Page 51 of The Heat of the Night

And she didn’t look back no matter how tempted she was. And she was very, very tempted.

* * *

How she got through the remainder of the day, Claudia didn’t know. She felt as if she had a huge, flashing, neon sign above her head saying ‘look at me, look at me, I had hot dirty sex last night with someone I shouldn’t have’. So she was brighter, chirpier, she worked harder, she walked faster, she knocked herself out playing the best, brightest version of herself she could muster after a night of head-banging sex and only two hours’ sleep.

In fact she might have overdone it slightly if people’s concerned faces were anything to go by. ‘Are you okay?’ Avery had finally asked her around mid-afternoon. ‘You seem kind of...wired.’

Claudia had nodded vigorously. ‘Fine and dandy,’ she’d chirped, ‘Just excited about tomorrow,’ and she had buzzed off to attend to something else.

But by the time night rocked around again and she finally retired to her room about nine o’clock she was utterly exhausted and ready to drop. She collapsed back on her bed and lay there for a few moments like a starfish.

But then that got her thinking about Luke. About lying passively, while he turned her into a drooling mess, bringing her to orgasm with his hand and his mouth. A familiar tingle started up again and she rolled on her side, stuffing a fist between her legs to ease the ache.

Maybe her body knew somehow, could sense that he was just in the next room, or maybe it was the delicious waft of Luke, of their sex, washing over her. With no time to shower this morning she’d been smelling Luke on her all day—earthy and male and very hard to ignore.

She’d been semi turned on all day.

Of course she could have had a shower when she’d ducked up to her room to change into her uniform when they’d first arrived back but, perversely, she hadn’t wanted to wash him away.

She’d wanted to savour it, savour him, for a bit longer.

The way she’d savoured the smiles he gave her whenever she caught him looking at her. Those dirty smiles. The kind of smile that said, I know what you look like naked and screaming my name.

She wanted to savour every moment because if getting the Tropicana opening-ready today while he spent half the day talking into his Bluetooth had taught her anything, it was that she belonged here and his life was on the other side of the world.

Whatever had happened between them she couldn’t forget that.

So, she loved him. That was both a revelation and not. She’d always loved him. It was just the first time she’d admitted it to herself. But it didn’t change things. She wasn’t going to go halfway around the world for a guy who didn’t love her back. A workaholic divorcee whose career was his number one priority. A guy who was determined to never be so foolish again.

And if he loved her back, if he asked her to go with him...?

Best not to build those kinds of castles in the sky. They hadn’t yet talked about what had happened or said anything, for that matter, of a personal nature to each other all day. It would have to come, she knew, but for now she was just going to savour the memory.

The knock on the interconnecting door a minute later surprised the hell out of her and she sprang off the mattress, her heart racing. The last thing she needed was to be horizontal around Luke again.

‘Come in,’ she called as she stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed, self-consciously checking her hair was still up in its ponytail.

The door opened and she smiled at Luke, who entered very hesitantly. ‘Hi,’ he said.

‘Hey.’

They both smiled as they remembered the last time they’d done this routine—naked and plastered together in a Cairns hotel room. Then, as if they’d both realised it wasn’t an appropriate thought to have, their smiles faded simultaneously.

‘I thought we should probably talk,’ Luke said.

Claudia nodded. ‘Yes...I guess.’

‘You don’t sound too sure.’

She shrugged. ‘At the moment denial is looking pretty good.’

Luke chuckled. ‘That’s an option.’

Claudia laughed too, grateful for the easing of tension. ‘You want a beer?’ she asked.

‘Sure,’ Luke said. ‘Thanks.’

Claudia was grateful for something to do with her hands other than option A, which was to put them all over him. He was wearing boardies and a T-shirt again and Claudia couldn’t help but be aware of what easy access that was. She reached into the mini-bar and pulled out a frosty bottle and handed it to him, then poured herself a glass of wine from the half-empty bottle sitting in the door of the fridge.

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