Two on the Run (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Watson, Margaret

  A few minutes later they walked out carrying disposable containers of food. Positioning themselves where they could watch the road without being seen, they began to eat.

  The silence between them was peaceful. Then Michael turned to her.

  “You said you were always the boring and respectable one. How come?”

  Shame washed over her and she looked away. Then she defiantly looked back at him. “My family background isn’t exactly normal.”

  “Join the crowd,” he muttered.

  She’d guessed as much, so she merely nodded.

  “Are you going to tell me?” he asked after a moment.

  She didn’t want to do so. She wanted to keep her shame private and hidden. She didn’t want him to know how she’d been manipulated. But he waited, watching her with understanding eyes, and she realized Michael wouldn’t judge her.

  “My father left before I was born,” she said, staring down at the ground. “I guess my mother never got over it. She clung to me because I was all she had left.” She risked a glance up at him, and he reached for her hand.

  “She couldn’t stand being alone. And she wanted someone to take care of her.” She gave him a wry look. “I was the one and only candidate. When I did try to move away from home she had a breakdown.”

  Eleanor shrugged. “I took care of her, of course. I didn’t have a choice. I was the responsible one, the one who made all the decisions.” She tried to give him a smile and failed miserably. “I had to look after her.”

  He leaned forward, searching her face. “Is your mother the one who said you weren’t attractive?”

  She jerked away from him, shocked. “What do you mean?”

  “Someone told you that,” he said grimly. “And I’m guessing it was her.”

  Ellie looked down again as the remembered pain rolled through her. “She never said it in so many words. She just told me I’d have to rely on my brains to get by in the world.”

  “Selfish bitch,” he said viciously.

  “She was just a needy woman.”

  “And she stole your self-confidence.”

  At that Eleanor looked up and gave him a weak smile. “No one’s ever accused me of a lack of self-confidence.”

  “I mean confidence in yourself as a woman.” He leaned closer and grasped her chin in his fingers, forcing her to look at him. “You’re a beautiful woman, Ellie. And if you’d stop hiding behind those baggy clothes and ugly glasses, everyone else in the world would see it, too.”

  “That’s telling it like it is,” she muttered.

  “Are you going to sit there and pretend it’s not the truth?”

  After a long pause, she gave a jerky nod and looked away. She felt raw and exposed and completely vulnerable. “You’re right. She had me convinced that no one would ever find me attractive.”

  “She was full of crap.”

  Eleanor laughed in spite of herself. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Now finish your dinner so we can get going.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Was that it? Was it really as simple as that?

  Maybe it was. Michael certainly seemed to find her attractive, if the episode in the cornfield was any indication. Maybe it had been her perception that was at fault, rather than reality. Had she thought herself unattractive only because her mother let her believe it? Her mother who’d had a definite agenda when it came to her only child?

  Thoughtfully she took a bite of her food. It was certainly something to think about.

  By the time they finished eating, shadows were lengthening and the sun hung low in the sky. It would be dark soon, she thought as they slid back into the car. The heat from the day had eased and there was an almost-cool breeze flowing through the car window.

  “Next stop Chicago?” she asked cheerfully.

  He shook his head. “We won’t make it that far tonight. We’re still four or five hours away. I thought we’d stop in Springfield. It’s big enough that no one should notice two strangers. And there will be plenty of motels to choose from.”

  Her heart speeded up at the thought of spending the night with him. But she couldn’t help glancing behind them, looking for the headlights of a pursuing vehicle. “Aren’t we still too close to Midland?”

  “I’d like to be farther away, but they have no idea which direction we went after leaving Pinckney.” His mouth compressed into a thin line. “They might even think we’re still in town. The guys I saw in that car aren’t going to admit we might have gotten past them.”

  “Will Charles and Betty be all right?” The thought of the older couple, alone and vulnerable in their isolated house, had been gnawing at her all day.

  “They’ll be fine. If I know Charles, he’s got a warning system rigged up in case they come back, and he’s waiting for them with a shotgun.

  “But thanks for worrying about them.” He touched her arm lightly and a shock of desire sparked across her skin. He drew his hand away quickly. Had he felt the connection, too?

  “Wouldn’t it be safer to travel in the dark? That way no one could spot us.” She struggled to keep her voice even, to hide her reaction to his touch.

  “It might be. But in the dark we couldn’t see anyone, either.”

  His voice was huskier than usual. She longed to touch him, to find if that spark of desire was mutual, but she clenched her fists in her lap.

  In an hour they were going to stop at a motel. Memories of their lovemaking under the sun swirled through her mind. Heat throbbed in her blood and desire pooled inside her, heavy and aching. The car was far too small. His musky scent filled the air.

  What would happen at the motel? Would Michael ask for two rooms? Or a room with two beds? And what if he did? Would she be able to tell him she didn’t want to sleep alone?

  A combination of nervousness and longing swirled through her, sharp and edgy. Michael didn’t look at her, didn’t touch her. He just kept driving, his eyes on the road in front of them, his hands on the steering wheel.

