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  His irritation drained as he saw her, armed with caffeine and full of eager anticipation. She wore a Phillies cap with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, yoga pants, and a T-shirt. How could she look so fresh and simple—nothing like the tempting seductress from the auction—yet still set his blood to boiling?

  A surge of heat flared in his abdomen from viewing the fine curves of her nicely rounded derriere in those skin-tight pants, curves that turned his thoughts to cupping that sweet behind, running his hands along those smooth calves, and ending their road trip in the penthouse suite at a five-star downtown hotel.

  But it was the memories of that same smiling, expectant girl that really pummeled him. She’d always approached any trip, no matter how small, as an adventure, and her enthusiasm had been contagious. He snorted. Dumb kids. He opened the passenger door and pushed those thoughts from his mind. All he wanted was to survive the next couple of days and forget about the Maddie chapter in his life.

  “I got you a black coffee. Is that how you take it?”

  “Thanks,” he mumbled.

  “Plain. Black. Nothing added.” She peeked under his lid, and the rich, earthy smell of good strong coffee infiltrated the car.

  He steered the car into the throng of late afternoon rush-hour traffic exiting the city. “What’s wrong with that? What’d you order, a non-fat-girlie-skim-no-whip-something or other?”

  “Not even close.” She shook her drink and ice cubes rattled against the plastic cup. “This is an iced mocha with whip. Lots of whip.”

  “My life is simpler.”

  “Your life is black and white. Either, or.”

  Traffic crawled. The wipers chink-chinked. The smell of summer rain was thick in the air. Nick needed to focus on getting them out of here, not on trading insults.

  “Could we call a truce, please?”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her wary look. She wasn’t wearing an ounce of makeup, but her skin was creamy smooth. She looked young and innocent, and it reminded him of wonderful days when he thought she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.

  She still was.

  He had to remind himself that he was the one who’d ended it between them…twice. Left that small town behind so he could become something big. Something better. What could a poor kid from the rangy side of town offer the daughter of one of the most well-to-do families, anyway?

  Nick tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “Maybe we need rules,” he said.

  She groaned. “What is it with you and your rules?”

  “They keep me organized. On track.” And kept his mind off her.

  “In Black and White World.”

  “First rule, no insults.”

  “That might be impossible.” Her lips closed carefully around the straw. Sweat broke out on his forehead. How could she make sipping on a straw erotic?

  “Look, I agreed to this hokey trip. The least you could do is be decent about it.”

  She folded her arms and set her chin to a defiant tilt. “Fine.”

  “Rule two. We don’t discuss business. It’s a sore point, so we should avoid it. And three, let’s try to be pleasant.”

  He saw her jaw twitch. He could tell she was gnawing the insides of her cheeks again. “Okay,” she said. Her straw made a noise as she hit the bottom of her drink, sucking up every last drop.

  “That was fast.”

  “It’s too good to drink it slow.”

  “You’re not a savor-it-slowly type of person?”

  “With coffee drinks, no. But with people and friends and fun activities, I would say I very much am. How about you?”

  He didn’t know how to answer that. His life seemed to be a speeding train headed as fast as possible toward his goal of being successful. No, more than successful. The Best.

  Maybe it had a lot to do with his grandfather who never achieved his dream of becoming a first-class shoe designer. Who’d given up going to New York City after Nick’s parents died and he’d taken on the responsibility of raising Nick.

  At least Nick had made something of his life, far away from Buckleberry Bend. Gramps wouldn’t take the new BMW he’d sent and had made him retract the offer he’d made on a brand new luxury condo outside of town. But now Nick finally held the trump card that would pay back his grandfather for all the sacrifices he’d made.

  He was going to give Gramps the chance he’d always wanted, his dream to get his shoe designs in front of big shots. And Nick was going to do it with the very company that had taken that dream away so long ago.

  He didn’t want to hurt Madison or her family, but if he didn’t buy their company, someone else would. That was life. Sometimes you had to do painful things regardless of the consequences.

