“Okay,” she said softly, letting him think he’d won this round. “I won’t try to pay you again.”

  “Good.”

  “But you need to eat more.”

  Giving her a curious look, he put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking space. “Why?”

  “Well,” she said, “if all you’re getting is room and board, it’s not really fair for me to feed you nothing but Zeke’s cheeseburgers.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment, and she saw his hands tighten reflexively on the steering wheel. Then, in a low, intense voice, he said, “You’ve definitely been feeding me more than that.”

  At first, her mind went straight to the naughty possibilities of his comment. But the way he’d said it made her suspect he hadn’t been referring to the way he’d been devouring her every night this week in her bed.

  And for the rest of the car ride, she couldn’t help wondering what he’d meant.

  DYLAN HAD NEVER BEEN more angry at himself for allowing this charade to happen than he was when they pulled out of Temptation’s parking lot. The motorcycle story was so ridiculous. But so was everything else, wasn’t it?

  He had a BMW parked in a garage a few blocks away, owned a two-story house in the next town, had a healthy portfolio, a healthier bank account…and was playing the part of a homeless bum. The things we do for love.

  That word—love—bounced around in his brain as he and Cat drove through the streets of Kendall.

  Yeah. He loved her. He couldn’t even try to fool himself that this was some dumb crush left over from high school, or that it was just about sex. If he’d never laid eyes on her before last Friday night, he’d still have fallen just as hard.

  Cat Sheehan fed his soul—which was exactly what he’d been thinking when she’d laughingly told him to eat more. And he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel complete again if she were to walk out of his life.

  Which put him in one hell of a position. He didn’t want to keep up this ridiculous charade, but he couldn’t honestly predict how she’d act when she found out the truth. For all he knew, she’d kick him out the door. Which would be bad enough in terms of his love life. It would be even worse for Cat in terms of her workload.

  He’d gotten a lot accomplished this week…but not enough. Not nearly enough. Cat needed him and, frankly, he needed her. And he wasn’t willing to risk that by confessing his sins. Not yet. Soon…but not yet.

  “So where are we going, anyway?” she asked, breaking the silence in the car.

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “Is it the type of surprise that’s going to get me back to Temptation by five for the happy hour crowd we might actually get tonight?”

  He nodded. “You’ll be back in time.”

  They didn’t talk much during the rest of the drive, except when he pulled onto the highway and Cat guessed they were headed for Austin. They were, but she hadn’t guessed where.

  She began fishing. “We going to the tattoo parlor where I got mine so you can get a matching one?”

  Snorting, he shook his head. “Uh, sorry, no needles entering this body unless they contain vaccines against various diseases or pain-numbing agents when I’m at the dentist.”

  Cocking a brow, she stared at his earlobe. “Ahem.”

  Without saying a word, Dylan reached up, stuck his finger into the silver loop and tugged. The two-part, magnetic earring gave way, falling to the console between the seats.

  “You…you cheater!” she sputtered.

  Laughing at the indignation on her face, he said, “You think I’m crazy enough to intentionally have someone poke unnecessary holes in my body? Josh and Jeremy’s little sister decided that the long-haired rebel of the group really needed an earring so she gave me this one.”

  “You’re a big phony,” she said, beginning to laugh. “This is serious ammunition, you know. Next time some horny bar tramp throws her shirt at you, I might just tell her you’re a big fraud with a fake earring.”

  Fraud. Yeah. That was him. His body tensed, his good humor dissipating. It was easy to forget he was just playacting for a little while, but the truth always came back with a roar. He was a phony in just about every way, and God only knew what Cat was going to say about it when she found out.

  Maybe she’ll laugh, like she did about the earring.

  Yeah. And maybe it was gonna snow right here in Kendall, Texas, next Christmas.

  “Well,” Cat said, apparently not noticing his distraction, “I think it’s very sexy, pierced or not.” She dug around between the seats and came up with both parts of the earring. Without asking, she leaned over and put the thing back on, tenderly brushing the tips of her fingers over his neck, blowing warm breaths on his skin.

  When she kissed him there, tracing her tongue over his pulse point, he nearly growled. “I’m gonna drive off the road unless you go back to your side of the car.”

  She nearly purred. “Oooh, yeah, car sex at a rest stop.” Dropping her hand on his leg, she slid it up, getting dangerously close to his suddenly very alert crotch.

  “Cat,” he said with a groan, “I meant I’m going to crash.”

  Not relenting, she continued to kiss and nibble his neck, her hand moving ever higher until her fingertips were an inch away from very serious trouble and a potential wreck.

  He dropped his hand over hers, muttering, “Enough. We have someplace to go.”

  “So tell me where we’re going and I’ll stop.”

  Quickly glancing over, he saw the mischief in Cat’s expression and knew she was still very curious about where they were headed. “You’ll see when we get there.”

  “When’s that?”

  “You’re relentless, aren’t you?”

  Removing her hand to safer territory, she nodded, waiting for him to explain. But he didn’t give her even a tiny hint, not until he pulled up to the entrance of the university a short time later.

  “Here?” she asked, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. “We’re going to the University of Texas?”

