Free Playing Dead in Dixie by Paula Graves Page B

Anything to avoid the trap her mother had stepped into all those years ago.
    Carly left the bedroom, half expecting to find Wes still standing in the hallway, waiting for her.  But he was gone, only the faint scent of him still lingering in the air.
    She followed the scent to the kitchen and found Wes at the at the table, talking to Bonnie.   A large wicker picnic basket sat on the table between them.
    "Well, don't you look pretty as a picture!"  Bonnie smiled up at Carly, a matchmaker's gleam in her eyes.
    "Ready to go?" Wes asked, a very different sort of gleam in his eyes, a dark, sizzling look that made Carly's knees tremble.
    "Where are we going?" Carly countered.
    "You'll see when we get there."  Wes unfolded his long legs, bending to kiss his aunt on the cheek.  "Thanks for the pickles, Aunt Bonnie."  He picked up the picnic basket and gestured with his head.  "Comin', Jersey?"
    Not waiting for her answer, he turned and strode through the doorway leading to the back porch.
    "Go ahead, honey, he don't bite," Bonnie said, still grinning like she'd just won the lottery.
    "Do you know where we're going?" Carly asked.
    Bonnie shook her head.  "But wherever it is, he stopped by Sharlene Crump's house and picked up a Mississippi Mud Cake."
    Carly lowered her voice.  "Is that good?"
    "That's very good," Bonnie assured her.
    Wes stuck his head through the doorway.  "Are you comin' or not?"
    It was probably a very bad idea to go anywhere alone with Wes Hollingsworth.  He'd already proved, more than once, that he could get under her skin with little effort.  What kind of secrets would he be able to wheedle out of her if he applied even a touch more of the sizzling seduction he'd teased her with in the hallway a few minutes earlier?
    Maybe she was her father's daughter after all.  Because she couldn't seem to walk away from this particular gamble, no matter how high the odds against her.
    She followed Wes out to his truck.  He surprised her by opening the door for her and giving her his hand to help her climb up into the cab.  "Buckle up."  He rounded the front of the truck and climbed into the cab.
    As he buckled his own seat belt, Carly murmured, "In New Jersey, no girl in her right mind would go off somewhere with a man she barely knew, especially if he didn't tell her where they were going."
    He turned and pinned her with the full force of his dark, smoldering gaze.  "This ain't Jersey, sugar.  And I doubt you've ever been in your right mind."
    "Not even a hint where we're going?"
    His eyes darkened, igniting a slow burn deep in her belly.  "You're just going to have to trust me.  Think you can do that?"
    "We'll see," she answered, not quite ready to concede.
    He turned back to the wheel and cranked the engine, a smile lingering in the corners of his mouth.  "Yes, you will."
    "Is that a warning?"
    He cut his eyes at her again, his smile widening.
    Alarm klaxons screamed in her head.
    Warning, she thought.
    Definitely a warning.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
    Being alone with Carly Devlin under a crescent moon, gazing up at about a billion stars, was what any sane man would call flirting with danger.  And Wes Hollingsworth had given up flirting with danger years ago.
    At least, he'd thought he had.  Until he'd laid out the blanket in the back of his pickup truck and realized that all those ads about roomy truck beds didn't take into consideration the full impact of Carly Devlin in a little black tank top and a pair of tight blue jeans.
    Between the picnic basket, the Coleman lantern, and Carly's hip butting up against his own, the back of the truck felt as tiny as a closet.
    "Where are we, anyway?" Carly asked, picking through the picnic basket.
    "It's a piece of land I've had for a few years.  I'm thinking about finally getting around to planting a few things this year.  Corn, green beans, tomatoes, maybe some watermelons."  He couldn't get too ambitious, since he worked full time for