Jacked (Trent Brothers #1)(71)

He had a few rolls of paper wedged under another pile of towels that required shifting the load off of them. That’s when I noticed the pink, green, and baby blue swirl on the edge of a box.

I pulled the box free, my bleary eyes taking in the words “plastic applicator” and “fresh scent.”

Disappointment cracked into my chest and up into my skull like a lightning strike. Sure enough, there on the shelf right next to the empty space where the box had been was a ladies’ deodorant stick. What the hell else does he have in here?

I wanted to go on a complete tear through, looking for more evidence, but a brand new box of thirty-six tampons was pretty much all the proof I needed.

I shoved the box back in its spot, berating myself for once again falling for the suave bullshit. I may not be the most experienced when it came to the shit guys keep in their bathrooms, but tampons were definitely not one of them. Reminded me of the time I found a discarded birth control pack in Randy’s apartment. He never did give me a good explanation, either. Bastard.

I left the bathroom light on and cracked the door, illuminating his bedroom enough for me to find my clothes and get the f*ck out of there. My ten-minute fantasy was just shot to hell and I had no desire to stitch it up or even confront him with it.

We didn’t have a formed relationship and I had no right making a big to-do out of the fact that he obviously has a steady woman in his life who parks her fresh-scented shit in his closet.

I found my jeans and one of my socks; the other sock was missing somewhere and if it meant that I’d have to stay here a second longer looking for it, the sock would end up a casualty of war.

I shucked his shorts off and crammed my toes into a sock, balancing precariously on one foot in my hung-over irate state.

A light flicked on, freezing me like a deer caught in headlights.

“What are you doing?” Adam grumbled low.

Shit. I curbed my frustrated anger and went for an innocent smirk and a “quiet walk of shame with as much dignity as possible” moment.

“Oh, sorry. I tried not to wake you. It’s, um, late, and I have to go.”

The covers slipped down his bare chest when he propped his head up. “Go?” He glanced over at his clock. “It’s five twenty-two in the morning, Erin. You got someplace to be?”

My mind blanked. “Yeah.”

His eyes narrowed. “Now? You have someplace to be at five thirty a.m.?”

I nodded while ineptly cramming a leg into my jeans. I nearly fell over; my balance was shit. “Yeah, I have this thing. But thanks for…” Saying everything at that moment seemed so cheesy. For holding my hair while I puked?

When he sat up, the sheets dropped, exposing his deliciously bare chest and those incredible arms and sexy-as-hell rope tattoos that wrapped onto very impressive pecs… making me wonder for a second if I was being too hasty. He should arrest himself for being so insanely sexy that it should be illegal. But knowing my luck, his woman would be coming home soon anyway.

“Hold up. Five minutes ago you were sleeping. Now you’re running a race to get the hell out of here? What the f*ck happened from the time you got out of my bed to now?”

Do I accuse him? Nah. Best if I just leave without making a spectacle of myself. I’m wiser now and he can play all the games he wants with the next hopeful who crawls into his bed, but that won’t be me. No way was I going to get fooled twice.

“Nothing. I just have to go.”

Adam frowned. “Bullshit.”

I could tell that I’d angered him.

“You have to go to work or something? Pretty sure they won’t appreciate you coming into the hospital in your condition.”

“I don’t go in until Sunday night,” I blurted, inadvertently wasting my only plausible excuse.

He craned his neck, glancing at the dark window in his bedroom. “You hear that?”

I stopped moving, concentrating on some mysterious noise.

“That’s the sound of heavy snow and sleet hitting the window. You aren’t going anywhere.”

“I’ll be all right.”

He gazed down at my bare foot. “With one sock and no car? What the hell, Erin?”

Oh, you want to be grumpy with me? “Are you even wearing any clothes under there?”

He flopped the bedding back, exposing what looked like dark cotton sleep pants riding dangerously low on his beveled hips. “I usually sleep naked.” He was out of bed and in my face three seconds later. “What’s going on with you? The truth.”

I watched him cross his beefy arms over his chest, waiting. We were at a draw and I was in knots, just like the braided artwork on his body. Fine. He wanted to know so damn bad, I’d tell him. “I shouldn’t be here.”

His brow tipped up. “No?”

“No.”

“Who says?”

I wanted to laugh. “I wasn’t snooping.”

“Excuse me?”

Gah! I wished I had my full wits about me. I knew my words would not come out of my still inebriated brain properly. “I used the last of the toilet paper.”

“And?”

“And I needed more. Listen, you obviously have a girlfriend and I don’t want to go into the many reasons why I need to go.”

“Wait. Hold up. I have a what?”