Married In The Morning

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One

Gina Martin awakened to the sound of the shower. Cool, satiny sheets caressed her bare limbs. The room smelled of cinnamon.

Cinnamon?

Her eyes sprang open, causing a spasm of pain to ricochet around inside her head, and she snapped them closed again. But not before she saw that she wasn’t in her bedroom. From the type of furniture and shape and style of the room, she knew she was in a hotel.

She was in a hotel.

Someone was in the shower.

She was naked.

Oh…

My…

Lord.

Odd images floated around in her brain…

She and Gerrick Green, a vice president in her family’s grocery store conglomerate, Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, had met unexpectedly at a small neighborhood bar, where each was supposed to be joining a friend for dinner.…

Enough time had passed for both to realize they had been stood up. She by her friend Tammy. Gerrick by a married friend who was going to help him celebrate his new job. Until that moment Gina hadn’t known Gerrick had gotten a new job, but he had happily filled her in. He had been offered the position as CEO of an up-and-coming grocery store chain in the northeast and had already turned in his two-week notice to her father.

Though she was director of Human Resources at Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and therefore the person who would have to replace him, Gina was happy for Gerrick. She remembered suggesting she celebrate with him since they were both unexpectedly free. She remembered he was reluctant. She remembered telling him this job was an enormous step on the ladder because it meant he had “made it.” And she couldn’t let a promotion so significant occur without at least some pomp and circumstance.

She remembered Gerrick finally laughing and relenting, saying this kind of job did warrant a celebration.

She remembered Gerrick taking her hand because, much to her surprise, he hadn’t wanted to stay in the small neighborhood bar where they’d met. Laughing, holding her hand, he had whisked her into a cab and to the airport for a flight to Las Vegas because he said Vegas was where the best celebrating was done.

And he was right. The city was delightfully hedonistic and decadent, and it offered celebration possibilities a person couldn’t get anywhere else. Because of the time difference from Atlanta, they arrived at about the same time they left, had dinner and saw a show before they went to separate rooms. Saturday morning they shopped for two days’ worth of clothes, returned to their rooms to change into one of their clean outfits and went sight-seeing.

But Saturday afternoon—yesterday afternoon—they hit the casino. Specifically, Gina remembered falling in love with the poker game on the slots. As she recalled, she was winning. Not just winning, but annihilating every machine she touched. They moved on to the blackjack tables and her luck held, so they never left the casino. She remembered laughing and virtually dancing for joy over her good fortune. She remembered Gerrick stealing a kiss that startled her because it was a real kiss. Not just a peck between friends, but an honest-to-goodness kiss full of passion and promise. She remembered a waitress who brought glass after glass of champagne.…

Oh, boy.

She couldn’t remember eating dinner. She couldn’t remember too much after glass number five of champagne. She most certainly did not remember how she ended up in a room that she obviously shared with the person taking a shower.

She didn’t even really know for sure who the showering person was…though she could make a darned good guess.

She combed her fingers through her long sable-colored hair at the same time that the bathroom door opened. She almost scrambled under the bed. Instead, she grabbed the hem of the sheet and yanked it up to her neck.

Just in time. Gerrick rounded the corner and Gina’s heart stopped.

Wrapped in a white hotel towel with his black hair still wet from the recent washing, he didn’t have an ounce of modesty or regret. His green eyes twinkled with happiness. Unable to hold his gaze, Gina averted hers only to find herself looking at the well-defined muscles of his arms and chest. Dark hair dusted his pectorals and rippled down his flat stomach.

Embarrassment overwhelmed her, but she didn’t get the chance to wallow in it. Gerrick walked to her side of the bed, bent down and took her by the shoulders, lifting her up for a long, wet kiss. As his mouth plundered hers, millions of sensations bounced through her. Everything from unexpected pleasure to complete shock. She smelled the soap from his shower, tasted pure passion in his kiss and her arms grew so weak they sort of fell against her sides and the sheet slid away from her.

Gerrick raised her higher, nestling her breasts against his still damp chest and Gina felt the beginnings of hyperventilation welling up in her lungs. Then he let her drift back down to the bed, but when she was settled, he held her face with his big, strong hands, and gazed into her eyes.

“Good morning.”

