Page 22 of About that Fling (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #2)

A dam staggered backward, surprised by the force with which Jenna hurled herself at him. He felt his arms go around her without any thought to whether it was a good idea, what she was even doing here.

“Jenna? Are you okay?”

“Mmmphwalawonwugoo,” she murmured against his chest, and it felt so good to have her cradled there that he didn’t really give a damn whether he understood a word she was saying. She was soggy and cold and the best damn thing he’d ever felt in his life.

He held her for a moment longer, not sure whether to close the door to offer some privacy, or stand here holding her until she decided to tell him what the hell was going on. He should probably put on some clothes, but somehow it was the last thing he wanted to do.

“What are you sorry for, Jenna?” he asked, and felt her stir in his arms. “Did something happen?”

She shook her head and drew back, and Adam felt the absence of her warm breath on his chest. “I tried to make myself feel something for Shawn,” she said.

“He held my hand, and I let him, and it felt so good to have someone touching me that way and when he asked me to come back to his place I started thinking about how good it would feel to?—”

She broke off there, scrubbing at her eyes in a way that made the mascara streaks look like war paint. Her gaze drifted from his face down to his chest and seemed to freeze there. He waited, not sure what etiquette called for. He should definitely get dressed.

“Hang on, let me grab a shirt.”

“No!” She put a hand out to touch his chest, a gesture that seemed to startle them both. “I mean, don’t do it on my account.”

“Okay.” He ran his hands through his hair and tried to remember what they’d been talking about. “So you slept with your ex and now you feel awkward about the whole thing?”

“No! I didn’t sleep with him.” She took a shaky breath and met his eyes again. “I said I thought about it, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t . And the next thing I knew I was bawling and blabbering to him about how I needed to come find you and apologize, so that’s what I’m doing now. Apologizing.”

He frowned, not sure he was following her line of thought. “For what?”

“For blowing you off. For not introducing you to Shawn or inviting you to join us for dinner. For holding hands with my goddamn ex.”

“You don’t owe me an apology for any of that, Jenna. You were reconnecting with someone you cared about. You and I aren’t dating. Hell, we’re pretending not to even know each other that well. You’re free to sleep with your ex anytime you want.”

Those last words came out stilted, and they tasted bad on his tongue. He felt relieved when she shook her head.

“That’s just it, I don’t want to sleep with him.

Fuck! ” She raked her hands through her hair, making weird wet rows around her face that gave her a beautifully crazed appearance.

“I want to sleep with you, but obviously that’s not possible, and the whole thing made me think about how I’d feel if you slept with your ex—I mean, forget the fact that she’s married to someone else?—”

“Seems fair,” he muttered, “since she managed to forget it when she was married to me.”

She blinked and he could have kicked himself for the bitterness in his tone. Jenna swallowed, then let it go.

“I thought about how I’d feel if you slept with an ex,” she continued. “Or anyone, really. I didn’t like it, Adam. I didn’t like it at all.”

He nodded, not sure what he was supposed to say, but pretty sure he was underdressed for any sort of serious conversation.

For that matter, Jenna wasn’t very well attired either, and she was dripping puddles of rainwater on the floor beside his door.

She shivered, and Adam felt goose bumps prickle his own skin.

A breeze drifted through the open door, so Adam pushed it shut, hopeful it wouldn’t make her feel trapped.

“Look, first things first. You’re soaked to the bone.” He fingered a damp strand of her hair, knowing he shouldn’t go any further with touching her. Not yet. Not while she was this upset. “What did you do, go for a swim in the Willamette?”

“No,” she said. “I just started walking, not really going anywhere, and then I got caught in the rain and I realized I was standing right in front of your hotel. I started feeling guilty, but I couldn’t decide whether to come up or not, so I ended up standing out there a lot longer than I meant to. ”

“How did you find my room anyway?”

She shrugged. “You said you had a suite with a kitchen, and all of those are on the tenth floor. From there, I just started knocking. I’m pretty sure the guy in the room next door thinks I’m a hooker.”

“A hooker with a bad sense of direction and a habit of forgetting to take her clothes off before showering. Come on. Let’s find you something dry to put on.”

She shot a nervous glance around the room, seeming to realize for the first time that she’d landed herself in a room alone with him and a bed. She stood motionless for a moment, then stepped forward, hands at her sides. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he said, moving to the bureau beside the bed.

