“I’m not talking about that, Lilah. I’m asking if you’re truthful with people when they ask you an opinion.”
“Oh, well,” she said, pushing her glasses up her nose and clearing her throat, “in that case, I’m brutally honest.”
Lucas folded his arms across his chest. “Then tell me, Lilah, am I old?”
She took a step closer, gave him a lusty look, then shook her head. “Mr. Lowrimore, if you’re old, then I wish I were, too.”
A frown twisted his mouth. “You’re just looking at the outside, Lilah. You can’t see how I’m feeling on the inside.”
Shaking her head, Lilah walked to his desk and began to straighten the clutter. “You’re just tired, honey. You’ve been trying to do too much here lately. It’s no wonder you’re feeling old. Why, between this place and those children’s shelters, I don’t know how you have any sanity left.”
“I’m not tired, Lilah.” He was empty, deep-down empty. And he didn’t know why. “As far as those shelters go, they’re very important to me.”
She tossed a half-eaten sandwich into the trash. “I know they are. But you need relaxation of your own. You need a-”
“Woman,” he finished for her, wondering how many times he’d heard this from his secretary. Actually, Lilah was the closest thing to a mother he’d ever had, and he valued her opinion. He just didn’t always agree with it.
“Well, I’ve met a woman,” he added.
“Dear Lord,” Lilah said, pressing her palms together and lifting her eyes to the ceiling.
Lucas shook his head in wry disbelief. “You don’t need to pray about it, Lilah.”
“I’m not praying, I’m giving thanks.” She looked at her boss. “So when are you going to see her again? What is she like?”
A crooked grin on his face, Lucas held up a hand. “I don’t really know her—yet. She’s a policewoman.”
“Oh.”
“What does that mean? She’s not a leper.”
Lilah shot him a sarcastic look. “I wasn’t implying anything of the sort. I just remember that story you told me about losing your policeman friend. Knowing that, I can’t see you getting close to anyone who’s a target for that sort of danger.”
Lilah was right. Given a choice, he’d never intentionally look twice at a woman who worked as a law officer. But in this case, he couldn’t seem to help himself. He desperately wanted to see Jenny again. “Well, it’s not like I plan to get that close to her, Lilah. And you’ve been saying I needed a little female companionship.”
“So I did. What’s this police officer’s name?”
“Jenny Prescott. And that’s about all I know. Other than that she’s a gorgeous redhead.”
Lilah’s expression turned incredulous. Whipping her glasses off, she stared at him. “That’s all you know?”
“Give me time, Lilah! I’ve got to think of some way to make our paths cross again.”
The words were barely out of his mouth, and Lucas could see the wheels starting to turn in his secretary’s head.
“Maybe she likes to dance,” Lilah suggested after a moment. “You’re going to the policeman’s charity Halloween dance tonight, aren’t you?”
The charity dance! He’d forgotten all about it. “Damn it, Lilah, why didn’t you mention the dance this morning?”
“Because you’ve been talking about it for days now. I hardly thought it necessary to remind you.”
He glanced at his watch. “Do I have any meetings left?”
Lilah shook her head. “There’s nothing of real importance left on your calendar today. Go on. I’ll take care of everything here.”
Lucas patted her cheek and hurried toward the door.
“You take care of things with that redhead,” she called after him. “But take care you watch that heart of yours, hear?”
Laughing, Lucas stepped into the corridor of the office building. “I’ll do my best, Lilah.” He spoke the words over his shoulder.
Later that night, Jenny stood at the edge of the large crowd, watching couples circle the makeshift dance floor. The Halloween charity dance had started inside the municipal building, but the weather turned out to be mild and clear, and every available officer had pitched in to move the party outside to the parking lot. And from the looks of things, all the hard work had been worth it. People were still arriving and dropping money into the giant jar set up at the entrance.
Tapping her toe to an old Bruce Springsteen number, Jenny suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Expecting it to be Orville, she looked around, then stared in total surprise at Lucas Lowrimore.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said with a little gasp.
He grinned at her as his eyes scanned her face. “Who were you expecting, the devil?”
Her brows lifted at his question and then she smiled. “I may look witchy tonight, Mr. Lowrimore, but that doesn’t mean I’m expecting Lucifer to show his face around here.”
Lucas’s gaze traveled from the top of her auburn hair to the black high-heeled boots peeking from the hem of her long skirt. She looked anything but witchy to him.
“This crowd is huge,” he said above the noise of the music. “It took me a long time to find you.”
Once again surprise was etched upon her face. “You were looking for me?”
He nodded as he admired the thick wave of hair dipping over her eye. The rest of it was tied at her nape with a wide, black velvet ribbon. He knew if he was to reach up and pull one end of the bow, the red mass of waves would come tumbling around her shoulders. For one wild moment, he considered doing it just to see the outrage on her pretty face.
“You’re the only police person I know.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
Lucas laughed at her point-blank question. “Why, I’m here for the children. Isn’t everyone?”
