Page 20 of A Wrong Bed Christmas: Ignited\Where There's Smoke

“Kind of a downer conversation after such a great start,” he said.

“Agreed, but one that needs to be had, right?”

He sighed. “Yeah,” he said, but he looked as if having this conversation wasn’t high on his priority list. “Still a bummer.”

“Can we be friends after this?” she asked.

“We’re not friends,” he reminded her. “We just met.”

“And what better way to build a great friendship than letting our naked parts rub up against one another. I had an anthropology instructor once tell me that everyone should use sex to defuse conflict, like the bonobo monkeys. Any time they are confused or conflicted, they bang it out and, voilà, everyone is happy again.”

“If only things were so easily resolved,” he said wryly, plainly not impressed or on board with her suggestion to keep things platonic going forward.

“You seem irritated,” she said. “Are you mad?”

“No, not mad. I get where you’re coming from. Just feels weird to be on the other side of that argument.”

“Aw, how cute,” she crooned with a laugh, and he broke a small grin. “But I’m really serious about not getting involved with anyone until I have my degree in my hot little hand. You have no idea how it feels to be the one that everyone writes off. I’m not saying it wasn’t my fault and that I didn’t make things worse with my choices, but it still sucks.”

“Your brother adores you,” Layton said with a mild frown. “And he’s proud of you. He’s told me so.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. The only thing he’s ever said that was remotely negative had everything to do with that douche you were dating. Erik didn’t like him.”

No, Erik hadn’t thought much of Riker. Neither had her dad, now that she thought about it, but she’d been too head over heels in love to see the warning signs. “I wish I’d listened to them in the first place and dumped him,” she admitted.

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. You know that saying, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find Prince Charming? Well, I think that’s applicable here.”

A warm smile found Alexis’s lips. “So full of wisdom, aren’t you?”

“Only because I’ve made my share of dumb moves and I have the scars to prove it.”

She tucked her robe around her. “I would’ve thought that this would’ve been a convenient out for you. Not many guys would find a weekend fling outside of their wheelhouse.”

“I didn’t say it was outside of my wheelhouse. I’ve done it before,” he corrected with a shrug. “I just didn’t think you’d be okay with a one-and-done.”

“I’m not...but a day of sex with you sounds just about perfect.”

“You sure about that?” he asked, his dark eyes threatening to drown her in their beautiful depths. And those eyelashes! Criminal!

She hadn’t lied when she’d said she’d come faster with Layton than anyone else and it’d been a pretty fantastic orgasm—not like some weak little tingle that barely registered but one of those earth-shattering oh-my-God-was-that-real kind of things and that was hard to give up, but she was determined to stay the course. “Yep,” she said with more force. “Now, I’m going to bake cookies. You can help if you want.”

“Cookies? Why now?”

“Because it’s part of my holiday tradition, just like hanging the lights, and keeping to my schedule is one way to stay on track with my goals.”

The fact that I’m already thinking of you in ways I shouldn’t is enough of a warning sign. Yep, so go bake cookies, Alexis!

And then she left him in her bedroom.

* * *

HUMMING UNDER HER BREATH, Alexis hobbled to the kitchen, determined to bake some gingerbread cookies before Erik returned. Erik was a sucker for her cookies and Alexis was not above using his love for cookies to get what she wanted, such as premium cable when Erik had been adamant that it was a useless expense. Erik was far more frugal than her—hence the belief by their parents that he was the more responsible one.

Well, that and the fact that he seemed to have his life on track whereas she had made more than a few stops and starts.

Such as when she agreed to let an internet start-up company slap their logo all over her car with the promise of paying her rent for six months when, in fact, the company had gone belly up within a month and she’d been left with a hideous logo blazoned across her bumper, which had to be professionally removed at her own cost.

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