“Was that your first time?”
“No. I tried another time and threw up like crazy on one drink.”
“You spent most of the night throwing up. It wasn’t pretty.”
She pushed back her hair, trying not to remember anything else, but she couldn’t stop herself from seeing another man’s face. “There was someone named Bill. Please tell me I didn’t do anything dumb.”
He shook his head. “Baby, you were going home with that man.”
“I wasn’t.” She was shocked. That couldn’t be true. That was more than dumb. Worse than dumb. She thought she might have talked to him. Flirted. Used her voice shamelessly. But going home with him? She groaned and covered her face with her hands.
“You were. I would have had to track your ass down and haul you home. Don’t know what I would have done to him, but it wouldn’t have been pretty. Let’s just not do that again. You understand me? You need to be with me on that one.”
She pushed her forehead into her palm. “I’m with you all the way on that one. I need to get dressed.”
“You need to let the aspirin do its work. I’m bringing you a little soup. Drink all the water. You’re dehydrated. When you drink alcohol, Seychelle, you have to stay hydrated.”
“I wasn’t really going home with him, was I?” She was a little horrified that he was telling the truth. Images were crowding in. She was fairly certain she was never drinking alcohol again, so he didn’t need to coach her on how it was done properly.
“Yeah, babe, you were. I didn’t let you, so we’ll call it a near miss.”
“Thanks, Savage. I don’t know what the hell got into me.” She was sincerely grateful to him.
“You were scared. Running. You didn’t want to face the inevitable, and I can’t really blame you. You made a few mistakes, baby, and we’re going to have to address them, but that’s after you’re not hungover.”
“I slept all day—how can I be hungover?”
“First, I think you’re allergic to alcohol, and second, you didn’t sleep all day. It doesn’t look sunny because it’s so overcast, but it isn’t that late. I’m going to take you for a ride this evening to get you out in the fresh air. You’ll have to dress warm.”
Her heart did that funny twist, and this time her stomach engaged, doing a full flip. There was a part of her that hoped he was right and she really was allergic to alcohol. Still, she doubted that she could blame her bad behavior on that. She decided to focus on his offer. A ride on his bike. That could be just plain awesome.
“A ride? On your motorcycle?” She loved the idea.
“Yeah. That would be the ride, Seychelle. You have to learn to trust me, and there’s no better way than on the back of my bike.”
Now her heart was accelerating right into the danger zone. “Savage, I need you to tell me what we’re doing here. Because you’ve never really shown a lot of interest in me . . . um . . . sexually. I thought you wanted a friendship. That was difficult enough for me to try to explain.”
He sat on the edge of the bed, reached across her and snagged the bottle of water. “Drink this now. Who are you trying to explain our friendship to?”
“Me.” She drank because he sat there watching her, very closely, those blue eyes like twin flames just burning into her. She’d never met anyone who could focus completely the way he did. He never once took his eyes off her.
“You have difficulty explaining our friendship to you?”
Put like that, with that little hint of male amusement, it made her head want to explode. She sounded like an idiot. Exasperated, she drank more water. “Yes. What’s going on? It isn’t like you’re looking at me for . . .” She broke off, unsure what she wanted to say.
“I’m looking at you like you’re my everything, which you are. You just don’t know it yet, and you’re scared to death of me.”
She shook her head before she could stop herself. What was the use, anyway? There was something about him that made her want to give him the truth, even if it left her stripped bare. “I’m not so much afraid of you as what you’ll do to me. There is no way I can be with you and not get hurt. Really hurt. That cut-to-the-bone kind of hurt. I don’t want that. You already shredded my heart, and I can’t go there again. I just can’t. Knowing you’re going to be with other women so you can satisfy some dark craving I can’t . . .” She broke off, shaking her head.