  That’s exactly where they were going. Cat had talked about going back to school, and he’d noticed the application packet she’d received in the mail Monday. But she’d hidden it away, as if embarrassed, and hadn’t even begun to work on it. He suspected he knew why—she needed a push, some encouragement, a reason to fill the thing out. A reason to believe she wasn’t just grasping at some pipe dream and that she really could do something completely unexpected with her life.

  Dylan parked the car in a lot outside the administration building. Thankfully, since it was summer session, the campus was much less crowded, because he’d heard parking was a nightmare during the rest of the year. “So,” he said as he cut the engine, “you think we can pass for a couple of eighteen-year-olds?”

  She eyed him up and down, appearing skeptical. “I doubt it. If I ever did register here, I’d stick out like a sore thumb, even if I really was eighteen.”

  Reaching over, he took her hand in his and squeezed it. “You’d stick out like a gorgeous blonde and every young college dude would be all over you. Don’t think that hasn’t occurred to me, so you really ought to be rewarding me for my mature lack of jealousy.” Giving her a lascivious look, he added, “Sexual favors are always an appropriate reward.”

  She wasn’t teased out of her sudden bad mood. “It’s not just my age that’ll make me stick out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Cat kept looking out the window, staring at the buildings, the grounds, the people milling around—obviously students taking summer classes. Her sigh was probably audible to those standing by the tower, which was a landmark on campus. “I belong in a bar slinging drinks and fending off pervs. Not on a college campus.” Shaking her head, she lowered her voice. “And certainly not sitting behind a teacher’s desk in a high-school classroom.”

  This doubting woman was so not the Cat the rest of the world knew. That woman had boatloads of confidence—with good reason, given her looks, her personality and her wit.

  Right now, he suspected, he was sitting with the Cat few people ever saw. The wistful one. The quiet one. The one who doubted her own abilities, her own intelligence. The one who sometimes seemed so alone.

  The one he’d first begun to understand by the light of a bonfire so many years ago.

  He lifted his hand to her face, running the tips of his fingers across her cheek, then gently taking her chin to make her look at him. She met his stare, her expression serious and her eyes clear. He certainly hadn’t expected tears—Cat was not the sort to feel sorry for herself. Neither, however, had expected this absence of emotion.

  “Cat, you have so much potential, and you have every right to do whatever you can to make your dreams come true.” She opened her mouth to speak, but he touched his index finger to her lips. “I’m not trying to push you into anything, and if you want me to start the car and drive away, I will. But I wish you’d get out and walk around with me, just for a little while, to see how it feels. Then maybe you’ll be more interested in filling out the application that came in the mail the other day.”

  “You noticed that, huh?”

  “I noticed. And since you requested it, I have to assume you wanted it. So why not look around and get yourself pumped up about it, instead of hiding it in your underwear drawer?”

  She crossed her arms and lifted a brow. “Why, exactly, were you looking in my underwear drawer?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Because your washer’s on the fritz and I ran out of shorts.”

  She snickered, her mood finally lightening. “Well, if you want to borrow my panties, you could at least ask.”

  “Forget it,” he said with a mock growl as he leaned across the console to nuzzle the side of her neck. “I’d rather go commando. Gotta leave your panties alone, since your supply is running pretty low.”

  She tilted her head to the side and moaned from somewhere low in her throat. He followed the sound, kissing his way along her skin.

  “If I am,” she murmured, “it’s only because someone keeps ripping them off me.”

  He chuckled. “That’s only because someone is so sexy I can’t stop myself.”

  Nibbling his way up her delicate neck, he finally pressed his lips to hers in a warm, wet kiss meant to both arouse her and give her confidence. They only pulled apart when they heard shouts and whooping from outside. Some of the students had apparently noticed.

  “Well, now you really fit in on a college campus,” he said.

  He almost held his breath, waiting for her response. If she asked him to drive away, he’d do so, though not without feeling the slightest bit disappointed in her.

  Finally, she nodded. “Okay. Let’s go check out the campus.”

  8

  THE COUNTRY-AND-WESTERN GROUP Cat had hired for the weekend wasn’t as popular as Dylan’s band had been, but they weren’t bad. Not bad at all. They’d certainly had her feet tapping for three nights in a row as she worked the bar, making the drinks as fast as Dinah could place the orders.

  She figured the fact that the musicians were middle-aged and paunchy had something to do with the shortage of young, on-the-make women in the audience. Still, they put on a good show, and they entertained the small crowd that did come in each night. She’d sold lots of drinks and earned a lot of tips and made Kendall’s line dancers really happy.

  To give him credit, Spence hadn’t shown any distaste for the whole thing. She’d figured, given his passion for rock and roll, that he wasn’t into country. Actually, he didn’t mind it. It was the line dancing he hated, which she discovered Sunday night when she tried to nudge him out into the dancing crowd he’d successfully managed to avoid on the previous two nights.

  “Go on, give the single women out there a thrill,” she said when he moseyed behind the bar to offer her a hand.

  As if she’d let him make his famous margarita for any other female. And definitely not a Slippery Nipple…which she was still counting on him to deliver one of these nights.