  An hour later they saw a sign alerting them that Springfield was ten miles away. Her nerves, which had subsided to a jittery hum, started jangling again. She stared into the night, desperate to distract herself.

  It was now completely dark. The moon hadn’t yet risen and the only light came from a band of stars smeared across the black sky. It was the Milky Way, she realized with awe. She’d never seen it before. It was impossible to see many stars in Midland, and it had been far too long since she’d been out of the city.

  “We’ll head into town to find a motel,” he said, his low voice rasping across her nerve endings. “Give them more places to search.”

  “Good.”

  She felt him watching her in the darkness of the car. “Do you want me to leave you in Springfield?” he finally asked. “You’d probably be safe enough if you stayed in your room. They can’t search every motel.”

  “You said I’d be safer if I stayed with you.”

  He looked back out the windshield. “There are all kinds of danger,” he finally answered in a low voice. “You might be better off if I left you behind.”

  “I don’t want to remain here,” she said immediately. “I’d rather stay with you.”

  She could feel him studying her in the darkness. “Why would you want to do that?” he asked, his voice almost too soft to be heard.

  She wasn’t about to tell him the truth—that she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, hoarding memories for the day he walked away. “I like to finish what I start,” she answered, trying to make her voice casual and breezy. “And I have a grudge against those guys. They shot at me.”

  “They’ll do a lot worse than take a few wild shots at you if they catch us,” he said.

  “They haven’t found us so far, so I’ll take my chances. Besides, what would you do without me?” she teased, trying to ease the tension in the car. “Someone has to plan this caper.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” he muttered. But
the tightness in his shoulders had relaxed. “All right, you’re coming with me.”

  They drove through the outskirts of Springfield until they reached an area full of strip malls, fast-food outlets and budget motels. He finally turned into the parking lot of the inn set the farthest back from the street. “This looks like a possibility,” Michael said.

  The motel had a seedy, run-down air about it. Michael drove slowly around the building, clearly cataloging everything he saw. The cracked asphalt behind the motel held a handful of vehicles. Only two of the streetlights were lit, leaving the parking lot dim and shadowy.

  “This will work.” He nodded at two semis parked close together. “They’ll provide plenty of camouflage.”

  He swerved the car into a spot deep in the shadow of one of the trailers, then eased out of the car. “You stay here,” he said. “I’ll go check in. If they’re looking for two people, it would be better if the motel staff don’t see you.”

  “All right.”

  She watched him walk toward the front of the building. He moved stiffly, as if his back still hurt. And she was sure it did. A person didn’t recover from a bullet wound in twenty-four hours.

  But not once had he complained. Not once had he even mentioned the wound in his back. He might describe himself as a cop who worked on intuition and luck, but he was as stubborn and iron-willed as anyone she’d known.

  Stubborn enough to insist there was nothing between them but captor and victim.

  Stubborn enough to walk away from her without looking back.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  MINUTES DRAGGED BY as she waited for Michael to reappear. Concern grew slowly at first, then mushroomed into panic as she imagined the worst. The police had been waiting for him when he walked into the motel lobby. The Midland cops had seen him from the street and quickly surrounded him. He could be lying on the ground right now in a pool of blood, his life ebbing away in a seedy motel parking lot.

  She was just about to leap from the car when he slid into the seat beside her.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, grabbing his arm. “What happened?”

  “Nothing happened.” He gave her an odd look. “I was being careful and took my time.”

  She let go of him and fell back against the seat. “I imagined the worst.”

  He gave her a weary grin. “There goes your imagination again, Ellie. Those books of yours are a bad influence.”

  “I pictured you lying dead on the asphalt of the parking lot with the Midland cops standing around you,” she admitted.

  He laughed. “You said I’m melodramatic? You’re the queen of the dramatic moment.”

  “I am not a drama queen,” she began, her voice indignant. Then she realized he was baiting her, trying to distract her from her fears. And he’d succeeded.

  “You’re good, Reilly,” she said as she reached into the back seat for the bag with the toiletries she’d bought that morning. “You’re very good. But you’re not going to suck me into an argument again.”

  “Too bad,” he said, watching her with a glint in his eyes. “Fighting with you is always so…stimulating.”

  Heat shimmered through her at his words. She straightened to face him and stilled. His eyes blazed, suddenly hot with desire. As she stared at him, unable to look away, an answering wave of need rolled through her.

  He was the first to look away. “We’d better get inside,” he said, his voice gruff.

  Neither of them spoke as they walked through the narrow, dimly lit corridor of the motel. The building had a musty smell, as if the rug had gotten wet and not completely dried out. The muffled sounds of television accompanied them down the hall. Clearly, soundproofing the rooms wasn’t a priority of the owners.

  “Sorry we have to stay in such a dump,” Michael muttered. “I figure it will be more anonymous.”

  “This is fine. I never considered myself a Ritz kind of person, anyway,” she answered.

  “Maybe not, but I’m damn sure you’ve never stayed in motels like this before.”

  “I’ve never stayed in many motels, period,” she admitted. But that was going to change, she vowed. It would be part of the new, exciting Ellie Perkins. She’d go on vacations to exotic places and stay in luxurious hotels.

