her curls, lifting them high in the air and chilling her to the bone. Goodness, she was being silly not wanting to be alone with Risk. She needed to make this deal, and not even having an unorthodox meeting in a client’s car should deter her.
“C’mon, my car’s over here.” Risk took her arm, drawing her close to his body, and the heat radiating off him kept her a bit warmer as they walked to his SUV. He opened the door for her, and she climbed into the passenger seat. “Put this over you,” he said, giving her the sheepskin jacket lying on his seat.
It did the trick immediately. The jacket was snug and warm around her shoulders and arms and was so long it partly covered her legs, too. “Thanks.”
He closed the door and wound around to climb into the driver’s seat.
And April found herself bundled up, sitting very close to Risk Boone, his male scent drifting her way, his presence filling the space inside the SUV.
* * *
“You look real pretty tonight, April.” Risk blurted out the first thing he’d noticed about her tonight as he turned to face her.
Her chin went up. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t expect to see you tonight.”
“No, I didn’t expect to see you, either. But you promised me a call that I never received. What happened? I guess I wasn’t on your radar?”
Quite the contrary. After seeing April last week, he’d thought about her plenty.
He hadn’t known her all that well in high school, but when he’d seen her that day in the rodeo stands in Houston, after his life had hit an all-time low, she’d been one friendly face, one person from home he could relate to, and finding her at the hotel bar later that night had been pure luck on his part. They’d sat and talked for hours, and then things had heated up really fast in his hotel room.
“Believe me, you’ve been on my radar.”
Her head snapped up at that. Questions filled her eyes, and he wasn’t going to answer any of them. “I’m sorry about not returning your voice mails, but I haven’t had time to look at the articles about the lodge. The truth is, I was called out of town. A friend’s mother was gravely ill, and she wanted to see me. I felt compelled to go. She was a wonderful, gentle woman that I really cared about.”
“Cared? Did she pass on?”
He nodded. “Yes, I stayed in Atlanta for the funeral.”
Sympathy touched April’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”
He kept it to himself that it had been Shannon Wilkes’s mother who’d passed on. Shannon had been texting him for months, about her personal life being a hot mess, her career taking a bit of a hit and then her mother’s illness. Risk had resolved things with Shannon a while back. Though the scars were still there, he’d realized she wasn’t the right woman for him, yet he’d sympathized with Shannon over losing her mother. For the two years he’d dated Shannon, Mary had been like a mother to him, and they’d always gotten along. “Yeah, it was rough.”
April gave him a sympathetic nod.
After he ran scared that night in Houston, he wouldn’t have blamed April if she refused to work with him. The sale of the lodge was important to her, and he owed her a fair shake, at the very least. “Do you have plans day after tomorrow?” he asked her.
She looked at him skeptically. “Why?”
“Maybe we can drive out to the lodge and take a look at it. I’ll read the articles about the place tomorrow. Then I can see for myself if it’s doable.”
April’s eyes brightened. “Yes, I’d love for you to see the lodge. I’ll plan on it.”
“Okay, good. I’ve kept you from your friends long enough. Let me walk you back inside.”
“No, that’s not necessary.” She handed him back his coat. “Thanks anyway, but it’s a short walk. See you Saturday.”
She got out of his car, and he got out, too, and watched, his instincts telling him not to let her walk through the darkened parking lot by herself. And sure enough, when April was less than twenty feet away, a drunken cowboy approached her, blocking her passage, giving her grief and making crude suggestions. Her voice rose as she told the guy to back off, and then the cowboy began grabbing at her. Risk moved fast and was there in seconds, shoving the man’s shoulders, pushing him out of the way before he could lay a hand on April. “Buddy, get the hell outta here or you’re gonna be real sorry. Go sober up somewhere. Now.”
The man eyed Risk with contempt. Risk would be all too happy to nail the guy to the wall, but after a three-second staring contest, the cowboy stalked off.
Risk turned to April. She was shivering, this time in fear. He saw it in her eyes, too. “Are you okay?”
“I...will...be.”
He wrapped his arms loosely around her shoulders, bringing her into his warmth. “Come here a sec and calm down.”
“Thank...you.” She leaned against him, setting her head on his chest as if that’s exactly what she’d needed. “That was scary.”
“You handled yourself well.” He’d heard the tone of her voice, the gruff way she tried to warn the guy off. “You know, the Southern in me would never let a woman walk through a parking lot without seeing her safely inside, but then again, the female revolution has changed all that. I never know what to do.”
April pulled away from his chest to gaze up at him, the pretty blue of her eyes damn near mesmerizing. “You did good.”
He smiled, and she smiled, too, and something clicked in that moment, a spark that he hadn’t felt in a long time. He hadn’t met a woman who interested him in months, and now, suddenly, he was thinking about April that way. “I did?”
She gazed at his mouth and nodded. Was it an invitation? In that one second, Risk’s body twitched, and he tightened his hold on April. “You did,” she whispered.
He laid his palm on her cheek and felt her softness, witnessed the sweet look she was giving him. “April,” he said, right before leaning in to brush a soft kiss to her lips.
She moaned a little bit and gave in to the pleasure of his mouth. She tasted sweet and tangy, like a fruity drink, and he started remembering things about her that quickened his pulse.
Then out of the blue, April pulled away quickly, giving him a slight push on the chest. He backed off instantly. What in the world?
“Don’t.”
“Don’t? April, did I read you wrong?”
“I’ve had too much to drink tonight and I do appreciate you protecting me from that drunk, but yes, you read me wrong.”
She lifted up her left hand and wiggled her fingers right in front of his nose. “I’m engaged to be married, Risk.”
