“Can I come inside?”
This was so not what he wanted right now and definitely not how he had wanted to show her his place.
“I’m going to drive you home, Shelly,” he told her.
“Why?” she whined, frowning.
“Because you and I are over, remember? We just had a fling?”
“Fling schming,” she told him with a goofy grin. “You’re sexy.”
That’s it. Josh reached back, grabbing his wallet and keys off of the small side table, shoved his bare feet into some sneakers by the entrance, and then moved toward her, shutting the door behind him.
Swinging her up into his arms, he carried her to the truck and opened the passenger-side door. He slid her inside and closed it with a firm hand. Walking around to his side, he saw her looking out the window at him with a sappy look.
Boy is she toasted, Josh thought. She’s going to hate herself in the morning.
Getting in the truck, he started it and made his way to her place. She took that opportunity to start talking.
“I wished you were with me tonight.”
Josh took a deep breath and asked, “Where were you?”
“Whipped.”
“Huh?” he asked, thinking he had misheard.
“At Whipped. With Super Domme.”
Josh was beyond confused and suddenly worried some guy had been harassing her—or maybe she had been harassing some guy. In that outfit, any guy would welcome it.
“Josh?”
He turned to look at her. She was leaning against the truck’s seat with her head back and her face turned, her eyes focusing on him.
“I really did fall for you under my tree.”
Josh grimaced and felt his heart crack. “Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Josh swallowed and licked his lips. But he had to ask, “Then, what happened?”
She took a deep breath and smiled sadly at him. “Reality,” she said before she promptly passed out.
When they arrived at Shelly’s condo, Josh woke her with a gentle nudge and helped her inside.
Waiting by the elevator with Shelly clinging to his side, Josh asked, “Which floor are you on, Georgia?”
She tilted up her face, giving him a lopsided smile.
Even drunk, the woman is gorgeous.
“Three,” she told him, holding up her fingers. “One. Two. Three. Yep, three.”
Josh shook his head and tapped his foot impatiently. He wished the doors would hurry up and open, so he could get her inside her condo, and then go home. Finally, there was a loud ping, and the doors swooshed open.
Securing his grip around Shelly’s waist, he moved forward, making sure she came with him. He wasn’t quite sure what the security guard would think of him, standing there in his T-shirt and boxers.
Not to mention, Shelly looked like she had been sexed up really good. Her hair was still a royal mess, her shoes were now in his hands, and she was clinging to him as though they hadn’t had a huge ugly fight earlier in the day.
As the doors shut and the elevator started to move, he felt her slip a hand under his shirt.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Hmm…” she cooed. “I’m playing with you.”
“No shit,” he replied. Halting her hand, he asked, “In more ways than one?”
Removing her palm, she pouted, and those full pink lips called to him. He was still so mad at her, yet at the same time, he couldn’t help the way his cock twitched and his heart ached just from looking at her.
She had essentially kicked him out of her life less than twelve hours ago.
Without even waiting for an explanation, she had decided they were done and over with. And now, here she was looking like the man-eater he had first met—batting those eyelashes, pursing those sexy-as-sin lips, and inviting him to do all kinds of wicked things to her.
“Fine then,” she told him when the doors opened.
She removed herself from his grip and sauntered forward with as much grace as she could manage, which wasn’t much considering she stumbled a couple of times.
“If you don’t want me, maybe you should go back to Melanie.”
Josh rolled his eyes and made his way over to where she was struggling to insert her key into the door. Taking it from her, he unlocked it and pushed it open.
“Her name is Melissa. And don’t you think if I had wanted her I would be in my bed now, wrapped around her, instead of standing out here in your hallway in my shirt and boxer shorts at…” He paused, glancing at his watch. “3 a.m.?”
Shelly had to admit that she may have drunk more than she thought she had.
As she stood just inside her doorway, Josh was starting to sway, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with him wanting to slow dance.
“Well, maybe you left her in your bed so she’d be there when you got back home.” She paused, and then before she could stop her stupid runaway mouth, she added, “Just like you left me to go to her this afternoon.”
Obviously, that had not been the right thing to say because, before she could blink, Josh was through her door, gripping her arms as he pushed her back against the wall.
“Do you even know what you did to me this morning?” he growled as he lowered his head to look her in the eye.
Shelly tried to focus, but she was finding it hard, so she closed her eyes and licked her lips.
“It was you I wanted in my bed tonight, Georgia—not fucking Melissa.”
Shelly’s eyes flashed open at that, and she arched her hips toward him. He was so close, and she wanted to touch him.
“But you decided what kind of person I was, and then you left.”
Lifting his hands off of her, he took a step away. She watched as he turned on his heel. She knew he was about to walk out her door, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Or maybe there was.
“You don’t have to leave,” she whispered seductively, moving away from the wall. The room spun a little, so she steadied herself. “You can stay.”
He looked her over and then asked, “Why would I stay, Georgia?”
Shelly looked him right in the eye this time. She thought she saw something, almost like defeat. She knew she had caused that, but now, she was not in the right frame of mind to deal with it. Instead, she reverted back to what she knew.
Reaching up to the top of the electric-blue tube dress, she slowly peeled it down, revealing a blue strapless bra. Now, she had his attention.
“Well, maybe you could stay for this.”
Keeping her eyes on him the whole time, she continued to push the dress down, wiggling it past her hips until it fell to the floor. Stepping out of the fabric, she turned on the ball of her foot and made her way down the hall. Just before she disappeared into her bedroom, she looked over her shoulder at him.
“Either lock the door on your way out, or lock it and come to bed.”
Josh watched in quiet disbelief as Shelly turned and walked into what he presumed was her bedroom.
The woman is driving me in-fucking-sane. Had she really just stood there and stripped down to the sexiest blue lingerie he’d ever seen in his life and then invited him to bed?
What the fuck is going on? Just this afternoon, she had told him to get lost.
Turning, he made his way to the door, determined to walk right through it and leave, but apparently, his hard-on and his goddamn heart had different ideas.
Locking the door, he rested his forehead against it and took a deep breath. He could do this. Just go in there, keep my heart out of it, tear up the sheets with her, and walk away.