  He felt her quietly assessing him, her gaze flicking disapprovingly from his high-end polo to his Italian leather shoes that to her surely bespoke luxury and money. To her, he was the epitome of a crass billionaire.

  “Are you sure you want to waste your time and mine following through with this?” he asked.

  She sat up straight. “I’ve been reading some of the company documents. You own forty-two percent of the company as of last month when my Uncle Al sold his shares. So you are not a majority owner.”

  Actually, he was. One of his companies had bought up shares several years ago under the name Viper, Incorporated. A different public face than Holter Capital but the same person in charge. Himself.

  Maddie continued. “I have ideas to save the company. To turn it around, make it bigger and better than before.”

  Startlingly blue eyes looked straight into him. She was so…hopeful. Even now, he still hated to burst the bubble of her undying optimism, even though he held no such naïve beliefs himself.

  Tell her. Tell her now that you already own the majority of the company. He could have said it from the get-go and made this entire trip unnecessary, but he didn’t need the backlash that would come his way in the press. Besides, it would be worth it to check out the company that would soon be his. Then he’d find a way to break it to her gently that Holter ownership of Kingston Family Shoes was already a done deal.

  Somehow, the triumphant emotions he thought he’d feel over finally bringing justice to his grandfather didn’t feel so amazing with Maddie sitting right next to him. “There’s still time to go back. I’ll be honest with you. Success in this case is as rare as a sunny day in Cleveland.”

  A spark of defiance lit up her eyes. “When a sunny day comes, I’m sure the people up there on Lake Erie really appreciate it.”

  “I think you’re foolish, but—”

  “You just broke rule one,” Maddie said. Actually, they were talking business and it was unpleasant. Strikes two and three.

  “I did,” Nick said. “Sorry about that.”

  “It’s all right.” She covered a sudden yawn with the back of her hand.

  The rain finally began to slow, and the traffic pick up from its crawl as he headed west on I-76, the first of many highway miles that would eventually lead them to Buckleberry Bend.

  Soon the soft sound of Maddie’s breathing assured him she was asleep, despite just sucking down a drink that contained two shots of espresso. Bantering back and forth with her had been strangely fun. She’d always had a wicked sense of humor whereas he’d tended to be overly serious. He was certain she had a gaggle of friends—always had.

  A profound sense of sadness permeated deep inside of him like a chill on a bitter winter day. He had friends, all right—mostly hangers-on impressed by his wealth and the perks that offered them. Besides his long-time business partner, Preston Guthrie, who else did he really trust? Who did he hang out with to just…hang out? Flying to Vail to ski, to New York to catch a show, to Vegas to wine and dine his latest conquest—his life was filled with beautiful women, spontaneity, and lots of adventure. Yet as he drove along listening to the rhythm of the wipers and Maddie’s quiet breathing as she slept, none of it seemed genuine or real.

 
“Nick?” His traveling companion had nestled down in her seat, kicked off her tennis shoes and stuck her feet on the dashboard. Her toes were painted a deep, sparkly blue. Whimsical. Another stark contrast from the cool and collected businesswoman from the other day.

  Her eyes were drifting closed again, so he spoke softly. “What is it?”

  “Let me know when you want me to drive. I’m ready anytime.”

  Right.

  “Oh, and Nick?”

  “Yes, Madison.”

  “Life might be more fun if you broke a couple rules along the way.”

  He wouldn’t know. Rules had saved him. Given him order and purpose. He had played by them for so long, he had no clue what it was like not to.

  Chapter Five

  They switched drivers somewhere in Virginia, although Maddie had to practically pry Nick’s hands off the wheel to get him to surrender it. Why he’d been so insistent, she had no idea, but when he started to bounce his left knee and hum Beatles music loudly and out of tune to stay awake, there was no way she was going to let him drive eight hours straight.

  Ahead, open highway rolled and stretched surrounded by green, tree-covered mountains. It was almost as interesting as the six-foot-plus, luscious-man-scenery dozing beside her.

