But no. She was coming back. His heart was racing for no reason. She was fine.
He glanced down at the box on the seat next to him, then back up to the road, and his eye caught on a flash of yellow coming on fast. Of course it was coming on fast. It was Jenny Stone.
For the first time in twenty-four hours, he felt his mouth stretch into a smile. “Jesus, you idiot,” he muttered, thinking he meant Jenny and her speeding, but realizing that he meant himself.
She flew past with a whoosh and Nate shook his head and pulled around to follow her. “Unbelievable.” He didn’t catch up at sixty, so he hit the siren and pushed the pedal to the floor. This woman was...she was...fucking beautiful and maddening and alive and he couldn’t let her get away.
He couldn’t.
* * *
JENNY GLARED AT THE ROAD in front of her, watching for slippery patches and roaming elk and trying not to consider that she was taking a big step in her life. She was just driving home. She was just rushing to get into work. She needed to take a shower and dig out some clean clothes so she could get to the saloon on time, because she was determined to never be late again. It would take months to work off the embarrassment of having not shown up for a shift. Her stomach twisted with shame.
She’d been working since she was fifteen, and she’d never ditched a shift, or shown up drunk, and she’d definitely never behaved so badly that she’d been fired from her position of twenty years.
“Focus,” she ordered herself, pissed off that she’d been thinking of her mom so often lately. “Focus,” she said again, but the word ended in a wail of shock when she glanced over and saw a flash of blue-and-red lights in her side mirror. Then the cry of the siren caught up with her own wail until she shut her mouth with a snap.
Her eyes jumped down to the speedometer, but she’d already lifted her foot from the pedal, so she had no idea how fast she’d been driving.
Even she couldn’t understand half of the expletives that began flowing from her mouth, though she managed to repeat a few favorites several times.
Slowing, she pulled to the shoulder, then edged onto gravel out of fear of the semis that frequented this highway. By the time she stopped, her hands were slippery with sweat and she wiped them over and over on her jeans.
Please don’t let it be Nate. Please don’t let it be Nate.
She’d rather it be an unsympathetic stranger who’d throw her straight into jail than to have to face Nate like this. Cowardly and shamed and throwing all her promises about speeding back in his face one more time.
Jenny scrambled to open the glove compartment to grab her insurance information, but she crumpled it in her hand when she heard the thud of a closing car door. Tears clouded her eyes. She didn’t want to look. She couldn’t.
But she did. And when she saw Nate walking toward her, his sunglasses off, her tears dried as if they’d never formed. This was too horrifying for crying. All she could do was stare straight ahead as she rolled down her window. All she could do was wait for it to be over.
His body blocked the window. “Jenny,” he said. She didn’t look. “Hey.”
She shook her head and held up the insurance information. “I’m sorry,” she rasped.
He didn’t answer. She didn’t breathe.
“Damn it, Jenny, I don’t need that.”
Right. She dropped her hand and stared down at it. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
When she finally tried to draw a breath, she couldn’t force it past the lump in her throat.
“Please look at me.”
No. She didn’t want to see his face. She didn’t want to see his eyes. Why did this have to be the one time he wasn’t wearing glasses?
“Please,” he said again, and she looked up. Just so he’d get this over with and let her go. She couldn’t bear it another—
“What’s that?” she asked, blinking in shock at the big red velvet box in his hands. Special handcuffs just for her? But it wasn’t just a box. He held it toward her and she saw that it was heart-shaped. “What are you doing?”
“It’s for you.”
“But why?”
“It’s Valentine’s Day.”
“It is?” But of course it was. The fourteenth. She’d lost track. Valentine’s Day.
“You don’t have to take it. I understand if you can’t. But I want you to know how sorry I am. And—”
“You?”
He flinched. “I was out of line. And when I came over, I wasn’t as up-front as I should have been. Then yesterday at the cabin... Shit, Jenny. Can you forgive me?”
She couldn’t process what he was saying and found herself simply staring up at him until his shoulders slumped.
“I get it. Maybe we could talk in a week or two.”
“No, I—”
He pushed the box past the window and she grabbed it automatically. “I understand. But the chocolate is yours. And this.” He presented a smaller box he’d tucked under his arm. “It’s for you, too. I’m really sorry.”
She took the smaller box, then watched in utter confusion as he walked back toward his vehicle. “Wait!” She let the box of chocolates slip to the floor of her car as she shoved open her door and scrambled out. “Nate!”
He paused near the flashing lights in the grill of his truck and watched her approach.
“I swear I didn’t know what Ellis was doing!” she said on a rush. “And I’m so, so sorry I got caught up in it, and your coworkers saw that. I was just following him. That’s all. I wanted to find out if—”
“Jenny!”
His exasperated voice snapped her thoughts in half. What did he want from her? His mouth was so tight and serious, his jaw working like a beating pulse. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“You don’t have to apologize,” he groaned as his hands closed over her shoulders. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I pulled you over because I needed to tell you that, and...”
