She took a few steps toward the closet, but the sight of Colin’s nearly nude body sprawled across her bed was not to be ignored.
It was dark in the bedroom, but a soft light from the kitchen highlighted his deep muscle and made his skin appear golden. He was damp from his shower and she very much wanted to feel his warm skin.
For a moment she closed her eyes as she inhaled the fragrance of him. It was as though his sheer masculinity filled the room. She could smell it, feel it, taste it; it surrounded her.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that Colin was looking at her, his eyes only half open, shaded—and they were as full of desire as she felt.
He held out his hand to her, beseeching her to take it.
She couldn’t resist as she touched his palm with her fingertips, then felt her hand enclosed by his much larger one.
When he turned onto his back, he pulled her toward him and her other hand fell onto his chest.
“I’ve wanted you since the first moment I saw you,” he whispered.
“Me too,” she said as he pulled her into his arms. When his lips touched hers, his kiss was everything she’d hoped it would be. Too often, she’d caught herself looking at his lips and wondering about them. When he moved his lips to her neck, she put her head back. She was wearing the loose-fitting clothes that she worked in, and they came off easily as Colin’s big hands went under her shirt.
“Beautiful,” he murmured as his mouth sought her breasts.
Seconds later she was nude and her arms were open to him. When he moved on top of her, she gasped from the weight of him—the wonderful, heavy male weight of him. She clasped her legs about his waist and moved as he entered her.
There were a few quick, hard thrusts and then it was over.
“Thanks, babe,” Colin said, and collapsed onto her. Instantly, she could feel his soft breathing on her neck. He was asleep.
Gemma lay still for a moment, decidedly unsatisfied, but Colin’s skin against hers felt good.
After a while, she thought she should get up, but it wasn’t easy getting him off of her. She pushed on his shoulder, but she may as well have been trying to move a boulder.
“Colin,” she said softly, but he didn’t respond. “Colin!” she said louder. He still didn’t move.
She did her best to scoot out from under him and when she did, she felt a sharp pain in her side. “Great,” she murmured. “Torn stitches.”
Frustrated, she elbowed him in the ribs. With a grunt, he rolled off of her, but his right arm looped around her as though she were his teddy bear, and he pulled her close to him.
“Come on, Jean,” he said. “Let me sleep.” He turned his head away from her.
She stopped moving. “I am Gemma,” she said clearly and rather loudly.
“Ah, Gemma,” Colin said. “Smart and brave.”
If she’d heard those words an hour ago, she would have been pleased, but now they were both naked, they’d just had a quickie version of sex, and worst, he’d called her “Jean.”
It took some effort, but she managed to disentangle herself from his arm and stand up. She stood beside the bed, looking down at him, and she felt disgusted with herself for allowing her desire to override her common sense. Gemma knew that she was the only single woman she knew who’d never had a one-night stand. One friend said it was the only way to go. “No complications. Get in, get it done, then leave,” was what she preached.
But Gemma had never been like that. Maybe it was because she seemed to live in a world of history, but she believed that sex should mean something more than just the physicality of it.
Today, she’d broken her own code. She’d allowed plain old lust to make her forget herself.
She stopped thinking when she felt something warm run down her side. She couldn’t see in the nearly dark room, but when she touched it, she felt her wet bandage. Damn! She’d reopened her wound.
As she went to the bathroom, all she knew for sure was that she had to leave the guesthouse immediately. She quickly pulled on her clothes, not paying much attention to what she put on, grabbed her bag and car keys, and went outside. Once she was in the car, she wasn’t sure where she was going, but it seemed sensible to go to the doctor to have her side looked at.
When she got to Tris’s office, it was still early and there was no one on the streets. Now what? she thought. Did she sit in her car and wait for the town to open up?
When someone tapped on her window, she gave a little yelp. Leaning toward her was Tris’s beautiful face, a hot coffee mug in his hand. She put the window down.
“Are you all right?” Tris asked.