  He stopped in front of a door and opened it, then stepped aside so she could enter. There was one double bed in the room, plus a shabby dresser that had definitely seen better days. Two chairs sat by the window, their upholstery faded and worn.

  “Well, it’s cleaner than the place we stayed last night,” she said after a moment.

  “Now there’s a ringing endorsement.” He frowned. “We could have stayed in an alley and it would have been cleaner than last night’s room.”

  “This is fine,” she said again, her voice firm. Her gaze drifted to the bed, then she made herself look back at Michael. “It’s not like we’re living here. We’re just sleeping here tonight.”

  Heat rose up her neck. When she looked at the bed, the last thing she thought about was sleeping.

  She glanced at it again, then immediately turned her head away. Michael must have noticed.

  “I registered as a single. There was no way I could ask for a room with two beds,” he said, his voice defensive.

  This was the point at which she needed to be bold, needed to tell him that she was glad there was only one bed. She opened her mouth, but the words caught in her throat.

  Tension stretched between them as they stood in the center of the room. She couldn’t take her eyes off his face, and he seemed equally unable to look away. Just as she was about to take a step toward him he turned and handed her the bag, practically shoving it into her hands.

  “Go ahead and use the bathroom first. You must be beat.”

  I’m not that tired, she wanted to say, but her nerve failed and she slipped into the bathroom. Ten minutes later, wrapped in a towel, she walked back into the room to find Michael peering out the window through a crack in the curtains.

  “See anything?” she asked.

  “Not a thing. I don’t think they’ll find us tonight. They can’t have any idea where we’ve gone.” He let the curtain drop and turned around. “I’ll, uh, take my turn in the bathroom.”

  He seemed almost as nervous as she was, Ellie thought in amazement as he disappeared into the bathroom. Maybe he was just as unsure as she was about the next move.

  She folded her clothes carefully and laid them on one of the chairs. Then she looked over at the bed, shifting from one foot to the other, agonizing over what to do.

  “Darn it, Eleanor,” she finally fumed. “Decide what you want.”

  And that didn’t take any thinking at all. She wanted Michael. This might be their last night together. If everything went smoothly tomorrow, she’d return to Midland and Michael would…

  She wasn’t sure what Michael would do, but it was highly unlikely that he’d return to Midland with her. Tomorrow he would walk away from her, and she was very sure he wouldn’t look back.

  Unraveling her towel, she tossed it on the chair and slipped into the bed. But her courage failed her when the bathroom door opened. She yanked the covers to her chin.

  “All set?” he asked. He was careful not to look at her.

  “Yes.”

  He nodded and tossed his clothes on the other chair. Then he padded over to the bed, wearing his T-shirt and the black boxers she bought at the convenience store. Her heart jumped in her chest and her stomach quivered when he slipped into the bed next to her.

  It was now or never, she told herself. In a minute he’d curl up and turn away from her, and then she wouldn’t have the nerve to touch him. Swallowing hard, her chest tight with anxiety, she rolled onto her side, facing him.

  “Michael,” she began, then stopped. Never in her life had she asked a man to make love to her. And she wasn’t sure how to do it. The words just would not come out of her mouth.

  He looked over at her and she stilled. Passion blazed in his eyes. H
e tried to conceal it, but desire was etched in every muscle, every plane of his face. His eyes burned the deep blue of a flame as he watched her.

  And suddenly her hesitation fell away. This was the right thing to do. She needed to grab for memories, because their time together was dwindling to a handful of hours. She would not leave him with the memory of a cowardly retreat.

  “Michael,” she said again. Her voice quavered, and she took a moment to steady herself. “I’m glad you got a room with only one bed.” The declaration came out as a husky growl.

  He stared at her for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what she’d just said, then closed his eyes with a groan.

  “You shouldn’t have said that,” he whispered. “You’re making it impossible for me to do the right thing.”

  “And what’s the right thing?”

  “Not touching you. Staying as far away from you as I can.”

  “That’s not the right thing for me,” she breathed, reaching out and linking her fingers with his. All her fears fell away as she watched him struggle with himself. “I want you, Michael.”

  “I want you, too. But I can’t make any promises.”

  “I’m not asking for any.”

  He slid closer to her and cupped her face with his hands. “Are you sure?”

  “As sure as I can be.” She lay perfectly still, her heart racing and the pressure in her chest expanding.

  He closed his eyes and took her mouth with a groan. “Then God help us both.”

  She melted into him as he kissed her, but she didn’t taste the desperation she’d felt earlier. Instead his mouth was sweeter, softer, slower, as if he had all the time in the world. Unbearably moved by his tender seduction, she wrapped her arms around him and fitted her body to his.

  He swept his hand down her back, then stopped as he realized she was naked. “Ellie,” he said, lifting his head and gazing down at her, his eyes hot and smoldering. “You’re not wearing any clothes.”

  “I’m not?” she said, the weight of uncertainty falling away when she saw in his eyes that his need was as great as hers. She felt her mouth curl into a grin. “How did that happen?”