He smoothed his shirt and tried to straighten it, then rubbed at a stain on his sleeve. Useless. If this were a restaurant, he’d be out on his ass. “Maybe I should go to my hotel after all. I’m going to leave dirt all over your house.”
“Please. I don’t care about that.
She rested one soft hand on his chest. Her touch tore through him like a gunshot and radiated all over his body. He swallowed.
“If you say so.”
She looked up at him. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking. It was what made her such a good lawyer, he thought, and what drove him mad. She could be on the verge of tears, and she’d never show it. He should be grateful, he thought. At least when she’d rejected him, she’d suppressed her disgust.
She abruptly drew back, dropped her gaze, and tossed her purse on a table just past the door. “Come on up. I’ll show you where the bathroom is.”
“Shit. I don’t have any clothes. I’m a dumbass. Maybe we should head back to—”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to run away.” She sighed. “I have some of Tommy’s clothes here. Stop worrying, okay? You always did worry too much.”
She turned and walked toward the curving stairs, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor. Jeremy followed, but stopped at the foot of the stairs, curling his hand against the cool wrought-iron railing. He shouldn’t wear Tommy’s clothing. They weren’t friends anymore. Not after Tommy had believed Nicole’s lies about Jeremy seducing her. Not after Tommy had kicked his ass and spat on a bond that, to Jeremy, had been like family.
The only real family he’d ever had, and the only reason he’d let Tommy beat him bloody without ever once fighting back. Nothing could have hurt worse than what he’d lost that night.
He swallowed. “I don’t know.”
“He really won’t mind.”
“But I will.” He found his dog tags and gripped them tight, their pressure a familiar comfort against his palm. “He took her word over mine. He should have known better.”
She stiffened. “I know you’re upset, but this isn’t about that. It’s about getting you into a shower and clean clothes. Nothing else. So suck it up.”
“Suck it up?” He mounted the stairs until he stood at her side, looking down at her. “Did you really just tell me to suck it up?”
Her eyes narrowed. She tossed her head and lifted her chin. “Yes. I did.”
“You realize I’m a Marine, right?”
“Like that means anything? You’d never hurt me. I know that. I know you.”
“Do you?”
Her eyes met his without wavering. “Better than you think. Even if I’ve tried to forget.”
He stepped closer. Close enough to touch her, close enough to wrap her in his arms and kiss her until she clung to him. Everything he’d dreamed of doing for years, and more. Everything her body heat begged him to do, teasing him with her nearness.
“Why do you want to forget me, Erica?”
She bit her lip. That luscious lower lip, that one little tic that gave her away like a poker player’s tell no matter how steady her voice might be. “You don’t get to ask me that, Jeremy.” She turned away, her back stiff. “Come on. The bathroom’s this way.”
She took the stairs quickly, her heels a sharp and almost accusatory staccato. With a sigh, Jeremy followed. Him and his big mouth.
Fucking idiot.
Chapter Two
Erica escaped into the guest room, usually reserved for Tommy during his increasingly frequent business trips. She was probably lucky his company had put him up in a posh hotel this time, to keep him close at hand for their international clients during some marketing conference or another. If Tommy had seen Jeremy, things would have gone terribly south.
Like they hadn’t already.
How had she ended up in this situation? And with Jeremy, of all people? God, he looked even more gorgeous than she’d remembered, with or without the bruises and dirt. Those blue eyes, that thick black hair she just ached to run her fingers through—and when had he filled out so much? That hardened soldier’s body made her want to touch. To find out all the ways he’d changed over the years, in minute detail.
She shook her head and yanked the closet door open. She hadn’t brought him here for…that. Or for any reason other than to help him. What were the odds that she’d be the one to find him on the side of the road?
Was it fate, giving her a second chance?
No. That was silly. Impractical. Sighing, she grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, then headed back out into the hallway. He could go commando or wear his sweaty skivvies. She wasn’t digging into her brother’s underwear. The bratty little sister under the cultured woman she’d become still insisted Tommy’s boxers had cooties.
And she didn’t want to think of Jeremy in the same light as her brother.
Calm. Breathe. She closed her eyes and leaned against the bathroom door. Jeremy had brought back too many memories. Most of them sweet, but some of them just as bitter. She’d always had a thing for the dorky boy Tommy had dragged home from school one day. The way he smiled, the way his eyes crinkled up at the corners, the easy way he moved…he could make her forget how to breathe, even back then. She’d hid it as best she could. She’d been the annoying little sister; the tagalong. Unwanted. Annoying.
Or so she’d thought, until that night.
She refused to replay it. Not again. Not for the millionth time. That was a long time ago. Things were different, and they’d moved on. He’d said so. She wasn’t about to embarrass herself by telling him that he was the only one who’d really moved on.
She straightened, knocked on the door, and waited. She could hear water running, but no response. She cracked the door open. “Jeremy?”
He stumbled and grabbed for a towel, but not before she glimpsed the firm, tight muscles of his ass.
“Oh God.” She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to chase the image away. Instead it leaped into hyper-focused clarity, along with the taut flow of his back and the broad flex of his shoulders. Damn it.
She heard the shower curtain pull closed in a rustle of plastic and a scrape of rings against the rod. “Erica?” he called. “Were you just staring at my ass?”
“I wasn’t staring!”
“But you just saw me naked.”
“No. I mean yes. I mean—” She sighed. Running away would be good right now. “Um. A little. Maybe.”