Page 5 of Hot and Bothered
Evan watched me as I nibbled on it. I avoided his gaze, pretending to be fascinated with the ticking clock, but watched him back out of the corner of my eye.
Was he thinking about the previous night? Was he remembering all the things I’d told him? The things I couldn’t even remember saying?
The kitchen was silent. I was acutely aware of every breath he took, every rise and fall of that broad chest. It seemed as if our breaths had synced, as if my heartbeat was thumping in time with his.
“Do you have somewhere to be?” Evan asked.
My breath hitched. The backs of my eyes stung.
“I should be getting ready to leave for my honeymoon.” My bottom lip trembled. I put down the toast. I finally faced him. “Were you the one who undressed me?”
“No, Lizzy came with me and helped get you settled in,” he replied.
“She’s the pretty girl who works at the bar?” I asked.
“That’s her.”
“She was nice to me, even though I was being a nuisance.” I took another nibble of the toast before freezing. A sudden thought occurred to me.
“You’re not a serial killer, are you?” I blurted out.
“Asking the important questions, I see.” His eyes sparkled with good humor. “Even if I was, would I tell you?”
I looked down at my toast.
“I guess not,” I said.
I continued nibbling. If he was a serial killer, I’d probably have woken up in a dungeon somewhere, tied up or drugged. Besides, I didn’t get any weird vibes from Evan. Or, at least, the vibes I was getting from him weren’t a bad kind of weird.
Instead, something about him felt warm. Comforting. Familiar, almost.
“I’m sorry for making a scene at your bar last night,” I told him.
“Considering how your day was going, I think I can let it slide,” he said.
“And thank you for bringing me to your place,” I said. “I’m sorry for being so much trouble.”
“I’ve got to say, taking a drunk, unconscious, runaway bride home with me has never been on my to-do list,” he said.
At the wordsrunaway bride,my chest clenched with another pang of anxiety and dread.
“I can’t believe I did that,” I whispered. “Everyone’s going to be so angry. All the money they spent on the wedding is wasted, and now the merger probably won’t go through.”
“Interesting,” Evan said. “That’s what you’re worried about?”
I nodded.
“You didn’t want to marry the guy, right?” Evan asked. I remembered telling him that much. “It’s better to make a few people upset now than to live a life of misery.”
“My parents won’t see it that way. Neither will Jacob. He’s such a great guy. He treats me well. There’s no reason for me not to marry him.”
“Except you don’t want to,” Evan said easily, leaning back in his chair. He stretched his long legs out. His socked foot touched my bare one briefly before he shifted it away, leaving a tingling feeling in all my toes. “That’s reason enough, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.” As I finished the last of the toast, tears began to well up in my eyes. “I don’t know what to do now.”
“Why don’t you go home and take a few days to yourself?” he suggested.
“I can’t,” I replied. “I live at home with my parents. They’ll never forgive me for this. I can’t go back there. I can’t face them. Not yet. And both of my best friends moved across the country for college. I don’t have any other close friends. I have one sister, but she’s worse than my parents.” I took in a shuddering breath. “I guess I’ll get a hotel room or something.” My eyes went wide. “Oh no. My credit cards. They didn’t work last night. My parents cut me off. It’s their way of forcing me to come home and face them.”
