Naked Pursuit

“I mean, I’ve never been kicked out of a roller rink before.”

Owen’s chest rose as he chuckled. “I’ll never get a big head around you.”

She lifted her head to gaze at the glowing red numbers on the bedside clock. “It’s been hours since PharmaTest gave us that medication. Even if we weren’t on the placebo, with the passage of time and the adrenaline we’ve burned through since escaping that place, I’m thinking any immediate effects would have passed. Guess we really didn’t need the cuffs. Memories of tonight still intact.” Forever.

“I’d search again for the keys, but I have this gorgeous brunette pinning me to the bed.”

She snuggled against his side. “You complaining?”

“No, ma’am.”

“You know, I kind of feel sorry for that lady who checked us out.”

“Larissa?” he asked.

Stella snapped her fingers. “That’s her name—good memory. Poor woman. There she was, just trying to do her job, and she wound up with the four of us.”

“And she was right. Participating in medical studies like that is important to me, and we made it way more difficult for her.”

Stella bit back the urge to ask him more about why he’d participated in the drug trial. She’d been volunteering for medical experiments since her freshman year of college. Growing up in a house of physicians, she understood the value of medical research. But Owen had suggested he’d lost someone. This drug trial must have been much more personal for him.

“How’d you end up at PharmaTest? The plates on your truck say Colorado.”

“The building used to be the volunteer center for a different organization. Thought I might kill a few hours there until I met up with my family. Which reminds me, I should call my mom so she’s not waiting.”

“We should also call Larissa. Just to let her know we’re okay.”

“Good idea. I think the number was on the ID bracelets.”

Stella slid out of bed and started for the dresser across the room, only to be jerked back. She lost her balance and landed on the bed with a flop. “That didn’t go as planned.”

He leaned over her, his head upside down in relation to hers, and kissed her forehead. “Guess we’ll have to go together.”

He walked behind her toward her partially torn blouse. It had been so cute at one point. Oh, well, no use mourning when her top had given its life for her pursuit of pleasure.

“Please tell me you aren’t going to try to put it on for a third time.”

“Hadn’t crossed my mind.” Yet. She tugged her phone from the pocket of her discarded shirt and grabbed the PharmaTest bands off the dresser, Owen close behind. She turned and his gaze lifted.

“Were you checking out my butt?”

“Not anymore.”

Because now his gaze flipped between her breasts and her eyes. Her nipples hardened like they’d been caressed, and Stella smiled. She enjoyed being desired by this man. She wanted nothing more than to slip between the sheets beside him again.

After carefully dialing the number on the bands, she pressed the speaker function on her phone. The call went to voice mail.

“Hi, this message is for Larissa at PharmaTest. This is Stella Holbrook.”

“And Owen Perkins,” he said into the phone.

“We just called to let you know we’re great and you have nothing to worry about. In fact, we’re staying in the most beautiful room on the second floor at the Market Gardens. We hope we didn’t cause too many problems for you when we bailed on the test earlier. Bye.”

Stella pushed End.

“Do you feel better?”

“Yes, and we made that call just in time. My phone died.” Stella left her phone on the bedside table and tossed the wristbands into the trash. After the shortest conversation a man could have with his family, Owen closed his phone and leaned against the stack of fluffy pillows. Then she settled against his chest and closed her eyes.

He drew a lazy pattern on her back. “Stella, this was kind of a rough day for me, and tonight, being with you...just, thanks.”

“Mmm.”

“You falling asleep on me?”

“Who are you again?” she asked, her voice heavy with sleep.

Beside her, Owen tensed. “Are you serious?” he asked.

“Just kidding,” Stella told him, her mouth wide with a smile. But she couldn’t keep her eyes from closing again.

His arm tightened around her shoulders while his cuffed hand gently squeezed hers. “Say my name,” he urged.

“Owen.” Then, like a patient inescapably lulled by the pull of anesthesia, she succumbed to sleep.

* * *

STELLA’S EYELIDS FLUTTERED open slowly. It was a rare day when she woke up without the help of an alarm. On one side, she was deliciously warm. But on the other, her backside was frozen against the hard, cold marble of a...bathtub?

She forced her eyes open. She wasn’t snuggled into a cozy blanket; her head was cradled on...on a warm male thigh.

And the man...whoever he was...his body clearly liked what it assumed would be happening next.

“Ahh!” Her voice was a cross between a yelp and a shriek. Stella scrambled away from the man, her hand slapping against his skin. She flew up and off the stranger at a record-setting pace, only for something to catch her wrist and force her back down. Hard.

Her eyes met his, then lowered. Was that a flame tattoo on his...

“Who the hell are you?” she asked, looking up. Way up.

His eyes narrowed, the brown in his hazel eyes growing dark. “Who am I? Who are you? And careful, you almost got me. You’ve got a mean left arm.”

Yeah, because her right arm was cuffed to his left. “Sorry, I was startled. I don’t wake up every morning with a man’s hardware staring me in the face.”

“This is new to me, too,” he mumbled. “This marble is cold. How about we get out of the tub?”

And maybe they could find him a robe or something, because...wow. When she wasn’t noticing his tattoo or his hardware, she realized this man packed a pretty serious punch. A solid chest with that perfect T of chest hair. Ripped and toned, the guy worked out. Religiously. Normally she didn’t go for the big-and-strong type. She preferred the science geeks, like her.

She wrapped her hand around the corner of the black-and-white marble tub, and together they stood. She sucked in a breath.