her eyes shut and tried to block out the annoying sound. But it wasn’t just her cell buzzing on the bedside table—a land line was ringing too.
Wait. She didn’t have a land line at her house.
At last, she pried open an eye…and realized from the sunlight pouring in the window that not only was it not the middle of the night, but she was also lying across a man’s bare chest.
The very well built, shockingly sexy bare chest of Rory Sullivan—her onetime nemesis, now one-week-only lover.
Was this going to happen every time she woke up? Was she always going to be taken aback by how tightly her arms were wrapped around him? Or at some point during the next six days, would it fully sink in that the two of them were together in the most intimate of ways, however temporarily?
After being adversaries for the past year, she supposed the new terms of their relationship would throw anyone off. And she couldn’t help but think that if waking up in bed with Rory could send her reeling this hard, just imagine how messed up she’d be if she fell in love with him…and then had to let him go.
No, she definitely wouldn’t make that mistake.
She relinquished her hold on him enough to look up into his sleeping face. How on earth he managed to stay asleep through the annoyingly insistent ringing and buzzing, she had no idea. But since he wasn’t able to see her mooning over him, she couldn’t stop a little sigh of pleasure at the memory of all the delicious things they’d done together.
When a man was that good at sex, a person couldn’t fault herself for being only human and appreciating it.
Reluctantly, she rolled over to pick up both the hotel phone and her cell at the same time, one at each ear. “This is Zara.” Though it was nearly noon, according to the clock on the bedside table—Rory had given her one glorious orgasm after another until nearly sunrise—she still wasn’t happy about being woken up.
“Hey, sis!” Brittany’s voice was extra perky, especially coming through two phone lines at once. “I had hoped you, me, Cameron, and Rory could all have brunch together this morning, but I’ve been calling your cell since ten a.m. with no answer.” Perky gave way to pouty as she added, “I finally had the hotel also call your room to make sure you were there, even though it’s now so late that we have another engagement to head to soon.”
Yet again, Zara gave silent thanks that Rory had worn her out enough with his brilliant moves in the sack that they had both slept through the buzzing of her phone and breakfast. “Rory and I were up late last night.” She was glad to be able to insert a little truth this morning into her lies from the night before. “He’s still sleeping.”
The big hand moving across her hip let her know that Rory was now wide awake. With a gentle tug, he drew her back into the bed so that her back was flush against his front. His very aroused front.
Mmmm. Zara nearly hung up both phones. After all, she could talk to Brittany anytime, but the clock was ticking down on six days of what had to be the best lovemaking on the planet.
“Wow, that must have been some night,” Brittany said, sounding strangely subdued. “I was really hoping to see you this morning, even if just for five minutes.”
That was all it took for Zara to give up on a few more sexy minutes with Rory. She had never been able to resist Brittany’s requests to spend time together. How could she, when as teenagers they had been each other’s only lifelines after each losing a parent and finding themselves plopped into a new family?
“If you give me ten minutes to get dressed,” Zara said, “I’ll come down to see you two off.”
“Yay!” The smile was back in her stepsister’s voice. “We don’t have to leave for a half hour, so I’ll order coffee for the four of us.”
As soon as Zara hung up, Rory spoke from behind her. “If you can get dressed in one minute,” he said, obviously having figured out the pertinent details from her side of the conversation with Brittany, “that means we still have nine minutes to have some fun before we go downstairs.”
Despite the pressure weighing on her chest at knowing she was going to have to make small talk with