Yours Forever. Farrah Rochon
A few minutes later there was a knock on her door. She opened it to find Matt loaded down with her luggage.
“Where can I put these?” he asked.
Just as she was about to answer, the customer-service rep came back on the line. Tamryn pointed to the area in front of the bed and held her finger up, asking him to wait.
“I already told you that the road where the car is located didn’t have any signs. It was just a dirt road,” she told the woman on the other end of the line.
Matt gestured for her to give him the phone. Her brows hitched, silently asking, Are you sure? He nodded and crooked his fingers. She handed him the phone and crossed her arms over her chest, eager to see if he would be able to make any progress.
“Hello,” he spoke into the phone. His voice was incredibly smooth and vastly different from the clipped tone he’d used when rushing her off the phone the few times she’d been able to get past the office manager at his law firm.
“Do you have your own towing service, or do you contract out to the closest local company?” he asked the customer-service rep. “I figured as much. If you’re going with Beauregard’s Towing, it’ll probably be Wayne who gets the call. Just tell him it’s the road off of Highway 421 that leads to Ponderosa Pond. He’ll know where to find the car.” He nodded again. “I’m sure. Tell him to call this number if he has any problems.” He rattled off a phone number and handed the phone back to Tamryn.
“Uh...yeah,” Tamryn stammered. “Did you get all that?” The woman confirmed the directions and told her another rental car would be delivered by tomorrow morning.
“Thank you,” Tamryn said before hanging up. She turned to Matt. “And thank you. I’ve spent the past twenty minutes trying to explain where I left the car. I don’t know if you were going for your merit badge, but you’ve definitely earned it today.”
He held three fingers above his brow in the Boy Scout salute. Then he smiled again. It was slow and easy, and just a little bit devastating.
For several moments they just stood there staring at each other. Normally, she would have felt awkward, but for some reason, she didn’t. Maybe because it was hard to feel anything past the excited charge rushing through her bloodstream.
It was the dimples. The dimples were killing her.
“Thanks for bringing my bags,” Tamryn said, gesturing to the luggage, but not breaking eye contact. “You really didn’t have to do that. I’ve interrupted your day enough already.”
“It was a welcome interruption.” His eyes sparkled with a sexy mischief that did nothing to subdue the attraction she was trying to pretend wasn’t there. He paused for a beat, then asked, “Would you like to go to dinner?”
Tamryn’s head reared back slightly.
So he’s not a fan of subtlety.
“There’s dinner here,” she said.
Another flash of that smile. Tamryn was stunned at how readily it came, especially when she considered how unfriendly he’d seemed the few times she’d spoken to him on the phone. She liked this Matthew Gauthier a thousand times more than the one who’d thwarted her attempts to communicate for the past six months.
“I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with Phil’s cooking,” he said. He took a couple of steps toward her, reached forward and captured her wrist. He ran his thumb lazily back and forth over the pulse there, and for Tamryn, breathing suddenly became the most difficult thing in the world.
“However,” Matt continued, “I can think of a few other places where we can have a nice, quiet meal together. Maybe enjoy a glass of wine while you tell me what brought you to our cozy little town. Why don’t you let me take you to dinner?”
Her entire being screamed yes, but thankfully, she still possessed the good sense to shake her head in the negative.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Tamryn said.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “It’s been such a long day.”
And the last time she’d called him, he’d threatened to file harassment charges against her. She could only assume that the dinner invitations would not be forthcoming once he realized just whom he’d invited to dinner.
There was also the fact that all she really knew about him were the few tidbits she’d unearthed during her internet searches, and the fact that his ass looked spectacular in denim. And the dimples. Couldn’t forget about the dimples.
She couldn’t forget her purpose for being here, either. She’d come to Louisiana to work. She would love to sit down with Matthew Gauthier for a few hours and talk, but wine and candlelight dinners could not be a part of the equation.
“It just wouldn’t be a good idea,” Tamryn stated.
A touch of disappointment ghosted over his face, but then the smile returned. “You have had an eventful introduction to Gauthier,” he said. “Tomorrow, then? Or at least sometime before you leave town. My good deed warrants at least a dinner, doesn’t it?”
Her arms crossed over her chest, Tamryn cocked her head to the side. “You didn’t tell me there would be a price when you offered me a ride.”
His eyes, which she realized were a remarkable shade of hazel and green, sparkled with amusement. “You didn’t ask.”
She refused to let that smile affect her.
“What if I’m not willing to pay your asking price? Will you haul me onto that bike and drop me back in the middle of nowhere?”
“Won’t be necessary,” he said. “You’ll eventually agree to dinner.”
Her brow lifted. “You sound so confident.”
He didn’t answer, just continued to grin with that cocky self-assuredness as he backed out of the room.
Tamryn walked over to the door and continued to stare as he made his way down the hallway. He looked back at her, the overconfident grin still in place.
Oh, yeah. This would definitely be an interesting summer.
Chapter 2
Matthew Gauthier searched through the chaos cluttering his desk, lifting files and thumbing through mail that had lingered unopened for well over a week.
“Matt, are you still there?”
“I’m here,” he called in the direction of his cell, which lay on his desk in speakerphone mode. “Why didn’t you leave the papers with Carmen? You know she’s better at keeping track of things than I am.”
“Because you told me to leave them on your desk,” Benjamin Keller answered. “If you have a chance in hell of getting through this campaign successfully, you will have to get it together, Matt.”
“Yes, yes, I know.” Matt ran across a file he’d been looking for last week, and underneath it found the forms his campaign manager had left on his desk. “I found them.”
“Thank God.” Ben’s sigh came through the phone.
Matt had made public his plans to run for the state-senate seat in his district some time ago, but had held off filing the paperwork until today. He would drive out to Baton Rouge this afternoon so he could officially file with the state.
“Log in to instant messenger,” Ben said. “I’m sending you a link to a YouTube commercial your future opponent’s camp released today.”
“Another one?”
Matt ran a hand down his face, cursing as he turned to his computer. He clicked on the link as soon as the message bubble popped up. The video began with a baby screaming at the top of his lungs and the words Little Matthew Gauthier just keeps whining