Waking Up In The Wrong Bed

She fearlessly held eye contact. ‘You let the lady go first.’

‘Oh, that wasn’t gentlemanly. That was for my own pleasure.’ His lips curved more deeply into that delicious smile and he answered mock primly, ‘But, okay, if you insist, I shall avert my eyes.’

He presented her with his rear view. She just gawped for a second, before remembering her intention and dropping the sheet to hurriedly dash back across the room, around the bed to find her slip. Glancing down, she saw a couple of light bruises colouring her thigh. The faintest of finger marks. She remembered his firm clutch with vivid clarity. The squeezes as she’d slid down to take him to the hilt over and over. She turned her head away and screwed her eyes shut tight, as if she could block the blush as the involuntary excitement skittered through her.

‘Okay, I’m decent.’ Breathing in, she watched him turn back to face her. He was no more physically ‘relaxed’.

‘You were wearing that?’ He half gasped, theatrically pressing his hand against his ribs. ‘Damn, I wish you had turned on the lights.’

‘Stop it.’ She laughed. ‘You don’t need to try and flatter me.’

‘Yeah, I do.’ He walked towards her, totally serious now. ‘How can I not?’

She could see the muscles twitching under his skin. She’d never considered herself any kind of seductress before and she knew she wasn’t really now—it was that sexual toy thing. They shared an illicit fantasy for real. The guy was no doubt sex-mad. Insatiable. One track. Only problem with that was his condition had rubbed off on her. Hell, the thought of him finding her so attractive put a zing in her step. But to do this again—stone-cold sober and in the cold light of day? She wasn’t that crazy. She backed up, snatched up the towel from the low table next to her and threw it at him in defence.

He caught it and held it so it unfolded like a flag. ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’

Oh, hell, she’d not got the towel—only the facecloth that had sat on top of it. Pocket-hanky-sized—ridiculously small hanging from his hand.

‘I’m insulted,’ he teased. ‘I think you need a refresher in what I have to offer.’

‘Oh, don’t.’ She giggled, unable to hide her all-over-body blush in just the slip—she needed the sheet back. ‘Just...don’t.’

He chuckled. ‘I’m glad you can see the funny side.’

Biting her lip, she shook her head. ‘Oh, this is such a nightmare.’

‘Crazy, yes, nightmare, no. Don’t regret it.’

She steadfastly met the sincerity in his eyes. And the smile on his mouth. Yeah, she bet he’d experienced many a morning after. ‘You know how to give a girl a good time.’

‘I like to think it’s one of my strengths.’

Oh, it was.

He turned, his attention grabbed by something out of the window. ‘This Nathan guy,’ he muttered. ‘Wouldn’t have dark hair and laugh like a hyena?’

She reluctantly moved to stand next to him. Not a hyena, but a distinctive laugh. She remembered hearing it late last night, right when she shouldn’t have. Right when she’d breathlessly been falling towards sleep, when her lover had still been inside her and caressing the base of her spine with gentle fingers.

‘Oh.’ She swallowed the swearword when she saw Nathan kiss the pretty young woman they’d met at the bar in the late afternoon yesterday.

Naked Guy’s eyebrows had shot upwards. ‘It looks like he might have been sharing his flirt around.’

Just a little.

‘It’s like a French farce,’ Ellie muttered. But it was real. ‘In a chateau and everything.’ She felt her mystery lover turn his gaze on her and refused to show any kind of disappointment.

‘I can’t believe you mistook me for him,’ Naked Guy accused in a tone of utter outrage. ‘He’s at least five inches shorter than I am. And not as fit.’ He flexed his muscles in a preening display.

Yeah, they were poles apart. This guy was way more outrageous than Nathan. Bold in flirtation. In his demands. Desire. He tempted with humour and cheerful abandon.

‘You were lying down,’ she said through gritted teeth.

‘And you hadn’t slept with him.’ He sounded pleased about that.

She didn’t reply. She knew she’d admitted that last night in her amazed gasps of pleasure. They both watched the couple in the courtyard for another moment.

Her tall lover was the one to break the silence, turning to face her directly. ‘Well, I’ll be frank, I think you got the better deal.’

She gaped at him. Then giggled. ‘Arrogant much?’ She laughed again only for the sound to die quickly as she shook her head and gave it to him. ‘But I’ll admit in this case, I think you might be right.’

‘You think?’ he asked, mock-outraged. ‘Come on, you know that was spectacular.’

She felt her blush rising again as memories twisted between them, trying to draw them together.

‘Well.’ She breathed out, brazening her way through the most mortifying experience of her life. ‘Okay. Yes. Thanks so much, it was...’ She couldn’t think of an appropriate adjective.

‘Fantastic and you can’t wait to see me again,’ he inserted for her.

She shook her head. ‘No.’ She tempered the bad news with a smile. ‘This was what it was.’ One almighty screw-up. ‘But we’re not going there again.’

‘Oh, come on.’ He walked forward. ‘That hot, that quick?’ He shook his head. ‘We’d be crazy not to enjoy that again. You want to as much as I do.’ His gaze flickered to her chest. She didn’t need to look down to know her nipples were turned on like bright beacons, begging for his touch again.

Oh, yeah, she was tempted.

‘It had been a while for you, hadn’t it?’

‘Last full moon,’ she said breathlessly.

‘Liar.’ He called her on it. ‘You’re blushing more than a gaggle of schoolgirls. You can hardly look at me. You’re no vixen. Although it has to be said you have potential.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘And you’re offering to give me a bit more practice?’

‘Of course I am,’ he said simply. ‘It had been a while for me too.’

She snorted. That she simply didn’t believe.

His grin flashed. ‘Truth. I’ve been busy at work and I haven’t had any midnight callers. But you’ve really whet my appetite.’

Had she? It wasn’t only his appetite piqued.

‘I know it was an unconventional way of meeting, but we’re good together.’

For a moment Ellie let fantasy rule—imagined being with him again for another round or thirty of spectacular sex. Fantasy morphed—from this they’d develop some wonderful relationship that would rival the highest-grossing Hollywood chick flick’s happiest of endings... And, yeah, there was the problem. In the past she’d given too much where it wasn’t wanted. She’d been crushed before; she wouldn’t be daft enough to set herself up for a similar sort of heartache. She knew herself, before long she’d want the full fantasy. But a guy like this wasn’t the sort to do happy ever after. She’d seen his unveiled edge—unashamed, reckless—a complete playboy. Someone who could go along with an anonymous one-night stand with such relaxed, outrageous humour? Too, too casual. And while she could live with a casual—frankly marvellous—mistake in her life, it had to be one-off. Her non-plan with Nathan had been for just the once. This definitely had to be just the once. Naked Guy here was just too fit for her to keep up with.

‘It can’t happen.’ Her final decision.

‘Not because of Nathan.’ Statement not question.