Out Of The Blue (The Wrong Bed #12)(10)

No wonder. It was well past midnight and she'd probably been on her feet since early that morning, serving people, running around and taking care of the inn.

"Come on," he said quietly. "Time for sleep."

"Only if you stay here."

"On your couch."

"Yes," she whispered.

Both of them stood in her bedroom, staring at the bed in question, which was still a little mussed from Zach's first attempt at sleeping.

It was a vivid reminder of how Hannah had slid into it with him, how he'd come fully awake with her sprawled beneath him, locked in his arms.

She was dressed now, having hastily thrown her clothes back on, but she hadn't been dressed then, and he knew he'd never forget how she'd looked wearing nothing but a few scraps of silk. Or the way she'd looked at him, devouring him with her eyes as if she'd never seen anything like him.

It'd been a long time since he'd felt that hard, fast shock of arousal, but he'd certainly felt it then, even as out of it as he'd been.

Hell, he still felt it.

Quickly, he glanced at her, wondering if she had any of the same thoughts racing through her mind.

It was hard to tell, since she wouldn't meet his gaze no matter how he craned his neck.

Unfortunately, he wasn't very in tune to women, at least at the moment. Living undercover as he had, within a tough crowd of gang-bangers and basically the scum of the earth, he hadn't even been in close proximity to a woman in a long time.

Too long to possibly guess how to handle this.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I don't mind going downstairs."

"I'm positive." She flashed him a shaky smile, and moved over to her dresser. With a smile still pasted on her face, she lit a match and held it to the first of three candles she had there. "I mean we're both adults, right?" She lit the second candle, then shot him another smile. "There's no reason we can't both— Ouch!" She dropped the now burned-out match and brought her fingers to her mouth. "It's nothing," she said before he could move toward her. "Do you like candles, Zach?"

Zach figured he must have missed something in his exhaustion, because he definitely hadn't followed her train of thought from the bed to candles. But there was no missing her nervousness. He lifted her chin with his fingers, planning on gently telling her to relax, that he would take the couch, and she the bed, and they could both get some desperately needed sleep.

But at the feel of her soft skin, the strangest thing happened. Something close to an electric current jolted him, only it wasn't painful. No, it was much worse than that, it was … nice. Warm.

Which made it very dangerous.

He wasn't looking for nice and warm. He wasn't looking for a woman to stare up at him as Hannah was, with wonder and awareness.

Hell, all he'd been looking for was a bed. Okay, and maybe a woman, but someone else, someone … temporary. Hannah wasn't a temporary woman, she was his sister's friend, a woman who would always be around in some form or another because of that. That didn't equal temporary, not in his book.

But his fingers had a mind of their own, and they liked the feel of her so much they didn't let go, but stroked their way to her jaw and cheek.

Her mouth opened, as if she had to do that just to breathe. His own breathing was suddenly just as challenged. "Tell me to leave," he murmured.

"Stay."

"Hannah—" She didn't, couldn't, understand. He was exhausted, dizzy with it. Add to that the fact that he couldn't get the picture out of his head, the one of her half-naked in his arms, which meant he was still aroused. It was wrong.

Eyes lit with something he didn't understand, she moved across the room and hit the power button on her portable stereo.

Soft jazz filled the room.

Then she stared at him, as if waiting for some reaction.

"What about my sister's room?" he asked desperately. He couldn't do this, not with her. "I could—"

"She doesn't have a couch. You know how she is, her room is so spartan."

"Bad timing." The music and candles combined with her expressive, almost hopeful eyes were going to prove too much for him any second now. "Really bad timing."

"Oh, Zach. This is all so wrong. I'm trying to … I wanted to … darn it!" She covered her eyes in misery. "I can't imagine what you must have thought of me when I got into bed with you like that."

"There wasn't much thinking involved," he told her honestly. "At first I thought you were just a dream." A really hot dream.

"Really?" She dropped her hands from her face and actually looked intrigued!

Letting out a low laugh that released exactly none of his tension, he nodded. "Really. And then when I came all the way awake, and you were beneath me like that, I…"

She licked her lips, probably a nervous habit, but damn if that didn't put the immediacy right back between them.

"I didn't crawl beneath you," she said, her voice husky. Her lips moist from her tongue.

She was close enough to … kiss. Kiss. He couldn't get kissing her out of his mind.

"You sorta … put me there," she said softly. "You were confused. My fault." Her voice trembled.