Double Dare (10 page)

“
I’d have to be deaf not to
hear you and I’m sure everyone on this floor and those above and
below us can as well. What’s wrong?”

Lou whirled to face him. “I-I thought maybe
you’d left.”

Sam gave her an odd look. “I did. I went to
the grocery store.” He frowned suddenly. “Speaking of which—”

“
You mean you’re still going
to go through with my adventure?” Lou hated the vulnerable tone of
her voice, but she desperately needed to hear him say that he
wouldn’t desert her. That he’d see her adventure through to the
end.

Sam studied her expression for a moment—a
very long moment. She felt his gaze trace her face, graze her lips
and return to her worried eyes.

He sighed heavily. “I’m going through with
it,” he said at last. “But I shouldn’t. Come on, let’s go in my
room.”

Lou released a pent-up breath and followed
him inside. His room was remarkably clean, much more tidy than
hers. His suitcases were packed and waiting by the door.
Fudgy-Nutty boxes and wrappers filled the wastebasket, making Lou
smile in spite of her recent worry.

“
We have to
talk.”

Again? Funny, but Lou had always been under
the impression that men hated “talking” more than anything.
Apparently not Sam.

Lou braced herself for the no-more-kissing
speech. “Okay,” she said, smoothing her dampened palms over her
linen shorts.

His expression grim, Sam pulled a tabloid
magazine form the grocery sack he’d carried in and handed it to
her. “You’re going to have to call your father again.”

Lou scanned the headline and
secretly cheered inside. Oh, it was better than anything she could
have hoped for!
How’s that, Daddy?
Lou thought smugly. She’d teach him to send the
press after her.

Lou’s gaze strayed to the picture and she
felt herself blush. My word…she could barely tell where she ended
and Sam began. They were pressed so close together, you couldn’t
have gotten a toothpick between them with a sledgehammer. It was
scandalous! It was …wonderful.

Regret tugged the corners of her lips down
when she thought of poor Chad. It occurred to Lo that in her zeal
to make her father pay, Chad’s humiliation had just doubled. He’d
been innocent like her, and now she’d further embarrassed him by
getting her picture on the cover of a national magazine wrapped in
an amorous embrace with another man.

Lou absently chewed her bottom lip. Somehow
she had to make this right, and she fervently hope to make Chad
understand that these underhanded tactics she’d resorted to had
been necessary. Sam, too, for that matter.

She scanned the article and used every trick
she knew to keep her face straight. Sam, the leader of a cult? A
bigamist with twenty-five wives and almost double that number in
children? Possessed a penis more than a foot long? She felt her
face flame again and swallowed hard.

Sam mistook her silence and high color for
outrage. “Do you have any idea what this could potentially do to my
business?” he asked her, obviously striving for a calm he didn’t
feel. “Or my mother? If she sees this, she’s going to have a
stroke!”

Lou blanched, realizing the true impact her
recklessness could have. As for his business, she didn’t think it
would truly suffer. After all, the paper hadn’t named him. If
someone recognized him—and considering his back was to the camera
and only a profile shot, at that-the chances of him being found out
were slim to none. People might suspect, but they wouldn’t know
unless he told them. Besides, it was possible that the speculation
might actually help his business.

But his mother… Mercy, she hadn’t even
considered that. Dread and regret assailed her simultaneously,
making her feel fairly faint.

Sam turned and gave her an implacable look.
“You have to call your father, Lou. You have to call him and
impress upon him the importance of calling off the press hounds.
And I want to hear you do it.”

Lou quailed. “H-hear me?” she squeaked.

“
Yes. Hear you.” Sam crossed
his arms over his chest. “Do you want to call him now or after we
reach the Keys?”

“
When we reach the Keys,”
Lou told him, profoundly grateful for the brief
reprieve.

Sam gave her a look. “I don’t want them
following us.”

“
I don’t think they will,”
Lou replied.

“
You don’t
think?
”

“
Well, I can’t know for
certain, Sam,” Lou replied, unreasonably nettled at this turn of
events. “Why don’t you have your assistant call her psychic and see
what she can find out?”

