Her Sexiest Mistake (9 page)

Mia reached for her and pulled her forward. “Forget her.”

Hope wasn’t worried about Blondie—she could have taken that skinny know-it-all—but Mia’s concern did something odd: it sort of
warmed
her.

“Look,” Mia said to Kevin. “I need to get Hope into your program today.”

Kevin stood back and held open his office door for them to enter.

Mia hobbled past him, growling when Kevin took in her missing heel with a smile. “Zip it,” she warned.

“I didn’t say a word.” The office was the size of Hope’s car, but Kevin had a cool beanbag chair in the corner, red with white polka dots, and Hope sank into it. Next to her was a low shelving unit filled with books that had been on her high school reading list. Between two books was a jar filled with mini chocolate bars.

Her mouth watered.
Just as good as donuts…

Her stomach rumbled hopefully. A quick glance at Kevin and Mia assured her they were still busy with their standoff. Jeez, those two needed to just knock it out or something, she thought. Anyway, she let her hand run over the books.

Then the jar.

She palmed two chocolate bars, and had already popped one into her mouth—
heaven
—when she felt someone’s eyes on her.
Shit.
She turned her head and met Kevin’s brother’s steady gaze, and suddenly the chocolate tasted like sand.

She tightened her palm around the one chocolate she hadn’t yet eaten and tried to pretend she didn’t have anything in her mouth.

He lifted a brow.

She turned away and began to frantically chew so that she could swallow, but it wouldn’t go down. Now everyone would really think she was a thief.

She’d deny it. And to that end, she slipped the second candy bar into her pocket and hoped it didn’t melt, but since she was already sweating, that seemed unlikely. She looked anywhere else but at the brother: at Mia and Kevin arguing, at the ceiling and the two spitballs on the light box, then at the floor and the stacks of files next to Kevin’s desk. She looked at…oh, God. There was nothing else. Slowly, inevitably, her gaze was drawn back to the dark eyes.

He reached out.

She shrank back.

His smile faded and he slowly opened his palm, showing her another chocolate. Offering it.

He knew. She shook her head.

He arched a brow that said
I know you want it.

Again she vehemently shook her head. No. Don’t look at me. She closed her eyes. When she finally got up the nerve to look at him again, he was moving toward the door.

Mia stopped arguing with Kevin.

Kevin’s brother signed something, and Hope’s chest went tight.
He was telling on her.

Indeed Kevin turned his head and looked right at her, then at the candy jar.

Hope stopped breathing.

Kevin nodded, and his brother walked out the door.

Kevin watched him go as if maybe he really wanted to say something else, but he didn’t.

Instead he once again looked at Hope. A trickle of sweat ran between the breasts she’d just gotten last year, but Kevin smiled. He smiled like he really meant it, and Hope let out a helpless one in return, hoping she didn’t have chocolate on her teeth.

Whatever he’d been mad at, it hadn’t been her. She didn’t know why she cared really, except for that she did. A lot. “So how are you doing this morning, Hope?” he asked.

Hope knew most people asked that as a matter of greeting, not really caring about the answer, but he sounded like he really wanted to know.

How was she doing? Actually, she hadn’t given a lot of thought to that, as she’d been quite busy just surviving. Then she’d woken up in a bed, a huge, comfy, expensive bed, instead of her car. She wasn’t on the road—hallelujah!—and the realization had been a little unsettling. Nice, but unsettling. Cranking the music to cover that unease had been fun, and it had the added benefit of annoying Mia. That was nice, too. And the ride over here in the Audi…
wow.
The navigation system alone could have kept her entertained for another cross-country drive—not that she wanted to
ever
make that drive again. “Fine.”

His smile felt genuine. “I’m glad to hear it.” He turned back to Mia. “You know, your accent matches Mia’s.”

Mia seemed to grind her teeth at this. “I do not have an accent.”

“Right,” he said and laughed. “Well, I’m sorry. The teen center is truly full today. I can get her in tomorrow—”

“I need her in today.”

Leaning back against the wall, he crossed his arms and feet casually, lifting a brow. “Maybe you could take her sightseeing today, get to know her, and then tomorrow—”

“I have to get into work.” Mia glanced at her fancy-smancy watch that Hope was betting was not a Kmart special. “I’m already running late. I need you to take her.”

“Hmm.”

“And what does
that
mean?”

“It means you have a real thing about getting your way,” Kevin said lightly.

This seemed to make Mia’s eyes nearly bug out of her head. She looked pretty good today, Hope had to admit, even with one of her sandals broken. Her skirt was a pale blue and floated on air when she moved, and her jacket revealed a lacy thing beneath, both of which hugged her body. It was a sexy, elegant look that Hope could never pull off in a million years, even if she
wanted
to wear colors again.

