Run Wild With Me (13 page)

“You mean you walked? Didn’t you have a car?”

“Nope. Couldn’t afford one. But lately I’ve been thinking about getting a truck. A carpenter ought to have a truck.”

“You need a current license,” Andrea reminded him in a voice that sounded very official.

“Well. She does talk.” Sam gave an exaggerated smile and clapped his hands together. “I was beginning to think you needed a stimulant of some kind, maybe a little pure artesian ice water.”

Andrea felt a flush of heat wash across her face at the mention of the artesian water. How dare he make her think about that now, here? He was looking at her with a hint of a smile on his lips. “I’m sorry, Sam,” she said stiffly. “You just surprised me by coming here.”

Sam cast a puzzled look at Andrea, then at the tables around him. “Why? Is my coming a problem for you?”

“Of course not,” Madge said with unabashed admiration as she began to stack their plates. “Pay no attention to this ninny. She has a small problem with her head. It’s screwed on wrong.”

“What she means, Madge, is that my coming here makes our relationship public, and that bothers her.”

“No. I’m sorry. Of course you’re welcome, Sam.
Please excuse me.” Before anyone could stop her, Andrea stood and slipped out a side door.

She didn’t know why she’d been so rude. Her mind was a disjointed whirl of impressions that refused to be neatly cataloged. It had been bad enough that this man had come into her town, touching her and creating some mental link that forged the two of them together. Now he’d come into the safety of her world as if he belonged.

Andrea took a deep breath, trying to calm her rapid heartbeat. She was embarrassed to admit that Sam was right. He’d made his intentions known. Outright, with no sugar-coated promises or lies secreted away to bore at her insides, he’d said he wanted her. Now he was telling the world.

And, Lordy, he’d set her on fire, carefully nudging her with his body and his words until she’d rationalized away all sane thinking and offered herself to him. That wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t forced her. Force was the last thing he’d used. Her mind ran all around it, the ‘it’ that she didn’t want to name. She’d wanted him too.

Desire she could deal with. But suddenly he seemed to be trying to fit in, and it was she who felt out of place. Andrea heard footsteps behind her, and she straightened up.

“May I walk you home, Chief Fleming, ma’am?”

She knew she’d been waiting for him to come outside. “Walk me home? That’s almost three miles.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he assured her steadily. “I’ve been told that’s what a guy does when he’s courting his lady—go for a walk in the moonlight. I figure by
the time we get home, the moon’ll be just about right.”

Andrea was too confused by Sam’s statement to protest as he placed his arm on her shoulder and began to direct her up the street. They walked for several blocks without speaking. The street lights went from transparent yellow circles to golden blobs in a black-velvet sky at the edge of town.

“Why did you come tonight?” she asked finally. “You can’t really want to stay in Arcadia,” she said flatly. “This is just a wide place in the road, where the Wednesday-night church social is the biggest event in town. You’re intrigued right now because we’re different, but you’ll get bored and move on.”

“Don’t tell me where I want to be,” Sam said softly. He wrapped his fingers around hers and pulled her closer. Leaving the streetlights behind, they walked along the shoulder of the road.

The fragrance of honeysuckle and wildflowers filled the air. The last trace of gray light dropped off the side of the world, and Arcadia, Georgia, caught its breath in the twilight.

“Andrea, I want to do this right, but I don’t have a lot of experience in pleasing a woman anywhere except in bed.” He stopped by the side of the road, stepped in front of her, and looped his hands around her waist. “If I’m way off base, I’m going to look like a fool, but if I’m not, you’re going to have to help me.”

“I know you want to make love to me, Sam, and you already know that I want you too—too much,” she said carefully. “Just don’t try to make it into more.”

He knew that her words were meant to be an honest acceptance of their desire. Standing there in the middle of the road with her body touching his, he knew how thick the walls were that she’d built around herself.

“I’m not sure that I’ll be content with just taking your body, Andrea Fleming. I keep thinking that there’s so much more we could have. I want to kiss you, and touch you, and feel every part of you touching me. But I’m beginning to think that isn’t enough.”

“It isn’t?” She stared at him, uncertain of what he was trying to say, knowing only that the tenderness of his smile was already embracing her and that she was already welcoming his kiss.

