Free Born to Be Wild by Donna Kauffman Page B

couldn’t recall a time he’d felt this need to defend what he did, or who he was. Dara wasn’t hiding from the truth that something was happening between them. But she’d made it clear from the start that it wasn’t his occupation that intrigued her.
    Well, he wasn’t going to sit there and defend himself. Besides, she’d always been more of a show-me person. He doubted that had changed. Which was fine by him. He’d always been more of a do-it person, himself.
    “Come with me today.” It was neither question or command. “No more pressure. I’ll let you set the pace.”
    She shifted from his lap and settled back in her seat. He let her go with more regret than he’d expected to feel.
    “I said I would,” she responded finally, after adjusting the air-conditioning vents and putting on her seat belt. She looked over at him. “Lead the way.”
    The tousled hair and kiss-softened lips that accompanied her all-business tone and posture were damn erotic. “I’m parked around the corner. I’ll follow you home and wait while you change.” His body was still rock-hard. The image of her undressing did little to help that. “You do own a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, right?”
    The dry smile crept back. “Sure. Hip-huggers and flower-power T-shirts are still in style, right?”
    Zach laughed. “Shop that often do you? I don’t carewhat you wear.”
I’ll want to take them off you just the same
. “Dress for comfort.”
    She nodded, and he ducked out of the car before she could change her mind. Before he hauled her back in his lap and said to hell—or heaven, actually—with the rest of the afternoon he’d planned.
    Dara placed her sneakered foot on the running board and hiked herself up into the cab of Zach’s truck. George Thorogood blared from the speakers.
    “Born to be wild and bad to the bone.” She shot him a tentative look. “How appropriate.”
    Zach turned the volume down to a level that wouldn’t damage their hearing, pulled a U-turn in the middle of her quiet neighborhood street and headed back out to the main highway.
    “Nice house,” he commented once they were heading west on Route 50. “When did you buy it?”
    Dara smiled at his automatic assumption that she wasn’t a renter. “About four years ago. I shared a condo in Fairfax while I was in college.” She paused, not sure how much she wanted him to know. It was obvious Dane had never spoken of that time in her life to Zach. “Eventually I bought out the other half,” she went on carefully. “I liked the place and hadn’t really planned on moving. But mortgage rates dropped and resale values finally went up, so …”
    “A sound investment.”
    Dara glanced over at him, unsure if he’d meant that as a jab. “So, you never got a place of your own?” Hedarted her a quick look. The shadowed memories fled as she smiled sweetly. She could still parry with the best.
    He didn’t seem the least embarrassed. “Well, you probably remember that my folks were a bit older than most. Dad’s asthma and Mom’s arthritis sort of hit an all-time low when I was in college. They decided to retire to New Mexico right after I graduated, so I took over the house.”
    “Dane never really said much.” She didn’t say that she’d spent a good part of that time of her life sitting beside a bed in the intensive care unit of the hospital, wondering how life could be so incredibly unfair, for once not too interested in what was happening in her brother’s life. She forced the memories back into their dark corner. “How are they doing?”
    “Better than ever,” he said. “Mom finally edged Dad out of the top three at the golf club.” He glanced over at her briefly. “They started letting her play with the men when she beat the club pro. The ex-club pro.”
    Dara laughed. “Now I know which half of the gene pool you came from.”
    His laughter joined hers. “Yep. And damn proud of it. How about you? Your mom and stepdad still living in