“We could stay here,” he said, tempting her even more.
She swallowed hard. “And definitely risk getting caught.” Suddenly taking that convertible ride sounded even more appealing.
She scooted around him and poked through the drawers for a bra and shirt, then grabbed jeans from the closet. “Be out in a sec,” she promised, closing herself in the bathroom.
Ten minutes later, they drove through the gates and into the muggy night air. A cool breeze didn’t lessen the high humidity but Sophie didn’t mind.
She was in a vintage convertible, Riley by her side and her problems back home in New York. How could she complain about that?
He drove down a dark stretch of road, made a sharp right and suddenly a school came into view.
“Is this your high school?” Sophie asked, glancing at his profile.
He nodded. “Brandon High,” he said, laughing. “And that field over there?” He gestured with a wave of his hand to the football field, complete with electronic scoreboard. “Riley Nash Field.”
She squinted, unable to read the writing on the sign. “You lie.”
He laughed. “Yeah. But they should name that place after me. I scored enough goals to earn it,” he said with a grin.
“Your lack of modesty is unbelievable.” But it was one of the things she admired about him.
His faith in himself was probably one of the traits that made him such a solid, dependable team player. He hadn’t let Spencer’s rejection hold him back. If anything, his birth father’s absence drove Riley to push himself harder.
She remembered how easily he called the senator Dad. The word rolled naturally off his tongue. Riley clearly had a solid support system here at home, one filled with love and affection. Her heart squeezed tight for Spencer, yet she couldn’t stop the feeling of gratitude she felt toward Harlan for raising Riley without prejudice over the lack of common blood between them.
He drove past the school and soon they entered the small center of town. “I thought we’d grab some DQ before we went parking.”
“DQ,” she repeated. “Dairy Queen?”
He nodded. “You pampered city girls don’t know the first thing about good ice cream.” He pulled alongside a drive-through window. “What would you like?”
Sophie leaned back against the car seat. “Since you claim to be the ice-cream connoisseur, why don’t you go ahead and order for both of us?”
“Two vanilla cones dipped in chocolate,” he said. Then he turned back to her. “I’m going to go with the classic, so you can get a real feel.”
He paid and took the cones, handing them to her while he drove the quick few minutes back to the school. He pulled into the dark parking lot and shut off the engine.
She handed him his cone. “So what’s with the hard topping?”
“Is there another way to have hot fudge or caramel on a cone?” he asked, a teasing note to his voice.
Sophie laughed. “Guess not.” She bit into the cone, knowing the pieces could fall all over her and were likely to stain. “Delicious,” she said through a mouthful.
They ate in comfortable silence. Sophie didn’t want to break the mood by asking too many questions, so she remained quiet, enjoying Riley’s company.
“How are your mother and the senator handling the news about Spencer?” she asked when she couldn’t hold back anymore.
He shrugged, licking the last of the ice cream off his bottom lip. She tried not to stare, but he looked so darn sexy sitting in the convertible, eating his treat and staring as if he wanted to devour her the same way he’d consumed his ice cream.
“I wouldn’t know,” he said at last. “I haven’t had five minutes alone with either one of them since I arrived. Either Harlan’s sending my mother off to take care of Lizzie or she’s out giving you a tour of the town. And he’s not making time for idle chitchat either. All he talks about is politics when we’re alone. I think they’re both trying to avoid the subject.”
“Does that bother you?” She rolled her used napkin into a ball and tucked it into the car’s ashtray.
“It makes me think they knew about Spencer all along and don’t want to have to answer my questions. Why else avoid conversation?” As he spoke, he stretched one arm over her seat.
Unable to stop herself, she reached out so her fingertips touched his. “Makes sense. I’m sorry you have to go through all of this.”
He let out a groan. “It’s an odd thing. Sometimes everything about Spencer and the situation feels like it’s happening to someone else and I shouldn’t be affected at all.”
“But you are affected. He’s your biological parent and you have questions you want answered. And you have the right to those answers,” she said, defending his feelings.
“Thank you for saying that.” He tipped his head toward her.
Sophie leaned in closer, meeting him halfway across the console of the car, until their lips touched and lingered. Her mouth had been frozen from the ice cream, but as soon as their tongues met, warmth replaced the cold and heat surged through her body. Suddenly the light caress wasn’t enough. She wanted to crawl into his lap and wrap herself around him until she didn’t know where she ended and he began.
The need he inspired was unlike any she’d felt before. She doubted she’d ever feel anything like it again. Reaching out, she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him closer, angling his head so she could taste him even more.
Desire pummeled at Riley. He loved kissing Sophie, making love to her with his mouth, mimicking exactly what he wanted to do to her with his body. From the erotic purrs escaping the back of her throat, Sophie wanted the exact same things.
He wrapped one hand around her waist, but short of physically climbing over the center divider, there was no way he could get as close to Sophie as he needed to be.
Frustration filled him. He leaned back against the car seat and groaned.
She rolled her head to the side. “I thought you said parking was fun.” Her eyes glinted with a teasing light.
He managed a laugh. “Are you telling me that wasn’t fun?”
“It was fun.” Her smile gave his heart rate another boost. “You just never mentioned how much torture parking would be.”
“That’s because I didn’t remember it being quite so bad.” Then again, he’d never had this woman sitting in the passenger seat beside him, ready and willing.
Suddenly he remembered his parents using this car for family picnics. They’d always used an old blanket his father kept in the trunk.
“Wait here.” He climbed out of the car and walked back to the trunk. He held his breath as he looked inside and exhaled a huge sigh of relief.
Sophie slammed the passenger door shut and joined him as he pulled out the old blanket. “What’s going on?” she asked.
He propped a hip against the car. “Just how frustrated are you?” he asked, his tone rougher than he’d intended.
“Well, I don’t know. You’ve already managed to get me to go parasailing, to come to Mississippi, to leave my comfortable bed and go parking. What else did you have in mind?” Her blue eyes twinkled with curiosity and more.
He reached out and stroked her cheek. “I want to make love to you right here, right now.”
She gnawed on her lower lip. “Where?”
“Over there.” On the field that held so many other memories for him. “Well?”
Her eagerness was almost tangible as she shifted from foot to foot. Just like in Florida, the uptight Sophie who needed control as badly as she needed to breathe was nowhere in sight. But something was definitely wrong. Though her flushed cheeks told him she wanted to be with him, too, she still hesitated.
He waited, giving her the moment she obviously needed.
“I just want to make sure we both understand the ground rules,” she said at last.
He bit the inside of his cheek. “Now that sounds like the Sophie I know-” He’d been about to add, and love.