She loved kissing him. It was never what she’d thought it would be. His lips were soft and teasing, his tongue making slow, delicious forays into her mouth until she thought she’d die of joy. His hands began their maddening assault on her skin, and she was responding as she never had before. One hand held her tightly to him, the other played across her shoulders, down her neck, and inside the top of her flame-color sundress. She gasped as she felt his touch on the sensitive skin of her breast.

Her own hands had found their destination, first reveling in the newly shaped locks of his dark rich hair, then brushing down his firm, muscled back to hips strained tight in control.

A swirling dizziness overcame her, and she could feel the racing of her heart—or was it Sam’s? Nothing in her life had ever affected her the way this man did. He had to be a sorcerer, some kind
of warlock or magician. If this was a spell he’d cast over her, she gave herself up to the pleasure willingly.

“Oh baby, baby!” He stepped back, hastily pulling the top of her sundress over breasts that had been bared without her being aware. “Someone’s coming, darlin’.”

“What?”

“A car. We’re standing in the middle of the road. Can you walk a little further?”

“Walk?” she repeated. “Yes.” But it wasn’t as easy as she’d thought.

The lights of the vehicle flashed brightly through the darkness and over the rise into the distance behind them. Andrea caught her breath. Sam’s kisses had left her aching and bruised, and her body cried out against the sense of loss. Feelings so long dormant had been brought to life, and she was shaking with a frustration greater than anything she’d ever known.

Sam watched the taillights disappear into the twilight, and he pulled Andrea back into his arms.

“Let’s get to the Bronco,” he said. “I parked it in the woods just up ahead.”

“You borrowed the Bronco, parked it up here, and walked into town? And then asked me to walk home? You crazy man.”

“You’re right. It was Otis. He said that all the boys walked their girls home from the social. You wanted to be courted. And I wanted to give you a normal relationship, like Ed would offer you. And I wanted to be sure that we’d have time for Otis’s alternative plan.”

“I’m afraid to ask what that might be.”

“A drive over to Lover’s Oak.”

“I see.” They’d reached the turnoff, and Andrea saw the Bronco parked just ahead. “And what was to happen at Lover’s Oak?”

“Well, according to Otis, I’m supposed to park at the water’s edge, preferably under Lover’s Oak, and we’re supposed to listen to the crickets and the lake frogs and the katydids.” He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her closer as they walked.

“And?” Andrea couldn’t help smiling. Sam taking lessons from Otis was like Fred Astaire taking lessons from Daffy Duck.

“And then I’m supposed to kiss you.”

They stood facing each other, arms clasped around each other’s waists, breathing in the night air and watching the moon as it climbed high in the sky. The urgency disappeared, and there was a sense of contentment in their embrace, contentment in the pleasure of sharing something beautiful. When at last the moon was free to hurl its silvery brightness across the fields, Sam kissed her.

He was doing it again, touching her and making her skin feel like a hundred tiny short circuits were exploding under the surface. She felt like a teenager on a secret date with the bad boy who drove the hottest car in town. But the boy wouldn’t have asked her what she wanted to do. He’d have worked out his own smooth line of conquest, and both would have pretended that nothing improper was going to happen. This bad boy was making her decide.

“Sam,” she whispered, her throat so tight that
she could hardly get the word out. “Nice girls don’t park at Lover’s Oak on their first date. And my legs aren’t going to carry me another two miles. Why don’t you drive me home?”

“Whatever you say,” he agreed huskily, and helped her into the Bronco.

On the stretch of road outside of town there were no streetlights, no houses, no cars. It was as if they were the only people in the world. “We’re all by ourselves, Andrea. I like that idea. I like it very much.”

When he reached out, Andrea came into his arms. She rested her head against his chest without speaking.

“Have you ever done this before?” Andrea asked with a grin, watching him maneuver the vehicle onto the highway.

“What? Watch the moon rise with someone I … care about? No. Not quite like this.”

“No. I mean drive with one hand.”

“No. I know that this may come as a surprise, but the women I’ve been with always drove their own cars.”

