In the Line of Fire (3 page)

For a second he allowed himself to absorb the feel of her in his arms—her scent, the press of her back and shoulders against his chest. Instinctively, he tightened his arms around her as if he could hold her close and never let her go.

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Colton?” Her cinnamon-brown eyes held specks of green and widened in surprise. He was a rational man, he always had been, but for a second he had the thoroughly irrational thought that her lips, with their gloss of red, begged for his kiss.

He released her before he did something totally
stupid like give in to the temptation to kiss her just before he walked her down the aisle. Or rather not walk her down the aisle, since she'd just scrambled out of a bathroom window.

“I think you're heading in the wrong direction,” Colton said. “The wedding is that way.”

Working her heel out of the lawn, she wouldn't look at him. “I know where the wedding is. I also know I'm not going to be part of it.” Her foot free, she took both of her shoes off. “I can't talk to you now. I'm guessing I have about three, maybe four minutes before they come looking for me,” she said, gathering up her dress and taking off at a jog across the grass, her veil flying out behind her.

Colton loped after her. “What's going on, Andi?”

She answered without looking at him, busy dodging an azalea loaded with bright pink blossoms. “I thought it was fairly obvious—I'm running away.”

She stopped so suddenly he almost plowed into her. She tugged her shoes back on and he realized they were at the edge of a brick path leading to the rear parking lot. “I can see you're running away, but why?”

She hurried down the path, her heels clicking against the brick. He easily kept up with her. “I don't want to talk about it right now. I can't talk about it. But I can't marry Blanton.”

“Can't or simply don't want to?” He couldn't
talk any sense into her if he didn't know what the problem was.

“Oh, no. No, no, no,” she said with a slight wail. Before he could ask what, she said, “Mom's car is blocked in.” Colton got it. She was counting on “borrowing” it, with the keys Daisy always left under the floor mats. From where they stood, they could hear the faint knocking on the bathroom door since the window was still standing open.

She looked at him. Near-panic—he'd seen the expression before in fellow soldiers—shadowed her eyes. “I think I'm down to about two, possibly three minutes. I know you're parked on the street. I need to borrow your car.”

“Andi, I don't think—”

“Please, Colton. I can't go in there right now and face all of them. I just need to get away. Rion would help me if he was here.” This was true. “Please, Pyxis,” she said, falling back on the name she'd called him growing up. “I promise I'll return the car.”

He scrubbed his hand over his head. The sounds of someone entering the bathroom and calling Andi's name floated across the lawn. The photographer stuck her head out the window. The wedding planner's head popped up over her shoulder. Andi ducked like someone being sighted in a sniper's crosshairs.

“Sweet mercy,” one of the women said, her voice carrying clearly across the way. “She's left.”

They disappeared back inside the window. “They're gone,” he said.

Still crouching she started across the back parking area. “What are you doing?”

“Leaving. If you won't give me the keys then I'll start walking and call a cab.” She reached inside the bodice of her dress and pulled out her cell phone.

She was totally serious and totally determined. He made a decision. At least if he was with her, he could take care of her. “Come on,” he said, taking her by the arm. “I'm not giving you the key when you're upset and you can't drive in that dress anyway. I'll take you wherever it is you want to go.”

The way he saw it, driving her getaway car was a damn sight better than handing her off to marry Blanton.

A
NDI JUMPED INTO THE
passenger seat, pulled the wad of tulle and material inside the car and slammed the door shut. Her skirt was so full she could barely see out. Colton was right. Driving would've been difficult, but where there was a will there was a way. She'd have made it work.

He already had the car in Drive and was pulling out into the street. “That dress is a road hazard,” he said as he nearly sideswiped a car that he hadn't seen on account of her mountain of fabric.

“This dress is a
life
hazard,” she said without thinking. She'd come so close to making such a big mistake. And now the reality of what she'd done and who she was with sank in. She hadn't been ready to face Blanton quite yet, but she also hadn't been ready to face Colton either. But here she was in the close, intimate confines of the car and it was as if she was a sponge absorbing his nearness.

She hadn't seen him in so long and she looked at him now, making sure to mask the hunger in her eyes. The midafternoon sun slanted into the car. Lines that hadn't been there the last time she saw him radiated from his eyes and bracketed his mouth. She longed to reach over and trace them with her finger. She didn't know if it was the harsh landscape of Afghanistan, the trials of war or more likely a combination of the two but he looked older, more seasoned. All traces of the boy she'd grown up with were gone and he'd become the man she'd denied in her heart for so long. And there was a whole lot more than just her heart engaged. Desire and longing tightened her body and quickened her breath. The need to touch him was nearly overwhelming. Desperate, she mentally scrambled for something to say before she blurted something absolutely off the chart like,
I love you
or
I want you.
The only thing her whirling brain and tilting hormones could come up with was, “So, how have you been?”

