Cindy Kirk – A Sweetheart for Jude Fortune (страница 9)

Gabi paused at the edge of the dance floor, leaning close to ensure he could hear her over the twang of the steel guitar. “My father’s house isn’t far so—”

“Hey, Jude.” A leggy redhead he’d dated last summer sidled up to him, her fingers traveling up his sleeve. “I got the band to promise they’d do the electric slide next. Told them it’s our song.”

“Sorry, Lissa.” He put his hand on the small of Gabi’s back. “We were just leaving.”

Gabi opened her mouth as if to protest, but he closed it with a brief, hard kiss.

His pretty Latina’s long lashes fluttered, and when he pulled back, she appeared slightly dazed.

“Oh.” Lissa frowned, her gaze shifting between Jude and Gabi. “I saw you dancing, but I didn’t realize you two were together, together.”

“We are. Great seeing you, Lis.” Without giving the redhead a chance to respond to his pronouncement, he took Gabi’s arm and propelled her out the front door.

Once they reached the sidewalk, Gabi dug in her heels. “Stay. Dance with your friend. My father’s house isn’t far. I can walk myself home.”

“Not alone.”

The flat quality to his voice must have raised red flags. Concern filled her eyes. “Isn’t it safe?”

“It’s not that.” No matter how much Jude wanted her to stay with him and not take off on her own, he refused to lie. “You’d be perfectly safe. The fact is, I’m not nearly ready for the night to end.”

“Oh,” she said, then again. “Oh.”

“Unless this is your way of saying it’s been fun but it’s time for me to get lost?”

Gabi slowly shook her head and the tight knot in his belly dissolved. She rested her hand on his biceps. “I enjoy being with you.”

“Good.” He tucked her fingers more firmly around his arm.

In no particular hurry, they strolled down the sidewalk, soon exchanging the noise and lights of the downtown district for an occasional barking dog. Still warm from the dancing, Jude let his coat hang open.

Gabi kept hers firmly cinched around her waist. Thin blood from the hot Florida weather, he decided.

Jude gently locked his fingers with hers. Their hands swung slightly between them as they walked. For a second, he could see his parents strolling down the lane in the evening after supper, holding hands in companionable silence.

He and his siblings had thought it strange. For the first time, though, he understood that contentment. Feeling the warmth of Gabi’s hand against his, seeing her face bathed in moonlight, he was happy sharing this moment with her, simply being with her.

They were almost to her father’s house when out of the corner of his eyes, he saw her lips twitch. “Something funny?”

“Just remembering my high school days.” She gave his hand a squeeze and smiled. “Back then my father would be waiting up for me with the porch light blazing.”

Her dad didn’t sound much different than the fathers of some of the girls he’d dated in high school. “I bet he’d miraculously appear on the porch just as you and your guy reached the steps.”

Your guy.

Jude didn’t like the sound of that, then reminded himself that while someone else may have been the first to kiss her, to caress, to make love with her...he would be the last.

“He wouldn’t immediately appear.” Gabi offered a wry smile. “Once the car hit the driveway, I had, oh, thirty seconds to get inside before the light began to flash. If I ignored that warning, he’d come outside.”

“Half a minute doesn’t give much chance to say good-night,” Jude observed.

“Any good-night kissing had to be done before I got home.” Gabi grinned then sobered. “Not that I dated all that much.”

“That surprises me.”

“Why?”

“You’re pretty,” he said honestly, knowing the word didn’t do justice to her beauty. Long, dark, wavy hair and big brown eyes. A slim, compact body with curves in all the right places. A smile that arrowed straight to his heart. “I’d have thought the boys would be flocking around.”

“Two words.” She exhaled a sigh and wiggled four fingers. “Older brothers.”

Jude thought of Stacey and Delaney. He and his brothers had considered it their mission to protect their sisters from predatory males. “I can relate.”

“I bet you can.” Gabi rolled her eyes. “Because of my brothers and my dad, most guys ended up dropping me off in front of our house and speeding away.”

Cowards, Jude thought with disgust. “I’d have insisted on walking you to the door.”

“Then you’re one in a million, Jude.”

“I’m happy you recognize my worth.” He shot her a wink as they climbed the stairs of her father’s porch. “Seriously, my brothers and I were taught it was our responsibility to see our dates safely to the door.”

When she stopped and turned back to him without opening the door, Jude’s heart slammed against his ribs. Stealing a quick kiss in the saloon was one thing. But with those unreadable dark eyes staring up at him now...

Jude had been dating since he was fifteen. So why did he feel as unsure as he had when he’d been about to kiss a girl for the first time? It made no sense. Other than Gabi was different and he didn’t want to screw up.

The air grew thick, so thick he had difficulty breathing. The world around them faded away. All that existed was her. All that mattered was her.

Take it slow. Don’t rush her.

The warning in his head stemmed from good, cold logic. She wasn’t going anywhere, at least not soon. Her father had only recently been moved to rehab. They had plenty of time to build a relationship. For her to see, to accept, to embrace that he was her future husband.

Yes, he decided, he should take a step back. He’d been impulsive in the saloon. He needed to keep his desire for her under tighter control. There would be other opportunities, other nights for another kiss. A lifetime.

Dropping hands to his side, Jude kept his gaze on her eyes and away from those luscious lips. “I had a good time tonight.”

Something that looked like disappointment flashed in her eyes. Her brows pulled together. “Do you have something against kissing?”

He stared, nonplussed. “No. Do you?”

“Not if I like the guy.” She gave him a long stare that fried every brain cell he possessed. “Not if he likes me.”

“I like you.” The second the words left his lips, Jude realized he had reverted back to his teenage self. Except he’d never been this lame.

“Happy to hear it.” Her arms wound around his neck. “For a second I wondered if I’d lost my appeal.”

“Oh, darlin’.” Jude wanted so much to pull her close, to fit her hips against his. He settled for resting his hands on her shoulders. “That’s never going to happen. But I don’t want to rush you.”

“You kissed me in the saloon,” she reminded him.

“Impulse.” He shook his head. “Not very gentlemanly.”

“I believe—” She brought a finger to her lips and pretended to consider. “No, I’m certain. Being a gentleman is highly overrated.”

Jude brushed a strand of hair back from her cheek with the back of his hand. “I doubt Orlando Mendoza would agree with that sentiment.”

She laughed, a silver tinkle of a sound that relaxed the tight muscles in his shoulders.

“True.” She gazed up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “But he’s not here, is he? Besides, I make my own decisions.”

She was right. What her father wanted didn’t matter. With the moon illuminating her face, her eyes shining, all that mattered was her and him and the moment.

Jude lowered his mouth and touched her lips with his. She tasted like spearmint candy. He loved spearmint. He moved his hands down her arms then settled them on her waist.

“I like you, Gabi.” He let the word hum between them. Her brown eyes darkened to black in the dimness, but he didn’t need light to read her expression. Leaning over, he kissed the base of her jaw.

She brushed her lips against his cheek.

“I like you a lot,” he murmured, twining strands of her hair loosely around his fingers.

“Jude.” She spoke his name then paused, as if not sure what she wanted to say.

When her gaze met his, their eye contact turned into something more, a tangible connection between the two of them. Time seemed to stretch and extend.

Then she ran her hands up the front of his coat and leaned toward him.

He made a sound low in his throat then folded her more fully into his arms, anchoring her against his chest as his mouth covered hers. His hand flattened on her lower back, drawing her more tightly against the length of him.

He loved the way she smelled, an intoxicatingly sweet mixture of perfume and soap. Loved the way she tasted. Spearmint.