Operation Date Escape

taxi. I’ll drive.”
    “But dinner...”
    His experience where she was concerned told him to expect this very thing. He held up the carryout bag he’d asked for as soon as she left the table. “Is right here. Come on, let’s go.”
    Her shoulders sagged. “How did you know I was thinking about leaving?”
    “Thinking?”
    “Okay, leaving. How did you know?”
    How could he not? She’d taken far too long for it to be a simple bathroom break. And given her track record on dates, he’d guessed right. Here she was, trying to pull a date escape on him, too.
    “Lucky guess,” he replied.
    “Cole...” she muttered apologetically.
    “It’s okay.” He offered a reassuring smile. “That’s what they make carry-out for.” Slipping an arm around her waist, he walked her out of the restaurant. “Where to?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “We can’t very well eat in the parking lot and I’ve already given up our table here. So it looks like it’s either your place or mine.”
    “I don’t get it. Why are you doing this?”
    Why was he doing this? That was a good question. If any other woman had tried to walk out on him, he’d have let her keep on going and moved on with his life. But with Kelsie it was different. She wasn’t dumping dates to be hurtful. She was running, no doubt afraid of being hurt by a man again, something he would never do to her.
    He offered a tender smile as they moved toward his truck. “Truth is I’m doing this because there are certain times when people need to be saved from themselves.”
    “I don’t want to be saved by any man,” she said, a little too defensively to be convincing. “Especially, by you.”
    Setting the carryout bag on the ground at his feet, he pulled his truck keys from the front pocket of his jeans and unlocked the passenger door.
    “ Tell me something, Kelsie. Are you trying to convince me of that or yourself?”
    She said nothing.
    He turned back around to face her. “Fight it all you want, but you can’t deny what’s going on between us.”
    She looked up at him, her eyes searching his. “What is happening between us, Cole?”
    He eased her against the side of the truck and moved in, bracketing his arms around her. “I’m not sure. What I do know is that you and I both felt the heat sparking between us back in that restaurant. And that scares the hell out of you. So rather than take the risk to see where things might go between us, you run.”
    “I wasn’t running.”
    He arched a challenging brow as he stood staring into those big, beautiful green eyes of hers.
    “Okay, so maybe I was. I just wanted...” her words trailed off.
    He leaned closer. “What Kelsie? Tell me what it is you wanted?”
    She shook her head. “I can’t.”
    “Then let me tell you. Better yet, let me show you.” He lowered his mouth to hers, giving in to the need to taste those sweet lips again.
    She didn’t try and pull away. Instead, she rose up on her toes, curling her arms around his neck. Her slender form pressed intimately against his as she willingly returned his kiss.
    He ran his fingertips along the delicate curve of her neck. “So sweet,” he whispered against her mouth.
    She moaned softly and tipped her head back, opening for his kiss.
    His hand moved up to cup the back of her head. The silken strands of her hair caressed the back of his hand, the sensual feel of it eliciting a groan that rumbled deep in his throat. He had never wanted a woman with the intensity that he wanted her.
    Unable to resist, he deepened the kiss.

    Despite the intense fear she had of falling for Cole, giving him the slip was the last thing on Kelsie’s mind at that moment.
    Nanci was right. His kiss was going to burn a hole right through her thong’s miniscule cotton crotch. Maybe even set the entire thing on fire and she didn’t even care. She wanted to burn.
    Shifting slightly without breaking the kiss, Cole slid his hand across the truck’s rear quarter panel until it made contact with the door handle. He opened it and then finally pulled away.
    She groaned her dismay. “Cole...” her words were no more than a breathy plea.
    Smiling, he reached up and ran a finger across her pouting lip. “I think we’d better take this somewhere a little more private.”
    She nodded. “I think you’re right.”
    She had already caused enough talk around town with her tree-climbing escapade behind the strip club. A few more minutes of locking lips with Cole in the parking lot