Hot Item (Hot Zone 3)

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.