Alexandra was a smart girl, but just now her vocabulary was reduced to three-letter words.

She hadn't been kissed in years. Emma's sticky ones didn't count. In fact, her whole face was almost virgin territory. She hadn't even had a facial in ages because she couldn't afford one. Alexandra realized not even her mother had touched her cheek with affection lately. Will's callused fingertips sent jolts straight to her- Best not think of where they were going. Also practically virgin territory.

She had to go home. She had to get up early and feed Emma breakfast and strategize her calendar. Alexandra had no time to give in to her treacherous body. Just because the man could kiss like a genius didn't mean a thing.

She'd been in Mrs. Macht's English cla.s.s with him, and he was no genius.

They had nothing in common. They'd been practically enemies. So why was she still on tiptoe letting his tongue into the corner of her mouth? Why was her hand clutching the collar of his jacket?

Beautiful fabric.

At least she had some semblance of her mind left. She took a shuffling step backward and heard an ominous crack.

Good thing he caught her, even if it meant the kiss had broken abruptly.

"Hey. I've never kissed anybody into a faint before." He gave her a smug grin.

"It's not the kiss, you id-um, my heel broke." Her first and last pair of expensive shoes, d.a.m.n it. She waved him off, picked up the ruined heel and wobbled to one of the benches on the casino concourse.

He sat down beside her, not a hair out of place, breathing normally, not red in the face as she must be. You'd never know from his expression he'd just kissed her senseless. Her face felt it like it was on fire, and her lips were tingly.

"Can you fix it? With glue or something?"

The thing is, she could. Or she used to have the skill. "I don't know. Maybe."

"There must be a shoe repair place somewhere."

Not at Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino at eleven o'clock at night. Usually Alexandra had a pair of flats in her tote bag, but she'd been in such a nervous rush this morning, she'd forgotten.

"I'll be okay." She tried to glare at him. "What was that all about?"

His face was open. Innocent. "What was what all about?"

"That-that kiss."

"It was just a kiss goodnight. You didn't like it?"

"You aren't supposed to be kissing me. This is not a date."

Will shrugged. "As you wish, Princess. I guess I got carried away." He stood up, and, without warning, scooped her up in his arms. "Speaking of carrying, I'm taking you to my truck, and then I'll drive you to your car. Okay?"

It was not okay. "Put me down!"

"You can't walk in broken shoes, and I wouldn't let my dog walk barefoot in this place. Think of the germs."

Alexandra knew he was right, but felt like a ragdoll as he carted her through the casino to the parking garage. He didn't seem to have any trouble hauling her around, either. Will Garrity was strong, had to be in his line of work. He probably tossed cabers for fun.

For a fleeting second, she pictured him in a kilt. Bare-chested. But he was Irish. Did Irishmen wear kilts? They were all Celts, right?

Proof that she read too much and lived too little.

It was kind of cozy in his arms. To distract her runaway hormones, she struggled to find an innocuous topic of conversation. "You have a dog?"

"Yep."

"What kind?"

He was watching where he put his feet as they mounted the escalator. "Not a purebred. You probably grew up with a French poodle, right?"

Oh, he was so annoying. "I never had a dog. My mother is allergic." Or said she was. Alexandra suspected she just didn't like the mess and inconvenience.

"Too bad. Dogs are fun. Well, Rocky is."

Rocky. Typical.

"Don't give me that look. I didn't name him. He's a rescue dog and came with it. Someone was overly optimistic. He barks backwards-you know, when someone comes he's all noise and no action. Which is good, cause I wouldn't want him to bite people. He loves kids. My sisters' children are over all the time."

He sounded slightly winded. Alexandra had lost quite a bit of weight since the divorce, but still wasn't a sylph.

"Put me down on that bench for a while."

"Nope. I'm good. You're light as a feather."

Liar.

"How many sisters do you have?"

"Three. All older. They gave me supreme h.e.l.l when we were growing up, but it's all good now."

Alexandra felt a stab of jealousy. As an only child, she'd always wanted siblings. Even when she was older and watched her friends have knock-down-drag-outs with their sisters or brothers, the idea of more than a three-person family had its appeal.

"Nieces or nephews?"

"Both. Seven of 'em, h.e.l.lions all, even the four-month old."

The automatic door opened to the parking garage and the noise and bright lights of the casino were forgotten. Will carried her to the elevator.

"Can you push three? My hands are full." He looked down at her with his irresistible smile and Alexandra could do nothing but smile back and oblige.

"Do you remember where you parked?" Alexandra asked as the elevator went up. Really, he could put her down now.

"Please. You obviously don't know who you're dealing with. If I can find my car after a Patriots game, this will be easy."

Alexandra hated football.

She hated football because of Will Garrity.

Maybe it was time to move on. High school was a long time ago.

There it was, the monster truck. He shifted her as he reached into his pants pocket for the keys. The headlights flashed.

"Here we are, Ms. Russell." Will opened the door and deposited her in the front seat. For a work vehicle, it was pretty clean, with only the faintest trace of wood and working man. "Where are you parked?"

Alexandra blanked completely. She'd been running late all day after filling out a mountain of La.s.siter Broadcasting forms for the HR department. The morning appointment had morphed into the afternoon, interrupted by about a thousand phone calls to Tonya La.s.siter. She'd barely made her Chico's shift after fixing Emma an early dinner, or as her mother liked to call it "tea." She hadn't even had time to change her shoes, which were now history.

