A Marriage-Minded Man / From Friend to Father: A Marriage-Minded Man / From Friend to Father. Karen Templeton

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СКАЧАТЬ nope, there was no “Did we…?” about this. Because they had. Oh, yes, indeedy, they had. Several times, in fact, before her anger was spent and many, many moons’ worth of sexual frustration exorcised.

      Groaning, Tess yanked the top blanket out from underneath the cat, stomped to the bathroom and did her thing, only to scream when she returned to the bedroom to find Eli standing there, dimples at a hundred percent, her sports bra dangling from one hand.

      Growling, she snatched it out of his hand, scanning the room for the rest of her clothes. “That blanket sure looks better on you than it does on me,” she heard behind her. As she irritably pondered how many times he’d undoubtedly used that line, he added, “Sleep well?”

      She had, actually. Like the dead. “Guess I dozed off,” she muttered, mincing past him to look on the other side of the bed.

      “Honey, you passed out.”

      “I did not!” she said, twisting around, the velvety blanket’s rasping across her nipples instantly hardening them. Or maybe that was Eli’s knowing smirk.

      “Like you would’ve voluntarily spent the night in my bed?”

      Okay, there was that, she thought, clumsily dropping to her knees to look under the bed. Her head rebelled. As did her stomach. Especially when the damn cat decided to go after her bare toes. Yelping, Tess again jerked upright, catching her head in one palm before it rolled off her neck. Although the cat would probably love it. A new toy to bat around the room, yay.

      Still cradling her head, she carefully hauled herself up to sit on the edge of the bed, wishing Eli would take pity on her and leave her to wallow in her mortification alone. But no.

      Her stomach boinged when she felt the mattress shift. “Touch me and die.”

      And of course, that brought a warm, gentle palm to the top of her head. “Your head hurt?” Eli said softly, and many unkind thoughts leaped to her brain, mostly along the lines of how desperately she wanted Eli to not be kind. Or warm. Or gentle. Not now, at least. Last night had been another story. Last night had been—

      “Oh, they haven’t invented a word for how my head feels right now,” she muttered. Just like there was no word for women who finagle their high school exes into pity sex. No, wait—actually, there were several. None of them flattering.

      Her cell phone rang.

      From her jacket pocket.

      In, apparently, the living room.

      She glared at Eli. Who kept on grinning. “Would you like me to get that for you?”

      “If you wouldn’t mind.”

      And during the approximately nine seconds he was gone, