B00VQNYV1Y (R) Read Free Page B

information with me whatsoever. Sleep.”
    “You are”—she fought to get out of the blanket, gasping for fresh air when she found it—“ornery tonight.”
    “And you are helpless tonight.”
    “I’m not.” She was sleepy though. Maybe she was a little bit more sauced than she’d given herself credit for. Everything had seemed perfectly clear in the bar, and after that, anger had provided a buffer between herself and the booze. But now all the adrenaline was wearing off and she just felt deflated. She had tried to do something big. And she had done nothing instead.
    “Go to sleep, little girl. I’ll yell at you more in the morning.”
    Luke crossed over to the faded, threadbare sofa against the back wall of the room and plopped down, kicking his boots off, putting his hands behind his head. She couldn’t help but admire his silhouette, couldn’t help but stare at the muscles in his biceps as he ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. He sighed heavily.
    “You don’t have to sleep over there,” she said, feeling her face heat. “I don’t want to take your bed.”
    He froze, arching one dark brow. “I think I’ll stay over here.”
    She wasn’t entirely sure if she’d been propositioning him just then, or if she was being nice. The restless ache between her thighs, and the heaviness in her breasts told her she was probably propositioning him. Why did she still want Luke? It was so patently clear he didn’t want her. And making any kind of overt move would only compromise their friendship. If not kill it dead.
    “You don’t have to.” She wanted to stuff the edge of the blanket into her mouth to make herself shut up.
    “Yeah, I do.” His voice sounded strained, weird.
    “Why?”
    Silence settled between them. “Go to sleep, Mel.”
    She was on the verge of opening her mouth to tell him she couldn’t, when a deep heaviness settled over her. She was only going to close her eyes for a couple of seconds. And then she was going to tell him exactly what she thought of all of his commands.
    *
    L UKE DID THE very meanest thing he could think to do the next morning. He threw the curtains back, letting the early morning sunlight flood the tiny hotel room. But he was sore, he was grumpy, and he felt very much like taking it out on Mel. She was, after all, the cause of a good deal of his problems.
    “Wake up, sleeping beauty.”
    She curled more deeply into a ball beneath the thin, knitted blanket he had thrown on top of her last night, her blonde hair tangled up over her face.
    She made a snorting noise and rolled onto her back, strands of hair stuck to her lips. She looked like a cautionary tale, and his body should respond accordingly. Or at least, should respond like it was looking at a friend and not a potential playmate. Sadly, neither was the case.
    “Melanie,” he said, increasing the volume of his voice. “Mel!”
    She startled, pushing her hair off her face, and opening her eyes. Then she grimaced, squeezing them shut tight again and rolling back to her side, burying her face in the bedspread. “Ow.”
    “The morning after isn’t all that pretty, is it?”
    “Why are you talking?”
    “Because I’m a mean son of a bitch who spent the night on a couch.” After he’d felt the curves of her body pressed against him as he’d carried her out of the bar, after she had expressed anguish over not getting to hook up, and after she had told him that she was a virgin. He deserved a medal. A gold-plated one. No, a solid gold one that he could melt down into currency and pay off all his debt with.
    A man who had been struggling with an inappropriate attraction to his best friend—a best friend who needed protection, not penetration—should not have to know things like that.
    Though, he’d had a feeling she was probably mostly untouched. He knew her. He knew that she didn’t exactly date. Knew that she didn’t go out to bars, knew that she had a lot of hangups where relationships were