on me?”
He managed a small shrug. “You never know which busybody from town is going to drop by—at least in broad daylight. And there’s your car. I arranged to have it pulled out of the ditch and towed into town. Someone will bring it back here when it’s finished.”
She made a rather unladylike exclamation.
“What’s wrong?” he asked quickly.
“I forgot all about getting the car towed. Thank you for taking care of that.”
“You’ve had a lot on your mind since you got here.”
She studied his face. “Don’t tell me the car is being towed to the same gas station where I stopped?”
“That’s the only alternative. I talked to the rental company, and they asked me to pay the bill—then get reimbursed from them.”
“I’ll do that,” she said quickly. “But I hate trusting that guy Bubba to fix the brakes.”
“I’ll check out everything when it comes back.”
“You can fix a car?”
“Yes. Out here, you have to be self-sufficient. I would have done the repair work myself. But that would have meant dealing with the gas station for parts. And I’m trying to have as little to do with the town as possible—until the situation is resolved.”
“I understand,” she answered.
Of course, there was no way she could really understand the whole picture yet. That would have to wait. Or maybe his plans were only a pipe dream. Before she’d arrived, he’d convinced himself that everything was going to work out the way he wanted. Now he was feeling as if the ground was slipping out from under his feet.
“Come see the library,” he said, then strode out of the room.
###
This was the most unsettling job she’d ever accepted, Morgan thought. She’d come here on assignment for a guy who turned out to be a hunk. But that was no reason to start having erotic dreams about him as soon as they met.
She followed her host down the hall, staring at his broad shoulders, his narrow hips. In truth, she didn’t want to be alone with him any longer. She wanted to escape into town. But that was impossible, with her car out of commission. Besides, she had come here to solve a major problem for him, and that meant she couldn’t avoid listening to anything he wanted to tell her about the case.
Because her mind was focused inward, she almost bumped into him as he stopped to open a pair of pocket boards.
When she made a small sound, he turned. “Are you all right?”
“Yes!” she snapped, then modified her tone and added, “I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep too well.”
“I’m sorry that you had a disturbing night,” he answered as he stepped into the room beyond the doors.
Before she could stop herself, she shot him a question. “What about your night? How was it?”
He went still. Without turning to face her, he answered, “My night was the way it always is.” The way he said it was like a warning—don’t go there.
She might have pressed him, but she’d been worried about her dreams. What if he’d had the same dream?
As that thought flashed into her head, she was glad his back was still to her.
He couldn’t have had the same dream! That was impossible. And if he had, she didn’t want to know about it. With her teeth clenched, she tried to force that outrageous idea out of her head.
In the next moment, she had something else to focus on. The room beyond the doors took her breath away.
His office had been full of modern equipment. This room was like something she might have imagined in an old British university It was all dark wood and floor to ceiling shelves with beautifully carved moldings. As she walked inside, she could smell the unmistakable aroma of old books. It was obvious that he’d inherited a sizable collection of volumes along with the estate.
Scanning the shelves, she saw that some of the books were obviously old and rare. But he’d added to the collection, because others were modern. When she walked closer, she saw all kinds of nonfiction subjects including what she would have called coffee table books. In another section were some of the latest bestsellers.
The focal point of the library was a polished stone fireplace. In front of the hearth was an almost threadbare Oriental rug, forming a conversation area for two comfortable chairs arranged to take in a view of the leaping flames. But as in Andre’s office, the chairs were also positioned to look out over the beautifully tended gardens. While