The Mistake (Bad Bridesmaids #1) - Noelle Adams Page 0,38

have anything scheduled early today, and it wasn’t that long ago that they’d gone to sleep.

When a hit of light illuminated the room and then quickly went out, she realized where Robert had been. In the bathroom. And he was coming out now.

He stopped in the middle of the floor, probably because he saw her sitting up in bed. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just disoriented for a minute. I didn’t know where I was or what was happening.”

“Ah. Well, it’s still early. Might as well go back to sleep.” Robert took a few final strides toward the bed and climbed in beside her. He smelled like the hotel’s hand soap and something else.

“Why’d you brush your teeth?” she asked, pushing her messy hair back over her shoulders.

“Bad taste in my mouth.” He’d lain down and was watching her from his pillow. “You feel okay?”

“Yeah. Fine. A little bruised up from yesterday but not too bad.” She wanted to lie back down and scoot against him. She wanted him to take her in his arms like he had before. She wanted to do more than that.

A lot more than that.

“Are you going to go back to sleep, or are you planning to just sit there in the dark?”

She loved how he sounded. Amused and affectionate both. Intimate.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom first,” she decided, concluding that was safer than jumping him right now without warning.

She wasn’t used to being turned on first thing in the morning, before she’d barely woken up. It was strange and unsettling. Highly disturbing.

She rolled awkwardly out of bed and padded barefoot to the bathroom. After she’d taken care of business, she took a long time washing her hands and then her face. She applied some of Robert’s toothpaste with her finger since she didn’t want him to think she had bad breath.

Then she stared at herself in the mirror for a long time.

Her hair was a mess of long, tangled waves. Her skin looked pale except for a tinge of pink on her cheeks. There were dark shadows under her eyes. They looked almost bruised. And there was a definite bruise on the curve between her neck and shoulder from the seat belt.

She didn’t look terrible, but she definitely wasn’t the stuff of sexy fantasies. This was hardly the time to be indulging carnal urges for Robert’s body.

He’d wanted to go back to sleep. That was what she should do too.

Go back to sleep. Stay safe. Just be friends. Don’t put herself in the position of getting wrecked by Robert the way she’d done for so long with Dave.

Finally she gave a firm nod and flipped off the bathroom light as she walked out.

“You okay?” Robert asked as she crawled under the covers.

“Why do you keep asking me that?”

“It just feels like something is wrong.”

“You’re imagining things.” She rolled on her side to face him. Even in the darkness, she could see his face turned toward hers, his eyes focused intently.

“No, I’m not.”

“Why do you always argue with me?”

“I argue when you’re not telling me the truth.”

“Who are you to make all-knowing pronouncements about who I am and how I feel?”

He reached out with one hand, cupping her cheek with his palm. His voice was low and thick. “I’m Robert Castleman, and I know you, Amanda. I know you—even the parts of yourself that you don’t want anyone to see. I know the little part of you who sometimes wonders if you’re good enough. I know you’ve spent your whole life trying to perform for a mother who never made sure you believed you were loved no matter what. I know you lived way too long clinging to a dream about a man who wasn’t right for you because he was one of the few people who made you feel valued. I know the you that you pretend to be, and I know the you that you really are. I know you, Amanda, even when you don’t want me to see you.”

Her lips had parted when he started to speak. Her mouth went dry. Her throat closed up. Her eyes burned. Her whole body started to shake.

Robert’s hand moved to very gently stroke her cheekbone. Her jaw. Her throat. “I see you all the way, and I think every part of you is breathtaking.”

She made a silly whimper and reached out for him, her silent resolutions about holding herself back from these urges forgotten. She grabbed for his shoulders, pushed him over onto his back, and