"Here and now." He could tell his commanding tone did things to her...a subtle melting a few degrees hotter.

Jennifer licked kiss swollen lips. She breathed hard, her lashes falling half-mast over glazed eyes. "Is it awful that I don't care?"

He stiffened. "We're in a parking lot. Even if you're okay with it, I'm not."

Time to take control before they both went out of control. His hands pulled away from her skin, stretching her sheer nothing underwear. Night air on her a.s.s would cool her ardor. Jennifer's skirt was a wrinkled mess around her waist. Her big eyes registered the force of desire sizzling between them and his thin restraint tamping it down. She was slow to push off him. He had to shake her up.

"Keep rubbing me like you did and your sheer nothings drop to your ankles. Got it?" His clipped tone said this wasn't up for negotiation. "We let things get outta hand."

She untangled herself from him. He glimpsed the outline of her naked thighs against the woods behind her. Jennifer smoothed her skirt until it fell around her knees.

"You're starved for touch, aren't you?" he asked, gentling his voice.

The sad, soulful light in her eyes was her answer.

His heart cracked. He stroked her mussed hair, unsticking strands stuck to her cheeks and neck. Jennifer stilled, her eyelids fluttering as he tried to put her back together. Tenderly, he pulled her in for a loose hug. The moment was pure. For all the s.e.xed-up kissing and rubbing, he wanted to hold Jennifer close and feel her heart beat against him. How long had he admired this woman, wanted her and here she was her body flush to his? He shook his head, amazed at his sudden decision not to take what could so easily be his for the night.

"You have one great a.s.s. You know that? So tight." It wasn't poetic but definitely true. He kissed the top of her head.

"Thank you," Jennifer sighed, her cheek on his chest.

He figured she decided not to question things -that she let a man she'd just met hike her skirt up in a dive bar parking lot. It was a you'll feel better in the morning for not doing this moment. He held onto her, letting the tense storm leave her body. He needed it too. The two of them defied reason, a woman like her with a man like him. She tipped back her head to say something, when headlights splashed the lot.

"Saved by the truck," he murmured in her ear.

The tow truck's wheels ground to a halt, and a man jumped out.

"You folks call for a tow truck?" The man ambled toward them when he craned his neck. "That you, AJ?"

"Sure is. Howdy, Dell."

"Am I taking this car to your shop?"

"Yep. Need any help?"

"Naw." Dell removed his ball cap to wipe his forehead. "Done this so many times, I could do it with my eyes shut." He squinted in Jennifer's direction. "Sorry 'bout bein' so late, ma'am. Lotta calls tonight."

Dell went back to the truck and flipped on the light bar over his cab. He maneuvered his truck around to the front of the Volvo. AJ steered Jennifer away, giving Dell room to work. They stood at the edge of a twenty foot circle of light, moths fluttering madly around the truck's headlights. A dispatcher's voice scratched across a two-way radio as Dell hooked a winch to the front axle.

Jennifer studied AJ some quiet seconds. "Your shop?"

He fixed his attention on the car. "Yeah. Been at McMillan's five years now." His arms linked loosely over his chest. He spread self-conscious fingers over his inked bicep.

What did she see? The tattoo he got as an eighteen year old? Or that it'd been a few days since he shaved? Maybe she studied his rough hands and the knuckles cracked from harsh cleaning agents? These were the hands of a working man, and she was somewhat acquainted with his working man's body.

He was a mechanic. That's who she'd see. It's who he was.

Jennifer chilled in the shadows. Turning his face to the bar, he smiled thinly. Her silence told him she'd already withdrawn in mind and couldn't wait to leave in body. Her mind probably made a list of excuses for a hasty exit. The thought stung him.

Why stand here and wait for rejection?

"I'm going to help Dell finish up."

He grabbed some tie downs and gave Dell a hand. Soon enough, the Volvo was loaded on the flatbed. Wiping his hands on a rag, AJ approached Jennifer, his boots slamming the gravel.

"Dell can see you home," he said curtly.