“That’s hard to imagine. Oh, dear.” The thought that followed had to be voiced. “Sam, Buck loaned you the Bronco when he knew your license was out of date?”

“Now don’t spoil all this by arresting me, darlin’. I’ve already arranged to get myself a new one. Otherwise, I won’t be able to drive my truck.”

“And how do you plan to buy a truck?”

“Oh, never you mind. I have a plan. I have lots of plans.”

Andrea caught her breath as he ran his finger
from her chin down her breast to her nipple on one side, and then across to the other.

“Fine. I won’t arrest you if you’ll make me a promise.”

There was a long silence, and he knew she could feel the tension that suddenly swept through him. He was driving too fast. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to slow down. He kept his eyes on the highway, not risking even a glance toward the woman he was holding.

“I’m not very good with promises. But I’ll try. What did you have in mind?” he asked carefully.

“I don’t want to make love with you—tonight. And I think we both know that could happen. What I want, need … is to know you as a person. And I can’t stop kissing you long enough to find out.”

“No problem. I’ll tell you all about me. I’m thirty-two years old. I have a little money saved up, but not enough. I like animals and children. I’m a carpenter who doesn’t have a steady job and probably never will have. That’s about all there is to know, Andrea Fleming.”

Except
, he could have added,
that the last encounter I had with the law was being arrested in another southern town about the same size as this one
.

“Be serious, Sam. You came to the social tonight. It surprised me, but I appreciate what you were trying to say. And if you’d like to consider being my fellow for a while, I think I’d like us to take it one step at a time. Lord, that sounded juvenile, didn’t it?”

Sam took a long, calming breath as he turned
into Andrea’s driveway. “I’m willing to give it a try. But I’m not sure that I have that much control. Hell, Stormy,” he said in a husky voice, ‘ “I don’t even know if I like you or I’m just turned on by the uniform. Is kissing forbidden?”

She felt his fingers bite into her shoulder. “No,” she said tightly, and knew she was lost. Although restraint was her idea, she couldn’t resist him. “Under Chief Fleming’s rules kissing is considered one of the steps in getting acquainted.” She parted her lips and tilted her head. “A very personal way of getting acquainted.”

It was Sam who finally pulled away. “Whee, darlin’, I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I hope people in Arcadia get to know each other real fast. My body can’t take this kind of friendship for long.”

“Ah, Sam,” Andrea drew back breathlessly. “That’s exactly what I mean. I still don’t know a thing about you, personally.”

He leaned back on the seat and folded his arms across his chest. “All right, what else do you want to know?”

Andrea took a deep breath and fought the urge to crawl back into his arms. This was her idea. Now it was up to her to carry out her own plan. “Are you married?”

“Not yet. But I’m courting my girl.”

Andrea gasped. “ ‘Sam’s girl.’ I like that.”

“Good. We’re going steady. According to Otis that was my first objective. Good night, darlin’.”

“You’re going?” This time Andrea didn’t even try to keep the dismay from her voice.

“Yep. I don’t want to, but I’m going.” Sam slid
out of the Bronco and assisted Andrea out of the truck and into his arms.

“Oh, Sam. Good night. Come for supper Saturday night, and we’ll sit in the swing and talk, seriously.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’d be pleased to come for supper.” With great control Sam walked Andrea to the porch, kissed her chastely on the cheek, and left.

Sam felt pleasantly tired as the cool night air blew against his face. The last time he’d taken a girl out for the evening, necked in front of her house, and left her at the door without spending the night was when he’d been a green recruit at Marine boot camp on Parris Island.

He glanced at his watch, blinking the time in bright green letters. It wasn’t even eleven o’clock, and he couldn’t remember when he’d felt so good. Must be the country air, he mused, and began to hum as he walked along.

Saturday morning in Arcadia was busy. By ten
A.M
. Buck still hadn’t checked in, and Andrea was restless. Since the previous night at the social, no one had asked her about Sam. That they’d not asked about him was more revealing than their previous curiosity. Finally she walked to the post office and picked up the mail, glancing idly through it until she came to one addressed to Chief Andrea Fleming.

Ripping open the envelope, she knew what was inside. There was a copy of a police report—from Arkansas—on Sam Farley.