Page 24 of Crimson Bond

As far as I knew, neither of us snored.

On the other hand, maybe Abbididsnore. I’d never slept with her—sleptin the same roomwith her, I mentally corrected myself.

Too late. Parts of my anatomy that had taken a back seat for the confrontation with the beer buzz squad were once again awake and jostling for a spot at the front of the line.

“Thanks a lot. I’ll be sure to write you a great review,” I told the young woman behind the counter.

She beamed at me. “Thank you so much. That would be awesome.”

As we rode up in the elevator, Abbi yawned again. “I think I’m finally calming down. In fact, I feel exhausted now.”

“Conflict will do that to you. I’m usually wired for hours after any kind of situation, but then when I come down, Ireallycrash.”

“Thank you again. I wasn’t sure what to do back there, you know? Nothing like that has ever happened to me. I mean, some of the guards in the Safety Center were kind of creepy, but you could usually avoid them, and they knew there were cameras everywhere.”

My aggression, which had just now started to dial down, kicked in again.

“There was this one guy, Gatlin.” She was quiet for a moment before saying, “He got what was coming to him.”

“Good.”

We got off the elevator on the third floor and stopped in front of a door on the interior side of the hall.

“Is this us, 335?” she asked.

“Home sweet home,” I said before thinking then cringed as I swiped the key card. We were not an actual couple, and this was not our cozy little abode.

Abbi didn’t seem to notice the faux pas. She stepped into the room and flicked on the lights. When she got past the entry area, though, she stopped cold.

“There’s only one... bed.”

Moving past her, I placed our bags on a low wood laminate table. I did my best to make my tone unconcerned. “Yep. It’s all they had.”

“They had no rooms with two beds?” Abbi asked in a small voice.

“They did not. Not interior rooms anyway. Besides, this is better for safety’s sake. At least it’s a king,” I added with exaggerated cheerfulness.

Her joints seemed to unhinge, and she stepped farther into the sleeping area. “Yeah. That’s true. It’s pretty big.”

“Huge,” I said then cringed again. I unzipped my duffle bag and rummaged around in it, just to have something to do. Finding our blood bag supply and the ice packs, I put them in the mini-fridge.

After another minute of silently staring at the bed, Abbi went to her bag and pulled out a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, and makeup remover. She also grabbed an oversized t-shirt and a pair of panties she balled up in her hand in an attempt to hide them from me.

As if it was a secret she wore panties. Red panties that appeared to be quite small and made of some sort of lacy fabric.Oh God.

“Mind if I use the bathroom first?” she asked. “I think I might take a shower. I know all I did was sit in the car today, but after that guy touched me...”

“By all means. Take your time.”

Of course she was grossed out after what she’d been through. It made me feel even worse about the thoughts that had been running through my head.

I may or may not have been fantasizing about accidentally-on-purpose rolling over to her side of the bed during my “sleep.” In that fantasy, the t-shirt had ridden up and exposed the red—

No. Just stop it. You’re torturing yourself and getting the wholemake her fall in loveplan ass-backwards.

Again.

Abbi wasn’t even trying, and she was twisting me into knots of frustrated desire.Iwas supposed to be seducingher.

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