Sam’s brow furrowed into a frown. “She can’t.
She’s too busy scurrying around the greater Atlanta area trying to
pull as many of these freaking tabloids off the stand as she can.
She hasn’t got time to talk to her damned psychic!”

Oops. She’d gone too far again, Lou thought,
suddenly chagrined. None of the blame for this mess lay with Sam—it
all came back to her. And her father, Lou remembered with a bitter
smile. She couldn’t forget him.

Well, she’d started it, now she simply had no
choice but to see it through. Lou knew if she backed off now, if
she gave her father an inch, he’d take the proverbial mile. She
sighed dejectedly and massaged the bridge of her nose.

James Whitehorn Honeycutt would never
understand her, wouldn’t make the effort to try. What’s more, he
would keep on attempting to ruin her life the way he ran Honeycutt
Foods.

“
I’m sorry,” Lou told Sam
finally. “I’m truly sorry that I dragged you into this mess. I-I’ll
do what I can to fix it.”

Sam’s gaze caressed her face. “That’s all I
ask,” he murmured softly. Seemingly ready to put the conversation
behind them, he rummaged through the sack and handed her a deli
box. “I picked up a few muffins at the grocery store.”

“
Oh. Thank you,” Lou told
him, surprised. She opened the box and saw several different
muffins nestled in the waxed paper. She grinned. “Three?” she asked
him. “What? Do I look like a hog?” she teased.

Sam shifted and looked away. “I didn’t know
which kind you liked,” he said gruffly.

Was he embarrassed because he’d taken the
time to get her a variety of muffins? How sweet, Lou thought,
touched beyond reason. “Well, thank you, anyway. I like every kind
of muffin. Would you like one?”

Sam shook his head. “No, thanks. Are you
packed?”

“
Packed and ready. My bags
are on top of my bed.”

“
Give me your room key and
I’ll get them, then we can be on our way. The sooner we’re out of
here, the better. I’d like to get a head start on those reporters.
We can meet in the lobby.”

Lou thought it ridiculous that she couldn’t
gather her own bags and the two of them make the trip to the lobby
together, but she knew it would injure Sam’s southern gentleman
manners to suggest it.

She nodded. “Would you like me to take care
of check-out and bring the car around?”

“
You can take care of
check-out. I’ll see to the car.”

It figured. “Okay.”

“
And Lou?”

Lou paused on her way to the door and turned
to face him. “Yeah?”

“
Are you enjoying your
adventure?”

Lou blinked. Of all things he might have
asked, she wasn’t prepared for that question. She smiled, “Of
course I am. Isn’t it obvious?”
That sexy half smile claimed his lips, the kind of aw-shucks grin
that made her tummy tremble…in a good way. “I just wanted to make
sure.”

Yeah, Lou thought. Considering all the
trouble she’d caused him on this adventure, she’d better praise him
to the stars about it.

“
Well, I am,” she assured
him. “It’s more than I ever hoped for.” She started for the door
once more.

“
And Lou?”

She halted again and turned to look at him
over her shoulder. “Yeah?”

His aw-shucks grin had gained a wicked edge.
“If you kiss me again, I won’t be held accountable for my actions.
You understand?”

Lou gulped. A coil of excitement tightened in
her. Oh, yeah. She understood. If she kissed Sam again, she
wouldn’t just be getting the time of her life…She’d be getting the
ride of her life. Lou nodded sweetly and tempered the urge to
launch herself into his arms right now. For heaven’s sake, where
was her pride? Did she even have anywhere Sam was concerned? Then
again, she might not need it. Pride was overrated. She mentally
weighed their importance. Pride or Sam? Pride of Sam? Yeah, okay,
she definitely wanted Sam.

And after one more kiss, she’d have him.

Sam angled the rearview mirror down so that he
could watch Lou sleep. She’d crawled into the back seat to take a
nap about four hours into their road trip. Sam had been utterly
enchanted during those first four hours. He told himself that the
less time he spent enjoying Lou’s company the better, but he missed
her lively chatter all the same.

