Page 56 of Tempting Promises
Her arms are looped around the top wooden railing, keeping her upright, and I drop in front of her.
I pull her pants down past her knees. “Now pee,” I tell her and move the blanket around the front of her to give her some privacy.
Her eyes meet mine and there’s gratitude there, and she nods. “Please talk or sing so that you don’t...hear this. I seriously want to die as it is, and I don’t think I can take much more.”
“Singing it is,” I say, grinning because one thing I cannot do wellis that. I belt out the lyrics to my favorite ’90s rap song, and Charlotte shakes her head, laughing hysterically.
“Stop, stop! I take it back!” Her eyes are filled with tears. “I’m done. Did you bring a napkin?”
I extend it to her, and when she lets go of her one arm, she starts to fall, and I grab her, holding her steady.
“Seriously, this is the worst day of my life.”
“You’ve had some pretty fantastic sex in the last twenty-four hours, I’d say it’s been a good day,” I offer her another perspective.
She rolls her eyes, drops the napkin into the bag I’m holding. “Can you pull my pants up please?”
I drape the blanket over her shoulders, help her get dressed, and then we carefully extract her from the railing before heading back into the cabin.
Less than five minutes outside and both of us are shivering. It’s so fucking cold.
“How long are we going to have to stay here?” she asks, her teeth chattering.
I come around behind her, pulling her onto my lap, rubbing up and down her arms. “I don’t know, but we have to stay here until we can manage more than five minutes outside.”
Charlotte nods and shifts so she can curl into me as I pull the blanket around the two of us. Even in front of the fire, it’s freaking cold.
“I swear it dropped another fifteen degrees. It’s March! Why is Mother Nature so confused?”
“I don’t know.”
She looks up at me, head resting on my shoulder. “It seems she’s not the only one confused. We’re doing a pretty bang-up job too.”
I smile and laugh once. “Our confusion will clear once we’re back home.”
“Before then, Rowan.”
“What happened in the cabin stays in the cabin.”
“We’re having our own version ofFight Club?”
“Whatever you want to call it.”
“Lapse of Judgment, that’s what it needs to be called.”
I nod once. “It won’t happen again.”
Charlotte sighs, shivering once again. “Good.”
It is good because I don’t need any complications in my damn life. Especially not from another Sullivan.
fourteen
CHARLOTTE
“You cheater!” I yell at Rowan as his hand hits the deck of cards before mine, but there’s no way he could’ve beaten me.
“That’s not the first time you’ve accused me of doing that and not the first time you’re wrong. I didn’t cheat. You just lost.”