Gina swallowed. “Good morning,” she said, surprised not only by the sexy huskiness of her own voice, but also the warm affection in his. If she were a betting woman, and after yesterday it was plain she was, she would guess that this man didn’t just like her, he adored her.

Still smiling at her, he stepped away. “Give me your room key and after I dress I’ll go and get the clothes you bought at the hotel store to wear home. Our flight leaves in three hours, but we should be at the airport at least two hours beforehand. In fact, I thought we’d grab breakfast there after we check in.”

While he spoke, Gina continued piecing things together. Her clean clothes were in another room. He had been gentleman enough to offer to retrieve them for her, but if she went she could get time away from him. Time to think this through. Time to figure out what had happened and how she’d ended up in this room, with this man, doing who only knew what.

“How about if I just go to my room and get dressed?” she asked, struggling not to insult him or embarrass herself by sounding foolish and nervous. “This way we won’t fight over who gets the mirror in the bathroom first.”

He laughed heartily. “We’re allowed to use the bathroom at the same time now.”

“Don’t be silly.” She shifted slightly to get out of bed, but remembered she was naked. Obviously they had made love the night before, but in the light of day and cold sober she didn’t feel like prancing around in front of him. She gingerly slid back to her original position. “You’re not dressed yet, and I can throw on my clothes from yesterday, go to my room, get myself showered and dressed and meet you in the lobby in less than an hour. That way we’ll have plenty of time for breakfast at the airport.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. Absolutely,” she said, amazed at how calm, casual and even sophisticated she sounded. “You go ahead and get ready and I’ll meet you in the lobby as soon as I can.”

She said the last assuming he would return to the bathroom. God only knew why. Instead he dropped his towel and walked to the closet. Her heart stopped again, and her mouth fell open because he was gorgeous. His shoulders were broad. His butt was tight. The muscles of his legs were well defined. In short he was perfect.

However, he also wasn’t shy about being naked in front of her and he apparently didn’t expect her to be shy about being naked in front of him.

Okay. Now what?

Planning the fastest way to get dressed, Gina quickly glanced around to locate her clothes. Red sandals sat by the door. A red blouse perched over the back of a chair. A pair of taupe slacks lay in a puddle on the floor. A red bra was…oh, boy…slung across a lamp. Bright red panties hung from the pleat of a curtain. Whatever they had done the night before it had to have been…well, wild. She managed to suppress the shiver that wanted to race through her, but couldn’t stop herself from swallowing. Not only were the red bra and panties more than out of character for her, but she couldn’t remember how her underwear got caught on a curtain.

Deciding that the cool, calm, collected charade was impossible to continue, she dragged the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around herself before she walked to the lamp and grabbed her bra. She saw Gerrick watching her reflection in the mirror, but paid no attention as she snatched up her blouse and slacks. Unfortunately, when she walked to the window and peered up at her panties, which were really more like two scraps of lace, looped over a curtain pleat, she realized she couldn’t reach them.

A little voice told her that for the five minutes it would take her to go to her room, she could forgo the underwear. She was just about to listen to that sage advice when Gerrick ambled over to the window, reached up to retrieve the scraps of red lace and handed them to her with a smile.

The heat of embarrassment shivered through her. Mortification froze her lungs. But Gerrick dropped a quick kiss on her lips as she took the panties. Then he mercifully disappeared behind the bathroom door.

Gina heaved a sigh of relief and dressed faster than she had ever dressed in her entire life. She found a little red clutch bag, assumed it was hers and rifled through it finding both her wallet and room key. But as she rummaged a flash hit her eyes and she felt an unusual weight on the third finger of her left hand. She flipped the purse over so quickly, most of the contents spilled onto the floor, and when she saw the three-diamond wedding band on her finger she fell to the bed. Literally. Her knees buckled and her muscles grew limp. She was lucky to be standing beside something that could catch her.

She hadn’t just slept with Gerrick Green. It appeared she had married him.

Not wasting another second, Gina scooped up the contents of her purse and raced out the door. In the elevator, she tapped her foot as the car ascended to her floor. She shoved the key card into the door of her room, stripped even faster than she had dressed and jumped into the shower.

With the water noisily tumbling around her, beating off the tile walls and porcelain tub, she let herself scream.

“Hi.”