  Sleep did something to a man. Especially this man, and whatever that was, she felt it clear down to her toes. Softened the edges, released the tension that normally held his jaw and brow taut. Watching his face assume a peaceful expression was mesmerizing…and dangerous.

  A sign should read Wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing. Danger!

  As if sensing her perusal, Nick startled and bolted upright in his seat. “Where are we?”

  “Whoa there.” She reached out to place her hand on his arm. Muscles tensed and flexed beneath her touch. The man was seriously on edge. It surprised Maddie how he could appear so calm on the outside, yet his insides were wound tight as a rubber band ready to snap.

  She glanced at her dashboard GPS and tried to sound cheery. “We’ll be there in only five more hours.”

  He sighed.

  “We don’t need to make small talk. If you’d like, we could invent more rules.”

  He burst out laughing. A low, spontaneous rumble. It sort of jarred her. The fact that she’d caused it made her feel strangely pleased.

  “How about we stop for a burger instead?” he asked.

  The idea of sinking her teeth into a warm juicy burger made her stomach tremble with anticipation. She’d been eating an awful lot of peanut butter after tossing so much of her own money at the company this past year.

  She paused as an old memory surfaced. “Remember the picnic we took to Spiders’ Cove that one summer?”

  Nick crossed his arms like maybe he was trying to hold the memories back, but cracked a smile. “With a name like that, we should’ve known better.”

  Madison waved her hand dismissively in the air. “Oh, we were young and adventurous. Hey, didn’t you need antibiotics for those spider bites on your butt?”

  “Ten days’ worth.”

  “All that sneaking around wasn’t worth it, huh?” She shouldn’t have said that. She didn’t need reassurance or proof that he’d once loved her.

  He paused so long she thought he wasn’t going to answer.

  “It was worth it.”

  Darned if her stupid heart didn’t do a flip-flop. Maddie’s face flamed with fire, and she forced herself to concentrate on driving.

  “Once my grandfather and your grandmother got wind of us dating, they did everything imaginable to stop us.” He stared out the window, deep in thought.

  “But we didn’t listen, did we?”

  They fell into silence. The ghost of old memories cast a pall Maddie was eager to erase. But this time she couldn’t find a ready quip to shrug it off.

  He seemed to sense the change in her mood. “Life’s a lot different than it was then.”

  He wasn’t kidding. She thought of her job, her dad, the impossible task ahead of her at the end of this road trip. Definitely not the carefree youth she’d remembered.

  “We were both idealistic,” Nick said. “Believed we could conquer the world. We didn’t understand that life has a way of changing your dreams.”

  “I still believe in dreams.”

  “What might those be?”

  Well, number one on her dream list was to enter her sexiest, sleekest, most glittery shoe design in Bergdorf’s national Get Your Shoe in the Door competition. Grand Prize was a one-year contract to appear in Bergdorf’s store—and a whole lot of attention. Just what Kingston Shoes needed.

  Maddie knew she was really, really good at drawing shoes. Translating that into 3-D was another story. But she wasn’t about to tell Nick any of that. “One of them is to end the feud. It’s gone on long enough, and too many people have been hurt.”

  “You always were an idealist. A fifty-year-old feud is not going to dissolve into thin air just because you want to get everyone on the same page.”

  He was too grounded in reality, too cynical and jaded. She mourned the hopeful, optimistic boy he once was. That person was far more likeable.

  The rain whooshed down again in avalanching sheets, and Maddie white-knuckled the wheel. The clatter of the rain hitting the car roof pitched to a deafening roar.

  “Maybe we should pull over?” Nick yelled over the din.

  Maddie nodded and hit the flashers. She searched through the suddenly foggy windows for a spot to pull over, but the shoulder of the road was filled with a river of rushing water.

  She didn’t see the scattered pieces of metal in the road until it was too late. The car rumbled over the obstacles, then spun out on the wet road as one or more tires popped and blew out.

