“He told me to hurry up and come home with you and Amy Lynn.”
She frowned. “Now, Harlan Patrick—”
He cut her off. “I know. You haven’t agreed to go anywhere with me. I guess that leaves me with just one alternative.”
“Which is?”
“I’ll go with you.”
Laurie looked shaken by the announcement, even though she had to know that it was what he’d intended all along. “With me?”
Harlan Patrick grinned. “That’s right, darlin’, when that big ol’ bus of yours pulls out of here, I’ll be sitting in there right alongside you.”
“But the ranch...” she began hopefully.
“Covered.”
“Didn’t you say you flew here in Jordan’s plane?” she asked with a note of desperation in her voice.
“I did. He’s sending someone to get it.”
Her expression fell. “I thought maybe you’d just fly to the next stop or rent a car or something.”
“Not a chance.”
“You’ll hate being all cramped up on the bus.”
“You like it, don’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
“I’ll manage, Laurie. If it’s good enough for you and Amy Lynn, then it’s good enough for me.”
She stared at him silently, then asked, “You’re going to pester me until you get your way, aren’t you?”
He chuckled. “You’ve got that right. I gotta say I’m looking forward to it, too. Always did love a challenge.”
“Does it matter at all to you that I am not looking forward to it?”
He regarded her solemnly. “Well, of course, it troubles me that you’d like to be rid of me, but if you’re asking if that means I’ll give up, the answer is no.”
She sighed heavily. “I was afraid of that.”
They sat across from each other in silence. Harlan Patrick knew from her irritated expression that Laurie was wrestling with herself, trying to decide whether she could get away with banishing him from her bus. He was confident she’d reach the right decision, so he didn’t waste his energy trying to start a debate with her.
When the quiet had dragged on too long, he grinned. “Give it up, Laurie. You can’t think of any way to get rid of me short of having a security guard hold me down while the bus drives off.”
For an instant her expression brightened.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned. “I’ll just keep turning up like a bad penny, and my mood won’t improve if you make it difficult for me.”
“Why? Doesn’t it matter that I don’t want you around?”
The remark stung, though it shouldn’t have, especially since he knew for a fact it wasn’t true. She didn’t really want him to go away. She was just scared that having him around would weaken her resolve, that she’d give in and marry him. She was probably right to be terrified of that, because making her his wife was exactly what he had every intention of accomplishing.
Reacting without thinking, he crossed the room and pulled her up and into his arms. His mouth found hers just as it opened to form a protest. The kiss went from an intended brush of his lips across hers to a deep, soul-searing possession in seconds. She tasted of minty toothpaste and surrounded him with some sweet, fresh scent from her morning shower, unadorned by the rose-petal perfume she favored. This was Laurie at her most basic—innocently alluring, unconsciously seductive.
His pulse pounded as tongues met and danced an old, familiar duel. His skin was on fire where her hands finally settled after an instant of protesting reluctance. His body throbbed with need as her hips cradled his arousal. He threaded his fingers through her hair, tangling in the long strands of silk. He withdrew from the kiss, gazed into her dazed eyes and went back for more.
But that brief hesitation had been enough to break the spell, long enough for her doubts to come flooding back, apparently, because she gave him a shove that took him by surprise and had him staggering back a step before he recovered.
There was fire sparkling in her eyes and a don’t-you-dare expression on her lips when he grinned at her. “That’s okay, darlin’. I think I proved my point.”
She scowled. “And what point would that be?”
“That you’re not immune to me, even after all this time. You just wish you were.”
“Oh, go to blazes, Harlan Patrick,” she all but shouted just as someone knocked on the door of the suite. Laurie raced to open it.
Harlan Patrick spotted Val on the doorstep and concluded that the kissing and the argument were at an end for