No Attachments - By Tiffany King Page 0,13

make it into a story. You know, a whole expo on small-town life and the dynamics that pull a community together, something like that. It dragged you here, so there has to be some kind of story."

Well, hell. He was sticking around because of my blabbermouth. I'd say I officially had the worst one-night stand ever. Not only did I pass out before the grand finale, I'd also convinced him to stay, taking away the anonymity of the whole one-night thing. If the floor opened up and sucked me in at the moment, it would have been more welcome than facing my failure in front of me.

"Are you okay?" he asked, grasping my elbow as if to steady me.

"Absolutely. Why?" I asked, extracting my elbow from his grasp.

"You looked kind of green there for a second."

"I guess I was just surprised to see you again after last night…" I said, letting my voice trail.

"Ah, yes. Last night was epic, unlike any other. Definitely eye-opening and educational. Who knew darts could be so much fun?" he remarked.

"Damn, we did play darts?" I asked, sagging weakly against the shelf behind me and knocking several cans over in the process.

"You got something against cans?" he asked, bending over to pick up the mess.

"We played darts?" I repeated, unwilling to move on. The thought of stripping my clothes off in front of everyone at the bar made my blood run cold, especially here in Woodfalls.

"Well, 'play' would be stretching it. You were too busy taking your clothes off to play darts."

"Holy shit, kill me now," I said, covering my face with my hands. "Are you telling me Joe and Mr. Jones saw me naked?"

"Was Mr. Jones the grumpy guy a couple tables from where you and your friends were sitting?"

"Yes," I said weakly, feeling sick all over again. There was no way this would stay a secret. Brittni may have joked about her mom's knack at sniffing out gossip, but it was closer to the truth than not. Once she got wind of it, the story would be bounced around until every resident in Woodfalls had heard about it.

"Then, no, neither of them saw you naked," he said, grinning wickedly.

"What?" I squawked out, not sure I heard him right.

"I said, 'neither saw your boobies,'" he answered, reminding me of yet another embarrassing aspect from the night before. I'd completely forgotten about the whole boob conversation.

"I'm not ordinarily like that," I clarified.

"Oddly enough, you mentioned that several times last night, among other things."

"You know, it's really not very gentlemanly to remind a lady of a bad night," I sniped.

"I never said I was a gentleman," he replied, turning on heel to leave.

"Wait, what about, um...did we...you know," I stumbled out, loathing the fact that I had to ask.

"You mean did we make wild passionate love all night?" he asked, turning back around and walking toward me.

"Uh, yeah," I whispered as my pulse stuttered before kicking into hyper-speed as I hung on his answer.

"You don't remember my hands all over your body, or the way you moaned when I kissed you here?" he asked, seductively caressing my neck.

All I could do was shake my head. I dragged my bottom lip into my mouth and gnawed on it before abruptly releasing it. His eyes darkened as they settled on my now damp lips.

"Or here," he asked, stroking his thumb across my bottom lip.

My body responded instantly to his touch. Biting back a moan, I looked up at him expectantly, willing him to remind me what his lips had felt like on mine.

My breath came out in short pants as he leaned in close and grazed his lips over my ear. "Too bad you passed out before we could do anything," he whispered. "Maybe one of these days we'll both get to see what it feels like," he added, nipping my earlobe before abruptly turning and walking away.

Just like that, I was a puddle of lust. All my embarrassment from the night before disappeared in the blink of an eye only to be replaced with regret. I wanted to wrap myself around his chiseled body and pull him tightly between my legs. Never in my whole life had I ever reacted so radically to someone. I felt like a cat in heat, or at the very least, a horny teenage boy.

It took a few seconds for reason to finally make an appearance. "Get a grip," I finally muttered to myself when I realized I was still watching him.