“Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“Yes. It tells me I can’t think when you’re doing that to me.”
He chuckled and moved back. Immediately her body felt chilly. And lonely. “Better?”
No. “Yes, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Now what? She should get out of this bed immediately, throw Sarah’s sweater back on, have whatever conversation they should have while standing safely across the room and then go to bed, after she smacked Sarah silly for giving her the wrong directions to Kevin’s room.
“So you were hoping to jump in bed with Kevin. It’s not too late, you know. He’s right across the hall.”
She gaped at him, prickling with outrage. “You think I could make out with you and then go across the hall and seduce Kevin?”
“Why not?” Derek shrugged in the near darkness, lit an eerie Shrek-green shade by the glow stick. He was still sexy. And very unogre-like. “It’s not like we exchanged rings.”
“No, no, I know, but...” She wasn’t sure how to explain it. “I can’t. I mean, after this kind of a...connection.”
“Connection?”
Argh! What had she used that word for? Thank God for the dim light to hide her blush—but didn’t green and red mix to make muddy brown? “No, not that. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Why not?”
“Because men like you don’t.” She spoke more harshly than she meant to and swung her legs over the side of the bed, confused, hurt and more confused because she didn’t understand why she was hurting. Embarrassed, she’d understand right away. Appalled ditto. But she should not be feeling rejected. She was the one who’d put a stop to this.
“Hey.” His hand settled on her thigh. His voice was gentle. “I’m sorry. Really. This was a shock to both of us.”
“No kidding.”
“But the connection wasn’t.”
She turned to him. Another shock. “You felt that?”
“From the beginning.” He drew his hand down her cheek. “I knew we’d be good together.”
“Physically.” Well, duh, Addie, what did she think he meant, spiritually?
“That much for sure. Don’t know what else, yet. You felt it, too.”
“I...yes, some. A little. Yeah.” Little like the universe was little. “Okay, a lot.”
He gave that deep chuckle that had become familiar and very attractive. Like pretty much everything else about him.
In defense, she tried to conjure up a picture of Kevin, and got him snoring and drooling on the sofa.
Oops. But really, that made her feel tenderly toward him for being a normal flawed human being. She might lust after Derek, but tenderness counted for more.
“So tell me, Addie. What did you mean a ‘man like you’?”
“Oh.” She struggled with how to explain, more aware than she wanted to be that she hadn’t left his bed yet, and that it wasn’t really difficult to figure out why not.
“One with...considerable experience...in the area of...physical relationships.”
Silence for half a beat, then they both started giggling.
“Translation?” he asked lightly.
“Um...you get laid a lot?” That threw them both into another round of suppressed giggles. Very dangerous. Sharing a private joke in bed together made the darkened room seem even more intimate.
“Where did you get that idea, Addie?” He held up his hand. “Wait, don’t tell me. Sarah.”
“Oh. Well...yes.” Addie wrinkled her nose. Sarah, who had lied about him being sexually aggressive on the beach, and whose hobby was inflating gossip. “She said she heard it from Paul.”
“Ah.” He rubbed his head. “I get it now.”
“So...it’s true?” Addie bit her lip. Jeez, could she have sounded any more disappointed?
“Paul and I joke a lot about the girl in every port thing. With my career it’s hard to have any kind of long-term relationship. I’m never around. But I don’t use women, and I don’t hunt them just for sex.”
Addie drew her knees up, hugged them to her chest, feeling suddenly exposed even though she’d been naked all along. His playboy reputation was the only reason she had stopped her seduction of the wrong man. “You don’t ever want to settle down in a real home somewhere?”