TWENTY-THREE
The buzz of a phone vibrating somewhere nearby woke her. Pressed from cheek to toe along Kasey’s sleeping form, one of his thighs was thrown over the backs of hers, an arm draped over her back. She nuzzled into the pillow for a heartbeat longer, staring at his sleeping face, repose and serene in the gray light of dawn. He was handsome when he wasn’t using that filthy mouth to piss her off.
Shifting so she could reach for the clutch she’d tossed next to the bed sometime last night, she dug out her phone and swiped it open before looking at it fully. “Hello?” she whispered.
“Good morning. Why are you whispering?” Zoey’s voice came over the line and Shaun slid out from beneath the weight of Kasey’s leg and arm, biting her lip as she realized she had nothing to wear other than her bridesmaid gown. Slinking into the bathroom, she glanced at him, still sleeping, and shut the door.
“I’m… not alone,” Shaun whispered, worried even through the door that Kasey would wake and hear her.
“Oooooh,” Zoey murmured knowingly, and Shaun rolled her eyes. Looking at herself in the mirror, she groaned at the mess that greeted her. Her hair was a tangled riot of curls that had escaped the loose braid from the night before, her make-up had been fucked off of her, though the red lip stain had held up for its promised twenty-four hours. “Do I dare ask who you’re not alone with?”
“Please don’t make me say it out loud,” she grumbled, putting the phone down on the counter and turning it to speaker so she could wash her face with a fresh washcloth that was folded on the marble top.
“A certain sexy Nascar driver, perhaps?”
“Shhhh,” Shaun hissed, glancing at the closed door. Pulling her hair from the remainder of the braid, she ran her fingers through it the best she could, then secured it into another plait that draped over her still naked shoulder.
“Ohhh it is!” Zoey exclaimed, and Shaun could hear her clapping her hands excitedly. “Tell me all of it!”
“Later, you hussy,” Shaun quipped lightly, making her best friend laugh.
“Oh come on! I’m so miserable and sex is so uncomfortable right now, I have to live vicariously through you.”
“They say sex will help induce labor,” Shaun muttered dryly, looking around the bathroom for a robe or towel orsomethingto cover herself in before leaving the bathroom. “Something about semen and orgasms helping.”
“That’s only if your body is already ready for labor, which according to Dr. Jacobs, mine isnot,” Zoey grumbled. “We’re already three days overdue and I’m just so ready. Chase has been acting like a maniac. When will you be home to help keep him sane?”
“Help keephimsane, or help keepyousane?” Shaun asked wryly, pausing with her hand on the door. Barely daring to breathe, she heard weight shift on the bed in the next room, but then all was silent again. Whispering frantically, she muttered, “I gotta go. I’ll call you later, bye!”
Ending the call, she took a deep, steadying breath in, then made sure the towel she’d found to wrap around her nakedness was covering at leastmostof her before opening the door and stepping into the room. He had rolled over, his hand extending in his sleep to where her body had been until ten minutes prior. The sheet barely covered his bottom half, pushed down to his waist, revealing his naked back and just the hint of the curve of his bottom. That leg was uncovered as well, and she admired the long, muscular expanse of his thigh and calf.
Spotting his suitcase across the room, she tiptoed toward it, thanking whatever stars were above that the zipper was nearly silent as she pulled it open. Rifling through his belongings, she found a clean, folded Henley and a pair of sweatpants. Glancing over her shoulder again, she dropped the towel to the floor and stuffed her feet into the sweatpants hurriedly, nearly falling over in her haste. She’d worn no bra with the bridesmaid dress, so she’d have to do without, but she pulled the soft material of the Henley over her head and tugged the tail of her braid out of the neck to fall down her back.
The sweatpants were both too long, amazingly, and too big in the waist, so she rolled the waistband over several times, then tucked the front edge of the Henley into the waist. Loathe to put on the sky-high stilettos from the day before, she found a pair of clean white socks and shoved her feet into them.
Turning toward the bed, she was grateful he was still asleep. Picking up her dress and draping it over her arm, she snagged first one, then the second high heel from the floor where he’d tossed them in opposite directions the night before.
Dawn was creeping over the mountain outside the window, casting the room in pale gray light through the curtains.
Kasey shifted in his sleep again, making panic claw at Shaun’s throat as she dashed as silently as possible toward the door. Disengaging the lock, she prayed the door didn’t squeak when she pulled it open, and then pulled it shut behind her.
Getting away was all that mattered at the moment. She couldn’t let herself think about what had happened, what she’d done, what they’d done, couldn’t think about anything that had been said between them. It changed nothing. They still hated each other, even if the sexwasmind blowing.
Padding in stockinged feet to the elevator, she pressed the button and waited. Closing her eyes, she took a deep, shaky breath in.
A text message dinged, and she opened it, rolling her eyes as she read.
I swear to everything holy, if you didn’t have at least a dozen o’s to make up for skipping out on the rest of the wedding, I’m disowning you.
The three little dots showed up at the bottom of the screen, signaling that her sister was typing again. And then:
Make sure you rehydrate and TELL ME EVERYTHING!
She typed up a quick message just as the elevator chimed that it had arrived, the doors swishing open. Stepping inside, she hit send.
Yes ma’am, but after your honeymoon.
See you in two weeks!
