“My first date with a multimillionaire,” she grumbled, “and this is what I get.”

“Don’t hurt my feelings and tell me you’ve already seen the movie.”

She smiled and grabbed the door handle to keep from banging against it. Despite her grumbling, she wasn’t exactly displeased with the idea of being alone with him at this abandoned drive-in. It would benefit their baby, she told herself, if she and Cal got to know each other a little better.

The Jeep’s headlights swept the deserted lot, which looked like an eerie science-fiction landscape with its concentric mounds of earth and row upon row of metal speaker poles. The car lurched as he headed toward the rear of the drive-in, and she grabbed the dashboard with one hand while she instinctively covered her abdomen with the other.

He glanced over. “Waking the little guy up?”

It was the first time he’d acknowledged her pregnancy with anything other than hostility. She felt as if a blossom had slowly unfurled inside her, and she smiled.

He turned into the back row. “He can go back to sleep in a minute. That is, if he’s not too busy solving equations.”

“You won’t think it’s so funny when she starts grouping her Cheerios in multiples of ten while the other kids are gumming away at them.”

“I swear, you’re the most worryin’ woman I’ve ever met. You act like having a brain is the worst tragedy on earth. The boy’ll be fine. Just look at me. Having a brain didn’t bother me any.”

“That’s because you keep yours under lock and key.”

“Well, lock yours up for a while so we can enjoy the damn movie.”

There was nothing much she could say to that, so she didn’t try.

He moved to the center of the last row, just in front of a sagging chain-link fence, and pulled into one of the spaces so that the front wheels were elevated by the dirt mound. He picked up the speaker, brought it into the car, hung it on top of the steering wheel, then closed the window to shut out the chilly night air. She refrained from mentioning that the speaker had no cord.

He turned off the headlights and the engine, plunging them into darkness relieved only by a sliver of quarter moon. She shifted her attention to the distant screen, which was bisected by a silvery shaft of moonlight. “We should have gotten here earlier so we could get better seats.”

“The back row’s the best.”

“Why is that?”

“No little kids lookin’ through the windows. I like my privacy when I’m makin’out.”

She swallowed hard. “Did you bring me here to make out?”

“Pretty much.”

“Oh.”

“You got a problem with that?” The moon slipped beneath a bank of clouds, leaving them in darkness. He flicked on the overhead light, and she saw the corner of his mouth kick up, making him the very picture of a self-satisfied man. He twisted toward the backseat, reached down, and came up with a large bag of grocery-store pop-corn.

Her brain was flashing out warning signals at the exact speed of light, but she was in no mood to listen. She’d wanted to be courted, and he was doing that, even if he’d chosen a peculiar way to go about it. And no matter what he said, she didn’t think he still hated her because he smiled too much when they were together.

He was also wily as a fox, she reminded herself, and he’d made no secret of the fact that he desired her. Since his moral code seemed to dictate fidelity, at least for the next few months, he either had to seduce her or go without. She wanted to believe he would be pursuing her even if they weren’t caught in this impossible situation, but she couldn’t quite make that leap of faith. Maybe she could strike a compromise.

“I don’t have a problem with it as long as you understand that I won’t go all the way on a first date.”

He opened the bag and took out a handful of popcorn. “I respect you for that.’Course, maybe we should discuss exactly how you’re calculating when we had our first date. I seem to remember a surprise birthday-”

“Cal…”

He tossed the popcorn into his mouth. “There’s some beer and juice in a cooler in the backseat. See if you can reach over there and get it.”

She turned around and saw a small Styrofoam cooler resting on the seat. She knelt and reached back for it, only to find herself being gently, but forcibly, upended. As she awkwardly scrambled to balance herself on the rear seat, she heard a chuckle that had a faintly diabolical sound to it.

“Good idea, sweetheart. I’ll just come right back there with you.”

Before she could react, he had let himself out the driver’s door, opened the back, and settled down next to her.

“Jeez…” She straightened her blouse. “Fathers must have locked up their daughters when they saw you coming.”

“I didn’t develop my best moves ’til I was in college.”

“Why don’t you just be quiet and watch the movie.”

“Hand me one of those beers first.”

She did as he asked, taking a can of apple juice for herself and refusing the popcorn. He sipped his beer; she sipped her juice. They both leaned their heads back against the seat in companionable silence, with the dome light glowing above them.

He stretched his arm across the seat behind her. “This movie’s making me horny.”

Her heart gave a queer thump in her chest. “Which part? Where Maria sings about the hills being alive with the sound of music? Or is it that do re mi thing the kids are doing?”

A grin flicked across that hard mouth. “It’s Maria, all right. You’ve just got to wonder what’s underneath that apron she’s wearing.”

The discussion was definitely getting dangerous. She couldn’t remember feeling more at sea and less in touch with herself. She decided to buy a little time with a change of subject. “What have you been doing with your time when you’re not meeting with the local business leaders?”

At first she didn’t think he’d answer, but he shrugged. “I work out at the Y, visit friends, take care of some business. Today I spent a couple of hours at Dad’s office. He likes it when I hang around.” He frowned.

“Something wrong?”

“Not really. I don’t know. I guess the problems he and Mom are having are more serious than I thought.” The crease in his forehead deepened. “He said she’s gone to stay with Annie for a while. I thought he meant overnight, but it seems she’s been there since the weekend, and today he told me she doesn’t have any plans to come back.”

“Oh, dear.”