“Can you, or can you not, take Hope?” Mia said in a quiet but scary voice that made Hope’s spine itch.

Hope would have sworn Kevin’s smile changed now that it was aimed at Mia. It wasn’t kind anymore, but filled with mischief, revenge, and…heat. Yowza, lots of heat.

“Not,”
he said firmly in an apologetic tone that didn’t match his expression. “We’re full up. Unless…”

Mia gritted her teeth. She was going to grind them to powder if she didn’t watch it. “Unless what?”

“You say please.” Kevin’s smile widened. “You do know the word, right?”

Mia let out a low growl that sounded a bit rabid as she turned to Hope. “We’re outta here.”

Hope was surprised, because if you asked her, these two had some unfinished business. Their mouths were arguing, but the rest of them were not. “We are?”

“You’re coming into work with me.”

Hope didn’t know if she was excited or wary but settled for somewhere in between because it beat the hell out of riding a horse.

Or being on a bus heading back to Tennessee.

They left Kevin’s office and walked back into the bright morning sunlight. With each hobbling step Mia appeared to become more and more uptight. “Here,” she said to Hope when they got outside and handed her the keys. “Start the car. I’ll be right there. I need to talk to Kevin for a sec. In private.”

Hmm. Hope supposed that was code for getting a quickie or something, but she stared down at the keys in her hand, then lifted her head, trying to hide her elation. “You trust me with your car?”

Mia narrowed her eyes.

“I mean, it’s good,” she said quickly. “I’m, like, totally trustworthy.” She began to walk away, but Mia snagged her by the scruff of the neck and pulled her back.

“Let me just add that if anything happens to my car I’ll personally deliver you to Tennessee right this very minute.”

Hope didn’t dare smile. No way was Mia going back to Tennessee to bring her home, this minute or otherwise.

“Are we clear?” Mia asked.

Hope pretended not to care less, even lifting an insolent shoulder, but inside she was jumping.

She had the keys to the Audi!
And Mia hadn’t said don’t drive it, she’d just said not to let anything happen to it. Biting her lip to keep her smile in, she nodded. “Take your time.”

M
ia walked—limped—back inside the teen center, ready to kick some ass, but it was hard to remain self-righteous with only one heel.

She caught Kevin just as he came out of his office door, looking clean and dangerous and sexy. He’d removed his leather jacket. His leanly muscled shoulders pushed at the limits of his dark blue T-shirt, which was loosely stuck into a pair of low-slung Levi’s. His shirt read
ALWAYS FINISH WHAT YOU STA—
. He wore his boots, both only half laced, and had a leather saddlebag slung over his shoulder and chest. Then there were those see-all eyes, steady as the earth beneath her feet. Admittedly, she didn’t know him thoroughly, but she knew enough to understand that everything about him was steady, from his rock-solid strength to the way he saw things. The man lived worlds away from hers, and yet he seemed firmly rooted, maybe more so than anyone she’d ever met.

But she was pissed and he was going to hear it, no matter how fine he looked this early in the morning.

Or naked. “Hang on,” she said and pushed him back inside his office.

“Well now, darlin’,” he murmured, his voice like smooth velvet, glancing at his watch. “I’m afraid I don’t have time to scratch your itch right now.”

“As if I’d have you right now.”

He stared at her, his eyes a warm, swirling caramel. “Did you know that the madder you get, the more your accent matches Hope’s? I never did quite catch where you’re both from.”

“I’m from right here, right now. And I don’t appreciate what you’re doing,” she said.

His mouth quirked. “And what’s that? Breathing?”

“You turned Hope down to spite me.”

“You ought to spend time with the kid before you dump her. I get the feeling she’s been dumped enough.”

“So this was a lesson for me?”

He smiled. “Did you need a lesson?”

“Do you ever answer a question without another question?”

“Well, if questions annoy you, brace yourself, because I have one more.” He took a step toward her, and, damn it, she took an automatic one back, nearly tripping over her one good heel, coming up against his desk.

“Have you asked yourself why you’re really here?” he wondered. “In my office? Growling at me, with steam coming out your pretty ears, while your even prettier eyes are saying something else entirely?”

“
What?
You’re crazy.”

“Admit it,” he said very softly, taking the last step, bringing them toe-to-toe. His hand came up, and he glided the backs of his fingers along her jaw. “You came here this morning,
twice,
and you know what I think? I think you can’t keep your eyes—”

He broke off with a raised brow when she lifted her hands and fisted them in his shirt. To shove him away, she told herself, but she didn’t.

“—or your hands, off me,” he finished.

Her fingers sank into the material of his shirt, feeling the heat, the strength of him beneath. “I want to—”

“Yeah…?”

“Kick your ass.”

He let out a soft laugh. “Bring it on,
Apple.
”

She felt herself stiffen. “Oh, I’ll bring it on, I’ll—”

“What?”

