Текст книги "Sweet the Sin "
Автор книги: Claire Kent
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 17 страниц)
Chapter 4
Kelly hadn’t intended to get quite so concussed.
The blow she’d taken to the head had been a bit harder than she had discussed with Jack Martin, the private investigator her mother had been working with. She’d contacted Jack that morning about what she needed to happen this evening. It was necessary for her to get roughed up a little, or else Caleb would never have believed the attack was real. But Kelly had been expecting a little knock on the head. Her concussion was supposed to be an act.
She hadn’t had to fake much of anything.
When her head had collided violently with the side of her car, Kelly had been temporarily dazed—then dizzy and disoriented. She had nearly vomited for real, right on Caleb’s shiny black shoes.
The headache that followed had almost leveled her.
So, she couldn’t have resisted much, even if she’d wanted to, when Caleb picked her up to carry her in his arms.
It was what she needed, what she’d been hoping for, but it was almost unbearable. To be totally dependent on someone—on Caleb Marshall—even for the short walk to his car. She’d learned a long time ago not to depend on anyone, even people she should be able to trust.
It might have been the worst part of the entire evening, being gently cradled in Caleb’s arms.
Except for the real concussion, however, everything was going according to plan. She’d needed a shortcut to get in closer proximity to Caleb and get beyond the superficial sexual attraction. No matter how much of an arrogant ass he was, he was also a man. And men like him wanted to be warriors, to feel like heroes.
So she’d given him a battle to rush into.
Shifting uncomfortably in the passenger seat, Kelly wanted to be proud of herself. Wanted to congratulate herself on a job well done. Caleb had played right into her hands. Not because he was an idiot or easily duped, but because she knew men well enough to plan effective tactics.
She wanted to be proud, but she couldn’t. Even being in the same car as Caleb was akin to torture. He still looked, felt, smelled like someone she wanted, no matter what her rational mind kept telling her. But she used her old mental strategy to push all of what she felt for him into a tight little knot in her heart, hiding it behind her walls along with her real self, keeping it safe and out of sight.
She shielded the parts of her soul that could still be hurt and made herself a weapon. The only weapon she had.
As she slumped beside Caleb in his car, she forced herself to focus on her pounding head and let her body become perfectly limp, noticing that her neckline was riding low and that her hair was slipping out of her braid.
All of that was good. All of that was necessary.
She was starting to rehearse her next steps when she felt her belly start to churn in a frightening way.
She straightened her back a little and took long, deep breaths—praying that she wouldn’t throw up in the lush interior of Caleb’s Mercedes. It might drive home the reality of her weakness, but it wasn’t exactly sexy.
“You okay?” he asked softly, his eyes darting over to her.
She’d had her eyes closed for most of the drive, but now she looked over at his handsome face in the dim light. “Yeah,” she breathed, hoping she was speaking the truth.
“You need me to pull over?”
“No,” she replied weakly, relieved when the wave of nausea passed. “I’m fine.”
He shook his head, as if he were annoyed by something.
She didn’t know what it was, but it angered her that anything so minor she might have done would have annoyed him. Him. As if he had a right to be annoyed with anyone else in the world.
When Caleb pulled up in front of a big house on sprawling grounds, she let him help her out of the car. He’d taken her to his palatial estate outside the city instead of to his downtown apartment, but she didn’t know why he’d made the choice.
She didn’t struggle when he swung her up once more in his arms. She even let her head loll against his shoulder, although the pleasant, male scent of him was as troubling as any blow to the head.
She heard him talking to someone, but by this time she was having trouble focusing on anything at all. Caleb said something about a doctor and she didn’t object.
The doctor would only verify that she had indeed been injured.
Caleb carried her into a guest room, laid her down on a bed, and pulled off her shoes.
But Kelly groggily rolled away from him when she felt his hands on her dress. “No.”
Her reluctance was not part of the plan, but there was no way she could let him undress her like this, not when she was so completely helpless.
Caleb pulled his hand away. “That dress can’t be comfortable.”
“It’s fine,” she mumbled. “I’m fine.”
She could barely keep her eyes open, but—through the slits between her mostly closed eyelids—she saw Caleb shake his head again in frustration and then leave her to the mercy of a woman who must be a housekeeper.
