“Do you think I’ll have time to spend with my family?” she asked.
Ross kept his attention centered on that white SUV with the Idaho plate. “I’d like to say yes, but fact is, I don’t know, Pippa. It’s hard to say what we’ll get into with the conference. And your family will be locked down and guarded.”
She gasped. “You’re kidding!”
The grim set of his lips told her he wasn’t remotely playing with her.
“Oh God. They’re going to be so worried.”
“Boone, Josiah and Silas will be there, along with Roman. Hopefully we can settle their fears.”
“Holly’s coming in from Portland just to spend the weekend with me. She rarely gets leave from her job, and I hate to spoil her vacation.”
“It’s not your fault, Pippa.”
“Did your team find anything on the threatening note?”
“The handwriting doesn’t come up in the database, which means the person who wrote it has never been arrested.” He pierced her in his stare. “Pippa, about what happened at the motel—”
She felt like plugging her ears with her fingers and singing over whatever he had to say. “We don’t need to discuss it.”
It was only the best orgasm of my life with the only man I can imagine giving myself to at this point.
“Yes, we damn well do need to discuss it.”
“I’m good.”
“Don’t be stubborn.”
“Stubborn? You’re the one who stubbornly held himself back. I bet you’re still aching, since you didn’t get off. Am I right?”
He swerved over the line. A car honked at him, and he quickly righted the truck. “Yes, I’m aching. You have no idea.”
“Good.”
“Good?” he shot back.
Exhilaration hit her veins, thickening them with desire too. Why did this argument feel like foreplay?
“You got what you wanted—which was nothing.”
He groaned and centered his palm over his groin, nudging his swelling cock to give it more room. “You drive me crazy, Pip.”
“Not crazy enough for you to finish the job.”
“Because I’m focusing on this job!” He waved a hand at the SUV, which probably belonged to some harmless traveler oblivious to Ross’s suspicions. “You asked me to keep you safe. Not take you to bed!”
“Pretty sure I asked for that too.” Why was she pushing him? Goading him? Maybe to break down that hard wall she never could demolish before.
A low noise similar to a growling wolf came from the driver’s seat. “It isn’t as if I don’t want to, Pippa. But I have to stay focused. You were already injured on my watch. Things could have been much worse. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you.”
He ended on a fainter, grittier note than she’d ever heard from him before. It touched her.
Deep.
But he was right—neither of them could afford to let down their guards.
She nudged her glasses up and massaged her eyes. “You’re right.”
He swung his head from the road to look at her. “You’re agreeing with me?”
“Why do you sound ticked off about that? I thought you’d want me to agree with you!”
“Ticked off,” he muttered.
“Pissed off,” she amended in Ross Wynton style.
He zeroed in on her lips. “I shouldn’t say this, but I love it when you cuss.”
Her insides clenched with fresh heat never quite satisfied from before. It took her a moment to catch her breath. “Really?”
“Yes. Dammit. Really.” He glared at the backs of vehicles spread out over the few miles they could see on the flat stretch.
How did she even process that claim from the cowboy? “Why?” she finally asked.
He worked his jaw, and the dimple flashed though he wasn’t smiling. “It’s knowing you—knowing you before. When you were just a goodie two-shoes kid.”
“So the good girl turned bad appeals to you?”
“Somethin’ like that. And it’s the glasses too.”
She sat against the seat in surprise. “The glasses?”
“Stop asking me these questions, Pippa. You know what you do to me.”
That rang with finality, but she had no idea what she did to him any more than before he went down between her thighs and licked her to a blazing orgasm.
Her insides were hot and sticky with need, and one look at Ross’s lap revealed he suffered the same way. That gave her a bit of satisfaction, at least.
They continued to drive.
She started to feel claustrophobic from sitting in the truck so long. The tension hovering between her and Ross wasn’t helping matters. She must be losing her mind. Acting neurotic. Erratic. She only wanted to get to Seattle, see her family and speak at the conference.
The late afternoon sun sat at an angle that made her wish she could don a pair of sunglasses. Instead, she flipped the visor down to provide some shade.
Her phone buzzed.
Ross looked at her. “You know the drill.”
“It’s Meredith.”
“Pippa,” he said with an edge of warning.
She rolled her eyes and answered the call on speakerphone.
“Pippa, thank goodness I reached you. I called your house like a dozen times.”
“Aww, thanks, Meredith. That was really sweet of you, but I was asleep most of the day.”
“Then I swung by your apartment and buzzed you until the doorman told me you weren’t in.”
Sending a sideways glance at Ross, Pippa said, “Yes, I’m out. I just went to urgent care.”
“Oh no! So you’re really ill?”
“Just the flu. Bad luck.” She hoped her lies came off as real, but Ross didn’t indicate otherwise.
“You sound like you’re in the car.”
“I am. They prescribed me that flu medicine, and I’m on my way to the pharmacy to pick it up.”
“I’m so sorry to hear you’re sick. Remember when one of us would be sick in college and we’d bring each other care baskets stuffed with medicine and cough drops and cans of soup?”
She smiled. “And Oreos.”
Ross’s lips twitched at the corner.
“I can bring you a care basket later, Pippa,” Meredith said.
Panic swept over her. “That’s really sweet of you, but I’d hate to give you the virus too. I’m fine really.”
“Will you still be able to fly to Seattle? The altitudes will be hell on your sinuses.”
“Yes, I’ll be fine. I won’t miss the conference.”
“Well, that’s a relief to everyone attending. You are the diamond of the whole scientific world right now.”
Ross’s knuckles grew white on the wheel.
“Thanks for always trying to cheer me up, Meredith. I’m almost to the pharmacy now. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Take care, my friend.”
She ended the call, and two heartbeats passed before Ross spoke.
“The diamond of the scientific world,” he repeated.
“It’s nothing. She’s just boosting me to make me feel better.”
“But people really do think of you that way because of your finding.”