  Maddie gripped the wheel hard. She managed to right the car and steer it to the side before it skittered along the gravel to a bumpy stop. The rear end of the Lexus smacked up against an iron guardrail, the only barrier between them and a pitching gully below. Suddenly the only sound was the rain that hammered the car like a volley of fireworks.

  And Maddie’s gasps for breath.

  Calm down, calm down. She didn’t want him to see her vulnerable.

  “Are you okay?” Nick didn’t wait for her answer. He reached over and closed his hands lightly around her arms, gently squeezing up and down, checking for something…injury, sprains, breaks?

  His bright eyes lit with concern. “Maddie, say something.”

  “I—I don’t know what just happened—” Don’t blather.

  Nick craned his head to see out the back, but the car windows were covered with ice-like sheets of rain, blurring everything outside into fuzzy hues of gray.

  “It looked like some kind of metal scraps scattered in the road,” she finally said. “I—I didn’t see them till too late. I’m so sorry.”

  “Whatever it was, you couldn’t have avoided it.”

  She was trembling, her tough demeanor all but crumbled. She bit down hard on her lip and blinked back tears. Please, God, not in front of him.

  He rubbed her arms up and down, as if he wanted to ease her anxiety. She didn’t dare meet his eyes for fear she’d do something really stupid like melt into his big embrace and hold on for dear life. His touch felt frighteningly good, firm yet amazingly gentle.

  “It’s okay,” he said in a calm, low voice. “We’re all right. That’s all that matters.”

  Tears leaked down her cheeks, and she swiped them away.

  “It’s just a car,” Nick said gently.

  “I’ve got to check the damage.” She placed her hand on the door handle.

  A strong but firm hand held her back. “Oh, no, you don’t. We’re staying right here and calling for help.”

  His commanding tone half irked her, but the other half was unbearably relieved he took charge.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked.

  “Honey, it takes more than a tumble on the side of the road to rough me up. How about you?”

  That little tw
ang was back, and it shot an excruciating sense of comfort through her. His left hand had moved automatically to her shoulder and began massaging, rubbing her tense muscles, ironing out the tension that had accumulated in her neck and upper back. “Fine. Just a little shaken up,” she said.

  A moment ago she had actively disliked him, but his magic fingers and soothing tone changed her mind. He was kind and gentle, and his touch both soothed and excited her. She was just a second away from leaning into him and begging for more when he removed his hand to tap his phone.

  Maddie looked around as best she could in the growing dusk, struggling to get it together. All she could see in the blur of the raindrops and the oncoming darkness were trees and mountains and highway. She tried to recall the last real exit she’d seen with gas and food and lodging, but it was so far back she couldn’t even remember.

  A sharp expletive cut the tense air and made her jump.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “No service. Let me see your phone.”

  She dug it out of her purse and passed it to him.

  Another expletive. “We’re out in the boonies with no reception.”

  Just to make things worse, her stomach growled.

  Nick tapped his watch. “Maybe the highway patrol will find us. Have you got a handkerchief?”

  She stared at him like he’d just walked out of the Old South, and cracked a slow smile. “Um, I must have left my hankie in my reticule,” she said in her best Charleston accent.

  “Sarcasm’s back. You must be okay.” In one quick movement, Nick peeled off his T-shirt and tossed it to her. “Here you go, ma’am.”

  Maddie caught the shirt and stifled a gasp. It was warm from his body heat and she could smell him, a heady mix of spicy cologne and his own particular scent, familiar and intoxicating. She had to restrain herself from holding it to her face and taking a whiff before she rolled down her window enough to stick out the shirt. Rain pelted the window and sprayed her arms and face before she could seal it closed.

  Now he was sitting there shirtless, checking his phone. His muscles were perfectly honed, smooth hills of contour wrapped in a tanned, lean package. Spectacular. No wonder every female in Philly wanted him. Dear God, she was getting turned on in the middle of a roadside emergency. This had to stop.