Wrapping his left arm around her, he nestled her closer. “I’d like to try for a more enthusiastic endorsement.”
She barely hesitated before lifting her mouth to his. Okay, so this wasn’t going anywhere. There was no need to try to control the future because there was no future for her and Mitch beyond tonight. Alice would be home tomorrow, so this was the last night she and Mitch would be alone in the house. Whatever happened between them tonight, it ended at daylight.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time she’d metaphorically folded her tents and moved on. She knew how to put the past behind her, how to lock memories away to be savored or suffered in private. She might as well enjoy what she had started.
“Well?” His voice was husky when he finally drew back a few inches, a warm flush of color on his cheeks, a glint of heat in his eyes. As close as she was to him, she knew exactly how aroused he was by the long kisses they had shared. Just as he could probably read similar signs from her.
“Much better than nice,” she assured him, her own voice breathy.
He rested his forehead against hers, releasing a long, slow sigh. He stroked his right hand slowly up and down her left arm, his touch both soothing and further arousing. “I’d better go on up to bed. Thanks for the neck rub. And…everything else.”
She blinked rapidly, trying to process what he’d just said. “You’re, um, going to bed?”
Alone? Not that she necessarily would have agreed to go with him if he’d asked, but—wasn’t he going to ask?
Drawing away from her, he gave her a crooked smile. “Yes. I told you, Jacqui, I won’t take advantage of our situation. Our sharing this house because of outside circumstances, I mean. It would be different if we were at your place, and you’d invited me in and one thing led to another…” He let the words drift off into a rueful shrug.
So that was why he had focused so fiercely on the TV the night before, sending her off to bed after their movie date with hardly a second look. Why he was drawing back tonight after kissing her until her willpower was decidedly weakened. He was being chivalrous. The jerk.
“I’m quite capable of making decisions for myself without being influenced by ‘outside circumstances,’” she said coolly. “If I choose not to be taken advantage of, trust me, there would be no advantage taken.”
He looked as though he might have laughed at her wording but was making an effort not to. Wise choice.
Catching his shirt in both hands, she pulled him into another hard kiss. She had started this tonight. She would call an end to it. Eventually.
The buzz of a cell phone broke them apart, winded and dazed and startled by the interruption. Mitch reached automatically for the phone on his belt, then stopped himself when they realized it was Jacqui’s rarely used, but always at hand, phone demanding attention.
Glancing at the screen, she frowned. She wouldn’t have been overly surprised had she seen Alice’s number displayed there, but it made her nervous to realize that it was Alice’s grandmother calling. “Hello?”
“Jacqui, it’s Paulette Burns,” the older woman said, confirming the caller ID. “Have you, um, heard from Alice?”
Jacqui felt herself go cold. “No. Why? What’s wrong?”
Mitch stirred beside her, probably picking up on her misgivings.
“She went to the lake with her friends for a picnic and a swim, followed by ice cream in town. They said they’d be back by nine but it’s ten now and we
haven’t heard from her. We’ve tried calling her cell, but she’s not answering. Of course, there are several places up here where it’s hard to get service, so she could be in one of those spots.”
Jacqui drew a very deep breath and counseled herself to speak calmly despite her rising distress. “What friends is she with, Mrs. Burns? She didn’t mention this plan to me.”
After a pause, Alice’s grandmother said, “She implied that you knew about it. It’s a few of her friends from there in Little Rock. Swim team friends, she said, so we didn’t worry about them swimming at the dam site. I believe there were four of them going, counting Alice. We told her to be careful and to be home by nine so she wouldn’t be out after dark. Harold’s thinking maybe he should drive around to see if he can find them.”
Jacqui moistened her suddenly dry lips. “Who’s driving Alice, Mrs. Burns? One of the mothers?”
“No, it’s that young man. Her uncle’s friend. He seemed quite nice and responsible. Michael?”
Jacqui looked at Mitch, who was watching her intently. “Do you mean Milo?”
“Yes, that’s it. Milo.”
“I’ll kill him,” Mitch muttered with a scowl.
“I’ll try to call her, and then I’ll call you right back,” Jacqui said into her phone. She needed a moment to collect herself, to think about what the next step should be. Call the police? Jump in her car and make the forty-five-minute drive to Heber Springs to look for Alice herself? “Give me five minutes.”
“All right. I’m sorry to worry you, but we weren’t exactly sure what to do. Alice has never done anything like this with us before.”
“What’s going on?” Mitch asked when Jacqui lowered her phone. Both of them were on their feet now, and he didn’t take his eyes off her face, which she knew must be drained of color.