He’d only made it a few feet down the hall—still wondering what the hell was wrong with her all of a sudden—when he heard the door open and Marcy call out his name. The camera guy had stayed only long enough to catch the door slamming in his face before slipping away—doubtless eager to finish his own shift and call it a night—so there was no one watching them in the hall when Craig turned to face the woman who confused and intrigued and turned him on.
“Yeah?”
Some wild light lit her eyes, fervent and a little desperate.
He came closer and her hands shot out, gripping his lapels and yanking him into the room. The door clicked shut behind him and then she shoved him back against it, pressing her body against his as she went up on her toes and dragged him down for a kiss.
His blood heated as they went from zero to pure, blinding lust in two-point-two seconds. She was a live wire in his arms, twisting her arms around his neck, rubbing her breasts against his chest and grinding her hips into his. He barely had the presence of mind to lift his head, thunking it against the door. “Marcy, damn. Not that I’m complaining, but what the hell?”
“No regrets. Okay?”
She lunged for his mouth again and he dodged—why the fuck was he dodging? “I don’t know what that means.”
“It means kiss me.”
He caught her hands as they tangled in his hair, carefully unwinding her. “Marcy…”
“It means if this is the only night we’re ever going to spend together, I don’t want to waste it.”
The only night. The words hit him hard and he sucked in a breath heavy with the scent of her. She hadn’t made up her mind yet, he knew that. But it hadn’t occurred to him that if she really did choose Daniel, this might be all he ever got of her.
He claimed her mouth without another word, spinning them so it was her back pressed to the door, pinning her tight against him. She made a sound, half pleasure half plea, and lifted her arms around his neck. He spanned her waist, lifting her, and her legs came around his waist. He groaned and his hips pulsed forward of their own volition, rubbing his erection against the apex of her thighs.
She twisted her lips away from his with a gasp, meeting his eyes with big blue pools of lust. “Did they rig this room with cameras?”
He struggled to make sense of her words with all the blood rushing away from his brain. “Just the other bedroom—for confessional footage. Overnights are private.”
She was yanking at something beneath her clothes and then the small black wireless microphone pack emerged. She flicked it off and flung it aside, along with the tiny mic from her hair. Her hands plunged beneath his clothes to rip off his mic and send it flying after hers.
“Nothing is private,” she muttered, and pulled him in for another kiss, tongues tangling and bodies straining toward one another until cameras were the farthest thing from his mind. He finally had her alone, in his arms, right where he wanted her.
“Bed,” she gasped against his lips.
Okay, good call, that was where he wanted her.
He hitched her up, stumbling into an end table he couldn’t see in the muted light filtering through the curtains, and strode toward the bedroom. He kicked the edge of a chair and cursed, making Marcy break away from his lips as she clung to him.
“You should put me down before you seriously injure yourself.”
“I’ve told you how I feel about should.” He made it through the door to the bedroom—with a blessedly unobstructed path to the bed. “Besides, I’d be crazy to let you go now that I’ve got you in my arms.”
“You are crazy.”
“Not that crazy.”
He eased her onto her back on top of the duvet, lowering himself over her until just the impression of his weight pressed her into the mattress.
She hadn’t chosen him yet—he knew that—but that uncertainty was part of the beginning of most relationships, wasn’t it? How many couples had everything perfectly defined the first time they had sex? This was just like that. Uncertainty and fire.
Craig looked down at her, caught by the expression on her face. There was lust and heat and need—but something else softened her eyes and parted her lips. Something he didn’t dare examine too closely.
He’d had plenty of meaningless sex, but as he studied the familiar shape of her face and got lost in the unplumbed depths of her eyes, he knew this would be different. It would mean something with Marcy. It would mark a piece of his soul he’d kept purposely untouched—but tonight he wanted that. He wanted her to brand him, even if it was just for tonight.
Tomorrow he could go back to being an island unto himself. Tonight he was hers.
Craig eased himself down and pressed his lips to hers, sealing the silent promise with a kiss.
#
Marcy stood in the hotel bathroom, swathed in a hotel robe, and stared at her face in the mirror, wondering why it didn’t look as cataclysmically changed as she felt.
She might have just cheated on Daniel. Sort of. They weren’t technically in a relationship and according to the rules they all lived by in this messed up situation Craig had as much claim on her as Daniel did—so why did it feel like cheating? Had she already made her decision on some instinctive level and this feeling was a reaction to that?
And if she had cheated, why didn’t she feel guilty? If she didn’t feel guilty for cheating, that definitely made her a terrible person. Didn’t it?
Either way, hiding out in the bathroom wasn’t going to help matters.
Marcy splashed some water on her face, patted it dry with a fluffy towel, and returned to the bedroom. Craig was sitting up in bed, naked—but at least there was a sheet draped over his lap. “You okay?” he asked, demonstrating that uncanny ability to read her as she approached the bed.
“Fine.” She knelt on the bed near his feet.
“Just fine?” he asked with mock affront.
“You know that was better than fine.”
Craig had aptly demonstrated that he knew how to make her feel very fine indeed. Multiple times. But taking pleasure in something didn’t make it right. Even if it was a lot of pleasure.
“It doesn’t have to be the only night,” he said, turning somber and soft on her.
Yes, it does. The thought rang in her mind with absolute certainty. “Daniel talks about forever. About marriage and kids and the future,” she said, her tone as soft as his, but twice as firm. “You can’t even admit you have feelings for me.”
His expression darkened in another lightning turn of his mood. “So this was what? Sowing wild oats?”
“Something like that. I haven’t chosen him yet, but as soon as I officially do, I can’t be with you anymore.”
“Are you so certain you will?”
She looked away, unable to answer the question, but knowing the answer had to be yes.
He reached for her, catching her by her robe and tugging her closer. “Then we’d better make this night count.”
She knew she should resist. She was Daniel’s now. Her heart and mind knew that now even if her body hadn’t quite caught up. She shouldn’t fall back into Craig’s arms again… but she was adopting his aversion to shoulds.
And it was so easy to fall.