“Annie.” His tone is gently inquisitive. “Is something wrong?”
I blink and shake my head. Nope. I’m great. Everything is great, I should say. My head isn’t spinning at all. My heart isn’t hammering and my palms aren’t sweating. This is totally normal. Will and I are just hanging out. With no purpose. No specific practice. Just…two friends in a tiny room together for fun.
“It’s making you nervous that I’m on your bed, isn’t it?”
I grimace because I really need for him to stop doing that—reading my mind so easily. “It’s not that—” I cut myself off before I attempt to lie and realize he’ll know. He’ll see right through me immediately, as he always does. “All right. Yes, I guess it’s freaking me out a little.” I gesture between us. “I’m not good at all of this, remember?”
“All of this?”
“Yeah…the socializing. Friendship. Secret late-night meetings.” I pause and then add quietly. “Men in my bed.”
“Right. Well, lucky for you, there’s only one man in your bed tonight. The others won’t be here until tomorrow.” We both grin. “Seriously. It’s just me. No need to be nervous. But if you want me to leave, I will. I never want to make you uncomfortable.”
I think about this for a minute, exploring how I would feel if he left now. I picture myself watching him go and then lying awake the whole night wondering what would have happened if I’d let him stay. I feel the disappointment so acutely it’s like it already happened. “Don’t go.”
The weight of those words hangs in the air between us and they don’t settle. They stir up questions and implications like a storm.
This time, I have the pleasure of watching Will squirm. Or the closest he’s likely ever going to get to squirming. He swallows, lightly clears his throat, and then turns his eyes away—searching. Most unfortunately, they land on the book that I left open on my bed. He picks it up and to my horror, starts reading it right there in front of me. Unacceptable. Because I happen to know what was written about on the page I was reading when he arrived: the couple’s first kiss. And that may sound sweet, but that’s only if you’ve never read a historical romance before.
I knew this kiss was coming, and I wanted to be comfy and cozy in bed before I read it, so I set the book down and got up to get changed and brush my teeth. And now Will is reading it…before me. What if it’s really steamy? What if there is dirty talk? Oh my gosh, what if there is other stuff?
I need to think of a discreet way to distract him. Something really casual and easy so that he sets the book down but isn’t suspicious.
“Stop reading!” I blurt.
Super. Really discreet.
Will’s eyes flick to me, and then a grin that I’ve come to know all too well spreads on his face. His fingers clutch the cover a little harder. “Why, Annabell? Something wrong with me reading this book?” His eyebrows lift.
“Wilton, put the book down.”
His expression says it: not a chance.
And then—the jerk—cuts his eyes to the page and begins reading. Aloud. “A growl sounded from the back of Captain Cutler’s throat as he stared down at Lady Eloise’s full, erotic mouth…”
Without thinking, I leap onto the bed. “Oh my gosh, stop reading!” I try to yell in a whisper at Will, who then hops off the other side of the bed.
Laughing at his own words, he continues. “If he didn’t take her then and there, he was sure he was going to die,” Will reads while racing around the front of my bed to evade me. He raises the book above his head. “So dramatic, this captain. I mean I know the feeling, but I’ve never thought I’d die from an erection before.”
“Oh my gosh! Don’t say erection!”
“Boner then?” he supplies—knowing full well that word is not better—while doing a spin move to get around me and lower the book to continue reading. “Her breasts heaved above the bodice of her gown, and Captain Cutler knew she wanted him too.” He pauses again, long enough for me to ram into him like a linebacker and lay him out flat on his back on the mattress. He laughs harder, eyes sparkling dangerously, and extends the book above his head as far as he can as I crawl over him to grab it. “I see lots of consent red flags in our dear captain. A man should never assume a woman wants him.”
“He’s a pirate! He’s used to pillaging and murdering! I’m not sure that consent is on his radar!”