Page 10 of The Keeper

“So…is that a yes?”

Dane gripped my hips and pulled me up against the unmistakable evidence of his arousal before asking, “What do you think?”

My breath caught. “That feels like a yes.”

“It’s a hell yes,” he murmured before nodding toward the door. “But how are we going to make this work? Your friend’s in there.”

My mind raced as I considered our options. The hallway was out for obvious reasons. Duke and GQ likely occupied his room, and while I loved reading about it, I wasn’t comfortable having sex with an audience of bikers.

“Once Ivy takes her sleeping pill, she could sleep through a train driving through the hotel,” I said, the words tumbling out before I could second-guess the entire thing. “Meet me at the patio door in an hour?”

“You’re sure?” he asked, searching my face.

I nodded, my heart racing with a mix of nerves and excitement. “I’m sure.”

“One hour,” he confirmed before crushing his lips to mine.

Slightly dazed, I forced myself to pull away before I could revise my stance on hallway sex.

With a final heated look, Dane turned and strode down the hallway. I lingered where I was for a moment, admiring the way his T-shirt stretched across his wide shoulders before slipping back into the room.

Ivy was already in her pajamas and moisturizing her face when I entered the bathroom. “That was more than a minute,” she observed dryly.

I shrugged, aiming for nonchalance. “We got to talking. You know how it is.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, reaching for her toothbrush with a bemused smirk. “Last I checked, talking doesn’t usually lead to a wicked case of beard burn.”

It wasn’t just my face. My skin tingled everywhere he’d touched me. But I wasn’t sharing any of that with her.

“What’s going on with you?” I asked, pivoting to Ivy’s least favorite topic.Herself. “What’s all this?”

“What’s all what?” she mumbled through a mouthful of toothpaste.

I gestured vaguely at her reflection in the mirror. “This. One minute, you’re laughing it up in the pool with two extremely attractive bikers, and the next, you’re all pissy and want to go to bed.”

She spit out a mouthful of toothpaste and rubbed her brow like she did when she had a headache. “I’m not pissy. Just annoyed.”

“Because they failed your little experiment?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. “Come on, astronauts in space saw that one coming. You’re a hottie. They’re hotties. Everyone’s going back to their regular lives tomorrow. Of course, they’re going to try to shoot their shot.”

Ivy gave a noncommittal response and took her sleeping pill beforereplacing the medicine bottle lid. I watched as she meticulously repacked her things, seemingly looking everywhere but at me.

My mouth went slack. “Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “They didn’t try to take advantage of you, did they? They passed, and that’s why you’re so grumpy.”

“Fine. They were perfect gentlemen. Are you happy now?” she snapped, her lips pressed into a thin white slash—like it pained her to admit she was wrong. “Why aren’t you getting ready for bed?”

I shrugged, trying to keep my expression neutral. “Oh, I’m just waiting for you to finish up so I can grab a quick shower.”

Ivy’s blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You’re not planning on sneaking out, are you, Amelia Piper Kelly?”

“What? No, of course not,” I said, choking on the saliva in my mouth at her use of my full name. “Why would you think that?”

“Because I know you. And I know that look in your eyes.” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against the counter. “Remember Rule Number Eleven? No hook-ups on vacation. It’s not safe, especially this close to Houston.”

“You think Dane’s going to try to traffic me?”

She studied me for a long moment, her gaze sharp despite the sleeping pill starting to take effect. “I think leaving this room to meet a stranger for sex is incredibly stupid and dangerous. We may have spent several hours with these guys, but we don’t really know them.”

I held my hands up in surrender. “Relax. I’m not going anywhere. I just want to wash all the chlorine off before bed. You know how sensitive my skin is.”

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