Page 67 of Perfectly Wedded

And I’ll have to be the bad guy who forces her into bed. Which isn’t all bad if I get to be in bed with her.

She lies on her back in the hotel, worrying her lip as I sit on the edge of the mattress, studying her.

“There’s nothing wrong with me now. I swear!” she begs. “Let’s go out.” She tries to get out of bed.

My hand lands on her shoulder, forcing her back down. “Oh, no you don’t. You should rest. I’ll watch you all night if I have to.”

“But I’m fiiiiiine,” she whines. “And I hate being treated like an invalid. It was a freak accident. My new medicine is working. I’ve never felt better!” She swings her legs over the bed, but I catch her ankles and carefully place them back on the bed.

“Nice try, but no. You’re stuck here until tomorrow.”

She pouts, pushing out her bottom lip. “Not even for a date with you?”

“You’re cute, but I’m not giving in to your charms,” I say, crossing my arms.

“So I have charms now?” she asks, her face lighting up.

“So many you don’t even know about,” I assure her. “But don’t try to use them against me, Sloanie Baloney. Because the answer is stillno.”

She frowns before switching tactics. “I’ll tell you what I think it was. It wasn’t because anything is wrong with me. It’s actuallyyourfault.”

“My fault?” I laugh, putting a hand on my chest. “How am I to blame?”

“It was that kiss,” she says, a playful smile curving her lips. “In Regency times, women always swooned over kisses. That’s how you know it was good.”

“Is that right?” I say, arching an eyebrow. “A complimentanda diversion to get me to say yes to going out? Well played, my lady.”

“The kiss wassogood, it took my breath away,” she goes on.

“I agree. It was very good. But kissing doesn’t cause fainting. In the case of Regency women, it was overly tight corsets restricting their breathing that caused them to faint.”

She frowns. “I thought you wouldn’t know that.”

I tap her nose with my finger. “I know a lot of useless things. I also know that you should rest.”

She bites her lip, thinking. “What if we stay here and do something fun?”

“Fun, as in, Sloan stays in bed?”

“No, the hot tub. For your back.”

I narrow my eyes. “I’m not sure that’s safe for you. Don’t hot tubs come with a warning about people fainting?”

Her eyes dance as she pokes me in the arm. “Even if I do, you’re a former lifeguard, so you can save me.”

I frown. “Not funny.”

“Come on! I want to do something fun, and this is a compromise. Just for a short time. You promised we would.”

“That was before the dinner cruise,” I remind her. “Are you sure you don’t feel dizzy anymore?”

She holds up a hand. “Nope. I’ll even walk a straight line to prove it. I probably could balance on the edge of the hot tub, I feel so good.” She heads toward the sliding door to the patio to prove it.

I grab her arm. “You will most definitely not.”

I pull her next to me on the bed and she links an arm through mine. “Then pretty please, let’s have a date in the hot tub. What do you say?”

She makes lazy circles on my chest and my heart rockets.

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