Sam watched the peaceful rise and fall of her
chest as she slept and felt an unwelcome rush of warmth swap his
heart. Lou’s hair curled in wild abandon, wreathing her face with
golden ringlets. He remembered the feel of those curls, remembered
how they tangled around his fingers. The same way she’d tangled him
up in her life, Sam thought absently. Long thick lashes painted
shadowed crescents beneath her lids, lending a vulnerable quality
to her angelic countenance.

But there was nothing angelic about the way
she made him feel, Sam thought. Nothing angelic about the way he
responded to her.

Take this morning, for instance. He’d been
trying to warn her away when he’d told her if she kissed him again
he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions. He’d actually thought
his frighten-the-little-virgin plan was ingenious. Sam snorted at
his stupidity. When he’d formulated this plan, he’d neglected to
factor in one important element—Lou wasn’t your average little
virgin.

In fact, he could honestly say that there
didn’t appear to be anything average about Lou Honeycutt. She
hadn’t been the least big frightened of him and, for one terrifying
instant, he’d though the reckless little imp had planned to take
him up on his offer right then.

Sam rubbed a hand over his face, stunned anew
at that realization. This morning he’d been alternately hoping she
wouldn’t force him to make good on his threat…and secretly praying
that she would call him on it. Those few seconds of indecision on
her part, when her eyes had flashed blue fire, had been one of the
most agonizing experiences Sam could recall. God, how he wanted
her.

Judging from the look she gave him this
morning, it would only be a matter of time before she sidled up and
kissed him again. Then Sam would be forced to make a decision and
he hoped that he’d be able to make the right one.

Of course, it would help matters if he hadn’t
read her private list. If only she would put that damned notepad
away, for that matter, Sam thought, scowling. She’d pulled her
to-do list out almost as soon as they’d left this morning and
happily checked off every item she’d completed. Her thoughtful brow
had furrowed as he’d watched her mentally plan how to achieve the
rest of her goals. Sam had to clench his jaw and resist the urge to
grab the infernal list and toss it out the window.

Hell, he didn’t want to be a mere checkmark
on a to-do list. If he and Lou made love, he didn’t want to sigh in
satisfaction and cross out another item on her agenda. The very
thought of it disgusted him. Sam frowned and tapped his thumb
against the steering wheel. He’d feel, well, used.

The idea gave Sam a pause. Under normal
circumstances, any man would have loved to be in his shoes. A
guilt-free, no-strings relationship that would be mutually
satisfying to both parties. Sam would be a liar if he said he
hadn’t participated in such relationships before.

So why did he find the idea of doing it with
Lou so distasteful? Why did his gut clench at the mere thought of
making love with Lou, then watching her walk out of his life? Sam
tried to tell himself it was because she was his client.
Unfortunately, that argument wouldn’t wash. Knowing there was a
lesson in there somewhere, Sam returned his attention to the road
and refused to think about it anymore.

His gaze strayed to Lou again. His heart beat
faster at the mere sight of her. Sam traced her slim figure,
skimmed the lines of her face and felt a deep tug of desire when
his gaze landed on her sweet, cupid-bow mouth. A grim smile tilted
his lips. “Aw, hell,” he murmured to himself, meaning it now more
than ever.

Lou awakened by slow
degrees. The afternoon sun streamed through the windows, filling
the car with amber light. Sam had the radio tuned to a country
station and the sound of the Dixie Chick’s rip-romping
through
Goodbye Earl
vibrated out of the speakers. She heard Sam chuckle and smiled
to herself.

Lou didn’t have any idea how long she’d been
asleep, but considering the incessant gurgling in her belly, it had
to been a while. She finger-combed her hair and gingerly sat
up.

Sam’s gaze met hers in the rearview mirror.
“Hey, sleepyhead.”

Lou grinned drowsily. “Hey yourself. What
time is it?”

“
Almost four. You slept
through lunch, but I’ve got a club sandwich up here if you’re
hungry.”

Perking up at the mention of food, Lou
clambered over the console back into the front seat. “Oh, good. I’m
famished.” She located the bag and pulled out her sandwich, then
helped herself to a generous bite.