Soon the doctor came and left, pronouncing her with a mild concussion—nothing serious—and saying she should be woken up a few times during the night to make sure she was all right and that she should rest for the next couple of days. Next, the housekeeper came in with a T-shirt for Kelly to wear instead of her dress. And then finally, blessedly, she was allowed to sleep.
She needed her wits about her to face Caleb again, and that wasn’t going to be possible until she got some sleep.
–
She slept better than she would have expected, considering the circumstances, had woken only when the housekeeper came in to check on her every couple of hours. It was starting to get light outside the next morning when the door opened again, and the woman came in with a tray.
As Kelly shifted under the thick, soft covers and started to wake up, her first conscious thought was that she still had a raging headache.
Her second thought was that there must be coffee on that tray.
She mumbled something incoherent when the room got suddenly lighter. Blinking, she realized that the housekeeper had pulled open the curtains.
“I’m sorry, miss. Would you rather I keep them closed?”
“No.” Kelly was expecting Caleb at any minute, and she’d be far more prepared for the conversation if fully awake. “It’s fine.”
The woman smiled in her direction, poured Kelly a cup of the fragrant coffee, and brought it over to set it on the nightstand. “Mr. Marshall said he wanted to talk to you for a few minutes before he leaves for work.”
Of course he did. That was why Kelly was getting woken up like this.
Kelly propped herself into a sitting position against her thick pillows. “That’s fine. I know he needs to leave early. He has to work pretty hard, I guess,” she said, partly to make conversation and partly to see if the housekeeper had a tendency to gossip.
Shaking her head disapprovingly, the woman said, “He works every day, the stubborn boy. Even Sundays. I tell him to get more rest and take some time to restore himself, but he just smiles and ignores me. Works himself into a stupor. Poor dear.”
Kelly tried not to snort at anyone calling Caleb Marshall a poor dear. “Thank you,” she said, gesturing to the mug she was holding. “I’m not used to this kind of treatment.”
The housekeeper smiled. “Not many of us are.” She studied Kelly intently, in a way that Kelly found a little unsettling. “That bruise isn’t as bad as I thought.”
Kelly raised her fingers to the bruise on her cheekbone. She’d almost forgotten about it. A reminder of how many things could go wrong.
Smiling sympathetically, the housekeeper went on. “Poor thing. You have had a rough time, haven’t you?”
After blinking in surprise at what appeared to be genuine kindness from this woman who was a stranger to her, Kelly suppressed an ironic smile. The housekeeper was like a character from a schmaltzy novel. All she needed was some knitting and a cat.
“You should visit the dog.”
Kelly blinked again. “The dog?”
“The shepherd,” the woman explained. “Ralph. Mr. Marshall’s dog. He hangs out in the stables most of the time during the day. Dogs put things in perspective.”
Kelly managed to smile and thank the woman for this bizarre invitation. Even if it were true, Kelly couldn’t risk putting things into perspective, or her whole revenge plan might tumble down around her feet.
The woman took a step over and patted Kelly’s hand, which was lying on the thick coverlet. “Mr. Marshall will be here soon. I’m Breah. Just let me know if you need anything. A long rest will be good for you. You look too worn out. Take a walk. Take a nap. And don’t forget to visit the dog.”
When Breah left, Kelly managed to drink most of her cup of coffee. She was feeling pretty crappy, but at least the nausea and dizziness seemed to have passed.
It would be wise to make herself look somewhat appealing when Caleb stopped by.
No way could she be sexy or beautiful this morning, but a wan, rumpled sleepiness could have its own allure.
She sat up all the way and decided her head could stand a quick trip to the bathroom. So she stumbled over to the adjoining bathroom, used it as quickly as she could, then washed her hands and splashed some water on her face.
Bringing her hands up, she worked some on her hair. It was still in the braid she’d been wearing last night, so she patted down the lumps and stray frizzes, and then pulled a few more strands loose, softening her face. The slight bruise under her eye emphasized her pale skin and made her appear more wounded and helpless.
The oversized T-shirt she wore swallowed her body, but there was nothing to do about that now.
When she returned to the bed, she arranged the covers so they looked even more mussed. And then she poured herself another cup of coffee.
She’d just arranged herself as best she could, pulling the large T-shirt to one side to expose as much of her shoulder as she could and efficiently rubbing her nipples until they peaked—she did so under the covers in case there was a security camera somewhere in the room—when there was a light tap on the door.
