Jamie was really tempted. She was clearly bored out of her mind here and desperate to do something else, but he understood her hesitation at wandering off with a guy she’d just met. He’d kill his sister if she ever did exactly what he was suggesting to Jamie. At the same time, he was growing more and more interested in her and actually wanted her to accept his offer.
Then the band hit a particularly discordant note, and Jamie winced. That seemed to shake her out of her indecision. She tapped her friend on the shoulder. “Kelsey, give me your phone.”
The blonde turned around for the first time. “What? Why?” she asked as she handed it over.
Jamie held it up in his direction. “Smile.”
Caught off guard, he did, and Jamie took his picture.
“Kelsey, this is Colin. He’s a bartender here.” Jamie was typing into the phone as she spoke, but Kelsey sized him up and smiled at him appreciatively. Then Jamie looked at him again. “Last name?”
This didn’t make a lot of sense, but he answered anyway. “Raine.”
“R-A-I-N?”
“E,” he added automatically.
“Thanks.” She handed the phone back to her friend. “Colin and I are going up to Canal to watch the parade.”
Kelsey gave Jamie a look and a smirk. “Really, now? How interesting.” The innuendo in her voice all but had them doing it in an alley fifteen minutes from now.
Jamie frowned back at her. “I’ll meet you back here later. I’ve got my phone with me, so send me a text if you go somewhere else.”
Kelsey gave Jamie a big smile and then winked at him suggestively. He wasn’t unaccustomed to having women flirt with him, but that wink bordered on tawdry and made him feel a little dirty. “Y’all have fun.”
Jamie stood. Until now, he’d only seen her from the waist up, but that white T-shirt tucked into a pair of cutoffs exposing tanned legs and firm thighs. She wasn’t tall, maybe only chin height on him, but everything was perfectly proportioned.
So far he had no real reason to regret his impromptu and unexpected invitation.
Then Jamie grinned at him, her excitement clearly evident and surprisingly contagious to someone who should have been long immune to the parades. “Let’s go.”
Chartres Street wasn’t completely packed, but it was busy, requiring Jamie to stay close as he helped guide her through the throng. “What was that about?” he asked.
She turned to look at him, mild confusion wrinkling her forehead. “What was what about?”
“The phone. The photo.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Just in case I go missing, Kelsey has your photo and name to give to the police,” she answered matter-of-factly. “This may not be the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but I don’t have to be completely stupid about it either.”
Bold but cautious. Funny and smart. He put a hand on her back as he shouldered through a group gathered under a balcony begging beads from the people above.
Nope, no regrets at all.
* * *
I, Jamie Vincent, am a complete idiot. Her biography, if it were ever written, would carry the title But It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.
She was alone, in a still-strange city, during one of the biggest street parties in the world, with a man she’d met ten minutes ago as her only guide.
But Colin didn’t seem creepy or shady—he hadn’t triggered any of her internal alarms—and it was broad daylight. She was sober, he was sober and there were, quite literally, thousands of people and police around. Surely it was safe enough to just watch a parade. Hell, Kelsey was so infatuated with David, she wasn’t exactly holding up her end of the buddy system anyway.
She couldn’t even get angry about it, either. Kelsey was just someone who’d agreed to rent her a room when she answered Kelsey’s ad. They weren’t exactly besties or anything. Kelsey didn’t owe her a good time, because Jamie was technically infringing on her Mardi Gras celebration to start with.
If I end up dead in a Dumpster, I’ll have only myself to blame.
She had a basic map of New Orleans in her head, but she’d only been here two whole days—and she’d spent most of that just trying to get settled in—so it was patchy at best. Chartres would cross Canal and become Camp, and Camp would get her home. That much she knew. As long as she stayed on the main streets, she shouldn’t get too lost or turned around.
The crowds got thicker as they approached Canal, and she found herself pressed closer to Colin. That wasn’t exactly a bad thing, she admitted to herself. Amid the general smell of stale beer and teeming masses of people, Colin smelled nice—like clean laundry. Plus, Colin had a rather nice body to be pressed against—athletic, but not muscle-bound. A girl could do much worse.
“Here, hold my hand.”
The instruction startled her, and she looked up at him. Colin grinned as he held out his hand. He had a great smile that caused little crinkles at the corners of bright blue eyes. A shock of dark hair—just long enough to curl around his ears, as if he was a few weeks late for a haircut—was held back from his face by the sunglasses perched on his head.
Goodness, he was just damn pretty.
But that didn’t mean she was going to hold hands.
The sentiment must have showed on her face, because Colin laughed as he cocked an eyebrow at her. “I’m not trying to get fresh. I just don’t want to lose you in the crowd.”
It was a fair enough statement, but before she could reply, he flashed her another lady-killer grin. “Either that, or you could just stick your hands in my back pockets.”
Without thinking, her eyes flicked down to the pockets in question, and damn, did he have to have a cute butt, too? That was tempting. Way too tempting.
For safety’s sake, his first idea was probably the best one.
Jamie put her hand in his and Colin’s fingers threaded through hers, bringing them palm to palm. His hands were warm, the grip firm but not painful, and there was one brief ridiculous moment where she was sure her skin tingled like the heroine’s in some romance novel.
She almost wished he would get fresh.
No!
But he’s so cute.
Down, girl. Have we learned nothing?
She had. And the lesson had been painful enough to ensure she wouldn’t forget it.
She continued to tell herself that as she was hauled up against Colin’s side, their clasped hands pressed against his chest as he maneuvered through the crowd. Jamie just did her best to keep up.
Colin finally stopped near a streetlamp. “This should be good. Rex will come this way, but the trucks turn the other way up Canal, so to see them, you’ll have
