His words were prophetic. The next thing I knew, morning light was streaming through a crack in the heavy, dark curtains at the window.

And a warm, sexy body was still holding me in a gentle embrace.

I tried to shift discreetly, so I wouldn’t wake him, but as soon as I moved at all, he sighed and pulled me tighter against him. I felt the press of his morning erection against my naked ass and heard his breath quicken.

The arousal in me sang in answering glee. “You’re insatiable, aren’t you?” I whispered to Justin.

“I believe the same could be said for you, little lady.” His hand reached down, around the front of me, and dipped into my core, finding the ready wetness there.

“Yep.” I wiggled my ass against him, making him gasp. “But didn’t you say something about a shower?”

“Oh, that is a delightful idea, milady,” he said, moving his hand up to cup my breast and caress the suddenly hard nipple.

“I’ve been wanting to check out that bathroom,” I said. “If it’s anything like the rest of this place, you’ll never be able to get me to leave.”

“I believe the facilities here will meet with your approval.” But he made no move to stop what he was doing at my breast, my nipple. In fact, he began nuzzling my neck in that incredibly delicious way he had, sending my thoughts scattering.

But it wasn’t as if we needed to stop what we were doing, just because hot water and soap were going to be involved… “Justin,” I murmured.

“Hmm?”

“Would you…show me this amazing bathroom? Would you show me how to use the shower? I’m sure it’s very complicated, and I’m sure I’ll need help figuring it out.”

His laugh this time was a veritable chortle. “Oh, milady, I would be more than happy—”

A bold knock sounded at our door, and before either of us could react, the door swung open, revealing a perfectly groomed, not-a-hair-out-of-place Count Dracula, only without the cape this morning.

I sat up in the bed, pulling the sheet up over my breasts like the blushing virgin I so clearly wasn’t.

Justin sat up as well, staring at the man with shock. “Finley! What are you doing here?”

The ‘vampire’ grinned at us, straightening a tie that needed no straightening. “Good morning, lovebirds. I trust you slept well…or at least passed the time well?” He sniffed the air ostentatiously. “Mmm, it appears so.”

“Get out of here, you scamp,” Justin hissed at him.

Finley just marched into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. I drew the covers tighter around me, as if he couldn’t see the outline of my breasts under the sheet. As if it wasn’t completely obvious that I was entirely naked. A little illicit thrill ran through me as I watched Finley take in this fact. “I’m glad I’m not too late for the shower.”

“What?” I gasped.

“Finley!” Justin said, in a strangled tone. “We’ll talk later. Get! Out!”

Finley raised a perfect eyebrow, looking from Justin, to me, back to Justin once more. And I was not noticing how devilishly handsome the man was. I was not. “Wait a minute. Haven’t you…told her anything?”

“There hasn’t been a chance! We just woke up.”

The gorgeous ‘vampire’ looked at me once more, shaking his head and smiling. “What about last night? You had plenty of time to…talk…last night, did you not?”

“What’s going on?” I asked, my heart pounding. With confusion and nerves, of course; nothing other than that. “What are you guys talking about—what do you have to tell me?”

“Emma, please, don’t worry—” Justin started, but Finley cut in.

“Now, you know the rules, my friend; they are all very clear. Very little room for confusion, or misinterpretation, I should think.”

“Finley!” Justin said. “Just…leave. I’ll tell her right now, if you will only get out of here. And we’re well within the twenty-four hours. I believe a ‘day’ is still considered to be twenty-four hours?”

Finley gave another sniff, this time of disdain. “Well. I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.” He rose from the bed, straightened his crisp white shirt, and strode to the door, where he paused and looked back at us. At me. With a very blatant leer. My heart thumped in response. “I will see you later, my dear. And I am very much looking forward to it.”

Then he walked out, shutting the door gently behind him.

I turned to Justin, still clutching the sheet tightly to my chest. “What…what was that all about? What’s he saying?” Though I feared I knew.

Men are pigs, really, all of them. I knew it—I should have known this was too good to be true. Meet a gorgeous guy at a party, have a night of amazing sex with him—this was why I didn’t do one-night stands, this was why I never slept with someone on the first date! It gave them all sorts of stupid, asshole-ish ideas. It was stupid beyond belief not to get to know someone better before I fucked him. Because now he wanted to hand me off to his friend, like I was some sort of…door prize!

