The Texan's Tiny Secret

She snorted as she darted past him to pull down the shade over the window above the kitchen sink. “Worse. And if she finds out the governor’s at my house, she’ll be on the phone telling all her friends. Wouldn’t surprise me if she herded them all over to ask for your autograph.”

He lifted a shoulder. “I’d be happy to give all your neighbors my autograph.”

She sent him a withering look as she headed down a hall.

Shaking his head, Gil followed. “Are you going to pull every shade in the house?”

“You’re darn right I am.” In the living room she dropped a knee onto the sofa and stretched to grab the shade that partially covered the window behind it. She froze, then leaned over the back of the sofa to peer outside. “Oh, no,” she moaned.

Gil crossed to stand behind her, stooping to see what had disturbed her. “What is it?”

She grabbed the string and jerked down the shade. “Not what. Who!”

Not having seen anything out of the ordinary, he straightened. “Who, then?”

She pushed from the sofa and stood, wringing her hands as she stared at the front door, as if she expected it to burst open at any moment. “Reporters.”

“Reporters?” Gil moved to the end of the sofa and lifted the shade a fraction to peer outside. He glanced over his shoulder. “You mean those guys in that black sedan across the street?”

She gulped, then nodded.

He laughed and dropped the shade. “They aren’t reporters. They’re my bodyguards. Although Dave acts like an overprotective father at times.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure I’m sure.” He opened the door and shouted. “Hey, Dave! Show this lady your ID.”

The man behind the wheel lifted a hip, pulled out his wallet and flipped it open. Sunshine glinted off a silver badge he held out the open window. Gil glanced over at Suzy who had joined him at the door. “Satisfied?”

“They go everywhere you go?”

“Yeah,” he said as he closed the door. “Well, not everywhere,” he amended. “I am allowed to go to the rest room alone.”

Suzy glanced up in surprise, then sputtered a laugh when she saw the teasing in his eyes. “Well, it’s good to know that at least some things in life are still sacred.”

“Do that again.”

Her laughter dried up in her throat as she watched the amusement in his eyes soften to wonder. She took a nervous step back. “Do what?”

“Laugh.” He caught her arm and turned her around to face him, holding her in place by her elbows. “I like the sound of it.”

Heat from his hands radiated up her arms, setting off warning bells in her head. Though she knew she should send him packing, she found she couldn’t move. But it wasn’t his strength that held her in place, though she could feel the power in the hands that gripped her. It was something in his eyes. A warmth. A gentleness. And something in his voice. Warmth again. And a huskiness that made her toes curl inside her tennis shoes.

He touched a finger to the corner of her eye, and a slight smile curved his mouth. “And I like what it does to your face. It softens your features. Makes you seem friendlier, more approachable.”

He drew the tips of his fingers along her cheek, and a shiver chased down her spine. “What…are you doing?”

“Touching you. Is that okay?”

Before she could reply, he placed a thumb against her lips and smoothed it along the crease. Another shiver chased down her spine as he slipped his hand around to cup the back of her neck. Her eyes riveted on his, her pulse thrumming, she watched the blue in his eyes darken, turn molten.

“I’m going to kiss you, Suzy,” he said quietly.

Even as he offered the warning, he was lowering his face to hers.

And Suzy, God help her, was pushing to her toes to meet him halfway.

Two

Suzy knew one thing for sure.

Gil Riley sure as heck wasn’t gay.

No man could kiss a woman like this and be anything but totally heterosexual. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move.

Well, maybe she could move, she decided belatedly and lifted her arms to loop them around his neck. The change in position brought him a step closer, his chest chafing against her breasts, his arms winding around her waist. With a skill that sent her blood racing, he teased her lips apart with gentle flicks of his tongue.

And forced her to add a new item to the governor’s already lengthy résumé: master seducer.

He’s good, she thought, giving herself up to the sensual rock of his mouth over hers, the erotic play of his tongue. Maybe too good, she thought with a shiver. Mesmerized by the pillowed softness of his lips, the commanding pressure of his mouth, she was only distantly aware of him sliding his hands from her waist to splay them across her buttocks. But when he tugged her up against him, she forgot about his mouth and the seductive lure of his lips, her attention snagged by the hard column of the erection nudging her abdomen. Alarm bells clanged in her head.

What are you doing! What is he doing! You don’t need this kind of trouble. Get rid of him. Tell him to get lost. Toss him out the door on his ear!

She intended to heed the warnings. She really did! And would have, if he hadn’t, at that moment, dug his fingers into her buttocks and lifted her, dragging her body up the length of his, until their groins were flush, their mouths perfectly aligned. With her held tightly against him, he deepened the kiss, softened it, then deepened it again, sending her pulse tripping, her mind reeling…and her good intentions skipping straight down the proverbial road to hell.

As he spun the kiss out, his tongue tangling with hers in an erotic dance for dominance, she lost all sense of time, all sense of place, all sense of self. She felt as if she were caught in the eye of one of Texas’s famous twisters, her body battered by a constant barrage of sensations and emotions, her mind stripped bare of all thought and reason.

She wanted this man, she realized with a suddenness that made her heart stumble a beat. More than she’d ever wanted any man before, she wanted Gil Riley. But even as her mind registered this need, he tightened his arms around her, all but squeezing what was left of the breath from her lungs. A groan rose from deep in his throat, and she sensed the regret in the sound, felt it as he eased his hold on her and let her slide back down his body, tasted it as he slowly dragged his mouth from hers.

Weakened, she braced her hands against his chest and drew in a shaky breath, telling herself that it was her imagination, that his kiss hadn’t held the power, the perfection that her mind insisted on attributing to it. But when she opened her eyes and met his gaze, saw the heat there, the same surprise and passion that clouded her own, she knew she was in trouble.

He touched a finger to the moisture he’d left on her lips, and a smile curved one side of his mouth. “You’re one hell of a kisser, Just Suzy.”

And so was he, she thought, gulping. Before she gave in to the temptation to throw herself back into his arms for a second go at him, she inhaled deeply, drawing in the oxygen she needed to clear her head, steady her pulse and ease from his embrace. “You’re not too shabby a kisser, yourself, guv.”

He laughed and the masculine sound filled the room and vibrated through her, filling her with an unexpected sense of longing and regret she couldn’t even begin to explain.

“I like you, Suzy.”

Because she was afraid that she was beginning to like him, too, she turned away. “So you’ve said.”

“My life isn’t my own right now, but I’d like to spend what free time I can manage with you.”

She closed her eyes, digging deep for the strength, the flippancy she needed to send him on his way. Plucking a pillow from the sofa, she slapped a hand against it, fluffing it. “Sorry, guv, but my dance card is pretty full.”

“There’s a private reception Friday night to dedicate a new children’s wing at one of the local hospitals. Will you go with me?”

She dropped the pillow back to the sofa and turned, a brow arched in question. “This Friday?” At his nod, she lifted her hands. “Sorry. I’ve already got plans.”