Read Online Hot and Bothered by Linda Cajio - Free Book Online Page A

someone who didn’t want to be found, she wouldn’t be missed if she drove it. But to ride with Pedro … Paul had been right. She’d seen Pedro’s old Cadillac shooting up the dirt road. Its front end had bounced up and downlike a jack-in-the-box, the back end swerving from side to side every time the car braked. To get into it would be suicide.
    “Need a ride somewhere?”
    She turned around, knowing the voice before she did. Paul stood behind her, his eyebrows raised in question. She hadn’t seen him for most of the day and she really hadn’t wanted to. She’d been overwhelmed with information and images about him from the night before and that morning, and needed time to sort them out. That she’d failed abominably had added to her confusion regarding this man.
    He, however, seemed as forceful and self-assured as he had been on their first meeting. Clearly, he knew how to put his past behind him most of the time. She wondered if telling her about his self-enforced separation from his daughter had caused last night’s resurrection of that past. That was the one thing she thought shouldn’t be put away. One should never get past one’s child.
    “I need to get clothes,” she said in answer to his question. A few T-shirts and shorts didn’t go far, especially in this heat. The money she had with her was dwindling at a rapacious pace, and she could not afford to whittle away more in almost daily laundering.
    “I’m going into La Misión,” he said. “That’s a little town about ten miles north. They havesome shops. You’re welcome to hitch a ride with mge.”
    She hesitated, knowing the more time she spent with him, the more confused she would become.
    His smiling expression turned shuttered. “I understand.”
    “No.” She put her hand on his arm. The tingle of awareness almost burned her palm. She forced herself to leave her hand there. Otherwise, he was bound to take it wrong. “I’d love to have a ride into town.”
    “You sure?”
    She nodded. “I’m sure. Let me get my purse.”
    Inside her trailer, she drew a deep breath, feeling as if she were sinking further and further into an emotional quicksand. She would be there only a short time and she didn’t know how to have an affair gracefully. Her few experiences with sex had been disastrous. If there was one man she didn’t want snickering over sex with her, it was Paul.
    Knowing he was waiting at the truck, she grabbed her purse, calculating how much cash she had left. She knew people budgeted, but she’d never done it before. Money, more than enough for her needs, came from her trust fund and other investments in quarterly intervals. It would be just her luck to run out of cash a couple of days before she had to go back to San Diego.
    Frowning, she checked how much money she had, then paused, a thought striking her. She did have experience with budgets. At her mother’s insistence, she had worked for a few different charity organizations over the years, often dealing with fund-raising and then allocating those funds. If she just applied what she knew from that, she could handle her own money just fine.
    Pleased she could put some of her life experiences to good use, she marched out of the trailer.
    Paul had the passenger door open for her. She smiled briefly in thanks as she slipped into the seat. He slammed the door shut, then came around the truck and got in on the driver’s side. The engine started up with a loud whoom. He eased the vehicle over the bumpy dirt roadway to the wider bumpy dirt road that led out of the
ejido
.
    They sat in silence for a time. Although not entirely companionable, the quiet wasn’t tense either. He eventually turned on the radio and pushed a station indicator button. A salsa station blared its wild rhythms.
    Judith chuckled. “Somehow I didn’t expect you to like this.”
    “It’s about the only thing I can get down here,” he said. “I give it an eighty-three. It’s got a good beat, and you can