Say You Want Me. Cindi Myers

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      2

      JONI WOKE the next morning from a restless sleep, thinking of Carter. How was it possible for a man she scarcely knew to disturb her so? Surely she’d never met anyone who infuriated her more. Take that whole business of him paying for dinner. Fragile male ego—hah! He was about as fragile as a concrete wall.

      And that kiss—that incredible, mind-blowing kiss. He’d just assumed she’d wanted him to kiss her. Yeah, so she’d enjoyed the kiss. It probably ranked among the top five kisses she’d received in her lifetime. Maybe even number one. That kiss had lit up every nerve in her body like Fourth of July fireworks.

      But that was beside the point. Any woman would be physically attracted to a man like Carter. She still knew better than to get involved with him. After all, he was a cop. A man addicted to the power trip of being an authority figure and hooked on the danger rush that went along with the badge. A man who would leave a wife and children at home while he went out the door every day to put his life on the line. Not the kind of man she wanted as a husband and father to her children.

      He’d spouted all that nonsense about fate. She didn’t believe in fate. A person had to be responsible for her own life. Make her own choices. Something she’d been trying to tell G.P. since she was ten years old and her grandmother had made her take those stupid dance lessons.

      She sighed. Okay, maybe they weren’t so stupid. Maybe it would be nice to learn to dance. But because she wanted to, not because G.P. or anybody else thought it was a good idea.

      You sound like a two-year-old. Her conscience jabbed her, and she frowned at her face in the bathroom mirror. It was too early in the morning to grapple with her conscience. A grown woman ought to be able to declare her independence without sounding like a toddler. The point was, she didn’t, didn’t, didn’t want to get involved with a man like Carter Sullivan.

      Which took her back to the problem of what to do about G.P. and her plans to see her granddaughter happily married. She wrestled with this dilemma while she munched down a bowl of cereal and packed her lunch. By the time she arrived at work, she knew she had only one real choice.

      She found the number for the San Antonio Police Department in the phone book and asked to speak to Officer Carter Sullivan. The operator transferred her to the patrol sergeant. “Officer Sullivan isn’t in right now,” the sergeant told her. “Can I help you with something?”

      “No, I…can I leave a message for him?”

      “I can put you through to his voice mail. Are you one of his kids?”

      “Uh, no.”

      “Uh, okay. Well, here’s his voice mail.”

      Kids? All the breath rushed out of her. Carter had kids? What else had he failed to mention last night? An ex-wife…or several? Not that they’d gone into much depth about their backgrounds, but you would think a man would remember something as important as children….

      “You’ve reached the voice mailbox of Officer Carter Sullivan. Leave a message…”

      “Uh, Carter, this is Joni Montgomery,” she stammered. “Call me.” Then she recited her phone number.

      She returned to the nurses’ station and tried to concentrate on work, but thoughts of Carter kept intruding. Thoughts of that incredible kiss. Memories of him holding her. Would you get out of my head? she wanted to shout.

      “Joni, there’s someone here to see you,” a nurse told her before headed down the hall.

      She looked up from her charts at a broad-shouldered man in the crisp blue uniform of a San Antonio police officer. Her heart did a back flip and she felt the blood rush to her face. How was she supposed to deal with Carter calmly when her body reacted so fiercely to him?

      “I get a kick out of the way you blush so easily.” He grinned and moved closer to the nurses’ station. “I didn’t think women did that anymore.”

      “Blushing is merely an involuntary physical reaction.” She busied herself straightening a stack of patient charts that didn’t need straightening. “Like hiccups, or sweaty palms.”

      “Hmm. More attractive, though. Especially on you.”

      She could feel his gaze like a hot caress on her skin. When she raised her head, she found him regarding her with a half smile on his lips that would have made a nun have second thoughts about her vocation. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

      “You forgot to tell me how to get in touch with you. Then I remembered you said you worked at Santa Rosa. I took a chance you’d be here today.”

      “I just called and left you a message at the station.”

      His smile broadened. “Then you didn’t chicken out.”

      She’d wanted to, but she hadn’t been able to think of any other way to appease G.P. Or any other man who would be sure to have her grandmother packing her bags and heading out of Texas in short order. “We made an agreement. I intend to keep my part of it.” After all, how hard could it be to endure one date with him?

      “I stopped by to find out what the plan is for tomorrow night, and so we could get our stories straight before the big event.”

      “Speaking of getting stories straight…” She moved out from behind the nurses’ station. “Let’s go back to the break room for a minute and talk about a few things.”

      The closet-size room at the end of the hall had just enough space for a table and two chairs, a small refrigerator and a cart that held a microwave, a coffee-maker, and assorted boxes of crackers, cans of coffee and jars of tea bags. A half-empty box of donuts sat on the table.

      Joni СКАЧАТЬ