No matter that the friend was gorgeous. That had nothing to do with anything.

Justin, to his credit, looked deeply uncomfortable. “Emma, beloved, I can explain everything—”

“Wait, stop, no,” I said, throwing the covers off and getting out of the bed. I stomped over to the door, where we’d dropped our clothes last night. “Just, don’t. I get it, and thanks for the great sex and all, but I am NOT sleeping with your friend. I’ll just be going home and getting back to my life now.”

So where were my clothes? I would just put them on and—

I paused, over the puddle of skintight leather at my feet. Ugh. Talk about a walk of shame…I wasn’t even sure I could squeeze back into that, not without a shower and some baby powder to make my skin smoother.

Didn’t I used to be smarter than this? I thought, with chagrin. Jeez, a few months without getting laid and I turned into a complete moron.

Justin was out of the bed and by my side before I’d hardly seen him move. “Emma, please,” he said, standing close to me, but not touching me. I smelled our mingled scents on his skin and in his hair…and I tingled with arousal despite myself.

Men are pigs. Really. All of them. And this one in particular was just trying to confuse me.

“Just let me explain. That’s all I ask. And then you can leave.”

“Of course I can leave,” I said, trying not to melt at the sincerity I saw in his emerald eyes. “You’re not holding me here, are you?”

I’d meant it as a joke—a wry, sad joke—so the horror and shame in his eyes startled me. “Oh god! I’m going about this all wrong. Please, Emma, please believe me. I never meant to deceive you. And I should have explained everything at the outset. I just…well, I got swept away.” He looked down at the floor, then back up again with a sheepish glance, all Robin-Hood-rogue once more, if only for a brief moment. “And…I think maybe you did too?”

I looked away as well, a blush creeping across my face. “I think you know I did.” Then I turned back to glare at him. “But I’m not hiding anything from you! I don’t have some sort of—” I waved my arms helplessly “—rules or plans or whatever, with other people. I just…came to a party that my boss gave me an invitation to. And met a guy.”

Justin gave a heavy sigh, and reached his hand up tentatively, waiting for my permission to touch me once more. I nodded, and he put the hand gently on my shoulder. “Come back to bed. You trusted me enough last night to come to bed with me then…and to stay there all night. And I think I did well by you. Please, trust me just a little longer, to explain.”

His touch felt good, damn it. And…well, I was here, wasn’t I? Why not let him explain? Then I could figure out how to get home across town without anyone seeing me in a Catwoman costume on a Monday morning.

“All right,” I said, after a long moment. And then I had a better idea. “But not in bed. I’m going to shower first—alone—and while I do so, you’re going to find me some normal clothes. Then we can sit down and you will tell me everything.”

He blinked, then nodded eagerly. “Of course, milady. Of course.”

~*~*~*~

The shower was, as I’d expected, fan-fricking-tastic. And it was really too bad Finley had shown up when he did…it was the perfect shower for two adventuresome souls to share. Beautiful opaque glass brick on three sides; the fourth side was a solid wall of thick clear glass, open at the far end. The whole thing was huge enough to need no actual door or curtain. I thought ruefully of my own tiny shower, with its grimy curtain and phlegmatic fan, back in my equally tiny apartment. Oh well. At least I would enjoy this for all it was worth, while I was here.

Taps installed in the left-hand wall were neatly labeled for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. I lathered up my hair, and the rich aroma of lavender filled the steamy space. I tried not to think about how nice it would have been to have Justin massaging the shampoo into my scalp. I lingered over the conditioner; it too smelled of lavender, but with something else added to it—sage, maybe? The scents calmed me, even more than the strong hot water already was, caressing down my skin.

The body wash was a related but different floral scent; I couldn’t quite place it. I spent plenty of time making sure I was clean in every regular and intimate place. Justin had given my intimate places plenty of attention last night…I wasn’t sure if I was washing him from me, or remembering him…

When I felt myself becoming aroused all over again, I jerked my hand up from where it had wandered and plunged under the stream of hot water, rinsing away all the soap and conditioner.

