A Man of His Word. Merline Lovelace

I’ll clean up while you grab something to eat with your crew.”

      “I’m not hungry. I just came in with the gang for the company. I’ll go with you now. Arlene, maybe we’ll get a chance to chat some other time. Jamie…”

      Watched avidly by everyone in the café, she searched for a dignified exit line. Once again, Reece stepped into the breech.

      “See you around, Chavez.”

      With a nod to her crew, Sydney preceded Reece out of the café. Neither one of them spoke as they walked through the heat that was rapidly fading to a sweat-cooling seventy or so degrees as dusk turned the sky purple.

      Their footsteps crunched on the gravel walkway. Bugs buzzed the glowing yellow bulbs that hung over the row of motel doors. Sydney halted in front of Number Six. Drawing in a long breath, she turned to face him.

      “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I really didn’t need rescuing this time.”

      “What makes you think I stepped in to rescue you?”

      “Then who…? Oh. Arlene?”

      “Right. Arlene. She doesn’t appear to share your confidence that what happened between you and Jamie is, how did you put it? Water over the dam?”

      “I can’t help what she believes.” She hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her baggy pants, her movements stiff and defensive in the lamplight. “I came here to make a movie, and only to make a movie.”

      “A lot of people seem to believe otherwise.”

      “Tough. I can’t avoid the past, but I’m certainly not going to let it get in my way.”

      “The past being Jamie Chavez, or his wife?”

      Her chin angled. “Look, this isn’t really any of your business. Let’s just—”

      She broke off, her glance darting past him. Behind him, Reece heard the sound of the café door banging shut.

      “Oh, hell!”

      It didn’t take an Einstein to guess who had just walked out. After a short, pregnant pause, Sydney shot him a challenge.

      “Okay, hotshot,” she muttered, lifting her arms to lock them around his neck. “You scripted this scene. We might as well act it out.”

      Reece would have had to be poured from reinforced concrete not to respond to the body pressed so seductively against his. As slender as Sydney was, she fit him perfectly in every spot that mattered…and at this point that was just about everywhere. Little sparks ignited where their knees brushed, their hips met, their chests touched.

      “Let’s make it look good,” she whispered, rising up on tiptoe to brush her mouth to his.

      Reece held out for all of ten seconds before he lost the short, fierce battle he waged with himself. Her mouth was too soft, too seductive, to ignore. Spanning her waist, he slid his hands around to the small of her back.

      She curved inward at the pressure, and the sparks sizzling where their bodies touched burst into flames. Reece shifted, widening his stance, bringing her into the notch between his legs.

      She drew back, gasping a little at the intimate contact. The glow from the yellow lightbulb illuminated her startled face. The thrill that zinged through Reece at the sight of her parted lips and flushed face annoyed the hell out of him…and sent a rush of heat straight to his gut.

      “Are they still there?” he growled softly.

      She dragged her gaze from his to peer around his shoulder. “Yes.”

      “Guess we’d better do a retake.”

      With a small smile he bent her backward over his arm.