Slow to understand, a skeptical frown stretched across her face.
“Spinach, coconut milk, banana, pineapple, and honey.”
The effects of the night before still ravaged her body. Despite the color, she gladly raised the glass to her lips, hoping for any relief to the thumping at her temples and hint of nausea swirling in her stomach. The cold sweetness drew a yummy hum from her throat.
Warily, he watched her with a slightly glazed expression. “Do you want to try talking about last night again?”
There was nowhere to hide. Putting off the conversation would only delay the inevitable, not to mention the large black hole in her timeline was driving her crazy. Her eyes drifted to the grey grout filling the cracks between the square slate tiles covering the counter. She gave a small one-shoulder shrug.
“I’ll take that as a yes. What were you drinking last night?”
Feeling the penetration of his stare, she squared her shoulders and met his gaze. Being inundated with a profusion of embarrassment triggered a restrained insolence in her tone. “I only remember having two flutes of champagne. Not including whatever you must’ve given me.”
“I gave you water and a shoulder to lean on…” A flash of smug complacency. “And hips to grind against. I also made sure you didn’t fall on your ass when you dropped it low.”
Carrie Ann gasped in disbelief.
Summer lifted his hands, pumping his open palms toward the ceiling. “Boom, boom, shake, shake, drop—”
She shot him an outraged glance. Insinuation coated her voice, “I did not boom boom! Water my ass. What did you give me? Tequila? You know damn well I can’t drink that stuff!”
A thin smirk straightened the curve from his lips. Both brows lifted with absolute resolve, stealing any doubt she had remaining.
“I was trying to sober you up.”
“Yeah. I bet you were. That way you wouldn’t feel guilty luring me into your plane. Hijacking me to the middle of nowhere. Just because you dropped a cool million—”
“Oh yeah, that’s what I did,” his voice thickened, agitation gathered force. “You ought to be thanking me right now, Carrie Ann. Who knows where the fuck you would’ve wound up if I hadn’t been there.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t remember anything, do you?” He said through clenched teeth. “Tell me the last thing you remember.”
A break in the rain left the cabin quiet except the sounds of their labored breathing. Rising anger broke across the bridge of his nose and cheeks, turning them crimson. Summer was livid, but the resentment wasn’t meant for her.
“The last thing I remember was being at the auction. I was on the dance floor.”
“With me or with him? That guy…Jason?”
“We danced?” she croaked. Her head moved slowly back and forth, indicating uncertainty. “Wait, I remember seeing you. You were standing under a tree.”
“Christ, Carrie Ann. That’s the last thing you remember?”
Uneasiness mounted. She could only nod.
“I debated on whether or not I should step in and stop you from making an ass out of yourself. You wrapped yourself around him, grinding on him…”
“I didn’t. There’s no way I would do that. Especially at the auction…or with Jason.” Another round of humiliation scorched her face.
“Boy-wonder was thoroughly enjoying the show. The way you moved against him made it perfectly clear you didn’t want anything to do with me, but you kept smiling at me the whole time.” He threw his hands wide, stretching the cotton fabric over his cut abdomen and chest. “Fuck, you pissed me off. I didn’t know if I should rip his head off or leave. Do you have any idea how infuriated I was watching you throw that shit in my face?”
A vision of his tongue shoved down his co-star’s throat and her naked breasts pressed against him brought clear elucidation. Even after a decade, seeing him with another woman was still…gut wrenching.
“Please tell me you didn’t get into a fight with him?
A comical smile seasoned with a hint of arrogance tipped his lips. “I didn’t have to. You came to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you literally left him standing alone in the middle of I’m Not the Only One and walked over to me. I’m not sure if walk would be the right terminology. Slink might be a better definition. You had some serious sultry swagger going on, Red.”
Her fingers came to her lips, hiding her baffled incomprehension.
“You apologized to him when he came after you. Sort of.” Summer snickered. “Telling him with a few pats on the hand, I’ve got no spark, Jason. Zilch! Nothing.”
“Oh, dear God. Please tell me I didn’t really say that to him.”
“Yes. Yes you did. Then you looked me up and down like you were going to eat me alive and said ‘Big spark!’” His fingers burst open in stiff points as he made a theatrical sound of a massive explosion. “If I hadn’t felt so fucking flattered…I might’ve damn near felt violated.”
“Oh, God.”
“Trust me, Red, that’s the least of your actions from the last twenty-four hours you should be embarrassed about”
“Fuck. Fuckity-fuck,” slipped from her mouth in a horrified whisper. Sick feelings of panic and dread swam in her stomach.
Summer traced his fingers over the shell of her ear. “You afraid?”
Those two small words sent a deep shiver up her spine. Her pulse rocketed, keeping rhythm with the rain now falling on the tin roof. Tiny muscles near her nose twitched and contorted from the mounting emotions threatening to spill. In a daze of confusion, she felt the smooth warm flesh of his palm cup her jaw. The pad of his thumb ghosted over the crest of her cheek smearing the wetness.
“Are you afraid you had sex with me?”
Her chest rapidly lifted and lowered. A thousand questions gathered like dimples on a golf ball, stuck in the confines of her constricting throat. A slickness of tears blurred her vision, trickling into the crease between her cheek and his palm. Summer brought his face inches from hers. He cradled her face making another pass at the tears leaking from her eyes.
Tears she swore she’d never shed in front of him again.
Ever.
Carrie Ann drew in a shaky breath, pulling back a bit from his solid form to put some much needed distance between them. She nodded in a slow despondent circle, indicating overwhelming confusion.
A responsive look of empathy clouded his eyes…right before they glimmered with mischief. “Don’t worry that beautiful mind of yours, Red. I turned you down.”
Summer released her jaw, eyes locked on her reaction as he took a step back. Oddly enough, she had to add the blow of rejection to the ever growing list of emotions shredding her gut. And it stung.
“We didn’t…”
“Have sex?” He interceded, saving her from her own discomfiture.
“Why am I sore all over?” She rolled her shoulder gingerly, loosening the tension.
“Whoop, whoop.” Summer raised his hands ceiling, giving them a quick pump. “As for the rest of your body…well…you gave it a workout.”
Scorching heat flooded her cheeks turning them scarlet. She blinked repeatedly wrestling with her sub-conscious. He maneuvered his way through the kitchen flipping burgers onto two readied plates and forking spears of asparagus beside it.
“What exactly does that mean? I have zero recollection.”
“I didn’t have sex last night.” His emphasis hung on the singularity of the word I as he poked his thumb against the center of his chest. And then he did it. He blasted her with a full fledge cocky-mother-fucking heart stopping grin.
Her eyes fell to the floor. Carrie Ann shifted awkwardly in her seat, squirming from one cheek to the other. She wasn’t even certain what day it was. Heat gathered beneath the thin layer of cotton clothing. Flames of embarrassment prickled the hollows of her cheeks. Finding her courage, she lifted her gaze only to find his face averted, hiding his smile.