Page 23 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

How that was the plus side, she had no idea. Clearly she had no idea about anything if she was, you know, here. She was tempted to roll face-first into the pillow and scream until something in her life made sense. Instead, she got out of bed and looked around and realized none of her clothes were in the room.

Damn it. She would have to find something of Carter’s to put on so she could get her clothes from the living room. Carter’s living room. In the morning. Morning with a man who didn’t drink coffee and wouldn’t sell her his land, which she needed in order to save not just her dream, but her cousin’s as well.

She’d certainly picked a hell of a time to have whatever quarter-life crisis this was.

The bedroom door squeaked open and Carter stuck his head in.

“Good. You’re up.” He stepped forward, a bundle of clothes in his arms. “I’ve got your clothes.”

His eyes drifted to her naked breasts and she was stupid enough to get a little tingly over that. Stupid enough to remember and wonder if she had time to indulge herself in—no.

“What time is it?” she asked, reaching out for her clothes.

He didn’t hand them over. “Five thirty,” he returned, definitelynotmaking eye contact.

“In the morning?”

He smiled even as he rolled his eyes. There was something kind of sweet about the smile, the eye roll.

She didn’t want to dwell on that.

“My workday begins at four thirty. I figured you’d want to get back to your place and shower before you have to go to work, but maybe not quite that early.”

He finally offered the clothes, though not without one last glance up and down. She took the outstretched garments, looking at him helplessly. She felt helpless and kind of silly, actually. Two things she hadn’t allowed herself to feel possibly ever.

But recently life kept shoving these experiences at her as if it was determined she had to feel them.

“Thank you feels weird to say about sex, but I . . . wanted to thank you about the overall gesture last night,” Carter offered somberly.

“You don’t thank someone for a gesture,” she returned. It hadn’t been an obligation or even agestureexactly. It had been . . .

“Even your work enemy?”

“You think there are rules about work enemies? I could probably use a few. I think I’m doing it terribly wrong.” Which was very annoying when it felt so damn right.

Again he smiled, his gaze missing nothing as it swept over her still naked body. “Well, work enemy, if you want to remain enemies in the daylight hours, you’re going to have to get dressed.”

Why was he so tempting? She pressed the tip of her tongue to the corner of her mouth, feeling more than gratified when he groaned. “Not today. Not during the day. That’s the rule. That needs to be a rule.” She said it aloud, but it was far more to herself than to him.

“Does that mean that at night . . .”

No. She couldn’t allow it. She had to make this the end of whatever weird personal thing they were to each other. There was too much at stake. “Carter . . .”

It was the fact he was struggling with it too that perhaps broke her brain a little bit. When she’d look back on this moment later, she’d definitely think her brain had broken. “Maybe . . . at night, we’re C and D, and if they happen to run into each other, who are Dinah and Carter to . . . complicate matters?”

“You mean aside from the fact they’re work enemies and not actually separate people from C and D?”

“Possibly.”

He shook his head. “It’s amazing what sex makes people do.” But he had thatsmile, that lightness to him. A warmth she didn’t know how to resist.

She had to laugh. It was so absurd and he was so . . . charming, somehow, in this weird, gruff way of his. He made her laugh and feel special and kind of weirdly warm and squirmy.

“You should get out of here.”

Yes, staying a second longer was ludicrous. It was foolish. She had work to do and it was all she could possibly care about.

“If C and D made plans to see each other at night, would Carter and Dinah have an issue with that?” she blurted instead.

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