Page 32 of Objection to Love

“Yes, but you’re taking me to the murder spot.”

“The what?”

She pointed out the window. “This canyon. It’s the perfect spot to kill someone. Are you planning to kill me?”

He looked sideways at her. “You don’t still think I plan to kill you and push your car into a river, do you?”

“I see you’ve expanded the plan to include pushing my car into the river. How much thought have you given to killing me?”

“More than usual lately. I guess we will see how the day goes, though.”

She glanced over at him to see his mouth twitching. “You’re not that funny.”

“Uh-huh, sure. The amount of times you've laughed at my jokes couldn’t possibly be an indicator of my hilarity.” His lips twitched again, and Em couldn’t fight the impulse to punch his arm.

“Excuse me,” he said, full-out laughing now as he rubbed his shoulder. “But just because I say I won’t kill you doesn’t mean you couldn’t kill us both by pulling stunts like that.”

Em shook her head, fighting a smile of her own. “Come on, the car didn’t even swerve.”

“Yes, but if I wasn’t so strong and masculine, it might have, and then where would we be?”

She gave him a look of long-suffering, which was wasted due to his diligent watching of the road.

“If you can curb your violent streak for a couple minutes, I will give you a hint about where we’re going.”

Em made a show of clasping her hands in her lap. “I’m listening.”

“You’ve never done what we are about to do before.” Then, with those cryptic words, he glanced over at her, chuckling at the apparent confusion she was surely displaying.

“How could you possibly know that? You’ve known me less than a month.”

“Oh, I know.”

“I can’t decide if that’s creepy or just scary.”

“How about exciting?”

“No. Definitely not that.”

He chuckled, and Em couldn’t help the slight quirking of her lips. She couldn’t be held responsible for her lightening mood when in the presence of this wholly annoying but constantly laughing man.

Unfortunately, he saw the expression and proceeded to gloat heartily over bringing what was really only half a smile to her face. They continued in that vein—him teasing, her fighting a second almost-smile—for nearly ten minutes before he pulled off on the side of the road.

“We’re here!” He turned off the ignition and shifted in his seat to face Em, his left arm slinging casually over the top of the steering wheel and straining the top of his t-shirt.

Em looked out the window. They were nowhere. It was a random pull-out in the middle of the canyon with thick foliage to the right and the road on their left.

“Uh-huh. And here is…”

“You’ll see.” He opened his door and jumped out, pulling a bag out of the bed of the truck and slinging it like a backpack on his back.

All Em could think when she joined him at the back of the truck was that the bag looked heavy but not big enough to hold a body.

He must have caught her staring, because he looked down at the bag too. “What? Checking to see if your x-ray vision has kicked in?”

“Just judging the size of your bag. I’m taller than average, so I’m pretty sure I won’t fit if you do decide to off me.”

“Don’t forget, there’s always the river.”

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