Bewitched. Lori Foster

coasted over the bruise. If for no other reason than this, Floyd deserved to feel his fist, Harry decided.

      “Answer me something, Charlie.” His hand cupped her cheek and she didn’t protest. He smoothed wet tendrils of hair away from her face, marveling at how soft her skin felt. Surely all women were as soft, but he couldn’t seem to remember.

      She didn’t move away and he felt his heartbeat thud, felt his muscles harden. “Did you mean what you said about not being interested? Not at all?”

      Her gaze met his, so close. “Interested in what?”

      “A lover.”

      “I don’t know.” She frowned, then looked at his mouth again. “I’ve never given it much thought.”

      He drew a slow breath, filling himself with her scent. “And now?”

      She looked away, then back up again with a sort of daring grin. “I admit I’m thinking about it.”

      She was so bluntly honest, he smiled. Charlie might be demanding, but she would never be manipulative.

      Her arms looped around his neck. “You know, Harry, this is turning into a romantic moment after all, isn’t it?

      Harry gently kissed the bruise on her cheek, his lips just grazing her skin, his nose nuzzling her temple. “Hmm. And I don’t even have my flashlight out.”

      She chuckled. “I’m starting to like you, Harry.”

      It was the chuckle that did it, low and husky. He turned his face and she met him halfway and their mouths met, open and hot and devouring. Oh damn, Harry thought with some surprise. He hadn’t expected this, hadn’t thought she’d be this way, avaricious and hungry, clinging to him as if she’d never been kissed before or was starved for it. He was the starving one, and the hunger had come on him so suddenly…. It turned him on so much he groaned.

      Sweeping one large hand down her back, he fondly cupped the adorable backside he’d admired earlier. Soft and sweet, the feel of her made him want more.

      But before he could allow things to progress, he felt he owed her a measure of honesty. “Charlie, honey, listen a minute. I have to tell you something.”

      Her eyes narrowed. “Getting discriminating on me again, Harry?”

      He swallowed hard. Did she actually think he’d want to back out when he was shaking with lust? Not likely. “I’m not interested in a romantic relationship.”

      She blinked at him in surprise. “Okay.” She tried to kiss him again, her hands clutching his shoulders.

      He held her back with one hand, putting breathing space between them. “Charlie, I can’t make you any promises.”

      She blinked twice, then frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

      She looked so confused he wanted to shake her. He realized his hand still held her bottom and he gave her a gentle squeeze, then shuddered with the effects of that caress. Damn, he wanted her. Insane.

      “Marriage.” He cleared his throat and managed to explain. “All those questions earlier. You were hinting about marriage and I want you to know, my plate is full right now. I have no intentions of getting even mildly involved with a woman.”

      One side of her mouth quivered, and she bit her lip. Oh God, don’t let her cry, Harry thought, his body so tense he hurt, his mind feeling like mush.

      She covered her mouth with her hand and a chuckle escaped. Harry frowned. In the next instant, her chuckles turned to uproarious laughter. “You,” she said between hiccups, “thought I was sizing you up for marriage material?” She laughed some more, not dainty feminine laughter. No, this was boisterous, unrestrained hilarity. “Good grief, I hardly know you!”

      Disgruntled with her misplaced mirth and his unabated lust, Harry demanded, “Then why all the questions?”

      “Actually, if you must know,” she said, trying to get herself under control and failing miserably, “I had thought to hire you.”

      “Hire me for what, damn it?”

      “To find out more information on my father.” She wiped her eyes, perched primly on his lap with her midnight hair hung over one eye giving her a seductive look. “That’s what I was doing there today. Spying on him. I haven’t seen him in almost eighteen years.”

      Harry wanted explanations and he wanted them now. Who was her father? And why the long separation?

      His arms were still around her, one hand still splayed over perfect buttocks. When she smiled, her dark blue eyes seemed to smile, too.

      He wished now that he’d kept his big mouth shut.

      She traced his mouth with a delicate fingertip. “You really are a wonderful kisser, Harry.”

      Hope rose that he might be able to salvage this debacle, but then car lights hit the window of the gas station, and every thought other than protecting her slipped from his mind.

      He shoved her off his lap and onto the dirty floor. “Stay there and don’t make a sound.” In the next second he was gone.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHARLIE SAT ON the floor, her backside bruised, her lust squelched. Where had Harry gone? On hands and knees she crawled to the window to peek out. Just as her head lifted, Harry snatched it back down.

      Hissing close to her ear, he asked, “Is there a particular reason you want to offer up your brains for target practice?”

      “Where did you go?” Her words were muffled against his fly, and while there, she noticed he’d suffered quite a reaction to their kisses. Heaven help her, the man was hard.

      “I was surveying our options, of course. Now be still.”

      She quit squirming and sighed. Having her cheek pressed to an erection, her nose smashed against a muscled thigh, with no hope of any loveplay, seemed like a terrible waste, especially since this was the first time in ages she’d been interested in such a thing. “Do you have any suggestions?”

      “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”

      At that moment, Floyd called out. “You might as well come on out of there!”

      Charlie whispered, “He certainly sounds furious.”

      “Yes, well, maybe he knows you planned to toss him off the truck.”

      “Ha! I think it’s probably his aching jaw where you slugged him that has the bastard madder than hell.”

      He tsked. “Your language is a disgrace.”

      “You have my face buried in your lap, but you’re worried about my language?”

      Harry groaned, and his fingers contracted on the back of her head. “This is no time for your unregulated tongue, so keep quiet if you please.”

      “We know you’re both in there!” Floyd growled. “There wasn’t no place else for you to go. Now come on out and maybe we won’t shoot you. We’ll just take you to Carlyle.”

      Harry kept one large hand mashed against her head, forcing her to stay low, as he yelled out, “I have your gun, remember? Come anywhere near here and I’ll be obliged to put a bullet in you! At the moment, the thought doesn’t distress me at all.”

      Curses exploded from outside the garage.

      “He really doesn’t like you, Harry.”

      “The feeling is mutual, I assure you.”

      Unable to help herself, she nuzzled slightly into his lap. Harry jerked away. “Keep your head down, and no, don’t say a thing. In case you’ve failed to notice, we’re in something of a situation here. I need to keep my wits collected.” When she dutifully remained silent, he nodded. “Good. Now, I’m