"Aren't you...I mean, I thought..."

His jaw ticked from his clenched teeth. Jennifer shrank from him, her hands rubbing her arms against phantom coolness.

"AJ, I didn't mean for, um, for..."

"For what?"

"I hoped we could finish talking." She cringed.

"Talking? Yeah, that was some conversation we were having."

He tucked the rag in his back pocket. Maybe Jennifer wasn't about to give him the boot? She hooked loose hair behind her ear and checked for Dell's whereabouts. Seeing he was in the truck, she still dipped close and lowered her voice.

"The kissing was fun, but I liked talking with you. Earlier, I mean." She hesitated, her big brown eyes searching him. "I'd like to again."

"You asking me out on a date?" His voice rumbled as he hooked his hands into his front pockets.

"No," she hissed. "I want to spend time with you...talk some more. That's it."

"Does our talking include food and beer?"

"It could."

"Sounds like a date to me."

Her kiss swollen lips fought a smile. "Call it whatever you like."

"Sure. I'd like to keep...talking."

Jennifer's smile wobbled. So she preferred the vague definition of whatever was going on between them. He could live with that. The hard on in his jeans was another story.

Go slow, walk this tight rope. See what happens.

Dell came whistling. "If I could just have you sign here, ma'am." He pointed to a line at the bottom and handed over his clipboard to Jennifer. "Now am I giving you a ride home? Or do you have someone picking you up?"

Jennifer's gaze flitted to AJ. "I believe I do."

Dell glanced at him. "You giving her a ride?"

"I'll take care of her," he said, locking eyes with Jennifer.

With that settled, she scrawled her signature. His brain ordered him to proceed with caution. Jennifer was a widow. If talking was her speed, that's what he'd give her. She pa.s.sed the paperwork to Dell, and he tucked it under his arm.

"Ma'am, AJ's a trustworthy man. Known him for years. You're safe with him." With grease-mottled fingers, Dell tipped the frayed bill of his cap.

He trotted back to his truck and switched off the high beam, bathing them in the glow of orange and yellow safety lights. Ma.s.sive wheels ground through the pebbled lot, leaving them in silence.

"Come on. Let's get you home." Touching her elbow, another current of awareness pa.s.sed through his hand. They'd take things slow, whatever was happening, or not happening.

He guided her to his pick-up truck, a dented twenty year old Ford he'd nursed along with replacement parts as needed. In the distance, the bar door opened. Rock music throbbed. The crowd was livelier. Thoughts banged around his head, and he guessed Jennifer's mind whirled with some questions. What would she ask first?

He settled her on the seat, clicked the seat belt for her, and tucked her skirt under her thigh with care. He probably stomped on her feminist sensibilities, but he'd soak up the contact for as long as possible.

Jennifer's luminous brown eyes pored over him. "AJ, why did you think I'd kiss you, let you touch me like you did, and then just leave?"

That didn't take long.

He shut the door and leaned his arms on the door. Jennifer was pretty framed by the open window. Tonight she'd stripped him raw and left him hungry. His gut told him she wasn't a fling. Not if he could help it. Forthrightness in the right amount was the best way to go.

"After the truck arrived, I figured you had second thoughts." His insides tightened painfully at the thought of not seeing her again.

"I like talking with you." She gave him a quirky smile. "Okay, the truth is I like talking with you as in conversation and I like kissing you."

How was that for forthright?

Darkness blurred the lines. He'd savor this moment, pretty Jennifer in her elegant summer dress and expensive shoes sitting in his dented truck practically mooning over him. s.h.i.+t like this never bothered him. Not until tonight.

"Women like you don't date men like me. Not for long anyway."

Her wide-eyed fl.u.s.ter was so adorable he laughed.

"Don't worry." He winked at her, slapping the truck twice. "We'll have some fun, and when it's over..." He stepped back and dug his keys out of his pocket.

There was no right way to finish his sentence.

CHAPTER TWO.

"The entry code is three, nine, one, five," she said, as AJ's truck pulled up to the gate.

