Whose Bed Is It Anyway?. Natalie Anderson

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СКАЧАТЬ night she’d lain there for ages, barely breathing before accepting the guy was making like a gigantic piece of Lego. Immovable, inanimate, so faultless he had to be plastic. She’d wished he’d snored or something—she’d wanted to find a flaw, aside from the fact he’d briefly leapt to an unflattering assumption. But even now, with the air of weariness he wore, with the shadows under his eyes and the stubble on his jaw, even with that raw scar, he was the most startlingly sexy man she’d met. So truthfully, she hadn’t managed that well at all. But given how broke she was, she was going to have to cope. The question was whether he wanted to—and if so, why he would?

      ‘You don’t mind the state it’s in?’ She paused to clear the frog from her throat. ‘Or being so squashed?’

      ‘This is nothing.’ He looked amused.

      Of course, he’d have seen places in far worse messes and no doubt lived in greatly uncomfortable situations for months at a time. Because on that level, he was that hero.

      ‘I have a twin. I’m used to sharing,’ he explained. ‘We used to have a line of masking tape down on the floor marking out the boundary. Pain of death if you crossed it.’

      Caitlin could easily imagine the scene. But she knew he came from wealth. His family had created the world’s most popular independent travel guides. A total dynasty, they sold millions of books each year. Surely he’d grown up in a huge house? Her innards softened; the guy was trying to make her feel better. But she wasn’t going to let him get away with gross exaggeration. ‘You didn’t have your own room?’

      ‘Course not,’ he answered instantly. ‘We fought, but we’re brothers. Half the time Jack would be in there as well.’ He chuckled. ‘When we got older, sure, we had our own rooms. But we were really close.’

      Were. She paused, wondering about why that was. But she wasn’t going to pry about anything so personal. Besides, he was only sharing this to make her feel as if she weren’t putting him out. ‘And how long is it since the two of you shared a room?’ she asked bluntly.

      He laughed. ‘About twenty years,’ he conceded.

      Hmm. ‘So this arrangement...would be...brotherly?’

      ‘Sure.’ His eyes crinkled even more at the corners. ‘I really am used to sharing. Sometimes it’s really cramped quarters when I’m on an assignment.’

      ‘All the more reason for you to have your space now you’re at home.’ She really shouldn’t stay.

      ‘You don’t take up that much space.’ He grinned amiably. ‘I like to curl up like a cat.’

      Ha. ‘I slept beside you last night. I know how much you stretch out.’

      A rueful expression crossed his face. ‘Did I leave you any room?’

      ‘Less than an inch.’

      ‘Sorry about that. We can do something better with the pillows.’

      Caitlin pressed her lips together for a moment to suppress the heat suddenly flaring inside. She could well imagine his physical demands would be great. He was the kind to want more. To take more.

      ‘I can’t let you do this.’ Ugh, her voice had gone husky. She cleared her throat. ‘I’ll disturb you.’

      He hesitated for a moment. ‘I can sleep through anything.’

      Actually, she figured that was true. He’d been out cold last night. ‘So you’re suggesting that we—two total strangers—share this one room?’

      ‘I am.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’ll only be for a couple days at most. I’ll be heading out on another assignment soon. You’ll have the place to yourself the rest of your month.’

      Given she had no back-up plan, what choice did she have? But there was that one thing and she couldn’t not spell it out. ‘You honestly think it can work given what you thought on seeing me here last night?’

      ‘I was really tired. Not thinking clearly.’ For the first time he glanced away from her first. ‘You can’t blame me. I think most men look at you and think “sex”.’

      ‘Is that supposed to be a compliment?’ she drawled acidly.

      ‘Hey, I’m just a man.’

      ‘But you’re not, are you? You’re not just any man.’

      He looked back at her. ‘I think you’ll find I’m very much just a man.’

      ‘Given that, I’m really not sure it’s a good idea I stay here.’

      He studied her silently. Then smiled gently. ‘Sweetheart, you have nothing to worry about.’

      Somehow—ridiculous as it was, given he was trying to reassure her—she felt even more insulted than she had last night. ‘Sweetheart?’

      He grinned. ‘Sugar, honeypot...’

      ‘You’ve obviously forgotten my name is Caitlin.’

      ‘I haven’t forgotten anything about you.’ A glitter intensified the laughter in his eyes.

      That kind of focus was enough to make any woman blush. She drew breath, fighting the flare of heat in her cheeks. ‘Okay, I definitely can’t stay here.’ She’d be safer on the streets.

      ‘Sure you can.’

      ‘Not if you’re going to flirt like a bulldozer,’ she grumbled. She didn’t want any man-attraction stuff in her life right now. She wanted peace.

      He laughed. A deliciously low, warm, infectious sound. ‘You don’t like flirting?’

      Caitlin fought to keep hold of her grump and not succumb to his charm. ‘It’s not appropriate.’ He didn’t even mean it.

      He looked even more amused. ‘You honestly don’t think a guy and a girl can share a room without...’ He raised his brows.

      Oh, now he was making her seem like some kind of sex-crazed spinster. ‘It’s not that but—’

      ‘Ah, you do think I’m attractive.’ He nodded in a confiding way, his grin absurdly boyish.

      Confound the man, he was confusing her. ‘You know you’re attractive,’ she answered almost crossly.

      ‘I do?’ He turned his head and ran a finger down the thick red welt of the scar that came out of his hairline, cut across his temple and sloped crookedly down his cheekbone. ‘This is attractive?’

      Caitlin stared first at the scar, then into his suddenly impenetrably dark eyes. Was there an edge of bitterness? He was insecure about it? When the world knew how he’d got it? What he’d gone through?

      ‘Your eyes are attractive,’ she said quietly. His eyes were lethal. And they were just the beginning.

      He shook his head, his smile returning but a little twisted. ‘My bank balance is attractive. So is my surname—the family connection. The СКАЧАТЬ