“Because I liked watching you try to be all stealthy.”
Stealthy? Ha. That wasn’t a word that had ever been used in reference to her before, and it certainly didn’t apply now.
He shifted a leg, and his muscled thigh rubbed against her, making her lower belly tingle. And suddenly her attention was brought back to his chest beneath her. His verybarechest. And his face…it was so close to hers she could feel his breath on her cheek.
She swallowed. “I should get up.”
“Why?”
Why? Had he lost his mind? “Because we’re in bed together.”
“I don’t have a problem with that.” His thumb swiped her bare hip where her top had risen.
She jolted.
Get out, Aspen. Get out before you do something stupid. Like touch his sexy day-old stubble or kiss his oh-so-kissable lips.
She threw off the covers and, in her haste to stand, almost fell straight back on top of him.
“Whoa, darlin’.”
He tried to touch her, but she lurched away from the bed so fast that she stumbled. “I have to go.”
Humor danced in his eyes. “Where?”
“Shower.”
She turned and speed-walked out of the room so fast that it was basically a sprint. The bathroom door closed behind her with a thud, and it wasn’t until she was locked in that she took her first full breath.
Oh, God. Why did the man have to be so…everything? Sexy. Funny. Chiseled. And she’dsleptwith him. All freaking night.
She stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower. The water was far cooler than she usually made it, but she needed a bit of cool right now.
She should be focused on everything that happened last night. Her mother trashing the living room and accusing her of stealing. The information she’d learned about Dylan.
Dylan. The memory slapped her in the face. Had he really almost killed a woman? Ifshe’dstayed, would that have been her?
She touched her cheek, closing her eyes and remembering the first time he’d hit her.
“You can’t tell me what to do, Dylan. If I want to go to Meridian with Callie, then I’m going to Meridian with Callie.”
His hand moved so fast, she didn’t see it coming, slapping her across the face and whipping her head around. Pain ricocheted through her skull, and she fell back onto the floor.
For a moment she was still, shock and fear and disbelief clogging her throat and stealing any words.
Then she looked up, way up, into Dylan’s hate-filled eyes.
She closed her eyes, forcing the memory away. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that he’d apologized the next day,beggedfor her forgiveness. And stupid, weak Aspen had given it to him.
Self-loathing clenched her hands into fists. She hated herself for that. Deep down, she knew he was the reason she couldn’t write, because a part of her had fallen out of love with men that day. Or the idea of men being protectors, at least. And maybe even the idea of love itself.
But she was here now, with Jesse, a man so beautiful he made her want to believe in love again. And romance and happily ever afters.
The problem was that her greatest loss after dating Dylan was her trust in her own judgment. In her ability to separate the good guys from the bad. Dylan hadseemedgood…until he’d proven he wasn’t.
She stayed in the shower so long that her skin wrinkled. When she finally stepped out, she wrapped a towel around her chest and cursed.
Dammit. She’d been in such a rush to leave her bedroom, she’d forgotten her clothes. She always took a set in with her so she didn’t have to walk into the hall and risk running into Jesse half naked. It had happened the other day, and the way he’d looked at her…she’d almost turned into a puddle on the floor.
