To Catch a Thief - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,52
after it.
What now, though? Was Rafe happy about the turn of events? She knew he had enjoyed the sex as much as she had, but beyond that? Had all those doubts of his crowded in again? Had he succumbed to all of the sensible, rational arguments that would have kept her out of his bed in the first place? Not knowing kept her right where she was, waiting, feeling more vulnerable than she had in years.
Not that she regretted anything, not one single, amazing second. But it would be nice to know where she stood, what she could expect when he emerged from behind that door. She watched it with the same trepidation a suspect might feel awaiting a jury’s verdict. Even as she made the analogy, she cringed.
When Rafe eventually opened the door, her heart slammed against her ribs. He was wearing a pair of still-new jeans and nothing more. The snap was undone and the waistband rode low on his hips. No cowboy had ever looked sexier than this. Longer now than when he’d first arrived in Winding River, his hair was damp and tousled. She wished she dared to run her fingers through it to add to its surprising tendency to curl. She gave him a hesitant smile, which he was a little too slow to return. Her pulse skittered unsteadily.
“You’re awake,” he said, his tone cautious and surprisingly uncertain.
“So are you,” she noted, forcing a teasing note into her voice.
Looking incredibly unsettled and awkward, he dropped down on the side of the bed. He lifted his hand as if he might caress her, but then let it drop to his thigh.
“Are you okay?” he asked, studying her intently.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I thought you might be having second thoughts.”
Her gaze searched his. “Are you?”
“Hell, yes,” he said fiercely, but his expression softened to take the sting out. “And if you were the least bit sensible, you’d be scared spitless, too.”
She grinned at that. “I don’t scare so easily.”
“We really do have to talk about this, Gina.”
“Why? We’re two consenting adults. Why do we need to make a big deal out of something so natural?”
“Because—”
She frowned at him. “I will not talk this to death, Rafe. I will not regret it. If that’s what you’re hoping for, forget it.”
“I don’t want you to regret it. I just want you to realize that it can’t go on.”
“And why is that? Because you have decreed that it can’t?”
“No, because it can’t go anywhere.”
She began to lose patience with his oh-so-reasonable tone. “Why can’t it? And who said I wanted it to go anywhere, anyway?”
“Let’s face it, Gina. You don’t do this sort of thing.”
“Have sex?”
“Have casual sex,” he corrected.
“And that’s all you have,” she shot back. “Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
He winced at the charge, but he didn’t deny it.
“Well, that’s just dandy,” she said, taking his silence for assent. “We’re agreed. This is casual sex. If I agree to those terms, I assume you’ll have no objections.” She gathered the sheet around her, dragged it off the bed and marched into the bathroom, spine rigid, shoulders back. She shot one last heated look over her shoulder. “Since this is all so damned casual, I don’t expect you to buy me dinner. Give me ten minutes and I’ll be out of here and you can get back to that paperwork.”
Then she slammed the bathroom door behind her.
The roar of the shower drowned out her hot, salty tears. At least, she hoped it did. And if Rafe had a single shred of decency in his body, he would be gone when she came out.
Instead, as she leaned against the wall of the shower and let her tears flow, the curtain was suddenly yanked back. Still in his jeans, Rafe stepped into the shower with her, his expression grim and determined. She was too shocked to react.
Rafe tucked a finger under her chin and forced her to meet his gaze. His thumb brushed futilely at the mix of streaming tears and flowing water from the pounding shower. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking contrite.
“For what?”
“For upsetting you. I was just trying to make sure that we were on the same page. I wasn’t trying to diminish what had happened.”
“But you did,” she said, her voice catching. “You made it seem cheap and tawdry and unimportant.”
He sighed, gathering her close. “It was anything but that. In fact, that’s the problem. You caught me off guard. I never expected to