horseshoes and hand grenades.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be close?” She lifted an eyebrow as if to taunt him, her eyes sparkling with mischief over the rim of her coffee mug.
“Excuse me?”
“The expression is, ‘close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.’ Not almost.”
He’d forgotten how she’d loved being right and pointing out how he was wrong about things that didn’t matter. Just like his grandmother, she was a trivia hound and a member of the grammar police. Which was probably why the two had gotten along so well. His grandmother had been sorely disappointed when he’d told her about wiping Charlotte’s memory—she hadn’t spoken to him for weeks afterward. But she knew the rules just as well as he did. If humans found out about the existence of vampires, their memories had to be erased.
There’d been too many instances in the past when this hadn’t been done and rumors of vampire attacks panicked whole villages. Those had been dark days for their kind, caused by a few careless individuals. The Council was formed to establish a rule of law for his kind to live by in order to keep their existence secret.
Charlotte was looking at him expectantly. He almost argued with her about the horseshoe thing—he was pretty sure she was wrong—but he didn’t. He couldn’t let her affect him that way. The playful teasing. The easy back-and-forth. He couldn’t let her work her way into his heart again. For his sake and hers, he needed to remain detached. He’d stay long enough to make sure she was okay to drive and that would be it.
When the waitress returned with their order, his stomach growled. He’d had no idea how hungry he was. The meeting tonight at the field office had involved dinner, but he hadn’t felt like eating then.
“How is your wrist feeling?” he asked, lifting the eggs onto the toast with a fork. “Is the ice helping? Think you’ll be ready to drive in a few minutes?”
A shadow passed across her features. She nodded and turned slightly away from him, rattling her coffee mug as she set it in the saucer. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
She was not fine. She was clearly still shaken up. Frazzled. Hell, knowing what those guys had been planning still had him freaked-out, too.
While Charlotte had another cup of coffee, he finished eating. He couldn’t let her drive home like this, he decided. No way, no matter how unwise it was to prolong his time with her.
“I’ll give you a lift and you can come back for your car tomorrow.”
“No, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t. I offered.”
She sucked in her lower lip, chewed on it a moment as she played with the balled-up napkin he’d thrown at her.
He tried again. “I won’t be able to relax until I see that you’re home safe and sound.”
If she said no, he could always follow her. Or he could check up on her later, assuming she lived in that same little house east of Lake Washington. Yeah, he could make sure she was safe, but she’d still be freaked-out. The overwhelming urge to comfort her and take away her fear was too much for him to ignore.
She narrowed her eyes, tilted her head just slightly. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Not at all.” He could’ve sworn he saw a hint of relief in her expression. He quickly paid the bill and ushered her out of the restaurant.
CHAPTER THREE
WHAT HAD POSSESSED HER to let this man drive her home? In her car?
With one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on the console between them, he sat comfortably in the driver’s seat of the Volvo, as if he’d been driving strange women home all his life.
She studied him out of the corner of her eye. He appeared to be in his early to mid-thirties, the lines in his face apparent only when he frowned or smiled. His light brown hair was fairly short, yet long enough to look messy. Bed-head messy. He had large, capable hands, with slender fingers and short, neat nails. She’d always felt you could tell a lot from a man’s hands. His were fairly smooth, but there was a rugged quality to them that suggested they hadn’t always been that way. If those hands were anything to go by, she’d guess he had brains and brawn.
One of the most attractive men she’d ever seen, he had an intense magnetism about him that was undeniable. If he’d kissed her back in