Tempt Me - By Shiloh Walker Page 0,19

off, Cole thought a few minutes later as he wove in and out of the early evening traffic, following Clayton Morgan to the police department. Pissed him off, and worried him.

Reaching over, he caught her hand where it lay fisted in her lap. “This won’t be so bad. You just answer some questions and sign your name in a few places. And since you know the cop, he’ll probably be able to speed things up, too.”

“I know.” She rolled her head on the seat and gave him a weak smile.

Something about her tone made him think she did know, too. Hmmm. Okay. He was asking. Damn it, he was asking. Because whether they had their date tonight, he was already in far too deep with this woman and he needed to know what in the hell was going on. Assuming she told him.

“Somehow, I don’t think that ‘I know’ is just a vague, empty comment.” He rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand, noting how tightly she had that fist clenched. So tight her hands must ache from it, he mused. “Somehow, I think that ‘I know’ is said from experience.”

As he slowed down for a red light, he turned his head to look at her. “Am I right?”

Rocki had her eyes closed. In the faint light coming into the car, she looked pale, too pale. And still so amazingly beautiful. Scared, too. Somehow, he didn’t think scared was her normal. He wanted to gather her up against him and hold her close, stroke her until that tension faded.

“You’re right,” she whispered. She opened her eyes, staring straight ahead. “Yeah. You’re right.”

The light turned to green and he focused on the road once more, but continued to hold her hand. “You maybe want to tell me about it?”

“I don’t know.” She blew out a shaky breath. “But I can’t right now. I need to keep it together and that’s taking a lot out of me.”

Cole nodded. He could see that easily enough on his own. “Okay.” He wouldn’t push. Not yet. But he wanted to know what was going on, what kind of unhappy secrets had darkened her lovely eyes.

This was an unexpected complication.

But oddly enough, he wasn’t the least bit inclined to walk away.

“And that’s it. I ran outside, didn’t see anybody. I came back inside and called you.”

Damn it, this was hard. Even though Clayton was here, this was still hard. Clayton had been a friend of hers for years—since college. Lacey used to tease her that he’d had a thing for her. Rocki didn’t know if that was true but she did know he’d always been there. Always. And he was here now. But this was still so hard.

She sat perched on the edge of the chair, her hands wrapped around the coffee. She’d asked for it more to warm her hands than to drink it, but she’d had a few sips. The caffeine was already zinging through her system, and she wondered if it would be possible to sleep.

She didn’t know.

She didn’t know if she wanted to sleep. A split second later, she decided she probably didn’t.

Off to the side, Cole stood silently, his face expressionless, his golden eyes unreadable. A lawyer. She wouldn’t have guessed it. She didn’t have the knee-jerk dislike for lawyers that Clayton obviously had, but still, she would have thought she’d be able to peg one.

It didn’t matter, though. Not to her. She’d meant it when she said it earlier and she still meant it. She was glad he was here. Glad she wouldn’t have to drive back to the shop alone, although she wasn’t so glad about spending the night alone at home.

Morosely, she stroked a hand down the silky black sleeve of her new corset and decided it hadn’t mattered what she wore. She wasn’t really going to be able to put it to good use, anyway. Not that she’d planned on doing much more than seeing if he appreciated her efforts, but still.

“Rock?”

Glancing up, she saw Clayton staring at her, his brows arched, an expectant look on his face. She sighed and lifted a hand, pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Sorry, Clayton. My mind is wandering.”

“It’s okay.” He reached out and tugged on a lock of her hair, much as he’d done when they were younger. And she reached out, swatted at his wrist, much as she’d done. It was a familiar thing, something that settled her, soothed her. “You’ve got plenty of reasons for