Page 28 of Not So Happily Ever After (British Bad Boys)
He gives a vague shrug. “Back to reception.”
I shoot a glance at his bag.No way. “You’re not sleeping there tonight, are you?”
He lets out a pained breath. “No. I’m going to sleep on one of the guys’ sofas. It’s not a problem. I’ve done it before.”
Not a problem?My entire body burns, and not in a good way. Before I can do the whole cool, calm, and collected thing, the word vomit spews.
“My God, Will. Do youhonestlythink I can’t control myself around you so much that I’ll jump your bones as soon as you’re asleep?”
Well done, Mackenzie.I started an argument within half an hour of arriving. Are my pathetic urges that obvious? I was so sure I’d managed to bury them. Obviously, that was a fail. Seems like the only way I can be in the same room as Will without him guessing I still have athingfor him is if I hide behind my shield of snark.
So much for all my good intentions.
Now would be a good time to sink through the floor and disappear.
“I wish,” he growls under his breath. My humiliated self-preservation diatribe screeches to a halt, mid-thought.
“What?”
He takes a deep breath as though he’s about to confess to murder. “It’s not going to happen. I get that. But I don’t want you feeling uncomfortable or…whatever…this weekend. Don’t want you thinking I set you up. They must’ve had a last-minute booking. Midweek, there were two pods available.”
I have the scary urge to laugh. Not just because he didn’t guess I haven’t totally managed to put him in the friend-zone yet, but because he’s obviously in the same boat.
That isn’t a good thing. I know that. But the relief is great.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t think you set me up. Seriously. It’s not like we haven’t shared a room before.”
Whoa. Heat blasts through me at my gall. It’s the first time either of us has alluded tothat night. By the shock on his face, he can’t believe I did, either.
“Yes. And look what happened.”
“It wasn’tthatbad.” I’m not sure that came out quite the way I meant. Luckily, he grins. Then again, it takes a lot to offend him. I should know, considering all the practice I’ve had over the last couple of years.
“But not something we should ever repeat.”
The words hang there, like an unexplored labyrinth of truth and dare. He’s still smiling, as though we’re just having a laugh, but under the surface, tension ripples.
It’s not all in my mind.He’s looking at me the way he did that Christmas, before we slipped out of the party and ended up in his room. There are a thousand reasons why we should never do that again. And I can’t think of a single one.
Maybe Brooklyn had the right idea when she shoved those condoms in my bag last night?
I clear my throat and rake through my mind for a flirty response. Except all the upper functions of my brain have gone AWOL.
But I need to saysomething.
“Because that would be a disaster.” My voice is all breathy, as though I mean the complete opposite of what I’m saying.Do I?
God, no. We can’t go there again.
Can we?
He looks wary, like he doesn’t believe me. Am I really that transparent to him? My breath stalls in my throat, and it’s like time stands still.
“Mac.” His voice is husky, and it’s the sexiest sound ever.Stop thinking about him like that.But it’s a faint demand, a reminder I don’t want to hear because the heat in his eyes is incinerating my wavering protests.
And then someone raps on the half-open front door, and a perky feminine voice slams through my lustful haze. “Hey, Will!”
…
