LITMIR.BIZ

       4

      CARLY SHOVED OUT of Joe’s arms and scrambled off the bed. “What are you doing here? How’d you get in my room?”

      “Your room?” Joe rose up on one elbow and ran a hand through his hair, all the while his gaze fixated on her...

      She followed where he was staring. She wore only her thong underwear and a cami. And the underwear didn’t hide much. She snatched the comforter off the bed and draped it around her. “Yes, my room. Do you honestly think I’d sneak into your room and crawl into your bed?”

      He sat up, looking around the room. The sheet fell down to his waist and Carly didn’t even try not to gape. Taut, defined muscles and dark hair that tapered to a line down past his belly button. Wow, even his belly button was sexy. He threw back the sheet and Carly spun to avert her gaze. From the corner of her eye she saw him swing his legs over the edge of the mattress on his side, his back to her. “If this is your room, then why did my key work?”

      Her mind couldn’t focus. This was her room, wasn’t it? She didn’t remember using her key... The medication must have really knocked her out. She hadn’t slept so deeply in ages. But now her memory seemed to be missing parts of last night. She recalled getting Joe and Piper to switch cabins. Feeling dizzy again in the elevator and barely making it to her room, and—Oh!

      She spun back to face him and snapped her fingers. “The steward!” Aha. “I didn’t have to use my key because the steward was in here turning down my bed when I—”

      Joe had stood and moved around the bed, searching the floor, wearing black boxer briefs that hugged him nice and snug.

      She swallowed. Out of breath all of a sudden. “—got here,” she finished lamely.

      Shaking his head, he bent over and grabbed his pants off the floor. “I used the key you gave me to get in. This is the room number you told me was mine. So, if this isn’t my cabin, then it’s your fault I’m in here.” He shoved his legs—very long, very brawny legs—into the pants and yanked them up.

      Carly blinked, trying to remember. Could she have given him her key?

      Holding the bottom of the comforter up like the train of a long gown, she marched to the table, grabbed her bag and dug around for her key. By the time she found it and got to the door, Joe was already there, his key pulled from his pocket. He was so close his dark brown eyes looked like pools of rich, molten fudge. He smelled of sleepy linen and the faintest hint of masculine sweat. Oh, why hadn’t he put on his shirt? She realized she was staring at him.

      “If my key works you’re going to owe me,” he said.

      She snapped back. “Owe you what?” She didn’t owe him a thing. If he thought he could—

      “Well, I was going for an apology, but if you had something else in mind...” He raised a brow and gave her a slow, suggestive smile.

      Ignoring the bare chest in front of her, Carly pursed her lips. “Just try your key.”

      “And if it doesn’t work are you going to leave me standing out in the hall the rest of the night?”

      “Not so sure about your key, now, huh?”

      His smile dropped and his eyes narrowed. “Fine.” He opened the door, stepped outside and Carly closed the door in his face.

      A second later she heard the click of a key swiping, the handle turned and the door shoved open. Joe stepped inside wearing a smug expression. “So, what do you bet your key opens Piper’s room?”

      Oh, no. What had she done? She stared at the key in her hand. He probably thought she’d purposely given him her key and room number. That this was all a ploy to get him. Did he think that she was so desperate for sex, or for him in particular? She’d never. She squeezed her eyes closed, too embarrassed to look at him.

      “Hey, everybody makes mistakes.” His rough fingers cupped her chin and lifted her face.

      She made herself open her eyes and meet his gaze. “I swear, I didn’t—”

      “I know.” The fingers of his other hand caressed her cheek. He lowered his head and gently touched his lips to hers.

      And that was all it took. She opened her mouth and took the kiss deep, her lips as desperate and as needy as she’d convinced herself she wasn’t minutes ago. She pressed him to her, wrapping her arms around his neck, running her hands over his taut shoulders and fingering the curls at the base of his neck.

      With a low growl he took control of the kiss, teasing her with his tongue. His arms tightened around her waist. He lifted her, and she hooked a leg around his hip as he walked them to the bed. The comforter slipped down to her hips and he broke the kiss, grinned and laid her on the mattress.

      Joe’s eyes flared as he stared at her body. Feeling her feminine power, Carly lay back on her elbows and raised one knee, then let it drop.

      She watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. He raised a brow, unzipped his pants and got rid of them, along with his underwear.

      Her breath caught. He was magnificent. How was this guy still single? Wait. Maybe he had a girlfriend.

      He lowered himself over her, bracing himself with his hands. With one knee bent between her thighs, he nuzzled into her neck, nibbling the sensitive skin from below her ear to her shoulder.

      Carly closed her eyes, shivering at the feel of his lips exploring, moving down her collarbone... What had she been about to ask him? Something about too good to be true... A girlfriend. She snapped her eyes open and flattened her palms on his chest.

      He raised his head and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

      “You have a fiancée?”

      “Hell, no.”

      “A girlfriend?”

      His face contorted in disgust. “I wouldn’t be here, doing this with you if I did.” He shoved off the bed and bent to pull up his pants.

      Carly scooted forward to the edge and covered his hands as he was about to zip up. “Wait.”

      “I think the mood has passed, don’t you?”

      “It’s just that generally when something seems too good to be true, it’s because it is.”

      He scoffed. “And what about me seems too good?”

      “Well, you did just win Modiste’s sexiest Average Joe.” She let go of his hands and ran her palms over his chest, reveling in the wall of muscle,

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