“We’re fine here. No one will hear us. Why are you coming naked out of this guy’s room in the middle of the night?”
“I...” Addie closed her eyes. This was horrible. Since she hadn’t made it into Kevin’s room, she still had no idea how he might react to the idea of her seducing him. “I thought it was yours.”
Kevin was silent for so long, she opened her eyes. Well, one eye. Just for a peek.
His arms were no longer across his chest. He was no longer looking as if he could growl. He looked rather stunned, in fact. “So you slept with Derek instead?”
“No! Of course not.” She felt herself blushing in the dim light. It would help nothing to mention how much she’d wanted to sleep with him. “I went in there thinking it was your room and when I realized it wasn’t, I came back out.”
Just...not quite immediately.
“Addie.” His voice was gentle now. “You were going to seduce me?”
“Yes.” In sudden horror she realized he could easily say okay, then, let’s do it. The only thing she wanted to do less than seduce him now was to explain why she no longer wanted to. She wasn’t even sure why herself, except that it had something to do with Derek.
Okay, everything to do with him.
“Wow, Addie. What a surprise.” He didn’t sound as if he meant a fabulous Christmas-day-biggest-package surprise. More like a so-you’ve-gone-back-to-drinking surprise. “I didn’t think you were the type.”
Of course she wasn’t. But he didn’t need to point that out. “Obviously I’m not. Look how I screwed this up.”
“See...to be honest here, Addie, I’m a take-charge kind of guy.”
“You are?” She had no idea what he was talking about, and it irritated her. This was Kevin. Kevin Ames. Addie was supposed to be melting into a big puddle at his feet, and that was absolutely not happening. Not even close.
Addie, Addie. Be rational. Like this: she was tired, confused, humiliated and so far out of her comfort zone she should probably be wearing an oxygen mask. All she needed was some recharge time, a good night’s sleep and a little space to sort through her emotions. Everything would be okay in the morning.
“See, I’m not that into women making the first move.”
“Oh.” So going into the wrong room and being humiliated had saved her from going into the right room and being humiliated. How nice.
“Yeah, I kind of thought we’d go off alone somewhere, like to a beach or something.” He patted her shoulder awkwardly. “Maybe have a few drinks...get to know each other again. Ease into it.”
Addie’s irritation vanished. Get to know each other again. Yes. Yes. She’d been going about this as a theatrical fantasy. Kevin was talking down-to-earth reality. It had been eleven years; they’d both changed and matured. They had a lot of catching up to do, many things to find out about each other as adults. He recognized that, while she’d been planning to jump him his first night here like a horny frat boy.
“Kevin, thank you.” Her relief was immense. Re-entry into the comfort zone complete. She covered his hand on her shoulder with hers. “I had put all this pressure on myself and was listening to other people instead of to my instinct and...basically trying to be someone I’m not cut out to be.”
“You should never do that, Addie. You want someone who loves you for who you are. You’re sweet and adorable. Part of what makes you so sexy is your innocence. You should never try to be anything else.”
Addie blinked. She took her hand off his and pulled Sarah’s sweater more tightly around herself. He was right about her. Of course he was. But she couldn’t help feeling the loss of that moment imagining herself as a wildly sexual seductress.
“Listen.” Kevin crossed the distance between them, took her in his arms for a long, comforting hug that—
Oh. Well, now she got the beer fumes. But under them, a nice sweet aftershave that she...pretty much liked. “You go to sleep now. Forget all this. Tomorrow we’ll take a walk or something and catch up, okay?”
“Yes.” She pressed her cheek against his shoulder. He understood her better than she’d understood herself. “Thank you, Kevin. You’re wonderful.”