You're Still the One by Annabel Jacobs Read Free Book Online

torturous images that had seared his brain moments before, Rick knew she still owned that tiny place inside him. He hated that little revelation, but he couldn't ignore the fact that she might also be in danger. So much for avoiding his past.

 
    CHAPTER 3
     
                  Arousal fired little points along her nerves. Rick had nearly kissed her. Even now, hours later on the return trip to Oklahoma City from Davis, that thought hammered through Katie's mind. With every pulsing sense in her, she wished he had.
                  Thank goodness he hadn't.
                  Smoky midnight swirled around them. Phil Collins crooned on Rick's state-of-the-art car stereo. Katie ran a hand over the Corvette's buttery soft tan leather seat, not surprised that Rick drove such a speedster. He'd always said he had a need for speed. As they travelled north on I-35, leaving behind the south side of Oklahoma City, lights from the highway and roadside businesses flashed by in a blur. For the late hour, there was still a fair amount of traffic.
                  She glanced over her shoulder, as she had every couple of minutes since they'd lost the tail outside her nieghborhood a few hours ago.
                  It wasn't the dread of seeing another car following them that had her nerves feeling raw and exposed. It wasn't the compact space and tight lines of the Corvette's interior that made her feel...cornered. Or the fact that Rick had barely spoken since they'd left Tommy's parents. It was the way Rick's body heat formed a wall against her arm, the way his dark, rich scent stroked her senses.
                  It was the fact that she couldn't stop thinking about that split second in the hallway when memories had crashed over both of them, when naked hunger had tautened Rick's features.
                  Only he had ever looked at her that way. Other men had said they wanted her, but none of them had ever looked at her as if they had to have her. For that one heartbeat of time, she'd wanted to fall into his arms, call back what they'd shared. And that was dangerous.
                  She was no more willing to give up her independence now than she had been in college. At fourteen, she'd been handling responsibilities most women didn't handle until they were twenty-one, and she wasn't going to give that up. Couldn't, really.
                  The truth was she'd never gotten close to any man, until Rick. Or since Rick, she thought ruefully, starting over her shoulder again.
                  Her gaze shifted to his chiseled profiled then dropped to his mouth. During their trip to Davis and the visit with Tommy's parents, she'd managed to dodge thoughts of that near kiss. But now...
                  Her nerves were shot, and she'd been in Rick's company less than twelve hours. Again she turned, searching the play of shadow and streetlights for a car that might have been behind them too long.
                  "I can't believe I was really being followed," she murmured, wishing she weren't so aware of his lean fingers on the steering wheel, the broad hand that rested on his jeans-clad  thigh.
                  He changed lanes, a smile in his voice. "If you're going to look for a tail, it's best if you aren't too obvious."
                  "Oh." She faced front.
                  "Keep an eye out either by looking in your rear view or your side mirror."
                  Her gaze sliced to the right. Illuminated by the high-powered roadside lighting, the side mirror showed a beat-up pickup pulling a horse trailer and following some distance behind. A sporty red car passed them on the left.
                  "Maybe you could teach me some things. I mean, about how to spot a tail and how to lose one."
                  "Sure." Was it her imagination or did his