He looked at her as if she'd lost her mind and she wasn't altogether too sure she hadn't. Actually, she could only imagine the look on his face if she'd blurted out how she felt about him. “Fine. I'm still in one piece. Now where am I taking you? Your house? Your apartment?”

Inside her bodice, her phone rang. Checking caller ID, she shook her head. “It's my mother. I'm not answering. I'm not ready to talk to her.” Part of her
wished she'd managed to escape on her own because the realization she'd just come to was too fresh and she needed some time alone to work through her emotions. But another part of her was crazy happy just to be with Colton in the here and now, even if she had just run out on her own wedding.

Her emotions were all whacked-out. She felt horrible because she knew Blanton would never understand that she'd walked out because to do otherwise wasn't fair. She might not feel about him the way she felt about the man sitting next to her, but she certainly didn't want to hurt Blanton—and leaving him at the altar wasn't nearly as hurtful in her book as marrying him when she loved someone else.

But she just couldn't deal with her mother right now. She pushed the button, sending the call to voice mail. However, she did send a quick text message telling her mother she was fine and would call in a bit, otherwise Daisy would be frantic that Andi had simply disappeared.

The impact of what she'd just done hit her. How many people were going to be furious with her? And this would feed the gossip coffers for more than a little bit. A faint nausea roiled through her but in her heart she knew she'd done the right thing. And everything happened for a reason. If Marlena hadn't wanted her at that window…if Colton hadn't been arriving right at that time…if she hadn't seen him and realized she was in love with him, she would've made one of the
biggest mistakes of her life. Instead, she was sitting next to Colton now. She glanced over at his profile simply because she could. He would be leaving in less than a week.

He returned her look. “Andi, where am I taking you?” Colton said, breaking the silence.

She didn't know. She hadn't thought about it. Her single objective had been to get away from the wedding, to find some breathing room. “I gave up my apartment and moved everything to Mom's house. I've been staying with her until the wedding, but we ran my car over to Blanton's last night after the rehearsal dinner.” She rubbed at her forehead, a headache beginning to form like storm clouds gathering on the horizon. “Do you think we could just drive for a while until I can figure out what to do?” The sun slanting through the windshield warmed her. For the first time in what felt like forever she didn't have the tremendous weight of the impending wedding bearing down on her. True enough, now she had to deal with being a runaway bride, but it was certainly the better of the two choices.

She couldn't shuck the dress as she had nothing to change into, but she could lose the veil. She loosened the cap holding the lace and tulle in place and tossed it into the backseat. That felt better. “I know my mother. She'll send someone to Blanton's place and someone to her house.”

Colton made a left. “Andi, don't you think it'd
just be better to face the music now? I'll have your back.”

“You'll have my back?” she repeated. “But you don't even know why I'm running away.”

“It doesn't matter,” he said simply. “I'll still have your back.”

She looked at his strong jaw, at his hands steady on the wheel. He wasn't a man to say things like that lightly. Something sweet and simple turned over inside her as she acknowledged Colton was solid—a man you could count on through thick and thin. This was why she was stuck on Colton Sawyer.

“That is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me.” She went with her need to touch him and reached over, placing her hand on his arm. He tensed at her touch. Even through the layers of his shirt and jacket the bunching of his biceps beneath her fingers and palm sent a quiver through her. “Unconditional backing isn't exactly a commodity in our household, as you well know.” His nod bordered on curt and she removed her hand. “And I appreciate it, but do you think we could just drive for a while?”

“Sure.” The lines bracketing his eyes crinkled with his smile, and in that instant, there was a shift between them, a connection, strong and intense and so charged with sexual energy the air seemed to sizzle between them. “Wherever you want to go.” There was no mistaking the husky note in his voice.

Wherever you want to go.
Her initial, impractical
thought was she wanted to go nowhere in particular and everywhere, just as long as she could be with him, just the two of them, until he had to leave again. And that foolish notion wasn't at all what he'd meant. They stopped at a traffic light and the couple in the car next to them stared. They'd get that reaction all day driving around town. She made a snap decision. “Let's hit the expressway. Too many people are going to be looking if we're driving around town with this wedding dress filling up the front seat.”

“The expressway it is,” he said.

As they drove in silence, Andi stared sightlessly out of the window. Instead of the spring day, she merely saw the numerous gifts in her mother's living room, waiting to be returned now that the wedding was called off. And she saw Colton leaving Savannah once again to report for duty in five days. The presents she could deal with, but his leaving…

Colton was entering I-95 south when he pulled out his cell phone. “My mother,” he said, reading the display. He'd obviously had it on vibrate. “Might as well get this out of the way.” He hit the on button. “What's up, Mom?”

“Don't you ‘what's up, Mom' me.” It didn't matter that he didn't have the speakerphone on. Martha Anne Sawyer's voice was clearly audible to Andi. “Is Andi with you?”

“Yes, ma'am, she is.”

