Page 79 of What Happened Last Night

Afterward, we lay breathless for a while. I felt sleep creeping up on me. I hadn’t had much sleep for the last five days.

Luna rolled over and propped herself on an elbow, gloriously naked, looking down at me as I lay on my back. With her messy hair and orgasm-flushed skin, she looked like a goddess. “Okay, that was amazing. Now tell me how you survived camping with my brothers for five days.”

“I didn’t,” I replied. I couldn’t move my body, even if I wanted to. I was never leaving this bed again. “We only camped for the first two nights. Then we went to a ski lodge where Jay knew all of the employees. Half of them were Road Kings fans. We were treated like royalty. We ate like kings and got drunk in the hot tub.”

Luna’s jaw dropped open. “A ski lodge?”

“Your brothers don’t camp nearly as much as they say they do,” I said. “Mostly they hang out with Jay’s friends and pretend they’re roughing it.”

“So they didn’t torture you? At all?”

“Oh, they tortured me at first.” I scratched my beard. “It was just some mild starvation and sleep deprivation. Nothing I couldn’t handle. We worked it out.”

She put a hand over her eyes. “Will, I’m so sorry. I mean it. I should have stepped in. I’ll do better from now on, I promise.”

I stroked a hand through her hair, feeling the silky curls against my palm. “Don’t fight with your family. It wasn’t so bad. I kind of understand your brothers now. I think they still hate me a little. But I get it.”

“What do you mean?”

I thought about it. “When you get drunk with someone in a hot tub, you bond with them. They talked a lot. Your brothers aren’t just protective of you in an old-fashioned way. They’re also used to seeing your family as a unit, as a team. You’re on their team. They don’t like change very much.”

She looked thoughtful. Since none of her brothers had married or moved away from Bend, she could see my point. “Okay, so they don’t like change. But I’m an adult, and I’m with you. They don’t have a choice, even if they try to starve you to death.”

“They also made me sleep in a tiny tent,” I added, because I didn’t want her to completely forgive them yet. “And they forced me to learn golf.”

“You learned golf,” she said, nudging my shoulder. “You hired a pro and didn’t tell me.”

“I had to.” My eyes drifted closed. “I had to win.”

She was quiet for a moment, and then she kissed my bare shoulder. “Just tell me why,” she said softly.

I opened my eyes again. “Why what?”

“Why did you do it? You learned golf at five in the morning. You took time off work and gave up your cell phone. You hiked and camped. You got drunk in a hot tub with three jerks. You could have just said no. So why did you say yes?”

I looked up at her. “Why do you think?” I asked.

Our gazes caught, and she bit her lip. “Will,” she whispered.

I cupped her jaw, stroked my thumb over her cheekbone. Then I leaned up and kissed her gently. Again, then again. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” I told her. “I’d do it all again.”

“I have such a crush on you,” she said against my lips.

“I know,” I said, rolling her onto her back and kissing her. “I finally figured it out.”

THIRTY-SIX

Luna

The bass player’s name was Juliet Barstow, and she came to RKS on a Friday afternoon. It had taken Stone and Sienna weeks to get her to agree to come.

Will and I stood in the control room, watching through the glass as the band stood chatting with Juliet. Sienna was here, too, as well as Callie, Brit, Raine, and Amber, Raine and Neal’s teenage daughter.

“I feel like we’re watching animals in a zoo,” I said as we all stared at the meeting. We couldn’t hear what they were saying. There were mics set up, but the amps weren’t on, so we couldn’t eavesdrop.

“There are too many of us,” Sienna said as she stood next to me. “We shouldn’t overwhelm her by going in there. We might spook her.”

Will looked at Sienna. He had his arms crossed. “We want her so much, then? She’s that good?”

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