Page 51 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

And Carmen did not want to explain it to him.

‘I don’t want commitment or promises. I never have. So don’t worry about things changing, Elias.’ She shook her head. ‘I wanted sex, and so did you.’

‘Don’t walk away.’

‘Go to your party,’ Carmen replied.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘What?’ she said. ‘Are we really going to sit down and talk now?’

It was the last thing she wanted. She didn’t want to spoil the memory of what they had shared by putting it into words. She needed time and space to process it on her own first.

‘I said I don’t want to talk about it, Elias.’

Carmen wrenched open the office door and marched back to her attic room in the lodge. Even as she undressed and showered she could not quite believe the woman he’d made her tonight. She ran her hands over her skin under the spray of water and wondered at what she had just experienced.

And as she crawled into the most uncomfortable bed she’d ever slept in, she still couldn’t understand her own lack of inhibition, the depth of her own desire.

Some things didn’t need to be put into words...they could justbe.

CHAPTER TEN

ITWASHERone day off in a fortnight and Carmen was in agony.

‘That bastard!’ she said, because it stung her to wee. ‘What has he given me?Thisis why men cannot be trusted!’

Carmen feared the worst—because everything she was feeling right now was a first for her.

The lodge wasn’t empty this morning, of course. John was there, eating from a bag of pretzels, and Carmen could barely manage a polite good morning, let alone ask about last night.

Not even picking out all the marshmallows from the box of cereal cheered her up.

‘Any plans for today?’ John asked.

‘I’m going to Santa Monica.’

‘There’s a bus at ten.’

‘Thanks.’

It was hell being poor—or pretending to be poor—Carmen thought as she stood waiting for a bus along with several others.

She was in agony. She was sore and swollen down below. And now she could ruefully admit to herself that she understood where Elias’s anger had come from last night. After all, it had all been very fast and hard. She was paying for it now.

She winced again, and was tempted to cheat on her promise to herself not to spend more than she made. Unable to bear the wait for the bus any longer, she took out her phone, and she was just about to order a cab when a familiar silver car slid to a halt beside her.

Elias.

The window slid down.

‘What?’ Her tone was curt.

‘Get in.’

He wore a black linen shirt and dark glasses, but even so she could tell his expression was forbidding. She rather suspected she was going to be told off.

‘My bus is due any second, and if I miss it I’ll have to wait for ever for another.’

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