He rapped on the door connecting their rooms, and her stomach clenched. She could do this, she promised herself. She wouldn’t be able to pretend the kiss had never happened, but she would make it clear that she neither expected—nor wanted—it to happen again.
“How’s the leg?” he asked by way of greeting when she hobbled across the floor to open the door.
“It’s fine.”
There was no way to read his expression, which was absolutely emotionless. His voice was cordial enough when he inquired, “Did you sleep well?”
“Like a baby,” she lied through her teeth. “You?” “Yeah. Great. Ready to get on the road?” “Definitely.”
He nodded. “We’ll grab some breakfast at a drive- through window to save time.”
He was really in a hurry to dump her and get back home, she thought with a pang. “That will be fine.”
It was going to be a very long day.
Even considering the occasional outbreaks of orange barrels forcing highway traffic into one lane for construction purposes, they made good time after entering Arkansas. They stopped every couple of hours for breaks, but Molly didn’t try to talk Kyle into any more shopping or sightseeing delays. He thought she seemed as impatient to reach the ranch as he was.
She had been uncharacteristically subdued during the first half of the day, seemingly content to listen to the music playing from the CD player and to watch the scenery passing by her window. It was a beautiful, crisp October Sunday morning. Traffic was light and the moron-driver factor was lower than usual.
Kyle might have been in a fairly decent mood had he not still been so angry with himself for losing controlgrab some breakfast at a drive even so brieflygrab some breakfast at a drivethe night before. He prided himself as a man who always remained in control, and the fact that he had given in to irritation and impulse, especially with Molly, really shook him.
He had lain awake last night, much too aware of Molly lying on the other side of a thin wall. Remembering much too vividly how good her lips had felt. Worrying that she, too, was lying awake and reliving the moment. And wondering why she hadn’t even tried to push him away.
Slanting her a sideways look, he noted that her fingers were interlaced in her lap, and that she was sitting unnaturally still. Normally she would have been bouncing in her seat, tapping in time to the music, chattering a mile a minute about whatever popped into her head, flashing him those smiles that seemed to bring the sunlight right into the car with them.
He realized that she hadn’t really smiled at him all morning. And he missed those smiles entirely too much.
Was she afraid of him now? He tried to read her profile, searching for any sign that he intimidated her in a way he had not before.
“Molly?”
She turned to look at him. “Yes?”
No, he decided. She wasn’t afraid. Maybe a little warygrab some breakfast at a driveas if she weren’t quite sure what he might do next. Maybe still a little bemused by the unexpected kiss. But not afraid, he decided in satisfaction. “Nothing.”
“Oh.” She looked out the window for a moment, then turned to him with a rush of words. “Why did you kiss me?”
He tightened his hands around the steering wheel to keep the car from swerving. He should have expected something like this from her. He should probably be surprised that it had taken her so long. “It would probably be best if you just forget about that.”
“I’ve been trying to,” she admitted. “But I still want to know why.”
“Call it an impulse. An ill-advised one.”
She thought about that for a moment, then said, “You looked annoyed when you kissed me.”
She was going to analyze this to death, he thought with a scowl. “You were annoying me at the time.”
“So you kissed me? I’m sorry, Kyle, but that doesn’t really make sense.”
He heard the low growl of frustration escape him before he said through clenched teeth, “You’re starting to annoy me again.”
“Does that make you want to kiss me again?” she shot back, fearless as always.
Yes. The unspoken reply seemed to hang in the air between them. Kyle wondered if Molly was as aware of it as he was.
Maybe she was. She subsided into her seat again, riding quietly for the next few miles. Even though he kept his own gaze focused fiercely on the road ahead, he could feel her looking at him. Studying him. Trying, most likely, to understand him.
Good luck with that, he could have told her. He didn’t even understand himself right now.