Chapter Three
Okay, not the first thing he’d thought she’d say when she woke up and found him next to her.
He’d imagined maybe she’d be a little confused, a little concerned why he was in her bed.
Maybe ask for an explanation, which he was more than willing to give.
Any of those options had been his last thoughts when he’d stripped and crawled in next to her once she’d emptied her stomach of all the alcohol and, basically, passed out.
But not the rage undulating off of her like a tsunami barreling down on a shoreline.
“What are you doing in my bed?” She grabbed the sheet and covered herself with it, a deep red flush sprinting up from her chest to her cheeks.
“You don’t remember?”
“What am I supposed to remember?” The color deepened as her eyes narrowed.
“What happened last night.”
Worry now mixed with the anger. He knew she was attempting to piece together the circumstances, try to remember just what had happened after she drank herself into a stupor.
“You, you drove us to the Love Shack after the wedding," she said at length. “To get...something to eat. I was all set to come home and get takeout, but you drove us there.”
It sounded more like a question than a statement.
“What else?”
Her head wobbled a bit, side to side. “We ordered something to drink. And then...ate?”
“Yes, to the first, no to the second. You downed your first drink with nothing in your system to absorb the booze. Then you ordered another one before the food came out.”
Her face went blank, her eyes darting right and left.
Charity wasn't a drinker. That much was obvious.
“Okay,” she said, her voice now going a little shaky.
“Remember anything else?”
“Music?”
“The band was playing and you dragged me up onto the dancefloor before the food came out.”
That flush turned crimson, like she had a fever raging through her body.
“We danced?”
“Yup.”
“Oh.”
Her word told him she was surprised. Her tone? That she had no memory of how she’d cleaved to him like moss to a wet rock, wound her arms around his neck and just burrowed in. He'd wondered at the time if she was as turned on as he’d been.
Probably not.
“And we never got a chance to eat because the alcohol hit you all at once and you started to drift off right there on the dance floor. It was a good thing I was holding you, or else you’d have dropped in your shoes. So I had Rosie pack up the food and I drove you home.”
“You...you were...holding me?”
“We were dancing, Charity. Slow dancing.”
After a few moments, she shook her head again, like she was trying to clear it. “I don’t remember any of that. That drink must have been stronger than usual because I never get like that.”
“I’ll repeat. You had eaten nothing all day. It was no wonder you got hammered as quick as you did.”
“That explains why I can’t remember much, but not why you’re in my bed, half naked, and...and...” She flipped her hand at him.
He pushed up to a sitting position and leaned back against her headboard, his gaze never wandering from her face.
“You really don’t remember what happened after we left the bar?”
Another head twitch, her eyes darting left and right again. Her brows squinched together and her nose twitched. “Did we...I mean...did you...I think I remember...did you...” she swallowed, the sound of her throat working loud in the quiet room. “Kiss me?”
It was a seventh-day wonder her face wasn’t exploding from the heat ravishing it.
“It was more like you kissed me.” He grinned.
Her spine snapped upright, the sheet in danger of falling again. She reinforced her hold as she speared him with an intense, heated glare.
“And?” she asked.
Kolby tucked his tongue to the inside of one cheek and pursed his lips.
He knew she was asking what they did next, but he purposefully misinterpreted her meaning.
He’d been teasing her since the day they met about anything and everything.
Some days he actually looked forward to it. She was so easy to bait.
Because of that, he said, “And it was pretty damn hot.” His grin broadened, showing all his teeth.
“You were totally into it. Hauled me down on top of you on this very bed,” he patted it, “and told me I was better than a blanket. Wrapped your legs around me, tight, and said you wanted me to...warm you. All over.”
Her mouth fell open.
“So, I did.”
The red in her cheeks blanched. Her bottom lip began trembling like the last leaf on a tree being caught up in a windstorm, and her eyes began to fill.
Not the response he’d expected and, for a second, he regretted playing with her.
In all the time he’d known her, he’d never seen her cry, not even happy tears.
Charity Quinlan was the ultimate professional, never joked around, or lost any of her calm resolve.
Always on time, never unprepared. Never flustered when problems arose, case in point, the sloshed frat guy from the night before.
