, I see good fortune coming my way."
Tony's truck was still at the curb as the others drove off. He leaned out his window. "It's great to see you, Dylan. Why don't you come to Bram's tomorrow? We'll show you around."
"I don't think I can," Dylan said pleasantly enough, but the hand holding Kitty's wrist tightened. "Things to do tomorrow."
With one last wave from Tony, the two of them were alone again.
Kitty cleared her throat. "Uh, 'things to do tomorrow'?"
"Hmm." He turned her in the direction of Aunt Cat's and started walking, still grasping her arm.
Kitty pulled, and he released her. She let out a little sigh, a little sigh cut short - cut to a stifled gasp - when he took her hand. A hot current jolted her palm and the hairs on her arm stood up.
She must have made a little sound.
He looked down at her, in the darkness his eyes just darker pools. "What's wrong?"
She licked her lips. "You, uh, shocked me."
He laughed. "Just that one time? Then we're not near even."
Kitty couldn't think what to say. His hand was still sending electricity up her arm. Her muscles tensed. "I, um, I could have made it home just fine, you know."
A couple of cars passed them and he had to raise his voice. "I thought you wanted to talk to me."
Kitty blinked. That's right, that's right. Really, this haywire overreaction of hers only proved the obvious one more time. "You can't be sheriff," she said, stating it.
"I can't?" he asked mildly.
"Well, I mean it's really not necessary. And you can see how disappointed your friends would be."
"What about my friends?"
"I already told you. You just saw it too. They want to spend time with you. Kayaking, poker, whatever."
"Yeah." He didn't sound all that enthused.
"So you see," she said in a bright voice, "there's no need for you to be stuck with me day in and day out."
"Stuck with you?"
"And everyone else in the living-history district," she added hastily.
"That's right," he said softly. "I could be stuck with you, or stuck ... entertained by talking over old times with all my old buddies."
"Exactly," she said, pleased he was seeing it her way.
"But, Kitty, honey," he murmured, "what if I'm afraid to let you out of my sight?"
Kitty swallowed. A subtle edge in his voice, just like his touch, was sending some kind of sexual Morse code to her nerve endings. She swallowed again, trying to ignore all the buzzing, pulsing, dash-dot-dot-dashes. "Why would you be afraid of that?"
His shoulders moved up and down. "I've been thinking. First I discover we're married. What the hell might be next? I find out I'm a daddy?"
Every inch of Kitty's skin burned. "Oh. Oh, no," she reassured him quickly. "I wouldn't have kept something like that a secret. I promise you. If that had happened that night ... well, I'm sure you took precautions..."
Somewhere mid-jabber, he'd halted. Stricken with embarrassment, she noticed only when her quick strides took her to the end of the length of their joined arms and she was snapped backward.
"...didn't you?" she finished lamely, stumbling against him.
But he wasn't listening. A series of catcalls and lewd hoots from a car passing by would have drowned out his answer anyway. The car slowed and some rowdy young men leaned out the windows, their attention focused on the sidewalk. Kitty froze.
Their attention wasn't focused on her sidewalk, but on the one across the street. There, a blond woman was walking in the opposite direction of Kitty and Dylan, her tall height accentuated by her self-assured, graceful posture. Playboy Bunny-sized breasts thrust forward, she strolled along in a dark skirt and low-cut tank top, the intermittent streetlamps spotlighting the gentle yet seductive sway of her hips. If she heard the boys' "Baby, baby" or even realized their car was reversing down the street to keep pace with her, she gave no notice.
Dylan's jaw was just an inch short of banging against his kneecaps. "Who - " He swallowed. "Who the hell is that?"
That was the reason Kitty was leaving Hot