She tipped her head up to his, saw the heat and intent in his eyes a beat before he murmured “Shh” and lowered his face, taking her mouth with his and beginning a slow simmer inside her.

The kiss started out sweet, soft, but cranked to intense quickly, a hot, deep, wet connection that reminded her that their bodies knew each other, craved each other like air, and that being this close was inviting the inexplicable maelstrom that occurred every time she let him put his hands on her. She stopped thinking then, just let herself feel, starting with the pure sensation of his solid, hard-muscled body against hers and ending with the heat of his mouth as he deepened the kiss.

He put his hands on her now, in her hair, holding her face, then with a groan glided them down her body, touching everything he could as he trapped her between the hard desk and his tough body. He stroked her breasts, then slid his hands beneath her clothes to warm her flesh with his hands, and the simmer burst into flames.

When he finally pulled back, she was grateful to have the desk behind her holding her up, because he’d just decimated her, burst right through her every single defense with one simple kiss.

Simple? Ha! She’d never been kissed so thoroughly, so deliberately, so absolutely fully.

He staggered back a step himself, looking surprised and just as shaky. “There,” he said in a voice low and ragged and satisfyingly hoarse. “You’re finally speechless. I like you that way.”

She stared at him, let out a sound of disgust, and pushed past him to the door. “You’re an ass.”

“And bad in bed,” he reminded her. “Don’t forget that part.”

She slammed the door behind her, a gaffe that surely announced in a scream how he affected her, but she couldn’t seem to help it.
No more,
she told herself.
No more.
She was Mia Appleby, ad exec, queen of her world, and no one made her crazy. She kept her cool at all times.

She stalked past the front door, which was now filling up with teenagers in various states of summer dress and insolence, though she didn’t see a single Goth teen. A small part of her wondered how the hell the Southern, small-town Hope was going to fit in here with all these sophisticated big-city kids.

When she stepped out into the sunlight, her heart was still pounding, her nipples hard, her thighs quivering, and she stopped worrying about Hope entirely.

Because her car was gone.

After that steamy kiss, and then Mia’s furious escape, Kevin let his wobbly knees collapse, and he slid weakly into his chair.

“Mr. McKnight?” Sara, the college student who supervised the kids for the morning hours at the center, stood in his doorway. “You okay?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You didn’t answer my knock—”

“Sorry.” Sex on the brain. “What can I do for you?”

“You’ve got to get to the high school, right?”

Ah, shit. “Yeah.” He stood up again, locked his knees in place, and hoped he didn’t have
Sucker-Kissed
written all over his face. “Thanks.”

She smiled at him, then vanished.

Kevin did his best to shake off the sensual languor sapping his strength and headed toward the door. What had he told himself?

No more, Mia, that’s what.

And what had he done the second she’d touched him?

He’d been all over her.

But telling himself no more and actually following through were two different things. She was a puzzle, and he liked puzzles. She presented herself as a sophisticated, elegant businesswoman without an inch of softness or weakness, but he’d seen flashes of both now. Oh, yeah, she was a mystery, one he’d enjoy unwrapping if he didn’t suspect it came packed with deadly explosives.

As he left out the back way of the teen center, cutting across the football field toward the high school, he wondered if she’d come knocking tonight.

But all fanciful wondering ceased abruptly when he caught sight of his classroom, one window open, the screen flapping in the breeze, and an Audi in the middle of the field.

Mia stood on the sidewalk staring at the spot where her car had been. Then she whipped out her cell phone to call Tess.

“Did you get a good eyebrow pencil?” her assistant asked sweetly in lieu of a greeting. “Or did you just plan on losing your other one today?”

“Ha ha.”

“Good, you’re going to need a sense of humor today. Layoffs are imminent.”

“Damn it. Who?”

“Don’t know.” Tess sounded a little stressed. “But I can bet you it’s at my level, not yours.”

“Shit.”

“It’s okay. I’m too good to be fired.”

“Well, that’s the truth. I’d die without you there. Speaking of there, and getting there…I have a little car issue.”

“No. No, no, no. You have the Anderson people due here in…Ohmigod, twenty minutes. Mia—”

“I’ll be there, but if I’m a few minutes late, ply them with coffee and donuts.” She snapped the cell phone shut. She was going to kill Hope.

Turning in a slow circle of frustration, she stopped halfway, staring in shock at the football field between the school and the teen center.

There was a car in the middle of it. Some idiot had parked on the grass and—

She shielded her eyes from the sun so she could see more than just the outline of the car and felt a fresh onslaught of temper.

Her
car.

Her car was parked in the middle of the field. And sitting on the hood was her soon-to-be dead niece, and a—oh, hell no, a
boy.
Next to them stood a man, who even from here she recognized. She had a feeling she’d recognize that body from a hundred miles, much less a hundred yards.

