For thesecond morning in a row I woke up to a jackhammer beating a chaotic rhythm inside my skull. But this morning I hadsomeone else lying with me. My head was spinning. Cripes, how much did I friggin’ drink? I tugged a leg from under my blanket. My foot thumped on the littered floor for “grounding” while I blinked open my eyes to stare at the ceiling that rippled like an ocean.Wonderful.
The smell of torture – food - was heavy in the air and I swallowed hard. I didn’t think puking was going to make my head feel any better. So, I manned up and kept it down the best I could. I was fairly sure I would be seeing last night’s elixir again within the next hour, though. There was only so much I could do, after all.
Thetinklingof silverware on a plate, atap-tap-tapof unknown origins, aclick-chunk-clickof who-knows-what, and soft feminine humming with interrupting solidthunkswere my alarm clock. I preferred music. Maybe I should tell that to whoever was making all that darn racket. Didn’t anyone sleep in New York?
I carefully turned my head to the side.
Blinked.
And shut my eyes again, groaning.
My vision was rotating, but I had seen enough. Enough to warrant another groan. So I did. Friggin’ great.
I lifted my head to see who was snoring on me, my eyes fluttered hard to focus on the face so darn close to mine. Messy blond curls obstructed half the man’s face, but I knew who it was. Brent. And as I peeked under the blanket, I found out it was a very naked Brent. To go right along with a very naked me. I groaned again, letting my head fall back on the cushion.
I waited. The memories would come. Then I would realize how I ended up butt naked with Brent on a couch with company in the room. Zane was cleaning his gun at a table. Stash was chowing down on a plate full of torture, sprawling all over a couch. Ally held a trash bag, bending over to pick up pieces ofbroken furniture. And Cole was typing on a laptop in a recliner. It would come. Then I could be properly embarrassed.
I swallowed hard and stared at the ceiling. Waiting.
Didn’t take long.
The memories hit with brutal clarity and I blushed bright, neon red. “Cripes.”
“Yep.” Ally agreed. “Or you could say, ‘Holy shit! I’ve gotten more ass in one day than Ally has in a month’.”
Stash choked on his food and Zane’s shoulders shook, but he didn’t glance away from his work. Cole kept typing, somehow not reacting. His face was cold and remote. And, Brent? Well, he kept on snoring.
Moments ticked by, my dignity flying away with them.
“I told you water would have been a brilliant substitute for the whole bottle of tequila you drained,” Cole deigned to speak, but didn’t bother looking up.Tap-tap-Pound!There was anger in them there fingers.
“She’s not a lush, Casanova. She just had a rough couple of days,” Ally sighed, throwing something that looked like half a plaque in the trash bag.Thunk.
Cole grunted. “I’ve been upgraded from Yankee to Casanova. How flattering.”Tap-Pound-Pound!“Although, I believe that honor should go to our friend Brent. I would be surprised if the whole building wasn’t wakened last night from the noise level that occurred in this room.”Pound-Pound-Pound!
My blush began to travel down my throat to my chest. Oh, this was mortifying.
Thank goodness Zane decided to say something then or I would have started babbling nonsense in my flustered state. “Ember, you need to wake Brent up. It’s 9:00 and we have a noon departure time. You two need to get dressed so we can make our flight.”
Right. I had forgotten about that. I glanced at Ally and raised my eyebrows. Why was she here, really? Wouldn’t Sam be upset?
She waved a negligent hand, understanding my unasked question. “I’ve got a month’s worth of vacation time available, so I’m coming with you. Sam’s going to fly down in a few weeks to join us.” She stopped and stared hard. “Besides, we need to have a conversation that you’re avoiding. I’m not leaving until we’ve had it. And since we’re both too damn stubborn to give in easily, I figured it might take a while.”
She stood there watching as my blush disappeared, giving me what I guessed was a nice pasty appearance. In fact the whole room was divinely silent. I glanced around. They were all scrutinizing me now. I turned my head from them, to Brent, and concentrated on how best to wake him. I sure wasn’t going to talk about what she wanted to know and Brent was a heavy sleeper. It should be interesting.
“Stubborn mule,” Ally muttered behind me.
“Friggin’ nag,” I replied in kind.
They left me alone after that while I poked and jiggled Brent. He snorted a few times, but other than that he kept on snoozing. “For the love of all that’s holy, man,wake up!” I slapped his shoulder.
Nothing.
Ally walked over to help, but coughed, waving her hand in front of her face. “Jesus, you two smell like a fucking distillery.” She gave a delicate shudder before sauntering away – without helping.
“Thank you ever so much. I don’t know how I would have managed my day without hearing that,” I spewed, my head pounding.
“No problem,” she answered cheerfully as she hurtled pieces of trash into the bag extra hard so they would crash even louder.THUNK!