"Um..."

Will chuckled. "It's all right. We can drive around aimlessly until we come to it."

Alexandra was mortified. He already thought she was a dizzy blonde. She was smart. Or she used to be before Rick robbed her of her wits, self-respect and money.

Employee parking was a million miles away from the customers' lots, serviced by a fleet of buses that ran at regular intervals. Mohegan Sun was a twenty-four hour operation, although not everything stayed open. Hard-core gamblers were not interested in trying on silk leopard-print tunics in Chico's at two A.M., for example.

Will followed one of the employee shuttles as it made its rounds. They spotted her crumpled car under a light at exactly the same time, and he braked.

"Your chariot awaits, Princess. Wait a sec, and I'll help you out."

Really, he was being ridiculous. Alexandra had already stuffed her ruined shoes in her tote. A few seconds of bare feet on blacktop wouldn't kill her.

But he swept her up again and carried her to her car. Instead of putting her down, he placed her on the rather chilly hood.

"Give me your keys."

"I can-"

"I'm sure you can do anything you set your mind to. But let me be a gentleman, okay?"

She heard the door locks click and started to slide off the car.

He was back in a flash. "Uh uh uh. What if you stepped on gla.s.s and got gangrene or something? How could we go out dancing?"

Alexandra looked up into his shadowed face. "Are we going out dancing?"

His breath was warm against her cheek. "I don't know. You tell me."

Alexandra wanted to say yes. She would say yes. But first, she twisted her arms around Will Garrity's neck and kissed him.

Chapter 6.

Holy Mother of G.o.d. It had been one thing when he'd snuck in and kissed her a little while ago, kind of like a stealth attack. He hadn't asked permission, too afraid she'd say no.

Not that there was one thing wrong with that earlier kiss, aside from its brevity-the hairs on his neck were still waving and other parts of him were distinctly alert. Carting her around for what seemed like a couple of miles had done nothing to calm him down, either.

But now she was kissing him, and Will almost fell over in surprise. His hands. .h.i.t the hood and he held himself up by sheer will.

Sheer will. Ha. He'd cracked a joke that no one would ever hear.

She was nibbling in a kind of tentative way, as if she wasn't sure he'd like it. h.e.l.l, he liked it too much, and returned a gentle parry of his own. Her hands were loosely locked around the back of his head keeping him still, not that he wanted to go anywhere.

She tasted...fresh. Sweet. The kiss reminded him of when he was young and fumbling but thought he was studly-there was an innocence to it that belied the fact that both of them were pushing thirty. Will had done his share of kissing, and she'd been married-but this may as well have been the first kiss ever in the history of the world.

He opened his eyes to find hers were closed, her lashes flicking. She had a stripe of brown shadow on her lids to match her brown eyes, but not too much make-up. Everything about Alexandra Elliot Russell was subtle. Proper. In the best of taste.

Including this kiss. Will wondered what Alex would be like when she wasn't so proper, when her hair was tangled, her cheeks flushed. What she would look like when he was so deep inside her- He shut his eyes. Down, boy. Way down. Talk about getting carried away. According to her, this wasn't even a date.

Did she go around kissing guys she wasn't dating at the drop of a hat? Will didn't think so. She'd been a little skittish. You didn't get divorced without a lot of hurt and s.h.i.t involved.

Her ex-husband must be an idiot, but then, so was he. There was no point to thinking this kiss meant anything more than she was grateful for not getting her feet dirty.

She made a noise as her tongue swept into his cheek. Kind of a squeaky groan. He could feel her tremble. Will's groin tightened and he knew he was in trouble.

He was pretty sure she was enjoying this as much as he was, and he was enjoying it a lot. So much so that he couldn't remember the last time he kissed anybody and wanted to spread them out on the hood of a car and fu- His brain stopped. That wasn't the right word to use around the princess at all, even if she couldn't read his mind.

He wasn't an impulsive guy-he couldn't afford to be. Work had come first for so long he'd almost forgotten how to talk to a woman. Not that he was talking now. He had much better uses for his teeth and tongue.

She made that noise again, and he growled back at her. Her nails raked his scalp and he growled again.

Could they do it in her car? No, his truck was better. Much more room. He had wishful-thinking condoms in the glove compartment. Jeez, he hadn't screwed a girl in a vehicle since community college, and that hadn't gone all that well.

Suddenly her hands were on his chest and she was pushing him away.

Screw was nicer than f.u.c.k, wasn't it? Maybe she knew what he was thinking after all.

He didn't want to stop, but he did. Because even though he was feeling like an animal at the moment-a healthy, h.o.r.n.y, highly functioning animal-he was a gentleman. He'd said so.

She was breathless, her eyes wide with a kind of deer in the headlights look.

"I need-I need to go home."

No, that wasn't what she needed. It certainly wasn't what he needed.

"Okay." His voice broke and he sounded like he was thirteen again.

"Th-thank you for getting me to my car." She slid down the hood, and her bare feet hit the ground.

He touched her arm. "My pleasure. Do you want me to follow you home?"

"Don't be silly. I'm fine. I think I have sneakers in my trunk."

Sneakers? What the h.e.l.l was she talking about?