He’d seen her talk crazy mothers off an emotional ledge and calm even the most nervous of brides.
It was one of the reasons he loved teasing her so much—she was routinely unflappable.
An exasperated eye roll and a quick flick of her hand dismissing him was how she usually dealt with his behavior.
Why that turned him on so much he’d leave to figure out another time.
The clients loved her because she never forgot a single detail. Colleen depended on her more and more as the years went by, especially since she’d been out on maternity leave. Leaving her thriving business in Charity’s hands proved perfect – both for the business’s reputation and Colleen herself.
But Charity had been correct when she’d said they weren’t friends, had never hung out, and knew next to nothing about the other.
Last night he’d realized he wanted that all to change, which is what had prompted the drive to the Love Shack.
He wanted to get to know her in a setting far removed from work where the pressures of doing a top-notch job weren’t pushing them both to their limits.
When they could just hang back, relax, and learn about the other for no reason than because they could.
The evening hadn’t turned out exactly as he’d planned.
He was just about to take pity on her and tell her the rest of it, but she let loose with a wail.
“How could you?”
Before he could get her to clarify, she added, “How could you have...slept...with me? Taken advantage...” She choked on a sob. “I can’t believe this!”
Kolby blinked a few times, his head rearing back.
Was she accusing him of...? The thought was so ridiculous he couldn’t even form the word.
Again, before he could formulate a response, she jumped up, dragging the covers from the bed with her and bracing them up against her torso like a shield. He knew she was clad only in her strapless bra and panties because he’d been the one to undress her and put her to bed.
And it had taken every ounce of fortitude he could muster not to stare at her small, yet perfect breasts, and fabulous hips, as they spread down from her tiny, cinched waist.
The woman was a walking, talking American beauty rose in her clothes. In just her underwear? The kind of woman the ancients went to war over.
He would willingly have served as tribute for her.
Trying to keep a grip on his mounting lust, he’d tucked her in bed and climbed in next to her, worried she’d be sick again and not make it to the bathroom. Thoughts of her choking to death on her own vomit played like a reel in his head.
“Get out! Get out!” she cried, bolting toward the bathroom.
“Charity, wait. Let me explain."
Swirling around to face him, her face was now tear-streaked.
“Don’t say a word. I don’t want to hear it.
” She took a step back toward the bed and swiped at her wet cheeks with one swift brush across each.
“You just can’t help yourself, can you? You need to nail everything with two X chromosomes.
Even me, whom you don’t even like, just to prove what a .
.a...man you are. You...you... disgust me! ”
Anger pushed up from low in his belly. Kolby rarely lost his temper, but right now, with that scurrilous statement in the air between them, it was growing to dangerous levels.
He pushed off the bed and stood next to it, knowing that if he strode to her, she would perceive it as a threat because of his size. Crossing his arms over his chest, he tried to draw in a breath to help him curtail the fury wanting to unleash as it competed with the hurt bowling through him.
Unfortunately, the anger was stronger. Narrowing his eyes, tunneling her in his sight, he said, “You weren’t so disgusted when you slid your tongue into my mouth, Charity.
In fact, you were pretty damn into it if memory serves.
And mine is fine because I didn’t knock back-to-back cocktails down my throat. ”
“I was drunk.”
“And whose fault was that? I told you several times to slow down and eat something, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“So, you admit it? You took advantage of the situation and...and...” she waved at the bed.
Now the hurt pushed up. Her opinion of him as a guy on the sexual prowl and nothing more, stung. Whether it was deserved or not, it stung.
“Charity, I’ve never taken advantage of a woman - or a situation - in my life. I’ve never had sex with someone not willing or with a woman who didn’t want me as much as I wanted her. Never.”
Charity swiped at her face again and squared her shoulders.
Piercing him with a heated glare, she said, her voice now deathly calm, “We are going to forget this ever happened. Do you understand me? I never want you to mention it. And if I hear that you’ve bragged to anyone about this, about me being another notch on your belt, I promise you I will do everything in my power to end you, professionally and personally. ”
His vision tunneled even more. He’d never bragged about anything, not even his photography skills - and those he could have. “You’re threatening me?”