promptly forgot that she’d changed her mind about sleeping with them.
Jerking herself from the intensity of the moment, she glanced down, taking in her clothing. There was no going home and changing. No home. No clothes. Certainly nothing she could wear to any place these two would set foot in.
She cleared her throat. “Hotel is fine, and I don’t care. If it’s hot and tastes good, I’ll eat it. Nothing too fancy. In fact, what I really want is a burger. And fries.”
She’d kill for both right now.
“And orange juice,” she finished in a rush.
Amusement glimmered on Ash’s lips but Jace was still utterly serious.
“Hamburger. Fries. Orange juice. I think I can handle that,” Jace said. Then he checked his watch. “People will be cleared out in fifteen. How much time you need to finish?”
She blinked. “Uh, not everyone will clear out in fifteen minutes. I mean even if the guests of honor leave, people always hang out afterward. Especially when there’s food and drink.”
He cut her off before she could say more.
“Fifteen minutes, Bethany. They’ll be gone.”
It was a promise. It wasn’t speculation on his part.
“How much time you need?” he asked impatiently.
“Thirty minutes maybe?” she guessed.
He touched her again, his fingers gliding over her cheek and up to her temple, where he toyed with loose tendrils that had fallen from her clip.
“Then we’ll see you in thirty minutes.”
Chapter three
Twenty-five minutes was how much time it took for her to realize she was out of her mind. Twenty-five minutes to know she’d made a huge mistake.
Bethany washed her hands and then checked her pocket again to feel the folded bills. The kitchen had died down and most of the staff had left except for those remaining behind on clean-up duty. That wasn’t her gig, thankfully. Her job was done.
She hesitated as she glanced between the door leading to the alley and the door that led back to Ash and Jace.
Jace hadn’t lied. The ballroom had cleared in fifteen minutes. She wasn’t sure how he’d managed to pull that one off, but then he seemed the type of man who always got what he wanted.
Now all that was between her and a night of hot sex and good food was that door.
The door to the alley swung open as one of the guys hauled a sack of garbage out to the trash bin. A rush of cold air blew in, penetrating Bethany to the bone. She shivered as chill bumps raced across her arms.
That was her other option. Cold. Loneliness. Another night of uncertainty.
Put that way, door number two seemed like the only logical choice.
She pushed off the edge of the counter she was leaning against and walked toward the exit. As she reached it, she took in a deep breath and let herself out.
Jace stood there waiting, hands in his pockets, leaning one shoulder against the wall. His gaze found her and penetrated as swiftly as the cold air had a moment earlier. Only this time, instead of a bone-deep chill, heat spread like wildfire through her veins.
“You ready?”
Even before she responded, he moved, pushing off the wall and then he was next to her, his hand sliding around her nape, his thumb brushing over the soft skin right at her hairline.
Damn but the man’s touch was lethal.
“Ash is in the room taking care of dinner.”
She glanced up at Jace, for the first time directly meeting his gaze. “So we’re staying here?”
A smile twitched the corners of his mouth. “I own the hotel. Seems as good a place as any to stay for the night.”
He owned the hotel. Okay, not that she didn’t know he and Ash were stratospherically out of her league, but hearing those words, I own the hotel, just reinforced that she should have chosen the cold over temporary warmth.
“Obviously I didn’t prepare for this,” she murmured as they headed toward the elevators. “I don’t have any clothes or . . . stuff.”
She wanted to laugh because the entire conversation was absurd. Even if she’d known, she wouldn’t have been prepared because she didn’t have stuff. She had nothing except the hope of the next day being better than the last.
Again, Jace’s mouth twitched and his eyes gleamed as he ushered her into the waiting elevator.
“You won’t need clothes. Or . . . stuff.”
Her hands trembled and her knees shook. This was her last chance to back out. He leaned forward to punch the button to the top floor. The door was still open. It would