My Man Pendleton(35)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

Ignoring for a moment the fact that he slept in the buff, Pendleton pushed himself up on one elbow to get a closer look at his companion. Of course, he knew who it was without seeing her face, but something inside him was still clinging steadfastly enough to denial that he reached a hand out toward her. He meant to touch the blanket, to tug it and the sheet back just enough to see if it really was Kit McClellan and not some other blond, madcap heiress who had invaded his bed. But instead of the blanket, his fingers wandered to her hair, skimming lightly over the silky tresses before winding a single dark gold ringlet around his thumb.

That was when Kit began to stir with more purpose, rolling back to face him again. It was she, not he, who pushed the blanket down past her shoulders, and when she did, Pendleton saw that he wasn’t the only one who slept in the buff.

“Miss McClellan,” he said, his voice a rough whisper. “What are you doing in my bed?”

She shoved a fistful of hair out of her eyes and smiled sleepily. “Well, good morning to you, too, Pendleton. Brrr,” she added with a shiver. “It’s freezing in here. You need to get yourself a couple of cats. Or a woman.”

“Thank you, but I feel the need for neither. What are you doing in my bed?” he repeated. “How did you get here?”

“I drove, silly,” she murmured sleepily. “Your address is in Daddy’s Rolodex. I had a little trouble finding a parking place out front, though, so I had to double park. I didn’t realize one of your neighbors was a Louisville Metro police officer.”

Pendleton sighed. “That would be my next door neighbor. Captain Nichols.”

“Oooh. Do you think he’ll get mad when he realizes he’s boxed in by a Mercedes S-class?”

“I have no idea. Those guys that hang out across the street in Central Park might notice, though. The Gang o’ Car Thieves, I think is what they call themselves.”

Kit sighed dramatically. “My car keys are in my purse by the back door. Would you mind terribly moving it for me? There’s a good boy.”

He ignored her question and posed one of his own instead. “What I meant by ‘How did you get here?’ wasn’t an inquiry into what manner of transportation brought you to my doorstep. What I want to know is how you got past that doorstep and into my house. My bed.”

She yawned like a bored cat. “Oh, that. Funny thing about old houses. The locks are generally sooo easy to pick.”

“You broke into my house?” he asked, surprised at how calm he managed to keep his voice, not to mention himself.

She wrinkled her nose a bit. “Mmm…I prefer to think of it as illegal entry.”

“Interesting distinction. And exactly where did you learn this particular trade? Glenview doesn’t seem the kind of environment where such skills are passed down from one generation to the next.”

“You might be surprised,” she murmured. She yawned again, lustily this time, and scrubbed her hands through her hair. “All right. If you must know, when I was seventeen, I dated a guy who was something of a lovable rogue. Until Holt and Mick had him arrested. He was still a lovable rogue after that,” she hastened to clarify, “but his presence behind bars did put something of a damper on our relationship.” She shrugged her—quite naked—shoulders philosophically. “I guess I should be grateful he was nailed for something he actually did, and not because they trumped up some charge of armed robbery against him.”

Pendleton only gazed at her in silence for a moment. “You dated a guy who committed armed robbery?”

She made a face. “Of course not. I said that would have been the charge my brothers had trumped up against him. Actually, Turk—”

“Turk? His name was really Turk?”

“—just ran numbers. He only served six months.” She shrugged again, less philosophically this time. “But he didn’t want to see me anymore after he got out. Go figure. In spite of that, our short time together was one of my more productive relationships. It lasted four whole weeks.”

Pendleton told himself that the only reason his righteous outrage toward her seemed to be fading some was because he was half-asleep and she was totally naked. Surely once they were up and at ’em, he’d be offended to full capacity once again.

“All right,” he conceded softly, “now that we have established how you got in here, I suppose the next item on our agenda would be why you got in here.”

She smiled sweetly. “I thought I might move in with you for a while.”

She thought she might move in with him for a while. That was a good one. Pendleton almost laughed. She sighed with much contentment, then continued, “Cherrywood is just so… I don’t know…overdone. It’s so big, you can get lost in that place. I could really use a change of scenery. And since you and hit it off so well down in the Caribbean, I thought it might be fun for us to be roomies.”

She thought it might be fun for them to be roomies. That was another good one. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to break a rib laughing so hard.

“Miss McClellan,” he began.

“Gee, Pendleton. You might as well call me Kit. After all, we have slept together.”

“We have not—”

“Yes, we have. And Daddy’s absolutely delighted about it, let me tell you.”

Well, that certainly brought him wide awake. “Excuse me?”

“I said Daddy’s absolutely delighted about us sleeping together. He came home last night just as I was leaving with my bags, and I told him all about us.”

He chuckled anxiously. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”

Kit giggled contentedly. “Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

“Miss McClellan—”

“Kit.”

“Miss McClellan, I don’t think you realize what you’re saying.”

“Actually, Pendleton, it’s you who doesn’t realize what I’m saying. There’s so much more underlying this conversation than meets the ear. You can’t possibly imagine.”

“Try me.”

“Nah. If you knew what I was talking about, all the fun would go right out of it.”

“Miss McClellan—”

“Kit,” she insisted. “Come on, Pendleton. You said my name out loud once already without any trouble at all. What’s the problem?”

What’s the problem? he echoed to himself. The problem was that he’d said her name out loud once already without any trouble at all. But instead of explaining that to her, he replied, “There’s a little something we need to address here. Immediately, in fact.”