"A gated community," he mused. "Imagine my surprise."

He punched the code into the number pad, and the gate rolled open. Headlights s.h.i.+ned on an island in the middle of the road with life-size nymphs, water spraying from their upraised hands. Time had left a green patina on the metal sculpture. Without a word, AJ steered his truck on the road around the center island. She told him how to get to her house and tried to see the grounds through AJ's eyes.

His Women like you don't date men like me rattled her.

Wind stirred her hair as they pa.s.sed one neatly trimmed street after another. Up lights gleamed on tall palms. No parked cars on the streets. Luxury SUVs claimed a driveway or two. Guests probably. Residents kept their cars tucked behind garage doors fas.h.i.+oned like old English barn doors trimmed with wrought iron. All the houses were consistent. No coloring outside the lines in this community. Her house up ahead was no different.

"That one. There. Just pull into the driveway."

AJ turned into her driveway and killed the engine. He stared at the beige house. "You sure this one's yours?"

"The number by the front door says its mine." She hopped out of the truck, laughing. "Come on, AJ. This way."

She unlocked high Norman arched doors and swung them wide. AJ was behind her, taking in high-beamed ceilings and mahogany floors. Her house oozed money...expensive furniture, expensive decor, expensive artwork. It was what, Peter, her late husband wanted, a showcase reflecting success.

"Let's go to the kitchen," she said, her heels clicking fast.

AJ stopped and checked himself in the high-gloss finish on a cabinet door. "It's so glossy I can see myself." He grinned, rubbing his overgrown five o'clock shadow reflecting back.

She popped into the picture, her face beside his. "You're right. I never noticed that."

"It's your furniture."

"I didn't pick any of this. Not my style."

"What is your style?"

"I don't know."

His gaze darted sideways but she was off to the kitchen. AJ's boot crunched plastic in the kitchen entry. He bent over and picked up a palm-sized airplane, almost snapped in two.

She pulled two bottles from the fridge. "Beer?"

"Sure," he said, sauntering into the kitchen. "I broke this."

"It's Jason's...my nephew. Don't worry." She cracked open the beers. "Leave it on the counter."

He accepted the bottle and took a drink. She sipped hers, watching AJ's Adam's Apple bob. Two dark love bites smudged the side of his neck. Shame burned in her chest. What possessed her to act like a teenager in heat in a parking lot of all places? The fine man in her kitchen. All six feet two of him. Washboard abs. Crystalline blue eyes that devoured her through the bar's smoke-filled room. She'd felt his stare ranging over her body before she saw him.

And, oh my, his b.u.t.t when he checked under her hood...

She gulped more beer, the wet rush cooling her. AJ was not a man a woman could manage. He probably never worried about his cloths making a statement. He was all man. Rock hard and a bit soft-hearted.

"This nephew of yours. Sounds like you see him a lot." AJ was checking out another hallway leading out of her kitchen.

She winced at seeing a third smudge under his ear. "I do. My sister Karen is a single mom. I try to help whenever I can." She sipped her beer. "I'd just dropped off Jason and was headed back to Hidden Valley when my car broke down."

AJ prowled around her kitchen. If she was honest with herself, he looked more like one of the construction guys who did maintenance-a hot construction guy with close-cropped brown hair, strong arms, and scruff on his jaw.

Long masculine fingers wrapped around the beer bottle. Veins roped forearms corded with tendon and muscle. Her gaze wandered higher, colliding with blue topaz eyes. Sharp. Smart. n.o.body's fool, yet endearing. The corner of his mouth twitched in a half smile. AJ raised the beer to his lips, watching her watch him. Her nipples pinched inside her too thin bra. She licked her lips and wet her throat with more beer. It'd be unwise to underestimate AJ simply because he worked with his hands for a living. He made it easy to pour her heart out to him.

And her damp underwear? He made that happen easily too.

"Are you hungry?" She dug containers of food out of her fridge and yanked an ap.r.o.n off a small hook. She slipped the ap.r.o.n over her head and tied the waist strings behind her.