he ordered, automatically reaching for his weapon.
THE ORDER came out of the blue. Karen turned, her gaze rocketing up to his. Only he wasn’t looking at her but past her to— Karen groaned. That damned dress! That dress was going to be the death of her.
“Drop the spray and get out of the car,” he ordered again. “Now!”
She dropped the can of spot remover Howie had given her. It tumbled to the floor. “All right, all right,” she said quickly, trying to calm him before he did something crazy like shoot her. You never knew with these cop types. “It isn’t what you think.”
“It never is,” he said coldly. “Step out of the car slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.”
This wasn’t happening. Earlier she’d thought he hadn’t looked much like a cop. Not with his head of thick, unruly sandy-blond hair under his baseball cap and those big brown eyes and that slight crook in his nose in that otherwise boyish face. Not to even mention the way he was dressed.
But he looked like a cop now. And he definitely sounded like one.
Carefully, she opened her door and stepped out very deliberately. Judging from his body language, she’d be wise not to make a wrong move.
“It isn’t blood,” she said, adding a feeble, terrified chuckle. “It’s wine. Red wine. My date spilled it on my dress last night at the restaurant and I should have put cold water on it right away but—” She was babbling, sounding all the more guilty when she wasn’t guilty of anything but stupidity. Unfortunately, she suspected a lot of people went to prison for that very crime.
“And I suppose that wasn’t a can of pepper spray you were pulling out of your purse, either,” he said.
Pepper spray? “No,” she groaned, realizing what he’d thought. “It’s spot remover.”
“Put your hands on top of the car, legs out,” he ordered.
Oh, not “Assume the Position!” This would be funny if it wasn’t so not funny. She did as she was told. She could feel the chilly Montana air under her T-shirt. Why hadn’t she taken the time to put a bra on? She tried to concentrate on Talley’s fried pies waiting for her at home. Even the thought of Howie waiting for her seemed like good news right now.
The detective moved in behind her. She felt her face flush with embarrassment as she waited expectantly for the feel of his hands. He skimmed his palms down her legs, over her butt, between her legs, then around in front. Of course her nipples were hard as pebbles by then.
All she could think about was her mother. Pamela Sutton, a staunch Republican, City Garden Club member and bridge player, would be horrified—not that her daughter had been arrested for suspicion of who knew what—but the fact that her normally sensible only off-spring hadn’t been wearing a bra at the time of arrest. And at Karen’s age!
Karen closed her eyes as Detective Jack Adams’s hands brushed over her. She hated to think that this was the most intimate she’d been with a man in—how long?
“Don’t move.”
She opened her eyes as the cop sidled around beside her and, keeping his gaze glued to her, reached into the Honda to pull out the dress. That rotten-luck sale dress.
He stared at the stain.
If only she’d let Howie take the dress to the cleaners.
He held it up to his nose and sniffed.
She closed her eyes for a moment, not wanting to even think how the dress might smell after she’d worn it last night and then thrown it behind her couch.
He looked at her over the wad of dress. “Beaujolais?”
She nodded, feeling close to tears. “Blind date.”
He reached into the car and came back out with the spot remover. He motioned for her to unassume the position. She straightened and crossed her arms, trying to hide just how ill at ease and chilled she was.
She thought he might apologize. For frisking her. For thinking she had a dress in her car covered with blood—someone else’s. For even suspecting she’d pepper spray a man of the law.
He tossed the dress and the spot remover back into the car, seemingly as upset as if the wine had been blood and the spot remover pepper spray. His gaze met hers. His look said he was still a cop. And she was still a speeder.
She waited for him to give her a ticket.
Instead he gave her a smile.
Without her consent, her heart did a