“And what?” she asked softly, afraid if she spoke too loudly it wouldn’t be true. She’d realize she’d misheard him. He’d shake his head and change his mind.
His hands slipped slowly up her shoulders, to her neck, to cradle her jaw. “It’s Valentine’s Day, Jenny. And I wanted to tell you that this means something to me. You mean something. Even if you never want to see me again. You make me feel a little...lost. When you’re not around, I feel lost. But then when you touch me... God, when you touch me, I feel found again.”
“Oh,” she breathed, staring into his beautiful eyes until her vision blurred and she had to drop her head.
“Don’t cry. Please. Yell at me. Or tell me to go to hell. But don’t cry.”
“I’m sorry.” She sniffed, but the tears flowed harder when he kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her. Jenny buried her face against his neck, and the scent of his skin finally stopped her tears. The warm smell of him invaded her like a soul sneaking inside her own.
She wanted him. She didn’t want to give him up. He was part of her home now. “This means something to me, too,” she said into his skin. “It means something...good.”
He squeezed her harder, and whatever words he whispered beneath his breath, she couldn’t understand. Spanish, maybe, or—
“Ow.” Something poked her in the ribs and she pulled back to look at the box she still cradled. “What is this?”
He let her go and gestured to the box, then shifted back and put his hands on his hips.
For the first time since she’d met him, he looked genuinely nervous. He watched the box instead of watching her. Jenny, never one for savoring the process, tore open the beautiful silver wrapping paper and pried open the box. Inside was a card.
She flipped it open.
“It’s good for two sessions. At a racetrack. It’s over near Pinedale, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it. But you can take your Camaro there and go as fast as you want. But you have to promise to wear a helmet, okay?”
“Oh, Nate,�
�� she said. “Oh, God.”
“Or if you don’t like that, I’ll get you something else. I was going to buy you flowers, but I didn’t know... You’re into cars. I didn’t know if—”
“Oh, God.” She was suddenly dizzy. A semi flew past, sucking the last of her equilibrium from her head. She had to touch him. To lean into him. This man who...understood her. Despite everything. After the shortest of time together, he got her. “It’s perfect, Nate. It’s so damn perfect, and I didn’t get you anything.”
“You got me you, Jenny. You came back. You were running, weren’t you? You were gone.”
“I don’t know. But I’m back.”
“That’s all I can ask for. That and maybe...a night this time? Instead of an hour?”
“Yes.”
How many Valentine’s Days had she spent behind the bar? How many lonely people had she watched hook up, not wanting to be alone on this stupid holiday everyone claimed for love? She’d seen it for so many years that the day had ceased to mean anything. But this year, for the first time, there’d be someone waiting just for her. In a home she’d finally chosen as her own.
CHAPTER TWELVE
IT WAS PITCH-BLACK in her room, and cold from the window she’d cracked open to the early spring day, but beneath the blankets, Jenny was warm and toasty and half-asleep as Nate’s hand curled over her hip.
“Mmm,” she sighed, snuggling into his chest as he slipped into bed beside her. “I missed you.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her shoulder. “I really, really wanted to be there.”
“I’ll go again. You can come with.”
“I know, but it was your first time. How was it?”
She smiled into the dark, remembering that crazy rush of adrenaline as she’d lapped around the racetrack that first time. The instructor’s voice in her ear as the stands flew by in a blur. And then the silence when she’d gotten the hang of it, and all she could hear was her own heart beating hard. She’d driven faster than she ever had. She’d flown free and it had been... “It was beautiful,” she whispered.
“I wish I could’ve seen it.”
“Saving lives is more important than watching me drive.”
“It was more like two hours of directing the public around the people who were actually saving lives. And the accident looked far uglier than it was, thank God.”
“Good.” She snuggled tighter against him with a sigh.
“And tonight’s defensive driving class?”
She laughed at the official way he said that. “Oh, that was a whole other level of exciting. I learned how to go slow and steady. Did you know that saves a ton on gas mileage?”
His teeth pressed her neck, and she was suddenly very aware of his body behind hers. The length of his cock branded her ass. “I’d like to know more about this. Slow and steady, huh?”
His hand slid down her hip and cupped her sex.
“What do you know about slow and steady?” he breathed into her ear.
“Oh,” she sighed as his fingers slid along her seam. “Oh, I...learned that I have to be...aware.”
“Mmm.”
She tried to ease her knee open, but his leg was holding hers down as he teased her. Keeping her closed up tight as he dragged his fingers over her sensitive flesh.
“Yeah?” he said. “What else?”
“I have to concentrate on what I’m doing and not get distracted by...” She tried to tip her hips up. His fingertips dragged over her clit. “Oh, God.”
“Distracted by what?”
“By...” She didn’t even know what he was talking about by that point. All her concentration was on his hand and the way it slipped over her, sliding easier and easier the wetter she got. God, if she could just get her legs apart, his fingers would just naturally slide right inside her.
“Oh, Jenny. I don’t think you learned anything at all. Shhh. Slow down.”
She rocked against him as he circled her clit. His other arm was tight across her chest, holding her in place.
