a woman heard before her life fell apart and she was left staring at the pieces and wondering what the hell just happened. Rori knew that. What she didn’t know was how Mike Cannon was able to work his magic on her when she’d thought she was immune.
It had something to do with his trust-me smile. And that smile paired with eyes the shade of blue stolen from a parrot feather, and there was just something unusually compelling about the guy.
Rori needed to draw him. Because to draw him, she would have figure out how his face worked and how he used it. Once she figured that out, she would understand the mechanics behind his trust-me face. Once she understood the mechanics she would be immune to the man. And being immune to Mike’s smile would be very important once she was married to Luke.
Married to Luke… It was strange that the first thought she conjured up when imagining that was Luke and Kris running at each other at the party. Rori didn’t care what either of them said, there was love there. Rori had spent her life watching people. She knew what love looked like. Luke and Kris loved each other. The question was: was it romantic?
She had just over two days to figure that out. Were Kris and Luke brother and sister forever, or were they repressed powder kegs of want ready to combust at first contact?
Figuring that out was number one on Rori’s list. Number two was curing herself of sweaty hands around the best man. She was simply too old for such nonsense.
Yet the longer Rori lay in bed, the more aware she became that it had been Mike’s old bed. Remembering the scent from his current bed, Rori turned her head to see if the scent was the same. As soon as she realized what she was doing, she stopped mid-inhale.
What in the world was wrong with her? Of course the bed didn’t smell like Mike. And if it did after all this time, then that was its own level of gross that Rori didn’t want to even think about. Except she was thinking about it—wondering if he slept naked…if once upon a time he’d ever snuck a girl into this bed.
After meeting his family, Rori highly doubted it. The Cannons seemed very proper and the bedrooms in the home were all too close together to allow for any real privacy. A teenager would be far too nervous to sneak a girl in for sex. In fact, it was highly unlikely that the bed she was in had ever seen a naked woman since the day it was made.
When Rori had the bright idea of stripping out of her clothes and make that statement untrue, she knew her jet lag must be sending her into a delirious state.
Why couldn’t she just sleep? Just close her eyes and just let everything go dark rather than imagining what Mike Cannon might look like without his clothes? Did he have body hair? If so, how much? And did he trim it back or let it grow untamed?
She was guessing he was a manscaper. A man who took the time to develop his muscles to the degree Mike did would want the contours to be seen, not blocked by a film of hair. For a moment Rori let herself imagine the man beneath the clothes, sketching him out.
How weird would it be to ask him to pose nude? Really weird or just kind of weird? If she just saw the guy naked then she wouldn’t stay up, staring at a stupid ceiling, imagining what his body might look like and what type of underwear would best suit his form. She’d know, and she’d be over it. The romanticized imaginings of a guy naked was always better that the real deal, and right now all she had was the fantasy of the man.
Rori knew she had let her thoughts go too far when she moved her hand across her stomach and felt little shocks skitter across her nerves and straight to her core. In a flash, Rori tossed her covers to the side and got up.
Uh-uh. No way she was going there. She may not love Luke, but she would be faithful to him, even in her mind. Which meant she needed some serious distraction. And experience had taught Rori that the best thing to do when it was midnight and you were totally wired was to tire yourself out.