Free Touch Slowly (Red Light: Silver Girls series) by Debra Kayn Page A

date."
    "A date?"
    "Sure." She checked the time on her phone again. Whatever he wanted to call tonight's change of plans was okay with her.
    Emmett put the car in reverse. Nova relaxed in the seat knowing she wasn't going to have to spend a few hours wandering the town in the dark under the radar of everyone. She glanced at Emmett and studied him.
    Besides his dick move tonight over mentioning the money she put in Shayla's room and embarrassing Nick with the assumption he couldn't support his family, Emmett had come in useful every time she'd been around him.
    "Are you sure a bar will have coffee to go?" he asked.
    "Absolutely." She rolled down the window a few inches. "I've worked in three bars, and a coffee pot was always kept hot by this time of night. Not only for the drunks who had to sober up before we handed back their keys but for the employees to keep their energy level going strong until closing."
    "You worked in bars and then started work with some big wig art dealer?" He pulled to the curb in front of an older brick and blue building with a tower. The sign read 'Rail Point Bar'. "How'd that step up happen?"
    "How do you think?" She sighed. "Sorry. Stroke of luck, you could say."
    Emmett growled under his breath, set her money on the dash of his car, and exited the 'Cuda. She leaned into the driver's seat and watched his progress to the front door of the bar. His solid stride never wavered. She bit her lip. He had a butt. An actual handful.
    In a world where most men never had enough oomph in their swagger, Emmett packed a pair of jeans that made women look and appreciate.
    She sank back on the seat and crossed her legs. The lies kept coming.
    Every time Emmett asked her a question, she rattled false information off like a pro. She wasn't a liar. Well, not normally. Actually, not ever.
    Sure, she skirted the truth. She snuck around her whole life. She tricked, joked, and had a temper. Occasionally, she even sought revenge.
    But, she wasn't a liar until she came to Federal and she met Emmett. He was a decent man from what she could tell. One of those men who worked hard and took pride in what little he had, and as he'd shown her each time they were together, he respected women. She'd even go so far as to assume he'd protect all women, not only her.
    God, she was so screwed.

Chapter Nine
    T he soothing sound of rushing water over the rocks in the river filled the car through the opened windows. Emmett stood outside the 'Cuda now that the rain had taken a break. For the first time in days, he felt like he could sleep. Except, sleep was the last thing on his mind.
    The beautiful woman with her feet propped up on his side-view mirror with the passenger seat tilted back a fraction to gaze out at the cloud-darkened sky kept him alert and hard. The pulsing need coursing through his body to find out how she kissed, how she touched, how she moved against his body kept him close to her.
    She'd called tonight a date.
    He never dated.
    He hooked up with women when he needed sex.
    With Nova, he had no idea what she wanted from him. She hadn't touched him, except to put money in his hand. Her questions to him remained generic, nothing personal. She even kept her voice real and matter of fact, not flirty or irritatingly fake.
    He decided to push her a little more out of her comfort zone and moved to the inside of the open car door facing her.
    Her gaze lowered to his face and she smiled. "The sky is the biggest canvas in the world. If only I could touch it, I'd never run out of room. I could paint every idea that came into my head."
    "What would you paint?" He laid his arm over the frame of the door, crossed his ankles, and leaned back.
    "I don't know." Her eyes glowed under the moonlight. "It's been a long time since I've been inspired to pick up a can of spray paint."
    He found the statement odd coming from a woman in her mid-twenties. An activity that fulfilled teenagers' weekends, painting graffiti across the town was a phase