  “You must be joking.”

  “You don’t like country-and-western music?”

  “I like almost any music, except opera. Country-and-western’s fine,” he said. “Line dancing, however, is for saps and old ladies at wedding receptions.”

  Grinning, she gestured toward the younger women in the room who were shaking it with gusto. “They’re not all old. And they’ve been eyeing you up all night, sitting there in the corner nursing one beer. Go on, give them a thrill.”

  His frown deepened. “I’d rather put on a thong and do the mambo than line dance to “Achy Breaky Heart.”

  “Well, I don’t want you giving them that much of a thrill.”

  A grin tickled his lips.

  Turning to face a customer waiting to place his order on the other side of the bar, she gave him a wicked look over her shoulder. “What is it with you and women’s underwear, anyway?”

  She should have known better than to taunt him. Because Spence stepped right up behind her, tucking in close so that the warmest, hardest parts of his front was pressed right against her back and bottom. She hissed, feeling heat rush into her cheeks. But he didn’t relent. Instead, he reached around and snaked one arm across her waist, then nuzzled the side of her neck. “How many times do I have to tell you,” he said with a hungry growl, “I haven’t ripped them off you every single night this week because I want to wear them.”

  Judging by his roar of laughter, the customer—a longtime regular who’d stuck with them through the construction—had overheard. He tilted back his cowboy hat and smacked his hand flat on the surface of the bar. “Oooh, Cat Sheehan, I never thought I’d see the day.”

  “What day is that, Earl? The day somebody mistook that rug under your hat for real hair?”

  He snorted, impossible to offend. “Nope. The day a man got you so wound up you made my Jack and Coke with gin and Sprite.”

  Glancing down in horror, Cat realized she had, indeed, mixed that unappetizing concoction. Scrunching her eyes shut, she mumbled, “Sorry about that. Next one’s on the house.”

  Earl shrugged, his good humor never fading from his round face. “Not a problem. It’s worth every penny to see you looking at someone else the way most of the fellers usually look at you.”

  Cat nibbled her lip, then tried to stare him into silence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe you’ve had enough, Earl. You better watch it or I’ll have to cut you off.”

  Uncowed, the older man winked at Spence. “She’s got the young men all chompin’ at the bit and pantin’ for her attention, and she never gives any of ’em the time of day.” Then, eyes twinkling, he added, “Nice to see your heart ain’t froze up solid, little girl.”

  Cat winced, wishing the floor would open up so she could sink into it. She’d just been accused of being a heartless tease in front of Spence. Could’ve been worse, she supposed. Being called a tease in front of your lover was probably better than being called a tramp.

  “Cheers, y’all,” Earl said as he scooped up his new drink, which Cat had just made, and wandered back toward his table, his shit-kicker boots clomping on the wood floor.

  “You better watch it, Earl,” she called after the laughing man, “or I’ll uninvite you from our closing-down party next Monday.”

  He turned on his heel and wagged his index finger at her. “You’re not keeping me away from that shindig, darlin’. I’ll come say goodbye to Sheehan’s Pub even if I have to crash the party.”

  Grinning at the man, who’d been a loyal customer way back when her dad had been working behind the bar, Cat nodded and then got back to work, struggling to get caught up with the multitude of drink orders.

  The rest of the evening flew by until it was last call and the band started packing up for the night. Rubbing a weary hand over her brow, Cat watched the customers drift out, savoring their good humor and their friendly waves. They were like family, some of them. Like Earl. Another reason saying goodbye to Temptation in another week was going to be brutal.

  “You okay?” Spence asked after everyone else was gone and they were alone in the closed tavern. He’d been helping her put up the chairs and sweep the floor. Well, actually, she’d swept and he’d held the dustpan.

  “I’m fine. It was a good night.”

  “Made a lot?”

  She shrugged. “Not a fortune. But the feeling was good. You know?”

  Thinking about it, he slowly nodded. “Yeah, I think I know what you mean. There’s a real camaraderie, isn’t there?”

  “Exactly.” Her chest suddenly felt tight. “I’m going to miss a lot of those people.”

  He stepped close, taking the broom from her hand and leaning it in a corner. “They’ll miss you, too.” Tugging her into his arms, he stroked her hair, then her back, trailing his fingers down her spine to cup her bottom.

  Cat’s melancholy mood immediately disappeared as a new kind of tension—the Spence kind of tension—took its place.

  “Cat, do you remember last week when you told me about some of the things you wanted to do before you left this place for good?”

  Nodding lethargically, she said, “Yes. Like dancing on the bar.” She couldn’t keep a dreamy sigh from her lips. “And lying on the stage under all those different spotlights. Have I told you yet how much I liked that?”

  “I think the whole street heard how much you liked that Tuesday night,” he said with a wolfish chuckle.

  “Ha ha. I think you were doing some moaning yourself.”

  “No question about it. Now, back to your fantasies….”

  “Yes?”

  He kissed her temple, then the top of her cheekbone, then the top of her ear. She started to sigh, then to moan when he nibbled his way to her earlobe.

  “How about we make another one come true?”