“I said no such thing,” he shot back with force, making her jump. “How can you imagine for a second I think you’re an emotional simpleton? You’re smart as a whip and courageous as hell. Look at what you’re doing, testifying against McClarin despite every obstacle being thrown in your path? Most people who have far less at stake than you do would never put themselves on the line like that.”
She glanced at him, her mouth sagging open.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he demanded sharply, seemingly as aghast by her incredulous reaction as she was by his passionate declaration.
“Because I didn’t know you thought those things of me.”
“Jesus, Gia. I can’t keep my damn hands off you. Do you think that’s all because you’ve got a pretty face and phenomenal body? I see gorgeous women every fucking day,” he said, his deep, rough voice pressured and beleaguered.
“Well, I’m so sorry to be such a distracting . . .” She fumbled for the right word. “Nuisance. You’re sort of a nuisance yourself, you know,” she added under her breath.
She listened to her heart throbbing in her ears in the strained silence that followed.
She reached for the control button on the radio and turned up the volume on a pop song. From the corner of her vision, she saw him open his mouth as if to say something, but then he seemed to think better of it. Instead, he picked up his cell phone and resumed checking his messages.
Gia wondered furiously if the atmosphere inside the SUV could spawn lightning.
Nine
They stopped at a roadside gas station and restaurant for breakfast three hours past Oklahoma City. Gia was feeling prickly and edgy, but not for the same reason she had been in the early morning hours when she and Seth had argued. Well, not argued, really. Disagreed.
Heatedly.
Her edginess now came from what had happened before they got to the restaurant. In short, Seth had gotten her into full disguise again, and that process was always a trial on her senses.
“So when we get to this house, what are we going to do?” Gia asked him as she spread some jam on her toast. She paused in her actions when she met his stare. Instead of looking grubby and sweaty as she did—after nearly twenty-four hours without a shower, wearing a hot, itchy wig and constrictive binder—Seth looked rugged and a little dangerous. His jaw was shadowed with whiskers, and his amber eyes seemed to glow in his swarthy face. His longish, smooth hair was made for road trips, looking best when swept back from his face in finger-combed carelessness. She scowled at the appealing sight of him and shoved a corner of the toast into her mouth.
He shrugged and picked up his coffee. She’d learned already that he didn’t hold the handle of a coffee cup, but instead gripped the whole thing in his large hand. She found the habit extremely sexy, which only amplified her current annoyance.
“I think we should stay in as much as possible. And it’s not like there’s much to do around Vulture’s Canyon anyway. As long as you’re in full makeup and character, we can go out now and then. If that’s what you want,” he added very quietly.
She realized she was staring at him, thinking about what he’d said after they’d given in to their feverish libidos in that parking lot outside of Amarillo.
I can’t imagine not touching you, now that I have.
Ever since their disagreement on the road, Seth certainly hadn’t touched her. Gia wasn’t sure if he even wanted to proceed with his suggestion that they carry out a sexual affair while hiding out from the world in the forest. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. He took a sip of his coffee, holding her stare over the rim of the cup.
“Do you want to test out your role on someone?” he asked, setting down his coffee cup.
Gia blinked. “Who?”
“Rill and Katie Pierce live close by to where we’ll be staying. If Katie knows we’re there, she’ll probably extend an invitation.”
“And you think it would be okay for us to go?”
Something about his certainty when he nodded made her realize he’d thought about it. “Yeah. I trust Rill and Katie completely. I’d have to tell Katie not to say anything about this plan to Joy though. Joy and Everett are in Mexico right now. If they talked, I wouldn’t want Joy to actually believe she had a half brother.” He paused, his flickering gaze over her face made her go still in awareness. “You said that you’d seen Rill do a presentation at UCLA. Did you ever meet him in person then, or have you met him since?”
“No. His scholarship recipients were supposed to meet with him after he spoke, but he was called away on some emergency.”
“So it’ll be a good acting challenge for you, won’t it? To see if you can fool Rill and Katie?”
“Don’t you think they’ll be insulted when they eventually find out the truth about us tricking them?”
“I don’t think so. Not if we explain. But we don’t have to see them if you don’t want,” Seth shrugged. “It was just a thought. I can think of plenty of other things I’d rather do,” he said frankly. The sunglasses she wore didn’t provide any protection from the lancing quality of his stare. She felt herself going warm beneath it. Her chewing slowed. “I was just thinking about how you hate being confined. Have you been thinking about what I suggested?” he added so quietly, for a few seconds she thought she had misunderstood him.
“What?” she asked, although her prickling skin warned her of what he meant.
He didn’t respond, his answer clear in his heavy-lidded stare, despite his impassive expression. She looked unseeingly at her half-eaten bowl of oatmeal.