“What?” she called out. She was getting nervous, so her voice hadn’t sounded very welcoming. In fact, it sounded rather grumpy.
The door opened, and Caleb appeared in the doorway, dressed in a charcoal gray suit with black dress shirt and tie. His eyebrows lifted as he greeted her dryly, “Good morning to you too.”
“Sorry. Good morning. Thank you for your help last night.” She tried to focus on her strategy, but her body had taken an immediate interest in his presence, which was very distracting. And very upsetting.
His lips quirked in an appealing expression of dry amusement. “You’re welcome.”
Kelly let out a deep sigh, noticing how Caleb’s eyes lingered first on her bare neck and shoulder, and then lower, where her nipples were poking out through the thin cotton of the shirt. After a pause, she said, “I really do appreciate your help, Caleb. But I don’t want you to ask me any more questions. My problems are my own, and I don’t want anyone else dragged into them.”
“And if I want to be dragged into them?”
“That’s too bad. I had no choice but to accept your help last night, but still, that doesn’t mean we’re anything but strangers.”
Caleb’s eyes narrowed, as if she had surprised him. “I guess that’s true. How are you feeling?”
She shrugged. “Good enough. I still have a headache.”
“Well, stay here and take the day to recover,” he told her, using a textured, persuasive voice that would be irresistible to most women.
Even Kelly had to fight to resist. “I can recover on my own. If you’ll just get me to my car—”
He shook his head in quiet exasperation. “I’m not going to take you to your car. There’s no reason for you to run off before you’re fit to do so. The doctor said you needed complete rest today, and maybe tomorrow too. You should stay here. I’m not going to tie you up and torture you in the basement.” His eyes blazed hot briefly. “Unless you ask very nicely.”
The sexiness was probably second nature for him. He was curious about her now—and liked playing the hero—but she was still just a sexual object to him.
It was good. It was the only advantage she had in this room, and it didn’t matter that his words had evoked a disturbing series of erotic images. Of Caleb doing things to her—things she still wanted him to do.
She groaned softly and settled her head against the pillow. Arching her back slightly, she stretched her body in a way that tightened the shirt against her breasts. She noticed another flare—this one less obvious, more real—ignite in his eyes. “I can’t even think about sex right now,” she lied. “So don’t be hoping to live out some sort of twisted fantasy. I’ll stay here for a little while, until I’m feeling better. But then I’m going to leave.”
“But—”
“We’re strangers. We’re strangers. Why are you insisting on helping me?”
“Out of the goodness of my heart?” The upward lilt at the end made the words an ironic question.
She suppressed a quick laugh at the wry humor, hating herself for thinking he was funny.
“At least stay here today,” he said after a moment. “You’re not in any shape to drive, and you’re safer here than anywhere else.”
“Safer?”
Narrowing his eyes, he said slowly, “My understanding was that someone came after you last night. I assume they’re still after you.”
That was exactly what he was supposed to think. “Caleb—”
“Kelly, just stay. At least until I get back.”
“Maybe.”
He reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, and Kelly almost jerked away from the touch of his warm hand. “Promise me. Promise me you’ll be here when I get back.”
He was really laying it on thick. Pulling out a whole armory of persuasive intensity and cool charisma in order to keep her where he wanted her.
And, if she hadn’t kept reminding herself who and what he really was, it would have worked on her.
Master of manipulation. Lying bastard.
But Kelly smiled at him. “I’m not promising anything.”
“You’ll be here.” He sounded smug, absolutely confident that she would do what he wanted her to do. “In the meantime, make yourself at home.”
“I’m not here on vacation. And I’m not planning to raid the refrigerator or have a long soak in your hot tub.”
“Why not?” He gave her a decidedly flirtatious glance over his shoulder. “You’re welcome to raid the wine cellar too, although you might wait until the headache is gone. The tub in this suite should be decent, but the best one is in the master bath. You’re welcome to use it if you’d like.” He cocked an eyebrow. “But I warn you, it has very powerful jets.”
Kelly saw his face blurring in front of her eyes as she processed the fact that they were actually flirting. But she made herself hide it and playfully threw one of the throw pillows from the bed in his direction as he started to leave the room.
It bounced off the back of his shoulder before it fell to the floor.
She could hear his chuckle as he moved down the hallway. Warm, husky, sensual.
