Here Comes Trouble Page 0,43

from his. He saw too much with those soulful, wicked, sexy green eyes of his. She doubted the world would look the same to her after today; that was how altered she felt. Like the colors would be brighter, the sounds crisper, the smells sharper. All of her senses felt ignited to the point of hyperawareness and she wondered if they’d ever really return to the way they’d been before. At the moment, it didn’t seem possible.

She was a changed woman.

She slid her arms more tightly around his neck, knowing this was all some kind of hormonally induced nirvana. And given her past experiences, it was normal, even, at least for her, to feel these ridiculously out-of-place, over-the-top things. So it was good he didn’t know what was going through her mind. She’d just have to make sure he never knew.

She tried her best to maintain her balance, wrapped around him as she was, so he wasn’t hefting dead weight as he made his way to the front hall, to the door leading to her bed and bathroom. He adjusted her weight to free a hand up to open the door.

“You can put me down, you know.”

“Yep.” But he didn’t. He pushed open the door and kicked it shut behind them.

“Bathroom is the door on your left.”

They made it as far as the bed.

“But—” she started, then stopped as he lowered himself down next to her.

“I’ll do the laundry. I thought our legs could use a pit stop.”

She laughed. “I don’t care about the laundry part. And, now that I’m laying here…you’re right. My legs are shaky.”

“Mine, too,” he said, smiling.

“I should have told you to bring me in here before; I’m sorry.”

He rolled to his back and sighed with what sounded like deep appreciation. “Please, don’t be sorry for one second of that. Lord knows I’m not.”

She smiled. He slid his hand over until it found hers, and covered it. Something about that, about his wanting to still feel connected, sent her shooting willy-nilly into very dangerous territory. The fact that she knew it was the hormonal rush, the lack of male companionship, on all levels, and…well, a culmination of a lot of things she’d refused to let herself think about for the past few years…didn’t make it any less terrifying. More, perhaps.

Kirby wondered again about him. About his story. What had led him to her inn, what it was he had to work out while he was here. She wanted to just be curious, but not really care. Only when his fingers traced little patterns on the back of her hand, she felt her heart squeeze a little. And she knew that if they kept this up, even for a little while longer, it was going to hurt like hell when he left. And he would leave.

She closed her eyes. Dammit. Had she really thought she was cut out for casual relationships? Had she really thought that what life had handed her had changed her so profoundly that she could control this, too?

The simple answer was yes. Yes, she had. She’d been numb. So numb. For so long. Of course she thought she could call the shots, control the emotions. Hell, she hadn’t really thought she’d have any of the latter. She’d been thrilled just to have gotten back to the place where she was wanting the fundamental pleasure that sex could bring. If not anything beyond that. Surely she could control that. Most especially with a complete stranger. Simple.

Right.

To her horror, she felt that tingling burn gather behind her eyes. No. She absolutely, positively was not going to ruin what had otherwise been a stellar, stand-alone, exultant moment in her life. One she’d call upon for months, no, let’s be honest, years to come, when she needed a little pick-me-up. Or some good fantasy fodder.

Fantasy. That’s what she needed to latch on to. This was, for all intents, a pure fantasy. And as they went, it was pretty much the apex. So she’d fix her mind on that, on enjoying that, on being lucky enough to get that. Because, really, when she thought about it, it definitely beat not ever having had it. Emotional threat or not.

There. She squeezed her eyes a bit more tightly and focused on how lucky she was…and the threat subsided.

“Kirby,” he said in a drowsy, perfectly sexy, gravelly kind of way.

She rolled her head to the side, looked at Brett, just as he did the same. Their gazes collided. Then he smiled.