Of course, Jenny thought, as embarrassed color swept across her cheeks. But the way he’d said he’d been hunting her—well, it had led her mind in other directions. Crazy directions, so it seemed.
“I hope so. That is why my precinct is putting this dance on. By the way, you can drop more money into the jar before you leave—if you want to, that is,” she added.
“I already have. A check from my trucking company.”
She nodded, then turned her attention to the dancers. He was the last person she’d expected to see here tonight. In fact, after that day in the courthouse parking lot, she hadn’t ever expected to see him again. Having him standing here beside her as if she was an old acquaintance was making her downright giddy.
“I’m sure the children will appreciate it. And believe me there’s plenty of them who need help,” she replied.
“I know,” he said, then curled his fingers around her upper arm.
A jolt of crackling fire raced to her shoulder. Jenny tried to ignore it as she looked questioningly at him.
“Would you like a glass of punch?” he asked.
Jenny nodded. Her mouth was as dry as straw, and she didn’t have a good excuse not to go with him. Other than the fear of making a fool of herself, and she could hardly admit that to him.
Jenny wasn’t good around men. Not in a one-on-one, personal kind of situation. She hadn’t always been that way. In fact, during high school and two years of junior college, she’d enjoyed being around young men. But then she’d met and married Marcus, and he’d shown her a different side of the male species. Now she could rarely look at a man without wondering what dark, evil part of him was hiding behind his smile.
“My partner, Orville, said you owned a trucking firm here in the city,” she said moments later as Lucas handed her a cold glass of fruit punch.
Lucas nodded as he filled himself a glass from the huge punch bowl. “If you’d known that before you started writing my ticket, would it have made a difference? For the better, that is?”
Jenny found herself laughing in spite of her nervousness. “Not in the least. I don’t show partiality to anyone.”
“
Not even your family?” he countered jokingly.
“I don’t have family—around here,” she replied flatly.
“Oh.” It was all he could say, which was ridiculous when he thought about it. Lucas had never been at a loss for words in his life. But something about the look on her face, the shadowy wall in her eyes had unsettled him.
“Do you have family here?” she asked after a few moments.
Lucas shook his head, and Jenny thought she’d never seen a man whose presence was quite so interwoven with his looks and his deep voice. Taken apart feature by feature, he wasn’t all that handsome a man. His nose was large, his complexion a bit rough, his face too lean. But put together with his sleek, dark hair, his rock-hard body and crooked smile, he was dangerous.
He was a man who touched a woman in the innermost part of her. In one word, he was sexy. He might not know it. But Jenny did. And having him stand next to her, his shoulder inadvertently brushing hers, was playing havoc with her breathing reflexes.
“I’m an only child,” he told her. “And my father, the only family I have left, lives near the Florida Everglades in an old houseboat with a bunch of snakes and gators for neighbors.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Jenny said.
Lucas laughed. “Dad would enjoy hearing a woman like you say that. He always did consider himself an adventurer.”
A woman like her? What did he mean by that? Jenny wondered. Slanting her hazel green eyes at him, she studied his dark face, made even darker by the navy blue turtleneck he was wearing.
He was a man who laughed easily. As if laughter came naturally to him. Had his life always been filled with laughter? Had he never had to worry, to make sacrifices or endure the pain of loss? She definitely had too many questions about the man, she scolded herself.
But that didn’t stop her from asking another one. “What about you, Mr. Lowrimore? Are you an adventurer?”
The band began to play “Hungry Heart.” Jenny silently sang along with the words. Because they fit her. They’d always fit her.
Lucas shrugged. “I used to be.”
She continued to look at him, and Lucas realized she was waiting for him to say more. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. This woman was a cop, and long ago he’d made a vow never to get close to an officer of the law. But she was so different, so tempting. In spite of his vow and in spite of her being a policewoman, he wanted to get to know her.
“I was in the marines when I was young,” he told her after a moment. “That was extremely adventurous. After my time was up, I came out into the civilian world looking for something to get into. So I bought a run-down tractor-trailer rig from my father and spent some time driving cross-country. The rest, as they say, is history.”
“That must be quite a story, from one truck to owning a large company,” she said, deliberately turning her eyes to the dancers.
“I worked hard, invested my money and had a little luck with me. Things turned out good.”
The music changed, and once again, Jenny felt Lucas’s hand on her arm. “Would you like to dance?”
She’d expected him to drink his punch, making a little small talk and move off into the crowd. It wasn’t turning out that way, and Jenny didn’t know whether to be wary or thrilled that he was paying her so much attention.
“I’m not that much of a dancer.”
“I saw you dancing earlier. You looked like you were doing all right then.”
Jenny blushed. “That was Orville, my partner. He’s about as surefooted as I am, and that’s not saying much.”
He took the cup from her hand and tossed it along with his into a nearby trash barrel. Then taking her by the hand, he led her out among the dancing crowd. The music had slowed to a bluesy number, and Jenny reluctantly went into his arms.
