stood, and both Grace and Sooner flanked her. “If you don’t want to help out, that’s fine. But spare me the lectures on goodwill. My charitable attitude died a long time ago.”
She turned away and the dogs followed, forming a small parade. Harry felt abandoned and left his seat to hurry after them. Since his legs were so long, he only had to hurry for two steps. “Where are you going?”
“To call a cab. It’s time for me to head home.”
“Charlie.” He caught her arm and turned her back around to face him. But she looked up at him, and her face was so innocent, despite her bravado, her eyes dark and searching, he felt that damn tender feeling swell up again. It seemed to explode inside him, filling him up, choking him when he hadn’t even touched his cursed coffee.
He released her and backed up. The dogs frowned at him, but with the facts of her parentage dropped at his feet, all carnal tendencies would have to be forgotten. He couldn’t see her as a sexual being, as a woman he wanted so badly his muscles ached. No, she was the daughter of his friend, a man who’d always been like a father figure to Harry. Touching her would mean betraying Dalton, and he couldn’t do that.
Charlie was definitely off-limits.
That little truism annoyed his libido and gnawed at his control, but he stiffened his resolve.
He shook his head, verifying to himself, if not to her, that he couldn’t, wouldn’t, be tempted. Not now. “I’ll drive you home. You can’t very well get into a cab alone this time of night, especially not dressed like that.”
She summoned a look of such scorn, he felt his ears burn. “I know how to take care of myself, Harry. I’ve been doing it most of my life. You can rest easy. Your duty is over.”
He looked down his nose at her, being deliberately intimidating, which sent the dogs slinking off, though the effect on her seemed minimal. “Your shoulders are too narrow to support such an enormous chip, Charlie. No, don’t flog me with your insults. I am taking you home and that’s all there is to it. Since I’m of a greater size, and you’re rather piddling in comparison, it stands to reason I’m more capable of carrying through with any threats, veiled or otherwise. It’ll be better for both of us if whatever you’re thinking remains unsaid.”
She rolled her eyes. “Half the time, Harry, I have no idea what the hell you’re saying.”
“And…,” he added, knowing he was jumping into a muddy creek when he had no idea how deep it might be, “I will check into things for you.”
There, he’d committed himself. But even as he’d reluctantly uttered the ill-fated words, Harry wondered what else he could possibly have done. He couldn’t just let her leave; Dalton would never forgive him. He’d looked for his children, spent a small fortune on the chore, for a great many years. Now here was his daughter, despising Dalton without knowing him, resenting him on hearsay, condemning him without knowing all the details, and Harry had the chance to find out where she lived, to assure Dalton that his daughters were alive and thriving.
He thought of everything at stake, and added softly, “Please, Charlie.”
It was the “please” that did it, causing the rigidity in her shoulders to relax, her attitude to soften enough that she could agree. “Oh, all right,” she muttered, without an ounce of feigned graciousness. “I suppose it doesn’t make sense to give up what I want just because I’m pissed off.”
She was certainly direct. “Ah…exactly.” He retrieved her jeans and found her another jacket to keep her warm on the ride to her place. They both said goodbye to the dogs, who wanted badly to go along but Harry explained to them there wasn’t room. “Just guard the place until I come home.”
The dogs went back to sleeping in their self-appointed spots.
Ted was nowhere to be found.
“He sulks when it’s dark,” Harry explained, “because more than anything, he likes lazing around in the sunshine. When there is none, Ted hides. Which is good, because when he doesn’t hide, he makes his discontent known to everyone.”
Charlie gave him a soft, feminine look that took him completely off-guard. “You’re very good to them, Harry.”
He didn’t like that look, didn’t want her thinking soft, feminine things about him, not when he couldn’t do anything about it. So he hustled her out to the parking garage where he kept his car before temptation could get the better of him, or before she could start disagreeing with him again. She truly was a most contrary woman.
He worried about her being barefoot, but he certainly had no shoes that would stay on her small feet, and she’d disdained the socks he offered her. Luckily, the complex was kept tidy, with nothing strewn about the grounds to injure her tender skin. No broken glass or debris.
She had very cute feet.
“You know, Harry, I figured you’d left your car at the grocery today.”
Distracted from her pink toes—hardly a source of sexual stimulation, even if his body tended to disagree—he looked up at her and made a face. “My car wouldn’t have survived three minutes parked at that curb. I took a taxi. What about you?”
“The bus. Cabs are a little out of my price range.”
As he stopped next to his car, a shiny black Jaguar convertible, she dug in her bare heels, stiffened up again, and whistled low. “These are your wheels?”
“Yes.” He noticed her horrified expression and patiently asked, “Now what’s the problem?”
She turned to him, beautiful blue eyes wide, jaw dropped. “I can’t afford you! First that luxury town house, and now this. You must make a killing as a P.I. to afford this car. I mean, these suckers go for over fifty grand a pop!”
Her phraseology alternately amused and irritated him, but her meaning was always quite clear. After another heartfelt sigh, Harry opened the door and practically thrust her inside. “Put on your seat belt.” He closed the door, circled the car and slid behind the wheel.
Her frown was ferocious. “I mean it, Harry. We need to reevaluate here. I thought it’d cost a few hundred bucks at the most to get your help. I had no idea—”
The car started with a throaty purr. “I’m not charging you, Charlie.”
He was in the middle of backing up when she opened her car door and literally leaped out. He slammed on the brakes. “What in the name of—”
She leaned in and growled across the seat, “I don’t take charity, Harry Lonnigan!” He opened his mouth, and she said, “And before you bother sighing again, let me tell you, this is not negotiable!”
Since Harry had lost all semblance of patience, he barked, “Fine. Have it your way. But a few hundred will more than cover it, so get your sweet little posterior back in the damn car!” He ended on a shout, and shouting was something Harry had seldom done since his divorce. He liked it that way, liked his life calm and orderly, dished up to his specific design, without interruptions and disturbances and ill-mannered females throwing things into a whirlwind and stirring up unaccountable lust.
He sucked in a deep breath, sought for lost control, and continued in a forced icy-polite tone, “I have inherited money from my father, and that’s how I bought the car. Now, will you please quit making a spectacle of yourself and let me drive you home?”
She gingerly reseated herself, as if the leather seat could bite her. She also looked around the garage, then snorted at him. “I can hardly be a spectacle when there’s no one here to see.”
“I’m here, and your show is beyond distressing. A little decorum wouldn’t kill you, you know.”
She relatched her seat belt, then waited until they’d entered the nearly abandoned roadway before saying, “So you come from a rich family, huh? I could have guessed that.”
Harry