He pulled open the drawer where he’d stuffed his gym clothes, thankful she’d caught him just a couple days after he’d done laundry.

He grabbed a pair of workout pants and a sweatshirt, along with a thick pair of socks.

He handed them to her and shivered as his fingers brushed her frigid knuckles.

“Here, try these. Bathroom’s right over?—”

Jenna yanked her sweater over her head, and Adam lost track of whatever the hell he’d been about to say. She wore a pink bra made sheer by the rain, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away as she reached between her shoulder blades to unhook it.

“—or you can just change right here.”

She smiled and gave a small shrug. “It’s not like you haven’t seen it before,” she said, turning her back to him as the bra dropped to the floor. “I’m sure my aunt would say this is what a sex goddess would do.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed, too transfixed to come up with anything smarter than that.

She pulled the sweatshirt over her head, making Adam dizzy with the thought of those lovely bare breasts pressing against the soft fleece of his favorite college sweatshirt. “Besides,” she said, “it seems fair considering you’re standing there wearing nothing but your boxers.”

“Very team spirited of you.”

“Thanks. I’ve been working with a mediator on my team-building skills.”

She toed off her clogs and reached for the button on her jeans.

Adam hesitated, wondering if she wanted him to watch.

Hell, he’d pointed out the bathroom, so she had privacy if she needed it.

He gave up wrestling with the etiquette and just stared openly, transfixed by the sight of her peeling her wet jeans down those pale, flawless legs.

He stood mesmerized as she hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her panties.

“You’re staring.”

“You want me to stop?”

“No. I figure I owe you. For the photo the other night. And for answering the door looking exactly like you did in the picture.”

He laughed. “In case you wondered if I had my team of Photoshop experts airbrush the shot before I sent it to you?”

She shook her head and wriggled out of her panties. His sweatshirt hung to mid-thigh on her, which prevented the whole thing from being a strip show. This was hotter somehow. Less staged, more intimate.

“You definitely don’t need any airbrushing,” she said.

“Neither do you.”

Jenna pulled the sweats on, rolling them a few times at the waist so she wouldn’t trip on the cuffs.

She pulled the socks on, then ran her fingers through her hair.

Adam shook off the haze of the last few minutes to turn toward the bathroom.

He grabbed her a clean towel, and while he was there, spotted another pair of workout pants on the floor.

Tugging them on over his boxers, he returned to the room and handed her the towel.

“Thank you,” she said.

“No, thank you. Definitely the highlight of my week.”

She grinned. “Leave your shirt off and I’ll say the same.”

He watched as she began rubbing the towel over her head. She wandered over to sit on the edge of the bed, and Adam stood there, not sure what his next move should be. Did he join her? Give her space?

The hell with wondering. If he’d learned nothing else as a counselor, it was the benefit of direct communication.

“What are we doing here, Jenna?”

She pulled the towel away from her face and sighed. “Trying to remember why it’s a bad idea to sleep together?”

He smiled, pleased she didn’t try to play games or pretend she didn’t understand the question. “It feels different when we’re behind closed doors, doesn’t it?”

She nodded, and Adam made his way over to the foot of the bed.

He sat down beside her, enjoying the warmth of her shoulder brushing his arm.

His bare foot touched her sock-covered one, and the intimacy of it made something inside him twist into a big, glowing knot.

He hesitated, then put his hand on her knee.

It felt comfortable there, the curve of her kneecap fitting perfectly into his palm.

He turned to look at her and felt his heart lodge in his throat.

She’d wiped off most of the mascara, so her face was bare and lovely.

Her eyes met his, and he tried to remember if he’d ever seen such a deep shade of blue anywhere else.

What was the word for it? Azure? Cobalt?

Cerulean? Where was the fucking Crayola box when he needed it?

“You’re staring again.” Her voice was breathy and soft, and he knew she was thinking the same damn thing he was.

He ached to kiss her. Every atom in his body screamed with the need to slide his fingers into her damp hair, to tip her chin up so their mouths fit together and their knees bumped on the edge of the bed.

“If I kiss you right now, we know where this will end up.” His voice didn’t sound like his voice, but that seemed okay somehow.