The water was long since running clean into the drain when I finally turned it off. I could have stayed in that shower all day, I thought, without running out of hot water. A mansion like this probably had a water heater as big as the one for my entire apartment building.

The towels were as extravagant and fluffy as you’d find in any five-star hotel—not that I had much experience of those. I wrapped one around my hair and took a second one for my body. They were warm from a heating rack; I snuggled into the rich fabric for a moment before drying myself off.

I took my time at the mirror after I was dry, both to enjoy the experience and to let Justin wait. Let him worry. I justified this by telling myself he would need time to find me some clothes. Maybe Lady Periwinkle even had a stash of things to loan guests…people with such a wealth of well-appointed guest rooms no doubt had spare clothing in every size as well. So I blow-dried my hair (making liberal use of the several bottles of expensive product by the sink), then curled it into smooth dark waves reaching halfway down my back.

And that was even before I’d found the drawer of exclusive, high-end makeup.

Finally, as primped and put-together as I could get (while still being dressed in a towel), I cracked open the bathroom door. “Justin?”

“Right here, milady,” came his smooth voice.

“Are my clothes—”

An arm reached in through the crack in the door, holding a pair of blue jeans and a white T-shirt. “There’s an assortment of undergarments in the net bag,” he said. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted…I didn’t have any clues to go on, you know.”

I took the clothes, trying not to giggle—yes, in fact, how would he know what kind of underwear I wore? Indeed, there was a little white mesh bag tucked in with the T-shirt. I unzipped it and dumped the contents out on the bathroom counter. There was a lacy, sexy matching panties-and-bra combo (and the right size bra, I noted; well, he would have had plenty of opportunity to make an accurate guess there), but I went for the plain cotton boyshorts and a stretchy sports bra.

Feeling defensive? Well, maybe. At least they were super comfortable, as were the jeans I pulled on afterwards. Just the right amount of tightness, without being binding. Needless to say, the T-shirt was just as perfect as the rest: heavy cotton, sparkling white, modest scoop-neck collar.

Okay, however he’d gotten his hands on these clothes, he’d done it right. Justin gets a point.

Now dressed, I checked myself in the mirror one last time. Yep, this was as good as I was going to get—and way better than I’d expected.

I opened the bathroom door and peered into the bedroom.

Justin sat in one of the easy chairs over by the window. He’d opened the heavy curtains; strong sunlight streamed into the room, accentuating its beauty and comfort. He looked up as I came out of the bathroom, giving me a sheepish smile. “Come sit with me,” he said, indicating the second chair.

I took it; he rose gallantly as I sat down, but still made no move to touch me.

“Well,” I said, once he’d taken his seat once more. Now I felt suddenly awkward; all my strength and resolve from my lengthy shower and self-care fest drained away at the sight of this handsome, sheepish man next to me. “Um…thanks for the clothes, they’re great.”

“They look marvelous on you.” He was once again dressed in his Robin Hood getup, minus the cute hat.

We grinned at one another for a moment. Was it possible he was as stymied as I was? That softened my heart a degree further.

No, focus, I told myself. “So: you were going to explain everything?”

The grin stayed on his face; if anything, it got a little wider. “I don’t mean to derail, but I thought I should ask: do you want any coffee, or breakfast, or anything?”

I hadn’t until he mentioned it…at his words, I suddenly remembered not having had any dinner last night. And all that champagne. “Ohh…yeah, coffee and breakfast would be great. Can we—?”

He was already rising to his feet. “As I said, this won’t delay us, beyond a moment here.” He stepped over to the door to the hallway and pushed the button on an intercom I hadn’t even noticed before.

“Yes?” came a tinny voice.

“Full American breakfast for two in the Magenta Room, please, including extra coffee.”

“Right away, sir.”

Justin came back to his chair. “All right, the explanation.”

“Okay now I don’t mean to derail, but—wow—I don’t even…” I trailed off, not even sure what question I was really asking. “Do you live here?”

He gave me a gentle smile. “That’s part of the explanation. Shall we begin, while we wait for the kitchen folks to do their magic?”

“Yeah.”

And now why was I suddenly so nervous?