Her whole body tightened in response to the sound of it, which just made her hate him even more.
–
She stayed in bed for a few more hours. Once her headache was mostly gone, she got up, took a shower, and ate some of the lunch that had been carried up to her room.
Her clothes from the night before had been freshly laundered, and the housekeeper found her a pair of more comfortable shoes, so she wouldn’t have to go around in her heels. So she got dressed, clipped her hair up into a heavy knot, and went out to explore the estate.
Kelly would have expected any home of Caleb’s to be cool, modern, and stylish, but the house was an old brick Georgian that had been beautifully updated, full of both character and comfort. The house was built on a large piece of land, so she wandered around, peering at the lake, the stables, and the stretches of grassy lawn. She avoided the wooded areas. There wasn’t much else to keep her occupied, and she figured walking around was a predictable thing for a guest to do. She knew she was probably being watched by Caleb’s security—he had more surveillance than she’d expected to find—so she couldn’t do anything that looked suspicious. But it was a sunny day and warm for April, and the walk and fresh air revived her considerably and banished the final symptoms of her concussion.
There was a high wall surrounding the whole estate, and—as she approached it—she noticed the iron gate that led to the road.
It wasn’t open, but it wouldn’t be very hard to get beyond it, if she were coming from inside and not from outside. She studied it idly, thinking through what she would do tonight, until a man—obviously security—stepped out into the open between her position and the gate.
He didn’t say anything, but his presence there was meaningful. Obviously he’d been told that she wasn’t supposed to leave.
But surely even Caleb wouldn’t dare to keep her here as a prisoner.
–
She took a short nap in the middle of the afternoon, knowing it would be wise to catch up on her sleep, since she wouldn’t be doing much of that tonight. At about five thirty, she took her towel and the bathrobe she’d been offered up to Caleb’s master bathroom.
It wasn’t as if she were really in the mood for a long, luxurious bath. She was getting edgier by the minute, thinking about what would happen when Caleb returned from work. But he’d offered, and it was a good idea to accept the invitation.
She was tempted to snoop in his bedroom, but it was far too early to try something so risky.
Instead, she went into the huge bathroom, shut the door, took off her clothes, and drew herself a hot bath.
After dumping some of the bath salts she found into the enormous tub—the salts appeared to have never been opened, so she assumed Caleb wasn’t in the habit of taking baths himself—Kelly turned on the jets. She lowered herself into the water and shuddered in automatic pleasure.
Caleb hadn’t been lying about how powerful they were.
It was a very good bath, and Kelly soaked for a long time, closing her eyes and doing her best to release the tension in her body.
She wasn’t able to relax mentally, but—to do what had to be done—she needed to at least take the physical edge off. So the bath was a good idea for more reasons than one.
Eventually, she started draining the water. Caleb would be home soon, and she didn’t want to be here when he returned.
That might look too obvious, like she was throwing herself at him. With a man like Caleb, subtlety would be important.
After toweling off, however, she slathered some scented lotion on her skin. Hopefully, Caleb would get home soon enough for the fragrance to still be lingering.
She pulled on the thick, white bathrobe and gathered up her clothes. On the spur of the moment, she dropped the tennis bracelet she’d been wearing between the tub and the potted plant.
There was nothing blatantly sexual about the bracelet. It was just intimate, and hopefully Caleb would find it in his bathroom sometime this evening.
Her panties would be better, but she couldn’t get away with accidentally forgetting about those.
She returned to her room and kept her bathrobe on so she could wait until Caleb returned from work. She’d timed out the trip from his office, estimating how long it would take for him to get through rush hour traffic. Surely he’d be home soon.
She waited. And waited. And waited even more.
The housekeeper came in to offer her dinner, which she ate in her room, brewing with a growing resentment.
Thoughtless ass. Working all evening when he must know she was expecting him to return.
Some gallant host he was.
Finally, she was so annoyed by his non-appearance that she changed into her clothes, grabbed her phone, and called a cab to come pick her up after she’d figured out the address to give them.
If she were really here under the circumstances she was feigning, she might do the same thing. After all, she was better now, and there was no reason for her to hang around here all evening, when Caleb failed to contact her or make an appearance.
She’d reached the entrance and was about to demand the guard let her out when the gates opened and Caleb’s car drove through.
