Chapter 2
Two
J osie rolled onto her side as the phone buzzed on the nightstand. She smiled as she saw the name on the screen. In the week since he’d rescued her, nightly phone calls and daily texts had become a thing.
“You have the wrong number,” she said as she answered.
“How can you be sure?” he replied suggestively. “You don’t even know what I want yet.”
But God above, she wanted to. “Behave, Carter.”
He chuckled. “Where’s the fun in that, cupcake? But since you won’t misbehave with me, I guess I’ll have to.”
He didn’t mean it. She knew that. Carter flirted the way most men breathed. It just happened whether he intended to or not. Deciding to move the conversation to safer waters, she asked, “What wonderful things did you find at that auction in Florence today?”
He sighed. “The house had been picked pretty clean by the time we got there. Got a few windows that Savannah will probably have me turn into something crazy. We did manage to get a real pretty mantle, but I think that’s just because the damn thing was marble, and no one else wanted to carry it. Thank God we made Emmitt go.”
She giggled at the idea of Emmitt attending an auction surrounded by antique dealers. Carter’s mountain of a cousin terrified most people, but he’d always been kind to her. He’d taken excellent care of every stray she’d ever carried up to his door, and there’d been more than a few over the years.
“So you have to give me all the details,” she urged.
“About the mantle?” he asked. “It was heavy as shit. What other details do you need?”
If he’d been in front of her, she would have smacked him for being obtuse.
“About Bennett and Mia Darcy,” she said.
Rumors had been swirling all over town about the two of them, their secret engagement, and the family feud between the Darcy and Hayes clans.
It was the stuff of romantic dreams. And now the daring rescue, with Bennett pulling Mia to safety after she crashed her car in a flooded creek. It was definitely swoon-worthy.
“Jesus,” he muttered. “Bennett pulled her out of the water. That’s all I know. That’s all I want to know.”
“You don’t think it’s romantic?” she asked. “He saved her. After all those years of pining for her, he risked his life?—”
“Bennett is a Boy Scout, Josie. It could have been Samuel Darcy in that damn creek, and he would have pulled the son of a bitch out. That’s just who Bennett is. Don’t be reading more into this than there is. It’s not a romance novel. It’s not one of those damn Lifetime movies you love.”
“You don’t have an ounce of romance in your soul, do you?” Josie demanded. “You can’t tell me that Bennett doesn’t still have feelings for her.”
“I’m sure he does.” Carter agreed. “But it’s not my fault he’s a dumbass.”
“Carter, I’ve seen them…out in public, when they run into each other. It’s like the air is just charged around them. You have to see that they belong together?”
He sighed again, this time sounding more than a little irritated. “What I see is that she broke his heart once. She walked out on him without a backward glance, and given half the chance, she’ll do it again. I’m not going to be Team Mia, Josie. Ever.”
He was unreasonable. “And people think Emmitt is the sourpuss! Clearly, they’ve never heard you on this subject!”
The last thing Carter wanted to talk about was Mia Darcy.
He’d gotten used to his nightly phone calls with Josie, of talking to her while he pictured her lying in bed wearing something white, innocent, and still sexy as fuck.
It bugged the hell out of him that Mia Darcy was now fucking that up too.
She was in Bennett’s head, making him crazy.
The whole family was in an uproar over it, but no one said anything to Bennett.
No. They came to him and had him talk to Bennett.
Or distract Bennett. Or try to talk some sense into Bennett. He was done with it all.
“Dammit, Josie. Can we not just talk about something else?” he asked.
“Fine,” she said, and from the clipped tone of her voice, he knew she was pissed. Lord, she could go from rainbows and kittens to daggers and bullets in two seconds flat.
Since there was no hope in hell of putting that cat back in the bag, he decided just to poke it and see what happened. “You could tell me what you’re wearing.”
“Ooooooh!”
And there it was. He’d rendered her speechless, left her hissing, spitting, clawing, and probably throwing shit. His work was done.
“Listen here, Carter. I’m not one of your floozies. I’m not chasing after you. I’m not sleeping with you. I’m not having phone sex with you.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” he pointed out reasonably. “I just asked you what you’re wearing. It’s supposed to get cold tonight, Josie, and you’re so little that it wouldn’t take much to turn you into a popsicle.”
She was probably going to key his truck. No. No one would bother, he reminded himself. Hell, they’d have to find a spot that was more paint than rust.
The sound of her taking deep breaths and counting slowly made him grin. “I don’t know what makes you fly off the handle like that, darlin’. I really don’t.”
“I ought to change my number,” she said. “I swear, you just enjoy pissing me off.”
He didn’t even bother to deny it. “You do look awfully cute when you’re mad. Want to snap a pic and send it to me?”
“No. I don’t. And I’m wearing something hideous,” she said. “Thermal, even. Something so unsexy it’ll mark me for life.”
He didn’t laugh at that. “Josie, haven’t you figured out by now that it’s not what you’re wearing? It’s just the fact that it’s you.”
She sighed then. He could hear her flopping back on the bed, the springs of the ancient iron bed bouncing.
Lord, did that give him filthy ideas. She’d sent him one picture of her lying on that bed, fully clothed, nothing even remotely suggestive about it, but it had fueled more fantasies than the Playboy magazines he’d stolen from Emmitt as a kid.
“What are we doing, Carter? I think we’re friends, and then you say things like that. I just don’t know what to do.”
“We are friends,” he replied, kicking off his boots and lying back on his own bed. He stared up at the ceiling and wished with everything in him that she was there with him. “But we’re not just friends, Josie. Or at least that’s not what I want us to be.”
“Carter—”
“Don’t say no,” he urged. “Just think about it. If you decide it’s not worth the risk, fine…I’ll never bring it up again. But you wanted fun, Josie. Your words, not mine.”
“I know that,” she answered.
“I can make it fun, Josie.” He’d use every damn thing he’d learned. It wouldn’t be just fun. It’d be unforgettable. Carter knew that if he could get her in his bed once, he could keep her there, at least long enough to get her out of his system.
“ If …” She began. “I agreed, it would have to be a secret. I won’t be just another name on the list.”
“There is no list,” he replied. Half the women he was rumored to have slept with were nothing more than friends, and the other half, well, he hadn’t broken any promises to anybody. “And I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks but you. I can be as discreet as you need me to be.”
“I have to think. I’ll let you know,” she said.
Which meant he’d overplayed his hand and would likely never hear from her again. Fuck.