But she wasnotcatching feelings. She certainly wasn’t craving a repeat of the night before. Absolutely not. That would be careless and reckless and possibly very silly, and she was none of those things.
She was logical and pragmatic, and she protected her heart at all costs.
Carefully, she slithered out from under Joel’s arm. Her heart galloped. Weren’t SEALs supposed to wake at the first flicker of sound and movement?
But he didn’t wake. Thank God she was so stealthy. Well, notsuperstealthy, but heck, she hadn’t fallen on her face. An awkward “morning after” conversation was the last thing she wanted. Right splat at the bottom.
Quietly, she tiptoed to her neatly folded clothes on the dresser. When he’d done that, she had no idea. She didn’t want to think too much about anything right now. Instead, she pulled on her clothes from last night.
She turned to leave?—
Only to yelp at the sight of a chest. Not just a chest. An entire Joel-sized body. He wore only briefs, and holy cheese on a cracker, the man was carved from stone. Shadows played over his torso thanks to all the hard ridges.
Up. Look up, Polly.
One breath, then she did. And yep, his day-old stubble was beautiful too.
Humor danced in his eyes. “Morning, Sunshine.”
Even his husky voice made her lady parts hum. Damn him. “Hi. Hello. I didn’t, um, hear you get up.”
“I tried to be quiet so I wouldn’t disturb your sneaking out.”
Well, the whole getting out of bed and standing right behind her had ruinedthat, hadn’t it? “Not sneaking out. Walking out.” With hopefully a small sliver of dignity.
She squeezed between him and the dresser, very careful not to touch that perfectly sculpted chest of his.
“Everything okay?” he asked, as he followed her out of the bedroom.
No. Everything was not okay. Her heart was racing, her skin was clammy and tingling, and all she wanted to do was turnaround and lay one on the guy before begging him to take her against the wall.
What was wrong with her?
“It’s fine.” The biggest lie she’d ever told.
She grabbed her phone from the kitchen counter and turned—and Jesus flippin’ Christ, his chest was there again. He was doing this on purpose.
Saint purred by their feet and rubbed against Joel’s legs.
A nearly naked man with a cat. It was like a pinup board for designer briefs.
“Excuse me.” For the second time, she maneuvered around him. When she didn’t touch his body, she almost wanted to give herself a pat on the back. But she wasn’t safe yet.
She’d just reached the door when she cringed. “My car.”
Joel opened a drawer in the hall table and took out her keys. “The guys brought it over.”
Thank God. She tried to take the keys, but he pulled them back before she could touch them.
“Can we talk about last night?”
Her tummy flipped. “We had sex.”
“We did.”
“Adults have casual sex all the time.”
He lifted a brow. “Casual?”