He stopped when he saw her and got out.
“What are you doing?” He looked faintly annoyed, like she was an underling who wasn’t cooperating. He was still wearing his suit—he hadn’t even taken off the jacket—but he looked less sleek now. Slightly rumpled. A little tired.
Even sexier.
The attitude immediately roused her anger, compounded by her continued attraction to him. “I’m leaving. What does it look like?”
“Why?”
“Because there’s no reason for me to stay here.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to at least wait and let me know you were leaving?”
“I didn’t know when you’d be back. For all I know, you work all night long.”
His face changed slightly as he stepped over closer to her. “I got caught in a meeting that went longer than expected.” He gave her a faint smile. “I should have called to let you know I was running late, shouldn’t I?”
Her throat tightened as she realized he thought she was offended or hurt by his lateness. He thought it was funny. Cute.
Like she was some predictable female.
Smothering the resentment, she said coolly, “Excuse me. My taxi is here.”
It was. The cab had pulled up as they talked and was waiting beyond the gate. She started to walk toward it, but stopped when Caleb reached out to take her arm.
“At least have dinner with me first.”
“I’ve already eaten dinner. Two hours ago.”
He glanced at his watch, evidently just realizing how late it was. He gave her a sheepish, flirtatious smile. “Well, have dessert with me.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t actually feel like dessert. I’m tired.”
She couldn’t help but feel a spark of satisfaction at his frustrated expression. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah. Just tired.”
“Then don’t go home. Stay here tonight and rest up some more, and we can talk tomorrow morning.”
She studied his face and decided she had him right where she wanted him.
If she was going to attract him enough to hold his interest beyond a few rounds of sex, he couldn’t think she was so easy.
So she relented. “Okay. I’ll stay here tonight, but I was serious about being tired.”
He gave her a flash of a smile. “Did you think I was going to make a move?”
“I wouldn’t put it past you.”
“You’ve got me all wrong.”
Kelly knew one thing for sure. His smile might still give her thoughts of dragging him into bed, but she hadn’t gotten him wrong at all.
–
A few hours later, she had steeled herself for what she needed to do, so she got out of bed, where she was ostensibly sleeping, and went to check her hair, making sure it was hanging in a thick, rumpled fall down her back.
He thought she looked innocent and untouched, so she would use that to pull him in even deeper.
She would be scared about the mysterious someone who was threatening her and sending thugs after her. She would not want to be alone tonight. She would go to his room looking vulnerable and needy. He would get to feel all strong and protective again.
She was sure it would work.
The idea of sex with him now was so upsetting, her stomach was a tight knot, but she ignored it.
She’d had sex with men she didn’t know or particularly like before. She’d had sex with Caleb before, and her body seemed to still want more. She could do this. She had to do this, if she was ever going to succeed with this ridiculous scheme to get close to him and find evidence of his guilt.
She closed her eyes and steeled herself a little more, shaking herself off as she exhaled deeply. In the process, she bumped into a small table, making it wobble. Before she could catch it, a large crystal vase holding cut flowers started to topple and then crashed to the floor.
“Damn it!” She stared in frustration at the mess and broken glass on the dark hardwood floor, catching her breath after being deeply startled by the accident.
With a sigh, she decided that she needed to clean up the mess now, before she went to Caleb’s room, since leaving a broken vase would look too suspicious, if anyone happened to see it.
She tiptoed down the quiet stairs and into the deserted kitchen. There, she started opening closet doors until she found the necessary cleaning supplies.
Grabbing a broom, mop, and dustpan, she hurried back up to her room and cleaned up the flowers, broken glass, and spilled water.
Just as she stepped back into the hall to return the supplies, she nearly collided with Caleb.
“Shit,” she muttered reflexively, her heart leaping as she jerked backward unthinkingly. Her pulse began to pound uncomfortably, and she had some momentary trouble disguising her instinctive, negative reaction to unexpectedly seeing this man standing before her in just a white T-shirt, the trousers to his suit, and bare feet.
She was off stride now. Not prepared to encounter him. Her whole experience with Caleb over the last day and a half had been a balancing act. She needed to be on all the time, to never slip into anything genuine or revealing. But she wasn’t ready right now.
