Hold on Tight Read Online Free Page A

lower back, slipping lower, lower … Wait a minute, her logical mind protested. Unless he had a third arm, a very unusual talent for magic, or a friend in the back seat, he couldn’t possibly rub her rump with both hands and pull her jacket off one shoulder at the same time.
    Dinah jerked her mouth away from his. “It’s happenin’ fast, I know,” Rucker said soothingly, his lips brushingher cheek. “It’s not wrong, though. Nothing’s ever been so right—”
    “I’m being attacked by something!”
    “Me, too, hon. Isn’t it wonderful?”
    “No, no! Really attacked!” She twisted frantically and came face to face with the possum, which was clinging fervently to her shoulder. Dinah yelped and the possum squeaked. Then its eyes glazed over and it tumbled limply down her back onto the seat.
    “You scared it!” Rucker said reproachfully. He reached around her and scooped the small animal into his hand. Dinah cringed away from it and slid into the far corner of the car, her pulse pounding desperately. Insanity had started with a torrid kiss and ended with a fainting marsupial. She gathered her senses for a moment, wondering what in the world had happened to her. Prudence had deserted pride and perseverance.
    “It’s playing possum, I assume?” she said coldly. She straightened her jacket with an authoritative tug.
    “As a matter of fact, yes. Poor critter.”
    He stroked the limp little animal with obvious concern. Dinah’s heart softened and she reached over to pet the possum too. After a moment it came to and wobbled upright.
    “Mr. McClure, I’d like to go back to my car at city hall now, thank you. Your possum and I are in the same discombobulated state.”
    He reached out and stroked her cheek as languidly as he’d been stroking the possum’s back. “Feel better?” he asked several seconds later. Her skin was fiery under his touch.
    “I’m fine,” she said. “Let’s go.”
    “When can you and I—”
    “Never. Please go back to Birmingham and don’t make fun of me or my town anymore.”
    “Look here, Dinah, after that kiss—”
    “That’s all she wrote, Rucker. You’re looking for a Playmate Slave of the Year, and I’m not interested.”
    “You’re not givin’ me a chance.”
    “Please. I don’t want to discuss this anymore. I’msorry I got carried away and kissed you,” she said firmly.
    “Uh-uh. I don’t believe that any more than I believe in TV weathermen. We’ll just drive on back, and you calm down, and then we’ll talk.”
    “We’ve finished talking. We’ve finished, period.”
    His face grim, he set the possum down between them and started the car. Music that sounded to Dinah like eight hundred dueling banjos—some of them dying from the duel, if their pitiful twangs were any indication—filled the car as Rucker drove back down Main Street.
    “You just ran our red light,” Dinah said.
    “What red light?”
    “Our only red light. And the police chief saw you. You’d better pull over.”
    An incredulous look on his face, Rucker glanced back at the traitorous red light that swung over the intersection by the Twittle County Courthouse. Lights flashing, a police car came after the Cadillac.
    “I’m damned doomed,” he said.
    Police Chief Dewey Dunne was one of Mount Pleasant’s most prominent black citizens, a Baptist deacon, and a stickler for rules. He tipped his hat to Dinah.
    “Mornin’, Dinah.”
    “Morning, Dewey.”
    “Morning, sir,” Rucker echoed. Dewey scanned Rucker’s driver’s license with a scowl on his beefy face.
    “This is expired, Mr. McClure.”
    “Nah. Let me … hmmmm … reckon so, sir.”
    “Where’s your proof of insurance, Mr. McClure?”
    Rucker winced. He turned to Dinah with beseeching eyes. “Haven’t you got any clout?” he asked.
    “Not with the chief,” she answered primly. “Haven’t you got an insurance card?”
    “My washing machine washed it. It’s currently stuck in the filter, in about two