Part 18 (1/2)

Sean started to chuckle, having already realized that Mrs. Davis was a sharp one. But something about the way Annie said the name Blake gave him pause. Glancing over, seeing the quiver of her lips, and realizing she was genuinely distressed, he suddenly understood, as if a lightbulb had gone off over his thick head. ”My G.o.d, there really was was a Blake.” a Blake.”

Annie didn't reply at first. Instead, she wearily removed her sungla.s.ses, pus.h.i.+ng them onto her head as if wanting him to see her eyes, to read the truth there.

If he hadn't already left the back road and entered a busy highway, he would have pulled over to do exactly that. But as it was, he kept his face forward, waiting for her to say whatever it was she was trying to find the words for.

”Yes,” she finally admitted, ”there was was a Blake.” a Blake.”

His jaw flexing, he strove to remain detached, impersonal. She had, after all, hired him for this weekend. So he shouldn't have expected her to be honest about what the h.e.l.l was really going on. Or to be wounded now when he found out she had not.

”I see. He was your last lover?” G.o.d, he hated using that word in connection with anyone else who'd ever touched Annie.

”No. Not my lover.”

It wasn't until he released his breath in a slow whoosh that he realized he'd been holding it, waiting for her to answer.

”We dated, but it had never gone that far.”

The dull tone in her voice told him it had gone far enough. Far enough to wound, to hurt. Far enough to leave a scar.

Forcing his own feelings out of the mix, he reached for her hand and twined his fingers with hers. ”What happened?”

”He was married.”

Stunned, Sean couldn't help gritting his teeth. Annie didn't seem the type. She was so honest, so open and sweet.

Not that he was about to pa.s.s judgment, not given his own history. Jesus, many of the women he'd been with had been the bored wives of husbands who'd paid Sean to keep them company.

Still, the idea of Annie being a part of anything like that stung. Deeply. ”I see.”

She released his hand, as if feeling him draw away, if only mentally. ”No, you don't. I didn't know he was married.”

Annie went on to tell him the whole story, speaking quickly, and every word she said increased his anger. By the time she'd finished, his hands were clenched so tightly around the steering wheel they actually hurt.

”So he used his baby boy to get in your good graces, to soften you up for the poor abandoned father. Then tried to lie his way into your bed.”

”Pretty much.”

Son of a b.i.t.c.h. Sean would like to have his tight hands around the man's throat, rather than this impersonal padded wheel. This Blake deserved to be throttled by someone who knew how to do the job.

”I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth,” she admitted. ”It's just very humiliating. I'm ashamed and embarra.s.sed.”

”And horrified at the very prospect of your parents finding out,” he said, knowing instantly that it was true.

”Oh, you've no idea!”

Having just spent a weekend with the Davises, he had a very good good idea. ”What exactly did your mother say?” idea. ”What exactly did your mother say?”

Annie sniffed a little, then chuckled, as if not sure whether to cry or laugh with the relief of having gotten the whole sordid story off her chest. ”She told me she couldn't think of a single 'nickname' that sounded like Blake.”

Yeah, that hadn't been his best cover.

”And that while she didn't appreciate the deception...”

”Yes?”

Clearing her throat, she admitted, ”She said judging by the way you and I looked at each other, there were real feelings between us, and she thought we could be very happy together.”

Real feelings. Very happy. Together. Him and Annie. As in, happy as a couple, a genuine one. Marriage, family, a home. All the things he'd never envisioned for himself, things he'd been running from since the day he'd turned twenty-one.

And all were things he knew knew Annie truly wanted, on her own terms, after she'd seen the world. Annie truly wanted, on her own terms, after she'd seen the world.

Annie said nothing else. Instead she pulled her sungla.s.ses back down over her eyes, and tilted her head back to let the hot sun fall onto her face, as if she wanted to take a nap.

In truth, she was giving him s.p.a.ce, not forcing him to say a word. Not that he would have known what to say. So he merely continued to drive.

With every mile that pa.s.sed beneath the wheels of the car, Sean felt the subtle pull of his real real life. The closer they came to Chicago, the more that life drew him back, reminding him of the choices he'd made. life. The closer they came to Chicago, the more that life drew him back, reminding him of the choices he'd made.

Choices that had seemed right at the time. But which now, with Annie's whispered words of a fantasy relations.h.i.+p he had never dreamed possible repeating in his ear, shamed him to his core.

10.

ANNIE WASN'T SURE what to expect when they reached the city. Sean might take her back to his hotel as he'd sworn to do. He could be planning to make love to her in every way humans had ever tried until tomorrow morning when the sun came up. what to expect when they reached the city. Sean might take her back to his hotel as he'd sworn to do. He could be planning to make love to her in every way humans had ever tried until tomorrow morning when the sun came up.

Or, judging by the near silence-broken only by occasional small talk-in which they'd shared the two-hour ride, he might be ready to drop her off at her place. Some men might toss her cat and her suitcase on the sidewalk, and drive like h.e.l.l to the airport.

She should have kept her mouth shut, should never have told him exactly what her mother had said. Honestly, though, the intuitive words had stunned Annie so much, she'd almost had had to share them. If only to see whether saying them out loud made them any less shocking to her own ears. to share them. If only to see whether saying them out loud made them any less shocking to her own ears.

Her mother had seen love love in their eyes? Hers and Sean's? Was that even possible? After one week, could such a thing really happen? in their eyes? Hers and Sean's? Was that even possible? After one week, could such a thing really happen?

In her mother's opinion, of course it could. She and Annie's father were a well-known case of love-at-first-sight. But those things didn't happen nowadays, did they? Especially not to women like Annie.

And especially especially not with men like Sean. not with men like Sean.

Arriving in the city, she almost held her breath to see which way he'd go. When he turned toward his own hotel, rather than Lincoln Park, she somehow managed not to fall over and kiss his feet. Or to jabber her thanks for not yanking away these last hours they had with each other.

She wanted those hours. Wanted them desperately now that her mother's accusation had filled her brain with possibilities.

Not that she believed Sean loved her. But the idea that she, Annie, had truly fallen in love with him, suddenly didn't seem so ridiculous. In fact, she suspected it could be true. And knowing that, she wanted as much time with the man as she could get.

”I can't wait to explain the emu-prints on the hood of the car,” Sean murmured, smiling for the first time in two hours. He'd just pulled into the garage beneath the hotel.

The garage...the one where she'd left her van.

d.a.m.n, maybe he'd brought her back here because he had had to. She had to get her car, didn't she? to. She had to get her car, didn't she?