For long moments neither one of them said anything, and Jenny felt a strange sort of panic come over her. She was trained to deal with all sorts of dangerous situations, but none of that training was helping her to deal with Lucas Lowrimore. What was he doing here with her? Dancing with her? He was rich, handsome and not someone who traveled in her social circle. Was he simply amusing himself with her company on a warm Halloween night?
“Are you familiar with some of the other charity work we do for children?” she asked, hoping conversation between them would stop the warm rush of excitement she felt at being in his arms.
“I know that you have a toy drive at Christmas and a huge Easter egg hunt.”
His dark gaze was sliding gently over her face. Jenny felt his touch as surely as if it had been his fingers, and she had to steel herself to keep from shivering with reaction.
Nodding, she said, “We also have a food drive around Thanksgiving, and that usually brings good results.”
“God knows, there’s plenty of kids around here who need food.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? That children go hungry in all countries, even ours.”
Marcus had never wanted children. A fact he’d deliberately kept hidden from Jenny until after they were married. When she discovered his true feelings on the subject, she’d been devastated. She’d always dreamed of having children. But during their marriage, she’d put those dreams aside and taken great care not to get pregnant. She’d been afraid Marcus’s unpredictable temper might have eventually turned on the child, and she could never have borne living under that sort of fear.
“Do you have any children, Mr. Lowrimore?”
“My name is Lucas. Call me that, would you? I already feel old enough.”
She couldn’t prevent a faint smile from crossing her face as she looked at him. “All right, Lucas.”
“In answer to your question,” he went on, “I don’t have any children. But I like them. I like being around them. And I hate what today’s society is doing to them.”
A couple she knew danced by them. They waved at her and Jenny waved back, then she glanced at Lucas. “Such as?” she prompted.
“Such as making it impossible for a family to make ends meet unless both parents work. The fast life, the TV and video games. It’s ruining their bodies and their minds. A lot of kids don’t or can’t use either one.”
The music changed once again. This time the tempo was even slower, and Jenny wanted to protest when he pulled her closer against him. But she didn’t. She wasn’t a prude. She was a thirty-four-year-old woman. And what was it going to hurt if, for one night, she acted like one?
“The kids I saw you playing ball with the other day, how did you come to be doing that?” she asked curiously.
He chuckled and Jenny could feel his chest move against her breast. It was a tantalizing feeling and one that reminded Jenny how long it had been since a man had made love to her.
“A swarm of them used to play in the streets,” Lucas explained. “And every evening on my way home from work, I’d have to stop the car and wait for them to clear out of the way. Finally, one evening I got out and laid the law down to them. I threatened to report them to the police, and if they didn’t like that they could meet me in the park the next evening to discuss it. They agreed to be there, and I surprised them by showing up with a football. That was two years ago. Some of the names and faces have changed, but my reason for doing it hasn’t.”
Stirred in spite of herself, she asked, “And what is that?”
“To keep them off the streets and let them know that someone cares.”
The texture of his palm was tough against hers. It made Jenny wonder what he did during the day and in his spare time. He obviously didn’t have to do manual labor to make a living.
“Hey, Jenny, happy birthday!”
Jenny glanced around at the female voice to see her captain and his wife dancing a few feet away from them. She smiled at the older couple.
“Thank you, Valerie, and thank you, Captain Morgan, for throwing me such a huge party.”
The gray-haired man gave her a little salute. “I try to keep my officers happy.”
“Today is your b
irthday?” Lucas asked after the couple had danced past them. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Jenny didn’t understand this man or what he was really after. He’d walked up to her and acted like he’d known her for years. When in actuality he knew nothing about her except that she was a policewoman and she’d written him a hefty ticket.
“At my age, it’s not something you go around announcing,” she told him, recalling the black balloons and dead-looking weeds her fellow officers had given her today. She’d gotten a few crude birthday cards, too, and she’d laughed at them all. At least she’d been remembered. It had been at least ten years since she’d received so much as a card from her mother. It had made her feel too old to remember she had a grown daughter, Ruby had always said.
“Your age?” Lucas asked wryly. “Just what is your age?
She frowned at him. “I’m sure you know it’s impolite to ask a woman that question.”
He chuckled and Jenny’s eyes were drawn to the gleam of his teeth and the dimples in his cheeks.
“Do you think that matters to me?”
His question, his laughter and the faint curve to his lips sent warning signals shivering down her spine. He was getting too cocky, too personal, and she’d danced with him far longer than she should have.
“I’m getting—winded,” she said coolly. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go sit down.”
To his utter dismay, Jenny twisted out of his arms and walked off into the crowd of onlookers lining the edge of the dance floor.
Muttering a curse to himself, he plunged into the crowd to find her.
Once she was away from the dance floor, Jenny slipped off into the darkness and didn’t stop until she’d walked several yards across a wide lawn. A white wrought-iron park bench sat empty beneath a huge sycamore tree.
Jenny brushed the fallen leaves from the seat, then sank down with a sigh of relief. This night wasn’t turning out to be anything like she’d expected. That she would see Lucas Lowrimore here tonight had never entered her mind. And even if it had, she would have never pictured herself dancing and conversing with the man.
Wanted: Wife Page 3