The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [120]
Morgan started the engine, then reached for her hand. “When you were arrested, they cuffed you?”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” She tried to pull away, but he held her hand tight and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. He did that a lot, grabbing hold of her and not letting her go. This time she appreciated the touch. She curled her fingers around his.
“I imagine you were,” he said, speaking about the arrest in a matter-of-fact way. “It’s pretty much policy these days, for safety reasons.”
She chewed her lip, then slowly closed her eyes, giving up. “It was the most degrading moment of my entire life. It was bad enough when Mr. Collins accused me of stealing the money, and I couldn’t believe it when he actually called the cops.”
“Mr. Collins?”
“My boss at Vision Videos. I kept thinking somehow things would get straightened out, that they’d realize there’d been a mistake.”
“They didn’t find the money on you?”
“No, because I didn’t have it.” She glared at him, then asked, “You think I’m guilty, don’t you?”
Morgan was silent as they pulled onto the main road. He drove with one hand, still holding onto her with the other. Finally he muttered, “To be honest, I have serious doubts.”
“Really?”
He glanced at her. “But if you did do it, I’d understand, okay?”
There was that damn honesty again; he wasn’t convinced of her innocence, but he’d allow for the possibility. She almost laughed. For a man who wanted to get intimate with a woman, he wasn’t going about it in the usual way—with lies and deceptions that would soften her up. “Even the lawyer I hired didn’t believe me, not really.”
“The evidence must have been pretty strong.”
“Yeah, the fact that I’m a pregnant, supposedly desperate female was proof positive that I’d steal from a man I’d worked with for two years, even though I’d never been in trouble before in my life.”
“Your boss knew you were pregnant?”
“Morning sickness kind of gives you away. That and the fact that I suddenly had more nights free.” Misty was only vaguely aware of the beautiful scenery as they drove down the long road. The sun was bright, the day hot, but the air-conditioning in the truck had her feeling chilly.
Or maybe it was the dredging of memories that made her feel so cold inside. “I wasn’t dating Kent anymore, and I knew that with the baby coming I needed to save up more money, so I’d offered to work more overtime.” She slanted Morgan a look. “That made me seem guilty, too, by the way. My boss said small amounts of money had been missing several nights in a row, which was the first I’d heard of it, but he claimed that was why he’d come in unexpectedly to check on me that day, and found the money missing.”
“When exactly did this all take place?”
She told him the exact day she’d been arrested.
Morgan surprised her by lifting her hand to his mouth and then turning it to gently kiss her palm. “I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable riding with me.”
Misty held her breath as his mouth moved against the sensitive skin of her palm. That, added to the gentle way he had of speaking to her sometimes, left her feeling vaguely empty and jumpy inside.
She swallowed hard. “After everything I’ve been through, it’s silly to let a little ride get to me. But you just can’t imagine what it was like. There were tons of people gathered outside the video store when I was arrested. They led me out in handcuffs and I just wanted to die. I thought I’d be glad to get in the car, where people couldn’t see me, but instead, it seemed we hit every red light and folks in the other cars would stare.”
Morgan slowed for a deer that ran across the road, distracting Misty for the moment. He spoke quietly, holding her hand on his thigh. “Sweetheart, people are always going to stare at you, no matter what, because you’re beautiful. That’s something you just ought to get used to.”
Laughing helped to wash