Once she’d basically pulled herself together, she was unpleasantly aware of the fact that she no longer looked like a pretty, innocent seductress. Her hair was no longer sleek and shiny, but rather messy and hanging in rumpled tendrils all over her back and shoulders. Her cheeks were overly red from the rushed exertion of cleaning up the broken vase. And she was carrying a mop and broom.
Cursing silently, she managed to say, “Sorry. You scared me.”
Caleb stared at her speechlessly and didn’t respond.
She couldn’t accurately read his expression in the dim light, but she thought she noticed his eyes focused on her hair, which was hanging loose, the first time he’d seen it that way.
But she’d lost the moment, lost all of her momentum. She couldn’t even begin to get the sexy act going right now, so she decided to wait for another opportunity.
“I had a—clumsy moment,” she explained, when the silence stretched on even longer. “An unexpected collision with a vase of flowers. So I raided your pantry for supplies. I hope that’s okay.” Seeing his eyes shift to the broom in her hand, she shrugged and added, “I was just about to return them.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Caleb replied, with so much composure that she decided perhaps she had misread his earlier reaction. He sounded as cool as he always did. “Just leave them here. Someone will find them.”
That was just like him. Spoiled and lazy and inconsiderate to everyone else. He probably thought of his staff as subhuman. Only existing to wait on his every selfish demand. But, composing her expression, she propped the broom and mop up against the wall and laid the dustpan beside them, then gave Caleb a questioning look. “That’s okay?”
He gave a halfhearted shrug. “Sure,” he murmured. “Why not?”
Now she was rethinking her conclusion about having misread him, because his expression definitely seemed a little distracted. And his eyes were still crawling over her face, hair, and body.
It was a little unnerving, and she wondered if he was so weak willed as to be undone by some long, gold, unbound hair and a length of bare legs.
And then she wondered if she was so weak willed as to still want him to fuck her, despite everything she knew.
Needing to get some momentary distance from him so that she could hide her confusion, Kelly turned around and went back into her room, leaving the door open so he could follow.
Staring at the floor, she saw that there were still a few leaves and petals scattered around on the dark wood and a damp spot still visible from the spilled water. With a sigh, she went to get a towel out of the bathroom, kneeling down on her hands and knees and rubbing at the residual water.
She felt like an idiot. She would have done much better if she could have arrived unexpectedly in his room in a flurry of fluttery prettiness. Now everything was all fucked up, and she stupidly really liked how he looked half-undressed like that.
Mid-thought, she remembered that Caleb had evidently been coming to her room just now, so she glanced up and began, “What did you—”
When her eyes focused enough, she saw that he was holding her bracelet. The one she’d left at the spur of the moment in the bathroom. “Oh,” she mumbled, reaching up and snatching it out of his grip. “Sorry. I was taking a bath there earlier and must have forgotten it.”
She’d almost forgotten she’d left it there, but she wasn’t ready to take advantage of it right now. Her whole plan for the night seemed to be spiraling out of control.
She stifled a groan. Furious. At Caleb. At herself. At this whole fucking, unnatural, brutally ironic situation.
Why had she ever thought she could succeed?
She scrubbed at the floor roughly, taking her frustration out on the remaining moisture, although by now the wood was almost totally dry.
When she heard Caleb make an almost inaudible sound, she glanced up at him and gulped. She had to look down again to compose herself—to her response to what she’d seen in his face.
Caleb’s eyes were hot and possessive. The look was absolutely unmistakable. His face was slightly flushed, and his breathing had picked up momentum.
Kelly knew when a man was aroused, without even having to check his crotch.
She felt a surprising wave of dominance wash over her as she realized that this might actually work after all. The evening would take shape a little differently than she’d intended, but her ultimate goal might still be in sight.
She needed to get close to him—if she was ever going to discover a way to bring him down—and the only way to get close to him was with sex.
Scrubbing more vigorously at the floor, she realized that the neckline of her T-shirt was hanging very low, revealing a substantial expanse of her jiggling breasts, which were bouncing from her motion. Her hair was hanging down in a swinging fall of gold, and her ass was displayed to good advantage.
With her eyes downcast, she kept rubbing the floor at Caleb’s feet.
“Kelly.” His voice was rough and thick—with the unmistakable note of desire.
“What?” she mumbled, pleased when the T-shirt slipped to expose her shoulder. “Sorry I broke the vase.”
“I don’t care about the damned vase. You don’t have to do that.”