“I can’t understand her doing something like this. It really has him upset.” He drained his beer and glared at her. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore, so would you mind keeping your questions to yourself.”

He was the one who’d volunteered the information, but she didn’t call him on it.

He jabbed his empty can toward the distant screen. “With all your chattering, I can’t keep my mind on the movie, and Maria’s singing one of my favorite songs. Damn, but that woman looks good naked.”

“Maria does not sing naked in The Sound of Music!”

“I’ve got perfect eyesight, and that woman is naked as the day she was born. You can even see her-”

“You’re mistaken. The person who’s naked is Baron von Trapp. And he is certainly one impressive figure of a man.”

“You call that impressive? That puny-”

“I do.”

“Man-oh-man, if you think that’s impressive, I could sure make you one happy woman.”

“Braggart.”Had she gone completely crazy? She was deliberately baiting him.

“You, on the other hand, might have warts on your belly for all I know.”

“I do not have warts on my belly.”

“Says you.” He took her apple juice from her hand, and tossed it, along with his beer can, into the cooler, which he picked up and put in the front seat. “Okay, you can show me now.”

“Show you what?”

“I’m being serious here. If you’ve got warts, my boy’s gonna end up with them, and if that’s true, I need time to prepare myself.”

“You are a certifiable lunatic.”

“Just unzip your jeans a little bit there. Enough for me to get a peek.”

“No!”

“Okay, then. I’ll have to go by feel.”

She slapped his hands away as he reached for the snap. “I told you I’d make out with you! I didn’t say I’d let you give me a medical exam.”

By the time she realized what she’d said, he was grinning as if he’d just won the lottery. “That’s right, you did say you’d make out. Well, come on now, honey. Show me your stuff.”

“I will not.”

“Coward.”

“I won’t be baited.”

“You’re scared to make out with me.” In one motion, he pulled off her bulky sweatshirt and tossed it on top of the discarded cooler. “Scared you won’t be able to handle me. You are one big scaredy-cat.”

“I am not.”

“Scared to show me what you’ve got. Scared you won’t measure up to all those thousands of women in my past.”

“There aren’t thousands of women in your past.”

His grin looked so much like a fox’s that she could almost see the chicken feathers stuck to his mouth.

Her heart thudded against her ribs. She was frightened, aroused, and amused all at the same time, which made it difficult to frown and sound grouchy. “Oh, all right. I guess I’ll make out with you. But keep your hands to yourself.”

“That’s not fair since I’m gonna let you put yours wherever you want.”

A dozen locations sprang to mind. “I’m sure I won’t want to.”

“I seriously hope that’s not true.” He switched off the dome light and plunged them into darkness so thick she felt as if the stars had been turned off.

Her eyes gradually adjusted enough to make out his shape, if not his features. He cupped her shoulder, and she felt him come close. “Maybe you just need me to remind you where some of the best places are.” His lips brushed past her trashy hoop earring and settled on the tender spot beneath. “This one, for example, is a nice warm-up spot.”

She caught her breath and wondered how he knew she was sensitive there. “If you’re going to talk through this, could you at least manage to say ain’t a few times so I can fantasize?”

His lips tugged on her earlobe, right next to the gold wire, and his elbow bumped against the door. “Who could you fantasize about that’s better than me?”

“Well…” She struggled to speak as her skin turned to goose flesh.“There’s this studmuffin physicist who used to be a top-quark hunter at Fermilabs…”

“I doubt he says ain’t.” He played at the corner of her mouth. “You’re supposed to be showing me what you’re made of. So far I’m doing all the work here.”

She lost what remained of her restraint and tilted her head just far enough for her lips to meet his. The contact jolted her so that she forgot all about playing games, and as their kiss deepened, she abandoned herself to the pleasure of the erotic. She tasted beer and popcorn, along with a hint of toothpaste and something dangerous that reminded her of thunder.

“You are the damnedest woman,” he whispered.

She kissed him again. He pulled her shirttail free, and his big hands, strong and possessive, settled on the skin beneath. His thumbs trailed up the small ridges of her spine ’til they came to her bra, then he whispered against her open mouth. “We have to get rid of this, Rosebud.”

She didn’t even consider arguing. As she enjoyed the sweet invasion of his tongue, he made short work of the buttons on her blouse, despite the fact that the darkness kept him from seeing exactly what he was doing, then he released the front hook on her bra. His movements were accompanied by bumps and thuds as he banged against one part of the car or another.

He bent to take her in his mouth. Her nipples were tender from her pregnancy, and when he began to suckle her, she bucked and dug her fingers into his hair. The exquisite pain of the gentle suction left her wanting both to cry out for him to stop and beg him not to.

She knew she had to touch him as he was touching her, and she dragged at his T-shirt. The interior of the car had grown hot and steamy, and the soft cotton felt damp beneath her hands. Her shoulder bumped against the window, and she felt the moisture that had congealed on it seep through her blouse.

He helped her free his T-shirt, then turned his attention to her jeans. He pitched her shoes into the front seat, then tugged at the denim while she explored the contours of his bare chest.

She gave an oof of surprise when he whipped off her jeans and her naked bottom came in contact with the cold upholstery. The shock jolted her and suddenly everything seemed to be happening too fast. She needed to think this over, weigh the facts, consider her options. “I didn’t… I don’t…”

“Hush.”His husky whisper filled the steamy interior as he cupped her thigh and pushed it away from its mate. She heard a soft curse.