Page 50 of What Happened Last Night

“Honey, I knew this was very important to you,” Mom said, gesturing again in a helpless way. “You rearranged other bookings so your boss could stay here, and I thought it would impress him if we gave him a higher level of service, especially after that awful storm.”

“Knock on the door, Mom!” I pointed past her to the front door. “It’s very simple. People have been doing it for decades, centuries even. Knock on the damn door!”

“I wasn’t thinking!” Mom cried. “Why are you here, anyway? You didn’t tell us you were coming to town!”

“Because it’s none of your business!”

“So fucking dead,” Tanner said.

Will held up a hand. “Everyone, be quiet.”

Incredibly, both Mom and Tanner went silent.

Will crossed one ankle over the other knee, just like he did when he was talking to someone in the office. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t gone storming out of here yet, never to speak to me and my family again. Instead, he seemed perfectly calm, if a little annoyed. Except for the fact that he was in sweatpants and he’d just been caught with his hand between my legs after a night of debauched pleasure, he could have been in a business meeting.

“Mrs. McQueen,” he said to my mother, his tone both gentle and firm. “I appreciate your concern about me, but I booked the entire space so that I could be alone. Completely alone.”

“Oh, Mr. Hale, I am so sorry,” Mom said. “I was trying to be helpful. What a mess.”

Will fixed Mom with a look I couldn’t read, one that went on so long that Mom went red and dropped her gaze to the floor.

“A phone call would have sufficed,” he said.

“I suppose you’re right,” Mom said. “I’m sorry.”

I gaped. I had never seen my mother look actually embarrassed. I shot a glance at Tanner, but he was still busy fixing his fiery glare on Will, like the world’s stupidest dragon.

Will turned to Tanner. “You,” he said. “I don’t know which brother you are, but you’re not going to kill me, so stop saying it. I heard it the first dozen times.”

“You’re a dead man,” Tanner growled.

“That’s Tanner,” I supplied to Will through my continued humiliation. “He’s the oldest.”

Will looked at me and crooked an eyebrow, and suddenly I felt like smiling. He looked gorgeously disheveled this morning, like a man who had been laid by the world’s hottest woman all night, a sexy goddess who had rocked his world. I had done that to him. Me.

“That’s my little sister!” Tanner exploded. “You were feeling her up!”

“I was,” Will agreed. I put a hand over my mouth.

“She’s my little sister!”

“We covered that part, I believe. Also, Luna is thirty.”

Tanner was going red. “You think that just because you’re some rich asshole, you can fool around with her?”

Will seemed to think this question over. “If she consents, then yes,” he replied. “It’s true that I’m rich. But I wasn’t fooling around with her.”

“I saw you!” Tanner said. “You were right there in the kitchen!”

“Where I paid full rate for an expectation of privacy,” Will reiterated. “I wasn’t disputing what you saw. I’m disputing your terminology. Luna and I aren’t fooling around.”

“Oh yeah?” Tanner was getting even angrier at Will’s use of big words. “Not fooling around? So you two are dating? She’s your girlfriend?”

I opened my mouth to tell him to get bent, but Will said, “Yes, and yes.”

I made a choked sound of shock. My chest squeezed in on itself.

“You’re dating?” Mom jumped back into the conversation. “Luna, you didn’t tell me.”

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