“Please,” she whimpered.
“It’s okay. You can go slow, can’t you? For me?”
“No,” she panted. “No, no.” She was so close now. So close. He could say anything he wanted, as long as he kept touching her that way.
His hand slipped up, gliding over her belly.
“No!”
But he held her tight with his arms and his leg and he teased her nipples as if they had all the time in the world. She was sobbing. Begging. Almost angry by the time he touched her clit again. And she arched into him with a desperate cry.
“See how nice it can be to go slow?” He stroked her. Stroked her again. She was so close. So close. “See, Jenny?”
“Please,” she cried.
He finally let her loose. She twisted away, and he caught her and pulled her toward him as he turned to his back. “Now,” he growled, breathing almost as hard as she was. He gripped her hips and moved her to straddle him. “Show me how you felt at the racetrack.”
He gripped his shaft and pulled her down, and his cock surged into her.
She screamed.
“Show me,” he urged, his palm flattening to her belly as he thumbed her clit.
“Oh, God,” she cried.
“Show me how you learned to go hard, Jenny.”
She dropped her hips and showed him. And Jenny knew she’d found a better way to fly.
* * * * *
ALONE WITH YOU
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Harlequin HQN,
Angela James and Kim Whalen for the chance
to join Jennifer Crusie and Victoria Dahl in bringing
Valentine’s Day romance to our readers!
For Stuart. Chocolates and flowers are nice,
but nothing’s better than plain old everyday love.
Thank you for twenty years of it and counting.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER ONE
“ASHGABAT.” THE SEXY stranger’s breath blew warm over her neck as he whispered the word near her ear, and Darcy Vaughn chased a full-body shiver with a big gulp of martini.
“Ashgabat,” she repeated for the trivia host, since he hadn’t been wrong yet.
“That’s correct!” The other teams around the bar all groaned, and Darcy smiled sweetly at Kent and Vanessa, formerly the reigning know-it-alls of Tuesday-night trivia.
She and her sexy fountain of random facts were kicking butt tonight.
Her regular partner hadn’t called to cancel until after Darcy had ordered her margarita and nachos, so she’d left it to the waitress serving as trivia host to pair her with another customer flying solo. She hadn’t expected the guy rocking the scruffy, blue-collar look to raise his hand and join the academic fun, but figured he’d contribute on the sports questions. Despite working at a sports bar, Darcy wasn’t much of a fan.
But now she knew a few things about her trivia partner. His name was Jake. He had brown eyes the same shade as his close-cut hair, smelled delicious and had a body made for selling charity calendars. He also knew a little something about which capital city sat between the Kara-Kum Desert and the Kopet Dag Mountains. Being able to cough up Turkmenistan trivia was almost as sexy as the way he rested his arm across the back of her bar stool every time he leaned in to whisper an answer in her ear.
“Ten-minute break,” the host announced.
After hitting the restrooms, the teams eventually settled back on their bar stools to wait for the host, who’d disappeared into the kitchen. When the silence stretched toward awkward, Darcy turned to Jake. “So, let me guess. You’re taking a break from exploring the world after an expedition to Turkmenistan to find an ancient, possibly cursed relic went bad.”
His smile should’ve been illegal. “And that must make you the Russian spy sent to charm the
relic’s location out of me with your knowledge of U.S. presidents and the Periodic Table of Elements.”
“I have ways of making you talk,” she joked, though it came out a little more suggestively than she’d intended.
“I bet you do.”
Darcy realized, with the way they were gradually leaning in closer to each other and the innuendo, they were in heavy flirting territory and she panicked a little. Guys didn’t usually come on to her in bars. At Jasper’s Bar & Grille, where she waited tables and occasionally worked the bar, most of the guys were looking at Paulie, who managed the place. She was tall, had a killer body—including great breasts—and knew everything and anything about sports.
Darcy was on the short side of average. Her breasts were on the small side of average. She pretty much ran just left of average overall. Her hair was nice, though. Dark and thick, with just enough wave to keep it cute in a ponytail.
“So, Darcy, what do you really do when you’re not answering trivia questions or charming Indiana Jones types out of their relics?”
“I wait tables.” She shrugged. “It’s a good cover. Lots of eavesdropping opportunities. What do you do when you’re not sifting through ancient ruins?”
“Some business consulting. Boring stuff.”
“Do you get to travel a lot?”
He shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t fly, so a few sledding trips to Canada and a really misguided summer in Florida during my youth are the extent of my travel. Not trusting airplanes to stay in the sky killed my dreams of being Indiana Jones when I grew up.”
“Yeah, well, my Russian accent sucks.” They were laughing as the trivia host stepped back into the horseshoe center of the bar and poured them all another round before continuing the game.
After Kent and Vanessa got an economics history question right and the next couple blew it on geography, the host turned to them. “What famous player, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, was known for the phrase ‘It ain’t over till it’s over’?”
As Jake leaned in to whisper in her ear, Darcy blocked him with her hand. “Wait. I know this one, dammit. Finally a sports question I know the answer to.”
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