She swallowed a laugh and gave him a solemn nod. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
At the car, she dusted off her skirt before sliding back into the passenger seat. James joined her a few minutes later, his features set in a stern expression.
“You’re not mad, are you?” She shouldn’t have given into the impulse, but he looked so forlorn.
“No.” He wrapped his hands on the steering wheel. “I’m not mad. But that wasn’t the safest option. Matt’s issues can give him a hair-trigger temper. Staying in the car was as much for your safety as it was his. That said….” He held up a hand when she opened her mouth. “That said, thank you. You listened to him. You heard him. What’s more, you made him hear you. That hasn’t been an easy road and it’s far from over, but he’s back on the path and more than ready to be there.”
“So I helped?”
“Yes, you did.”
She grinned, pleased with herself.
“You’re not calling him about a Mrs. Robinson role.”
She laughed.
“I’m serious.”
“I know you are.” She leaned across to brush a kiss to his cheek. “I don’t want to play Mrs. Robinson.”
“No?” The word echoed on a deep note, low in his throat. She imagined closing the scant inches between their mouths and testing the strength in the firm line of his lips.
“No. I like my man to be confident enough to take on the problems of others, charming enough to admit he liked my films long before he ever met me, and ready to rip out the arms of a man they’ve never met because he might have pawed me.”
“I might know someone like that.”
“Yeah?”
He answered with a slow brush of his lips on hers. Gentle, almost fleeting, until her lips parted and his tongue sought access to hers. She cupped his cheek, and the kiss ended nearly as softly as it began. Her stomach fluttered and she opened her eyes, barely even aware that she’d closed them.
“The night’s not over yet, James.” Definitely time to make some changes, to embrace new challenges and new opportunities, starting with the gorgeous man sitting next to her.
“No?”
She shook her head slowly.
He brushed his fingers over the curve of her jaw. “I live in an apartment at Mike’s Place. It’s about fifteen minutes from here.”
“Fifteen minutes?”
“Maybe twenty if you add the time from car to apartment.”
“So twenty minutes?”
“I can make it ten.”
“Take your time, we have all night.”
Chapter Five
The last thing he’d expected to do when he headed out for dinner was bring his date home, much less invite Lauren Kincaid home. One on level, his brain still tried to wrap around the concept that the actress sat in the passenger seat, hand firmly in his. On another level, he was far more interested in the woman who sat on the curb in her sexy dress and talked to a Marine who desperately needed a friend as easily as she’d charmed James over wine and bad dancing.
The fifteen-minute route through the quiet streets of Plano to the Mike’s Place complex in Allen took forever. He considered twice suggesting that they go back for her car, a reasonable alternative to being trapped with his transportation. But what if she wants her car? What if she decides this is a bad idea?
Suck it up, Marine.
The gate scanned the identification box attached behind his rearview mirror and swung open smoothly. He obeyed the twenty-mile-an-hour warning signs, vividly aware that a game of touch football at nearly three in the morning was not that unheard of.
“You know, it occurs to me we’re breaking the rules.” His voice remained remarkably steady considering the triple-time cadence of his heart beat.
“Oh? Which rules are those?” The lazy Texan drawl, barely discernible in her dulcet tones drifted out to tease him like honeysuckle on a hot summer night.
“Madame Eve’s rules.”
“She has rules?”
He slid the SUV into its parking spot and cocked an eyebrow at his date. “Yes. Public meetings, fancy hotels, the safety of not being isolated with a stranger…didn’t you read the FAQ?”
Her gaze slid to the right. “Small confession time?”
He braced himself. “Go ahead.”
“My agent made all the arrangements. I didn’t even know there was a site or a FAQ to read.”
He laughed. “I see.”
“Sorry.” She winced apologetically. “If you want to dump me on the side of the road, I understand.”
“Oh, I will get over it. But I feel it’s important that you understand you have options. I can take you back to your car or take you home. We can go inside, have coffee and talk. Nothing has to happen that you don’t want to happen.”