Rather than try to explain it all, I let it drop. The sooner we moved on, the sooner I could get my phone back…and see what Shane wanted.
A couple of hours later, I was alone. And in possession of my phone again. With shaking hands, I powered it up and clicked on the message icon to open my messages.
It was short. Succinct.
Please tell me you made it home safely.
Shane.
I typed back.
I did. Thanks.
With my heart in my throat, I hit send.
And then, every minute or two, for the next eight hours, I checked for a response.
None.
No message.
None.
Shit.
Chapter 5
Someone was in my room. I could hear the soft sloughing of fabric, the muted thump, thump, thump of footsteps. I rolled onto my side, facing the door. It was dark. I couldn’t see.
Moving slowly, hoping I wouldn’t make a sound, I inched toward the opposite side of the bed. I hoped the intruder couldn’t see me any better than I could see him. I hoped he was looking for jewelry, money, not flesh.
I was cold with fear, every sense alert. I heard the intruder moving and before I could react, something heavy was on top of me. My body was flattened on the mattress. I cried out for help, but I knew no one would hear. The condo’s building was very well insulated. Sound didn’t travel from one unit to another.
Letting instinct take over, I swung my arms, kicked my legs. Something warm and strong clamped around both wrists, jerked them back and up, pinning them to the bed, above my head.
Ohmygod, I was being attacked!
“Shhhh,” my attacker said.
“Please don’t hurt me,” I begged, blinking at the darkness and wishing I could see.
“I won’t ever hurt you.”
I recognized that voice.
My heart jumped.
“Shane?”
“Shhhh.” He rested a fingertip on my lips. “I’m sorry for scaring you. I couldn’t stay away any longer. I had to see you.”
I whispered, “But sneaking into my bedroom in the middle of the night—“
He cut me off with a kiss. A hot kiss that made the blood pound through my body. Instantly, I forgot what I was going to say. His tongue slipped into my mouth and took command. At the same time his hands took control of my body, pushing my t-shirt up to expose my br**sts, kneading their fullness and rolling my ni**les until they were hard peaks.
I squirmed and whimpered, lost in a sea of dark pleasure.
It was so wrong for him to break into my condo like this. So wrong. Stalkerish creepy. And yet, ohmygod. His kiss tasted so good, and his hands were doing wickedly delightful things to my body. I didn’t give a damn about anything but having his na**d body pressed against mine, his thick erection pushing into me.
When his hand glided down my stomach, moving toward the aching heat pounding between my legs, I arched my spine, tipping my h*ps up. Yes. Please. Touch me there. Down there. Take me.
The kiss turned more urgent as both our bodies heated, our need blossoming into desperation.
“Please,” I mumbled. “Please.”
“Not yet.” His touch moved back up, to my breast, circled my nipple. “First, I need you to ask you something.”
“Yes, anything.” I tipped my h*ps up and reached for him, trying to rip his clothes off. “Anything at all.”
“Will you to agree to f**k Jordan first?”
I jerked upright, blinked open my eyes.
Dammit, I just couldn’t stop having that dream.
I clenched my muscles down there, feeling the warm dampness seeping into the crotch of my panties. Crazy as it was, the dream made me hot. Really hot. Twice this week, I’d cl**axed in my sleep. I’d never done that before.
Still feeling the aftershocks of the dream ricocheting through my body, I stumbled into the bathroom and cranked on the shower. After emptying my bladder and brushing my teeth, I stripped out of my pajamas and stepped under the warm water. Ahhh. I allowed myself to just enjoy the heat for a few minutes before getting to business. Then I hurried out, did my hair and makeup and dressed for work. It was Friday.
Another day.
Another dollar.
Yippee.
Then, it would be a night out with Jill, watching her work her usual haunts while I nursed a beer.
Even though Shane had given up calling me a few days ago, I couldn’t summon up the desire to get back into the game. The pain of our unofficial breakup was still fresh. If the dreams were any indication, I wasn’t even remotely close to being ready to get into another relationship.
It would be a lot easier if the stupid dreams would stop.
A lot easier.
What was it about that man? Why couldn’t I just let him go?
* * * * *
“Ohmygod, would you just look at them?” Jill screamed in my ear many hours later. As usual on a Friday night, she was holding a beer in one hand, a shot in another, and was on her way to a healthy buzz. We were sitting at her favorite table in her favorite club. She was trying not to gawk at the pack of men who’d just strolled through the door. Me, I was wishing I was at home, reading the book I’d picked up during my lunch break.
Jill nudged me. “Snap out of it.”
“Out of what?” I countered.
“Your funk. Since you flew home from Antigua, you’ve been moping around. I love you, hun, but it’s been two weeks. I’m getting impatient.”
“Do I need to remind you of your post-Dave breakdown?” I asked.
“No.”
“Give me a break.”
Jill sighed. “I’d never realized how hard it is to deal with someone else’s breakup depression.”
“That’s because I’d never been depressed after a breakup before. Usually I’m okay with it.”
“Not this time.”
“Not exactly. I’m thinking too much about what might have been.”
“Yeah. That’s what I do. Definitely. What got me out of my Dave funk was sitting down and listing all the reasons why Dave and I wouldn’t work. Maybe you should do the same thing?”
“Maybe.” At the moment, I could think of only one reason why Shane and I wouldn’t work. It was a biggie, sure. But I could think of a lot more reasons why I thought Shane and I would be good for each other.
“Stop thinking about him.” Standing, she circled the table, hooked her elbow through mine and half-walked, half-dragged me toward the bar where the hotties she’d been drooling over were congregated, waiting for the bartender to get their drinks.
“Hello,” she said when one of them glanced at us.