Page 18 of Seaside Cowboy's Fairy Tale

His eyes went huge. Was it a bad time to notice—it was at close range, after all—that he had tiny navy speckles in those baby blues? “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“My thoughts precisely.” She looked up. The gun didn’t disappear, but they didn’t fire yet, either. She hoped to keep it that way, so she pulled her gun from her purse. The smooth, cold metal felt good in her hand. The gun barrel disappeared, and the window rolled up. Then the SUV drove off.

“I know this voice, these eyes... Though you have different hair now... Cinderella?”

“Yeah, you called me that before.” She rolled off him but not before snatching his car keys. His car was much closer than hers, and this wasn’t over. Adrenaline surged in her veins as she leaped to her feet and picked up her hat and sunglasses. “I need to borrow your car. Are you tagging along? Or I can return the keys to you soon.”

“Wait—What?” Even in his bewildered state, he jumped to his feet.

She clicked the fob and rushed to his vehicle. “Nice car, by the way.” She was in the driver’s seat first and threw her hat behind her before plunking the sunglasses back on her nose.

A moment later, he sat beside her in the passenger seat. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“You already said that today.” Burning rubber, squealing tires, she peeled off. She’d ruined her assignment, but she felt exhilaration, not disappointment. Of course, that exhilaration would become disappointment once the adrenaline wore off and she had to face her boss. Or a furious Ms. Mueller. Would Rachel get fired for this?

For now, she weaved between cars. How amazing to drive a vehicle that could move this fast. It had that new-car scent of leather and excitement Rachel had always considered too much to pay for. Yet she breathed it in deeply, catching a whiff of his intoxicating cologne, as well. Her heartbeat picked up, but this time she could attribute it to the spike of adrenaline.

“You’re going to chase that car,” he said as she moved near another car nearly close enough to tap it.

“You have astonishing deduction skills. Has anyone told you that?” She floored the gas pedal.

He chuckled. Good sense of humor instead of a sensitive ego. That was a plus. The men she’d met often had the opposite. “And you have astonishing driving skills. I used to race cars, but even I might kiss the ground once you park.”

Her heart made a strange movement at the wordkiss. She could imagine him brushing his lips against hers and waking her to life——but those would be totally different fairy tales, and she lived in none of them.

Not a good time to get distracted. Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel, her attention razor sharp on the road again and on the silver SUV with tinted windows far ahead of her. She memorized the license plate numbers for later, though it was probably fake.

Yet she couldn’t help casting a glance at his handsome profile before returning her attention to the road. He looked bemused instead of scared.

Huh. All the men she’d dated had been intimidated by her skills and her profession. Somehow, they didn’t find it adorable that she could punch their lights out or outshoot them. And she wasn’t about to stand small to stroke a fragile ego.

On the contrary, this man was confident and comfortable in many senses, and it was nearly as intoxicating as this chase. Her lips curved as she passed another car, hers—okay, Tex’s—nearly kissing that car’s door.

No distraction! Not easy when the man near her was a breathing, walking—okay, sitting now—distraction.

“Hmm. I’ve got a dilemma.”

“Shoot.” He cleared his throat. “I mean, tell me. I imagine it’s not a good idea to shoot and drive. Though I have no doubt you’d do well.”

A pleasant wave spread inside her as the motor growled at another influx of gas. The man knew how to give compliments. There was much more than that, of course. The reason even celebrities wanted to date him likely wasn’t the tinge of mystery or his impressive net worth, though there was that. He oozed charisma, injected the air around him with it like with his enticing cologne.

Even she wasn’t immune to it.

So much for not getting distracted. She squeezed into a tiny space on the left, but by that time, the SUV passed two cars, including an eighteen-wheeler, and she couldn’t see it any longer.

“Where’s a helicopter when one needs it?” She resisted the urge to gnash her teeth. With no other opening where she could pass, she couldn’t exactly crawl over cars.

“I could hire one, but not on such short notice. I’d need to give them more than a two-minute lead time.” His light tone made it difficult to guess whether he was joking or serious. “You said you had a dilemma?”

She turned on the left blinker and hoped for the best. Good. The forest-green sedan to her left slowed down, giving her space to get in. Usually, it only worked if she was in a truck or another large vehicle people didn’t want to get hit with. “Well, not any longer. I wanted to get close to that SUV. But if I got too close, I didn’t want them to start shooting and risk injuring innocent people in other vehicles.”

“Very considerate of you.” Once again, his tone sounded bemused, but this time, it got under her skin. Was he mocking her?

“How areyourshooting skills?” She managed to get close to the eighteen-wheeler.

“Decent, though I doubt I could hit a moving tire.”

“I don’t think evenIcould do it. It’s much more difficult than the way it’s shown in the movies.” She moved forward, but no silver SUV with tinted windows waited in front of the eighteen-wheeler. Argh. She sliced the air with her arm. “We lost them!”

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