Page 21 of Playing for Possession
I couldn’t help my chuckle. Kieran Earnshaw a gentleman? That had to be a first. “It’s not the 1800s.”
He frowned, grabbed his case, and dragged it to the door. “I’ll sleep in the rental car.”
I swallowed past the sudden lump of nerves in my throat. “If we keep a space down the middle, it’s like two single beds. Just as long as we’re both... fully clothed.”
His eyebrow hitched slightly. Heat flooded my face.Of course we’ll be fully clothed.Why had I added that?
He reached around and scratched the back of his neck. Unease painted his face. “I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”
“I’m more uncomfortable thinking about you sleeping on that floor.”
“You’re sure?”
“Sure. We’re both tired. Let’s just go to sleep.”
He perched tentatively on the bed. “I’ll find somewhere else first thing in the morning.”
“OK.”Together but separate it is.“This documentary you saw. Did they do the black light on the mattress or just the floors?”
A hint of humor flashed in his eyes. “You don’t want to know. Just go to sleep.”
Chapter 10
Joanie
I rinsed my mouth with the too-astringent hotel mouthwash. It tasted moderately better than Fizzz, but not by much. Mirror girl stared back at me in the silver glass above the sink. Yellow plaid pajamas clung to my clammy skin after my shower, and my face shone with moisturizer. These weren’t the cool or sexy pajamas that you wore in front of a new bed partner. They were the boring, practical ones you wore when you were having a normal night and didn’t expect to be sharing a bed with an insanely attractive man. It’s not like I owned any other kind.
Maybe Gerard was right about me.Vanilla pajamas for a vanilla girl.Now Kieran would see me in these. He’d be used to sharing his bed with women who wore skimpy French negligees. Women who didn’t have lists of all the sexy things everyone else had done and they hadn’t. Lana’s Granny Vera probably had racier nightwear. Kieran could have a laugh about these pajamas with Gerard when he got home.
Stop. It doesn’t matter.Kieran was a work colleague, and he’d never been particularly nice to me. Although that seemed to have changed. In fact, he’d been a different person from the grump atthe gym, as though someone had updated his software at the airport with affable mode. Hopefully he wasn’t just beta testing Kieran 2.0 and I could expect more of the same for the rest of the trip.
This doesn’t have to be awkward. Just act normal and get into bed with your insanely attractive work colleague.
I took a deep breath, unlocked the en suite door, and tried to walk as casually as I could. Mercifully, the room was dim. Low light spilled from the lamp on my bedside cabinet. Kieran sat up in bed, scrolling his phone. His dark hair was wet from his shower, and his navy T-shirt strained against his broad shoulders. He kept his gaze fixed on his screen as I scurried past him. I darted under the covers and positioned myself right on the edge of my side.
“Shall I turn out the light?” I asked.
“Please.” He put his phone on the bedside cabinet and rested his head on the pillow.
I clicked the lamp off. Darkness flooded the room. Tension crackled all over my skin.
Kieran’s low voice drifted in the silence. “Give me a whack if I snore and I’ll stop.”
“Should I expect you to snore?”
“I hope not. What about you?”
“No, I’ve been told I’m very easy to sleep with.” A cringe ran through me. That had come out wrong. “I mean, I’m easy to share a bed with. I’m not a duvet hog.”
“Good to know.”
The mattress dipped with his weight as he shifted onto his side. His clean scent of shower gel hit me.
“Goodnight,” he said.
“Goodnight.”
I closed my eyes, but my heart was pounding. My breathing felt overly loud and unnatural in the silence. Kieran probably shared his bed with virtual strangers most nights. A man in my bed wasa novel experience. I was balanced so precariously at the edge of my side of the bed that, knowing my luck, I’d fall out and tear a ligament in my other knee. Still, I was stuck here dangling over the edge. Every movement made me self-conscious. What impression would it give if I moved closer?
