Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
Reese tried not to fall asleep. This was about as exciting as watching grass grow. Knight had been in that car jabbering for over an hour.
She couldn’t even see the witness, and now that she’d rushed to get herself here, it occurred to her that seeing the guy wasn’t going to do her a damn bit of good. She still didn’t know his name.
What a great investigative reporter she had turned out to be. She couldn’t investigate her way out of a paper bag.
Feeling grumpy and unsure of what to do, she stared at a flower bed attempting to camouflage the Dumpster. The marigolds and petunias were hanging tough despite the chilly fall nights, and the leaves on the burning bushes were just starting to turn red.
Wondering how her single green plant was doing without water in her apartment back in New York, she wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to Knight in the black car.
When her passenger door suddenly jerked open, she jumped, hitting her head on the ceiling of the rental car. Clutching her chest with one hand, she fumbled for the doorknob, ready to throw herself out into the night and escape the intruder.
“You know, if you’re going to follow me, you should at least try to be discreet.”
She knew that voice. Crap, Knight had caught her. Swallowing the scream in her throat that she’d been about to unleash, she turned to see Knight climbing in beside her.
“Oh, hi,” she managed to choke out. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Dragging in a huge breath, she whacked his arm. “Yeesh, you scared me! I’ve probably got half a dozen gray hairs now.”
He stared at her without blinking, running his eyes over her chest, taking in her tank top and PJ pants. His head went slowly back and forth. “My God, I do not understand how I can feel this way. ”
There were so many ways that could go, she decided to nudge him in the right direction. “Wowed by my beauty?”
He didn’t take the bait. “You could cost me my job, you could compromise a federal investigation, you’re reckless and unpredictable, yet when I look at you, all I can think is how much I want you.”
“It’s a gift,” she joked, feeling just a little embarrassed at her foiled stakeout. Not one of her better ideas.
There was no answer but the sound of his ragged breathing and her nervous gulping breaths. Her nipples were hardening in her tank top, brought about by his steady, probing stare. Maybe he had mind-control powers and he had ordered her nipples to bead.
She liked that better than the idea that one glance from him and her insides were lusty oatmeal mush.
“Ever done it in a car?” he asked, pulling the condoms out of his pocket and tossing them up onto the dash.
Wait, was he serious? “Just one failed attempt senior year. We couldn’t quite figure out the physics involved.”
Patting his thighs, he said in a coaxing voice, “Come sit on my lap.”
He was serious.
“You know, Knight, we’re in a hotel parking lot. It’s barely even dark out and there’s a huge streetlight shining right on us.”
“Chicken,” he taunted.
Oh, like that was going to work. She was way too mature for that kind of tactic. Sort of. Reese clenched her fists and tried not to give in. They could not have sex in a car in a parking lot.
“No, we’re not doing this.”
Knight unzipped his jeans.
Mama. Like she could resist that blatant invitation.
Pulling her legs up, she scooted over across the gearshift, squeezing her side against him in the quarter inch space he’d left her.
“Move over.”
“No, I want you to get on my lap.”
“I was going to take my pants off first.” Reaching down, she grabbed her slippers and tossed them on the driver’s seat.
“Nice slippers,” Knight said, his lip twitching.
“I was in a hurry.” Reese was wiggling against Knight, trying to shove him over with her hip, about to push down her pants.
A knock on the window made her scream. “Aah!” Heart pounding, eternally grateful she hadn’t dropped her drawers yet, she turned to see who it was.
Knight’s big head was blocking her view.
“Derek? Is that you?”
“Shit.” Knight cursed, trying to get the window to go down. “Reese, turn the car back on, the window won’t open.”
She did, all while craning her neck to get a glimpse of the person standing outside. She strongly suspected this was the cooperating witness, and she wanted a good look at him.
After Knight sent the window down, he said in a low voice, “What is it, Stan? Everything okay?”
Stan. Reese ran through the list of names she’d seen in the Delco documents. Stan something-or-other, a chemist in charge of the new products division. Bingo.
“Who’s with you?” The man was upset, jumpy.
Knight zipped his pants back up. “It’s just my girlfriend. Let me step outside the car.”
It figured. He was the picture of discretion when it came to his work. But this time she could forgive him because she was too busy being preoccupied with his wording. Girlfriend. He had said girlfriend. It’s just my girlfriend.
She had no idea how she felt about that.
There was a lot of time to think about it, since Knight stood over by the Dumpster for fifteen minutes talking. Yet she couldn’t come to any sort of conclusion. Except that she liked Knight. She really liked their sexual by-play.
But that didn’t mean they could or should be girlfriend/boyfriend. She lived a thousand miles from him. Besides, Knight struck her as the kind of guy who’d want a wife who cooked and cleaned and never complaining about his weird hours.
She was too selfish for that. The cooking part, anyway. She didn’t care about weird hours.
Without a female role model growing up, she had never learned the art of cooking. Some men cooked. Her father hadn’t. The way Reese had learned to sustain herself was by microwaving things that came out of boxes in her freezer.
Knight probably wanted a wife who would bake him chocolate chip cookies. She wasn’t baking anybody chocolate chip cookies. That’s what the bakery across the street from her apartment was for.
Of course, Knight had probably just used the most plausible explanation for her presence. They had been sitting just about on top of each other. The use of the word girlfriend was probably just to reassure the witness.
Probably she needed to get a goddamn grip.