Shut Up And Kiss Me (The Last Best Place For Love #4)

Chapter 1

ROB

Pain exploded in my head as I peeled my eyes open. Blinding light streaked across the dim room from the tiniest spot in the blinds, illuminating exactly the one corner of the room I was in.

I couldn’t remember ever feeling this shitty, aside from that time I’d been captured and tortured in Kosovo. I’d had nerves of steel and held out until my unit rescued me. I was pretty damn sure no one was coming to my rescue now. I was on my own.

My fingers slid over what felt like crumpled sheets, but how could that be when it felt like a jackhammer was going off in my head? Was I being held in a luxury prison? Was someone trying to torture me with pleasure?

Because this bed was damn comfortable, and that was about the only thing easing the ache in my body.

A feminine groan wrenched through the air, and my eyes flew open, working past the pain slicing through my head. I jerked my head to the side, wincing as the stabbing feeling nearly severed my eyeball from its socket.

Through the pain and misery, all I could make out was a mess of long brown hair spilling over a very naked back.

“Shit,” I murmured, scrubbing my hand over my face. I squeezed my eyes closed, hoping I was seeing things, but when I opened them, not much had changed.

She was still there, still very much lying next to me. And still very much naked. I carefully lifted the sheet wrapped around her lower back and took a peek at the rest of her.

Damn nice body.

“And that’s my cue to exit,” I muttered, sliding toward the edge of the bed.

After taking a moment to regain my balance, I snatched my clothes off the floor and quickly dressed.

“Fuck, everything hurts,” I muttered to myself.

I had no fucking clue where I was. Steadying myself against the wall, I stared in a floor-length mirror at my reflection, willing my memory from the previous night to come back.

But the longer I stared at myself, I realized I didn’t remember much of anything since…

“The airport,” I whispered. “I was coming home from the jungle.”

That couldn’t be right. If I was coming home from the jungle, then the guys would be with me. And there definitely weren’t digs like this in the jungle.

I ran my hand down my face again and stared at my reflection. “Just get the fuck out of here. You can figure the rest out later.”

I realized that talking to myself wasn’t a sign of good things to come, but when no one else was around, who else was I supposed to figure shit out with?

With a glance back at the woman in bed, I headed through her house, surprised at how absolutely wrecked it was. Did a bomb go off in here? Fuck, this woman was either the worst housekeeper ever, or we destroyed this place last night.

Heading for the door, I flung it open, only to be shocked by the frigid air smacking me in the face. “Holy shit!” I griped, slamming the door shut.

Okay, I was definitely not going out there in only a t-shirt. It was fucking freezing out there. And if I came here in this weather, then I must have arrived with a jacket, at the very least.

Searching the room, I found a neon blue coat with white fur lining the hood. It was fucking ridiculous and not something I would ever be caught dead in, but when in Rome…

Or wherever the hell I was.

I pulled it on, rolling my eyes when the cuffs strained against my forearms, cutting way too fucking short. Thankfully, the coat was slightly longer for a female form, which meant it at least hit my waist. However, the bulk of my chest made it impossible to zip the damn thing closed.

I could just go back to the room. That would make the most sense. But the thought of waking up that woman and going through the whole routine of who are you and where did we meet sounded exhausting. Not to mention, I really wasn’t interested in having the conversation about what last night meant.

Especially when I didn’t remember last night.

Better to just slip out.

Except when I stepped outside, my breath puffing out in large bursts, I suddenly realized something was very wrong.

As in, I wasn’t in Pennsylvania. We didn’t have mountains scraping the sky anywhere near Reed Security. And it definitely wasn’t this fucking cold in Pennsylvania right now.

“Where the fuck am I?”

I briefly considered going back inside to ask the woman. After all, what was I going to do? Just wander around?

It wasn’t the worst idea in the world. After all, I was a survivalist. But as my eyes scanned the land around us, the one thing that was very clear was that there wasn’t a single house or sign of town in any direction. The only thing giving me a sign of where to go was the very long, winding road.

Walking back inside, I shut the door and froze when the woman from the bedroom stumbled out, stubbing her toe on a chair. Cursing under her breath, she shoved the long brown locks out of her face, and I finally saw her for the first time.

My breath caught in my chest at how fucking beautiful she was.

I mean, aside from the streaks of mascara smudged under her eyes.

That tousle of long brown hair accentuated her sharp cheekbones and pert nose. And those lips. Fuck, they were gorgeous. Thick and luscious with a natural red luster to them.

I woke up in this woman’s bed. Probably had my lips on hers and other various parts of her curvy body.

And I didn’t remember a damn second of it.

“Holy shit,” I murmured just loud enough that it caught her attention. Her eyes shot up to meet mine, and shock quickly turned into disgust.

“Are you wearing my coat?”

Glancing down at the teal sleeves, I cleared my throat awkwardly. “Uh…yeah.”

