Perfect (Second Opportunities 2)

She was on her feet, running toward the cab of the closest truck when Zachary Benedict exploded from the Blazer, cutting around the rear of it and running straight toward her, blocking her path to help. Julie changed direction to avoid him, "PLEASE SOMEONE," she screamed, cutting across the snow in an effort to make it into the rest room and lock the door. Off to her left, she saw a truck door being flung open and a driver stepping down, frowning at the commotion; close behind her she heard Benedict's feet pounding into the snow. "HELP ME!" she yelled at the driver, and she glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Zachary Benedict scoop up a handful of snow.

A snowball hit her hard in the shoulder and she screamed as she ran, "STOP HIM! He's—"

Zachary Benedict's laughing shout a few feet behind her drowned out her words: "CUT IT OUT, Julie," he yelled at the same time he launched himself at her in a running tackle. "YOU'RE WAKING EVERYONE UP!"

Trying to drag in enough air to scream again, Julie twisted, landing underneath his sprawled body in the snow, the breath knocked out of her, her terrified blue eyes only inches from his enraged ones, his teeth clenched into a fake smile designed to fool the truck driver. Panting, Julie jerked her head aside to scream, just as he smashed a handful of wet snow onto her face. Choking and blinded, she heard his savage whisper as he caught her wrists and yanked them above her head. "I'll kill him if he comes any closer," he bit out, tightening his grip on her hands. "Damn you, is that what you want! Does someone have to die for you?"

Julie whimpered, unable to speak, and shook her head, her eyes clenched shut, unable to bear the sight of her captor, unable to endure knowing she'd come within a few feet of freedom, and all for nothing, for this—to end up on her back in the snow with his body crushing her, her hip throbbing from her deliberate fall from the Blazer. She heard his swift intake of breath, the furious urgency. "He's walking over here. Kiss me and make it look good, or he's dead!"

Before she could react, his mouth crushed down on hers. Julie's eyes flew open, her gaze riveting on the truck driver who was cautiously walking toward them, frowning as he tried to peer at their faces. "Goddammit, put your arms around me!"

His mouth was imprisoning hers, the gun in his pocket was jabbing into her stomach, but her wrists were free now. She could struggle, and very possibly, the truck driver with the jovial face beneath a black cap that said PETE on it would see that something was very wrong and come to her rescue.

And he would die.

Benedict had ordered her to put her arms around him and "make it look good." Like a puppet, Julie moved her leaden wrists from the snow and let them drop limply onto his shoulders, but she could not make herself do more than that.

* * *

Zack tasted her stiff lips beneath his; he felt her body, rigid as stone beneath his weight, and he assumed that she was trying to gather her strength for the next moment when she, with the help of three truck drivers, would put an end to his brief freedom and his life. From the corner of his eye, he saw the driver slow down, but he was still coming toward them, and his expression was growing increasingly cautious and skeptical. All this and more raced through Zack's mind in the space of the three seconds they lay there, pretending—unconvincingly—to kiss.

In a last helpless effort to stop the inevitable from happening to him, Zack dragged his mouth to her ear and whispered a single word he hadn't let himself use in years:

"Please!" Tightening his arms around the rigid woman, he said it again with a groaning urgency he couldn't suppress. "Please, Julie…"

Feeling as if the world had suddenly gone insane, Julie heard the plea wrench from her captor as if it were torn from his chest a moment before his lips seized hers and he said in a tormented whisper, "I didn't kill anyone, I swear it." The pleading and desperation she'd heard in his voice were eloquently alive in this kiss, and it accomplished what his threats and anger could not: It made Julie hesitate and waver; it made her believe that what she heard in his voice was truth.

Dazed by the confusing messages racing through her brain, she sacrificed her immediate future for the safety of a truck driver. Driven by the need to spare the man's life and by something less sensible and completely inexplicable, Julie blinked back tears of futility, slid her hands tentatively over Zachary Benedict's shoulders, and yielded to his kiss. The moment she did, he sensed her capitulation; a shudder ran through him and his lips gentled. Unaware of the footsteps crunching to a stop in the snow, Julie let him part her lips and of their own volition, her fingers curved around his neck, sliding into the soft, thick hair at his nape. She felt his swift, indrawn breath when she tentatively returned the kiss, and suddenly everything began to change. He was kissing her in earnest now, his hands shifting, sliding over her shoulders, and then burying in her wet hair, lifting her face closer to his hungry, searching mouth.

Somewhere far above her, a man's bewildered Texas drawl called out, "Lady, you need help or not?"

Julie heard him, and she tried to shake her head, but the mouth that was slanting fiercely over hers now had robbed her of the ability to speak. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew this was only a performance for the driver's benefit; she knew it as clearly as she knew she had no choice but to participate in the performance. But if that was true, then why couldn't she at least shake her head or open her eyes.

"I guess you don't," the Texas drawl said on a lewd chuckle. "How 'bout you, mister? You need any help with what you're doin'? I could spell you for a bit down there…"

Zack's head lifted just enough to break contact with her mouth, his words husky and soft. "Find your own woman," he joked with the driver. "This one is mine." The last word was breathed against Julie's lips before his mouth touched hers, his arms sweeping around her, his tongue sliding tentatively across her lips, urging them to part, his hips hard and demanding against hers. With a silent moan of surrender, Julie gave herself up to what became the hottest, sexiest, most insistent kiss she'd ever tasted.

Fifty yards away, a truck door opened and a new male voice called, "Hey, Pete, what's goin' on over yonder in the snow?"

"Hell, man, what does it look like? A couple of grown-ups is playin' at bein' kids, having snowball fights and neckin' in the snow."

"Looks to me like they're goin' to be makin' a kid if they don't slow down."

Perhaps it was the new male voice or the sudden realization that her captor was becoming physically aroused that snapped Julie into reality or perhaps it was the slamming of the truck door followed by the roar of an engine as the big semi began to pull away from the rest area. Whatever the cause, she put her hands against his shoulders and exerted pressure, but it took an unnatural effort for her to move, and her shove was puny at best. Panicked by her inexplicable lethargy, Julie shoved harder. "Stop it!" she cried softly. "Stop it. He's gone!"