“Oh, Lord, Lola Bridgerton was right.” Andi
winced. Lola was only the biggest gossip in Savannah. Now not only would the story be that Andi had ditched Blanton at the altar, the equally juicy part would be that she'd left with Colton Sawyer. “You turn right around and bring her back. She's supposed to be getting married.”

Andi kept her mouth shut but shook her head no. Her head swam dizzily—maybe because she hadn't eaten since the rehearsal dinner last night when she'd actually only picked at her plate despite her and Blanton's postrehearsal conversation.

“No can do, Mom. She doesn't want to get married today.”

“Why not?”

“I don't know that answer yet, but she doesn't.”

Andi could've kissed him for that. Actually, she'd happily kiss him for no good reason other than because he was sexy and she wanted him, but she could still kiss him for his solid backing nonetheless.

“Son, bring her back. Everyone's still here. Every bride gets cold feet. Just tell her to come on back and no harm, no foul. It'll make a good story for them to tell their children one day.”

No, because she was not going to have children with Blanton because she was not marrying him. Andi shook her head and said to Colton, “I'm not going back. Will you tell your mom that everyone should go home and I'm so sorry for the inconvenience?” Actually, she didn't know how that worked—did
people simply stay and go ahead and hang out at the reception since the food and facility were already paid for? Sonya, the wedding planner, would know those things.

“That's not going to work out for Andi. She says everyone should just go home.”

“Colton, turn that car around.” Martha Anne's voice had escalated.

“Not going to happen. Look, I've got to run but I'll check in with you later. And tell Ms. Daisy not to worry. I'll take care of Andi.”

Colton ended the call as his mother started to say something.

“Hanging up was a smart move,” Andi said. “She'd argue with you all day to do her bidding if you didn't just cut her off. And I can say that because she's as relentless as my mother, which is probably why they're such good friends.”

Andi reached over and touched his arm again. She couldn't seem to help herself. Although his expression didn't change, he tensed once again and she realized it wasn't because he didn't like her touching him, it was because he did like it. She could practically feel his sexual energy in a way she'd never experienced with anyone else. “Thanks. I owe you.”

“You don't
owe
me anything,” he said, putting on his blinker and smoothly changing lanes. “But I wouldn't mind an explanation.”

She owed him that, and it wasn't as if she wouldn't
be fielding this topic for the next several weeks. She figured there was no substitute for the truth…or at least a portion of it. “I'm going to be doing a lot of explaining when I go back so I might as well practice on you.”

 

H
E SWORE HE COULD STILL
feel the heat of her touch against his arm. Being with her like this was a sweet torture. It was as if all his senses were heightened by an adrenaline rush, as if he was more tuned in to himself and to her. One simple touch, one curve of her lips and his desire for her, what was damn near a
need
for her, knotted harder and tighter inside him.

He forced himself to focus on another need. Colton needed to know why she'd felt so desperate she'd climbed out of a bathroom window. He just hoped it wasn't a matter of Blanton having ever struck her or cheated on her because then he'd have to seriously hurt the son of a bitch…and Rion would be right in line behind Colton. He set the car on cruise control, the traffic on the expressway extremely light.

The silence stretched between them and he could swear she was as aware of him as a man as he was conscious of the curve of her breasts against the neckline of her dress. “I'm ready when you are,” he said. He'd meant for her explanation but it seemed to take on a whole different meaning and the air seemed to thicken even more between them.

“Well,” she said, knotting her fingers together. “The bottom line is I don't love him.”

She didn't love him? She didn't love him. Rion had guessed as much and a part of Colton foolishly rejoiced at the news. But it still didn't give him the right, or rather make it right for him to do what he wanted to do, which was pull the car over and kiss her tempting lips and then work his way down the length of her neck to the sweet valley between her breasts.

Colton sensed there was something else, something she was holding back. He hadn't seen her in years but there was a part of him that knew her on a level he couldn't explain. “That's it?”

“Don't you think that's enough?” Her voice raised a notch, a telling mix of panic wrapped in defensiveness. She was definitely hiding something.

“That's plenty,” he said, backpedaling hard. “You should love him if you marry him.” He still wanted the bigger questions answered. There were numerous reasons she could've decided she didn't love Blanton after agreeing to marry him. Andi had always been free-spirited and fun, but she had also been very responsible. For her to decide she didn't love the man at the eleventh hour—that realization had to be driven by something cataclysmic for her to walk out on her wedding. “But he never hit you or ran around on you?”

Genuine surprise registered on her face. “Good God, no.”

Colton nodded, satisfied. “Well, that's good. That
means he gets to live another day or at least he won't wind up in the hospital.”

“You're serious, aren't you?” A faint note of awe colored her voice.

What kind of men had she grown used to since he and Rion had left? No man worth a damn would put up with anyone treating her that way. “Take it to the bank.”

“Come on,” Andi said. From the corner of his eye he saw her wrinkle her nose, one of those quirky things she'd done for as long as he could remember. “You know I'd never put up with something like that.”