Free Last Virgin In California (Mills & Boon Desire) by Maureen Child Page B

mind. We’ll go to my apartment first. Get you dried off before you get pneumonia.” Damn. Even he didn’t believe him. But he had to say something. Engaged or not. Colonel’s daughter or not. He wasn’t ready yet to take her back.
    So he’d torture himself just a bit longer by taking her to his place.
    “That’s probably a good idea,” she said and her voice reached down into the depths of his soul and warmed him through.
    Dammit.
    “No,” he said, keeping his tightfisted grip on a steering wheel that somehow kept from shattering, “it’s probably a lousy idea. But I’m not taking you home dripping wet, either.”
    “Sounds smart to me.” Easing back into the car seat, she kept her gaze locked on the passenger-side window until he pulled into the driveway of the duplex he rented from Mrs. Osborne. Nosiest woman on the planet.
    This should just make her week.
    Him showing up with a soaking wet woman.
    No help for it, though.
    “I kind of expected something a little more red, white and bluey,” she said. “Or maybe khaki.”
    “I don’t own it,” he said. “I just rent the back apartment.”
    He barely glanced at the single story, white wood-framedbungalow. But he knew what she was seeing. A small place, with green shutters and two emerald-green doors. Mrs. Osborne was proud of her Irish heritage and didn’t mind showing it off at every opportunity.
    “It suits me,” he said simply, not bothering to tell her that it gave him a break from the world that was his life. He loved the Corps, couldn’t imagine living any other kind of life, but at the same time, he enjoyed having a home off base. “Come on.”
    He hopped out of the car and walked around to her side. Before he got there though, she had the door open and was climbing out. He told himself not to glance down at her white shirt, still wet in patches that seemed to be strategically placed to drive him insane. His gaze dropped anyway though and his body went hard and tight.
    Kevin swallowed a groan and ground his back teeth together. This was asking for trouble, he knew. Being alone with her right now was definitely not a good idea. He was hanging on to his self-control by a ragged thread that was disintegrating with every passing second.
    A blast of wind slapped at them, Lilah shivered and Kevin called himself a thoughtless bastard. Here he was thinking about getting her into his bed while she was turning into a gorgeous blond icicle right in front of him.
    “You’re freezing,” he muttered and laid one hand against the small of her back.
    “Not too bad,” she said.
    “Yeah, right. And your teeth chattering? That’s just for show?”
    “A turn-on, huh?” She flashed him a smile and just that quick, his hormones kicked into overdrive again.
    “Oh, yeah,” he muttered, guiding her up the drive to his front door. “Nothing I like better than a blue woman.”
    “You’re a strange and twisted man,” she said.
    “Tell me about it.”
    “I like it.”
    Oh, man.
    She stood closely to him while he shoved the key in the lock and turned the knob. He hustled her inside and as soon as he had the door closed, he reached over and adjusted the thermostat on the wall. The far-off, subtle roar of the heater jumping to life was a comforting sound, but they needed more heat. Fast.
    “Take that sweater off,” he ordered as he crossed the small foyer into an equally small living room. Walking to the fireplace, he knelt beside the hearth, snatched up the nearby matches and set fire to the kindling he always had ready. In a few minutes, the newspaper and wood shavings had caught and were already licking at the log lying across the grate.
    Satisfied, he turned around and saw her standingjust as he’d left her. “You keep that soaking wet sweater on and you’ll never get warm.”
    “I’d love to accommodate you, especially since you’re so used to having your orders followed.” She shrugged and laughed shortly. “But my hands are so cold, I