Hot Blooded (Wildwood Construction #9)

1. Reva

REVA

Groaning, I pull the pillow further over my face, trying to block out the glaring light that’s just barely peeking past the fluffy barrier.

“Oh god,” I groan, feeling my tummy roll over and my body break out in a cold sweat.

This is why you should never drink until you don’t feel the pain and confusion that sometimes happens after you finish school.

I just wanted a night off from all my worries. Especially my Dad. He loves me. I know he does. Unfortunately he’s dead-set on not letting me do what I want to do with my life.

I want to follow in my old man’s footsteps. I want to be a firefighter. But he won’t even talk to me about it. He wants me to find a nice, safe job and then one day, he’s said when I’m thirty-five, find a nice man and settle down, raise a family.

I do want to be a mom someday and raise a family with a man I love and who loves me like my dad loved my mom. He completely lost himself after she died and it was humbling and also upsetting to see how much he loved her. He was barely able to function.

But that was a long time ago. I was only five when she died and barely remember her. Just her singing to me at night and dancing around the living room with me. Until she got sick.

Then it all changed. The house that seemed so happy and so full felt too big for the two of us.

But Dad worked his ass off to be both mother and father and I never lost hope that he’d find someone new. He just never had the heart for it.

“Mmmmph!” The mumbled growl has my head jerking up and whipping around, gritting my teeth when the room whirls around me.

“Holy shit! Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my room?”

“Not your room,” the husky voice mutters and for some strange reason the hair on the back of my neck lifts. I feel like I should know that growl. It’s so damn familiar.

“What do you mean, it’s not my room? It most assuredly is.”

“No, it’s not. It’s mine. Look around for your stuff and you’ll see that I’m right.”

My head pounds and my tongue feels like I’m wearing a damn sweater on it. My vision fades in and out and I can’t see a foot in front of my face let alone around the room.

“There’s no way that I’m in your room,” I say stubbornly. If I fake it, I’m sure that I can get him to get the hell out. Right now I don’t even care whose room it is.

But he doesn’t cooperate.

“I’m in my damn room, lady.” He snorts. “If I can call you that.”

Pulling the covers over my head, I grunt. “You’re a jerk.”

“No. Normally I’m not. But I’ve got a blistering headache and my mouth feels like a fucking ashtray and now I’ve got a woman arguing with me in my room. As far as I can tell, this is a good damn time to get a little testy.”

“Humph! Well, I still say it’s my room.” But I pull the covers down and open my eyes fully, taking a wary look around the room, groaning to myself.

The first thing I see is a dark gray rolling suitcase sitting open on the floor. Mine is a gorgeous rose gold because that’s my thing. Popping my gaze around the room, I sigh and cover my face again.

“This can’t be happening. Did I actually go home with a perfect stranger last night?”

“Yeah, this isn’t my home, it’s my hotel room and judging by our current condition, I guess you did.”

“I don’t usually do stuff like this.”

“One would hope not. It’s actually really dangerous.”

“I know that,” I growl.

“I’m not sure if I should be honored or appalled that I’m so lucky.”

His tone has me jerking the sheets off my head and glaring at his huge form through my tangled hair.

He’s turned away from me now and has the sheets pulled up over his body.

But I can see his shoulder and it’s perfectly-rounded, muscular and tanned.

Smooth and tempting. A tiny niggle of familiarity wars with the faint buzz of my clit.

I swear I know him. I push that thought out of my mind when the full scope of what I did hits me.

Did we? I take stock of my body and don’t feel what I think I should feel after a night of debauchery. I was, I mean, am a virgin. My head swims with the leftover alcohol-induced confusion. Surely, I would feel something if we did…it.

My girlfriends last night would have been laughing their asses off at this point. What college woman is a twenty-two year old virgin? None of them that’s for sure. My cheeks burn when I take stock of all the stories I’ve listened to over the years.

And yet…not one of them woke up in Vegas in a strange man’s bed and unable to remember if they lost their virginity or not.

Shame sneaks up on me when I picture the disappointment on my dad’s face.

He will literally shake his head when he hears about this.

He thought he raised me right and then instead of going home, because I’m afraid to tell him that I want something he doesn’t want me to, I go out and party with my girlfriends and wake up in a stranger’s hotel room.

Ugh. It’s worse than cliche.

I lift my hand up to run it through my hair and a strange glint catches my eye. Hissing out a breath, I hold my hand out in front of me and it feels like I can’t breathe. My heart stops and I cannot breathe, strangling on the sucked-in air that feels like it’s gotten stuck in my throat.

“What the fuck is this?” I gasp out on a choked rattle of air.

“What?” That husky, deep voice says next to me.

And then he turns over and it feels like the bed is tilting.

My eyes widen but yet my vision blurs. Everything stills in the room and all I can do is stare at the man in the bed with me.

The half-naked man who’s almost old enough to be my father and happens to be one of his best friends.

The man I’ve been crushing on and cursing out in my head since I was just a hormonal sixteen-year old who first realized what that sexy adonis belt on the side of a guy’s waist led to.

Sucking on a breath and then choking desperately to clear my windpipe has got to be the least sexy thing to do when you find yourself shacked up with your teenage wet dream.

Especially when he thumps your back vigorously, his naked, dusted-with-hair chest is right next to your face and you can almost smell that delicious manly scent that hangs over him every damn day. Pine and spice and just….fucking intoxicating.

I’m thinking all this as he thumps on my back. Until I notice the matching ring glinting on his hand and for the first time in my life, everything goes black.