legs. Bare skin started again on the other side of his shorts. His stomach was a six-pack and his chest was… Fantasy material, indeed.
Vanessa was right. This was not a man who would ever want to be anything more than friends with Maggie. “Will you take me where I want to go?” she finally asked.
“Depends.”
“Then forget it,” she said. “I’ll walk.”
She stepped around him, but he caught her arm. “If you’re walking, Mags, I’m walking with you.” It was not an idle threat.
It was freezing. “You’re not exactly dressed for a stroll in the rain.”
“Neither are you. Come on, get into the car.”
Maggie looked at him for several long moments.
“Please,” he said.
“I look like I’ve really lost it, don’t I?” she asked.
He smiled. “Kind of. But I figure you must have a good explanation. Why don’t we get into the car and you can give it to me.”
“Will you take me where I want to go?” she asked again.
“Yes,” he said this time.
Maggie got into the car.
Matt turned the key and cranked up the heat.
“I’m ruining your leather seats,” she realized with dismay, reaching for the door handle.
He hit the lock button and slipped the car into gear. “That’s okay. In a few months I’m going to be a millionaire. I’ll buy new ones.”
“I want to go to the Sachem’s Inn Motel,” she said.
“Really?” He gave her a sidelong glance. “With me?”
“Very funny. Just take me there.”
Matt sighed. “I’m not going to take you there and simply drop you off.”
“You promised.”
“Did not.”
“You said you’d take me where I wanted to go.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t promise. I’m taking you home with me.”
“You jerk.” Maggie started to cry. She’d finally left home, and damn it, she’d left it under her own power, despite the fact that she’d had too much to drink to drive safely.
But now she’d gone and gotten rescued. Well, she didn’t want to be rescued, not even by Matthew Stone, jungle man.
Matt stopped at a red light and turned to look at her.
“I want to do it my way, Matt.” Her blue eyes were swimming in tears. “Let me. Please?”
The traffic light turned green, but he ignored it. He took a deep breath, hardening himself against her tears. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone tonight,” he told her. “If you insist on going to the motel, I am coming with you.”
“I insist,” Maggie said, wiping her eyes and sticking out her chin. “And I don’t need a baby-sitter.”
“Too bad, because I’ve made up my mind.”
“Well, I’ve made up my mind, too, and I’m staying there alone.”
Their eyes locked and held. And the traffic light turned red again.
“Let’s compromise,” Matt told her. “First come home with me. We can get warmed up, maybe get something to eat, and talk—”
“I don’t want to talk.” She crossed her arms, staring straight ahead.
“Fine,” he said. “We can sit in silence in the hot tub. After that, I’ll take you over to the motel. If you still want to go there.”
Maggie looked at him. “Hot tub?” she said.
* * *
“You already turned it on,” Maggie said, wonder in her voice. “It’s already hot.”
She stood shivering in the bathroom in Matt’s house, staring at the steam rising from the hot tub.
“I was sitting in it when Steve called.” Matt tugged impatiently at the zipper on her jacket. It stuck slightly, but he finally got it down, and peeled the wet sleeves off her arms. Her skin was icy.
He reached for the button on her jeans, but she pushed his hands away. “I can do that.”
Yeah, but it had always been one of his fantasies. Not a good time to tell her that. “Then do it,” he countered. “Come on, let’s get you in there before you die of hypothermia.”
She hesitated. “I don’t have a bathing suit.”
Matt laughed. “You don’t need a bathing suit for a hot tub. For God’s sake, Maggie, I’ll turn around. Just get in, will you?”
He pointedly did just that and she peeled off her clothes. Yeah, she was definitely tanked—otherwise she surely would have noticed that the room was filled with mirrors and his turning his back was useless. He could see her from all angles, and, oh, mighty God… A more chivalrous man might’ve closed his eyes but life was just too short.
Matt watched as she slipped into the water, and… Wasn’t that just perfect? Now it was his turn to get naked. But maybe that was good. Let her see what she did to him.
But, “Eek,” she said, as he started to pull off his shorts right in front of her. She closed her eyes until he was sitting across the tub from her. “Doesn’t this strike you as weird?”
Matt stretched out his legs to get more comfortable, and brushed against her. All right. Don’t do that. He was purposely sitting over here so there’d be no contact. “What’s weird about it?”
Her eyes were so blue and her face was pale and she was still shivering slightly. The last thing he should do was go over there and put his arm around her. He drew an imaginary line around her. Whatever happened, he was not going to cross that line. Not tonight, anyway.
“Well, to start with, we don’t have any clothes on,” she told him.
He shrugged as the water bubbled around them. “Personally, I’d find it much weirder if we did.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s weird and you know it.”
Matt nodded. “Yeah, it’s weird. That doesn’t mean it’s not nice, though.”
“I have this fantasy,” she told him, “where this perfect stranger just kind of holds out his hand to me, and takes me away from my life.”
Oh,