“Save me from idiots,” Mia muttered and stepped onto the grass, her one good heel sinking in. Perfect.

Kevin turned and watched her hobble toward him, and if she wasn’t mistaken, his mouth curved.

When she got close enough, she spoke directly to Hope. “What the hell is wrong with you? You looking to get arrested in this state, too? I nearly called the police and reported the car missing!”

Hope opened her mouth but Mia lifted up her hand. “No. No excuses. Get off the hood, get the
hell
off my
hood
—” She spared a scathing glare at the teenage boy sitting next to Hope, and then started around the car for the driver’s door.

Kevin shifted, and as a result she bumped right into him. “Out of my way, Ace.”

He didn’t, just studied her while he rubbed his jaw. The at least two-day growth there rasped in the morning air and scraped low at her belly.

She knew what that growth felt like against her jaw, her breasts…between her thighs.

“Sometimes things aren’t as they seem,” he said quietly, for her ears only. “And yelling isn’t going to get you anywhere. Patience—”

“Do I look like I have an ounce of patience?”

Instead of answering that, he lifted a hand toward her face.

She pulled back.

“You have a—” He waggled a finger at her cheek.

She put her hand there. “What?”

“Here.” His warm fingers brushed her skin and her nipples reacted again.
Very
annoying.

Then she realized he was showing her what he had. A piece of confetti. “Go ahead,” he said. “You can finish blistering my hide now.”

She was certain steam was coming out of her ears as she pushed past him and got into the car. Hope had already gotten into the passenger seat and was staring sullenly straight ahead.

Kevin poked his head in the driver’s side, his face incredibly close to hers.

Again her body reacted.

Bad
body.

“Hope,” he said, looking past Mia to the girl. “It was nice that you stopped and talked to Cole. I think he needed a friend.”

Hope nodded, and Kevin smiled again and said, “See you tomorrow.” Then he pulled back and, without so much as even glancing at Mia, turned to the presumed Cole. He put a hand on the boy’s shoulder, guiding him across the field toward the school.

Mia turned to Hope. “Well?”

Hope slid farther into her seat.

“Nothing? Really? Not even an ‘I’m sorry, Mia’? An ‘I screwed up, Mia’?”

“You said don’t let anything happen to the Audi. And nothing did.”

Mia felt her mouth fall open. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Hope crossed her arms over her skinny chest and turned forward, going the silent route.

Mia shook her head. She couldn’t believe it, but Hope was seething with resentment and hurt when
Mia
was the injured party here! “I don’t have time for this.” She threw the car into gear and drove them off the field and onto the street, heading toward the freeway as fast as she could without running anything over. The entire drive from Glendale Hills into the LA forest of high-rises, Hope stared out the window, her eyes full of antagonism. She kept her silence until they pulled into the parking structure of Mia’s downtown building.

“You were gone more than a minute.”

Mia looked over at her. “What?”

“You were gone like ten minutes. You get a quickie in his office or something?”

“No, I didn’t get a—You know what?” She shook her head. Forced a laugh. “You are not going to make this my fault. You came to me, Hope. I let you stay in my house, eat my food—”

“You don’t have any food.”

“—rattle my windows, and then I ask you for one thing. To wait in the car for a minute—”

“Ten.”

Mia could actually feel brain cells exploding. She glanced at the teen, with her stringy black hair, black gloss, black eyeliner that looked painted on, and still had no trouble reading loud and clear the antipathy coming off her in waves. Nothing was going to be enough to break that, or her years of pent-up anger.

Just as nothing was going to cut through the years it had taken Mia to put a shine and polish on her lowly early existence.

There was no middle ground here.

She turned off the engine and got out of the car, walking to her trunk where she kept a spare pair of shoes. Teardrop Jimmy Choo slides, and though the color was just a little off for her outfit, that was the least of her worries. “Remember, this is a professional place of business,” she told Hope. “No funny stuff, no loud music, and especially no sticky fingers.”

“Gee, Aunt Apple Pie,” Hope said in a slow, exaggerated drawl, cocking her head slightly to the side as if maybe she wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. “Whatever will I do with myself if I can’t square dance or steal stuff?”

Mia stopped short and turned to face her. “And don’t even think about calling me that again.”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am.” She snapped to attention, mockingly saluting her.

Oh, yeah. It was going to be a helluva day.

They entered the building. Mia had long ago stopped gawking at the gorgeous architecture of the glass and steel all around her, at the shiny marble flooring of the foyer bigger than her entire hometown. There was a flower cart, a donut shop where she bought Hope breakfast, an expensive jewelry shop, the glass elevators that rose so high into the sky they practically vanished, all surrounded by lush green tropical plant life cultivated throughout the bottom floor.