It took her a moment, but she finally shook her head and charged forward, stopping just inches from me. Somewhere in the massive mess of her house, she had snagged a poker and was wielding it like a weapon. My hands immediately shot up in defense, hoping she didn’t try to kill me.

“Who are you and what are you doing here? And why are you wearing my coat?”

“Whoa, just hold on a minute—”

She stabbed the poker at me, forcing me to back up a step. “What kind of psycho breaks into a woman’s house and steals her coat? It doesn’t even fit you!”

“I didn’t break in!”

“Well, I certainly didn’t let you in!”

“Actually—”

She charged me, jabbing the poker right at my chest. Sidestepping her, I grabbed the metal and yanked it out of her hands, holding it out of her reach.

“Just calm down—”

Screaming like a banshee, she attacked, taking me completely by surprise. Her shoulder slammed into my stomach, and I stumbled back over a footstool covered in a mound of clothes.

My back slammed into the floor, quickly followed by the woman falling on top of me, still screaming, but now beating me with her fists. I didn’t dare let go of the poker, but I had to contain the little firecracker before she did some real damage.

Grabbing one fist, I tried to pull her to me, but her other hand flew at me, slamming hard into my face. My head jerked to the side, but before I could recover, she hit me again, twice as hard this time.

“Fucking hell! Stop beating me!”

That only earned me another fist to the face. Dropping the poker, I rolled us and grabbed her other wrist, pinning them above her head as my body straddled hers.

“Get off me! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!”

I should have expected it. She was fighting me so hard that it was inevitable she would use her knee in such a way. Yet, still, somehow I missed the crushing blow until it was too late.

Sucking in a ragged breath, pain shot up through my groin, filling my stomach with nausea until I thought I would pass out. She shoved me off her, then picked up the poker and slammed it into my arm, beating the hell out of me.

I had just enough sense to grab the poker before she could break my arm, but as soon as that was out of reach, she ran to a table and picked up a lamp, whipping it at my head.

“I’m not a murderer!” I yelled as I shuffled against the couch, trying to hide from her tirade. “I woke up in your bed!”

That got her attention just seconds before she was about to unleash her fury on me with a vase. I held my breath, waiting to see if she would whip it at me, but slowly, she lowered it, narrowing her eyes at me.

“You what?”

Wincing, I sat up, still holding my nuts as I struggled to find a more comfortable position. “I woke up in your bed.”

“You woke up in my bed.”

“Yes.”

“You woke up in my bed.”

Rolling my eyes, I struggled to my feet. “Saying it for a fourth time isn’t going to change anything.”

“But…” Cocking her head to the side, she concentrated on me, opening and closing her mouth several times. “I don’t remember that.”

“Neither do I.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, still filled with distrust. “And how did you end up in my coat?”

“I was going to sneak out.”

“Why?”

“Call me crazy, but I was hoping to avoid this.”

That must have been the wrong thing to say because she stiffened. “Hoping to avoid getting beaten? Do you often have this experience?”

This was coming out all wrong. “What I meant was, I wanted to avoid the whole conversation of what last night meant.”

“Well, considering neither of us remembers it, I doubt it means much of anything.”

That was a relief, but it still begged the question, what were we going to do now? I slowly lowered myself onto her couch, sensing that she wasn’t going to murder me anymore.

“So, what do we do now?”

“Well, you start by taking off my coat. Stealing is bad,” she spat.

“I’m aware.” Scrubbing a hand down my face, I remembered the view when I stepped outside. “Where are we?”

“Montana. You don’t remember that?”

I shook my head, shocked that I was on the other side of the country. “I don’t know how the hell I got here. Or why I’m here.”

“If you don’t remember, that must mean that we didn’t intentionally hook up.”

That was true. “How did we even meet? I don’t look familiar to you?”

She studied me, her eyes roaming over every inch of my face. “Not really. I mean, it’s possible…” But then she shook her head. “I don’t know. God, my head hurts.”

Sinking into a chair, she scrubbed a hand over her face, messing up her mascara even more.

“I feel so awful. What the hell did we do?”

It was all a blank, and that was the worst part. I didn’t know how I got here or why I was here. I really fucking hoped I hadn’t been on a mission.

“I need some food. Preferably greasy. And a shit ton of coffee.”

“I have nothing in the house,” she grumbled. “But I can take you into town. I just need a shower first.”

“Wanna share?” I cocked a grin at her.

Again, wrong thing to say. “Why would I share a shower with a stranger?”

“Well, I did wake up naked in your bed. We can’t be too unfamiliar with each other,” I teased.

But the scowl on her face said she wasn’t in the mood for joking. I held up my hands placatingly, leaning back into the cushions.

“I’ll just stay here while you get showered.”

Getting to her feet, she picked up the poker and pointed it at me. “Don’t think of trying anything funny.”

“Trust me, I’m not interested in getting beaten to death.”

But that didn’t stop her from backing away from me like I was a serial killer. Once I heard the door shut in the other room, I closed my eyes and tried to remember anything I could, but my head was pounding, and soon, I drifted off to sleep.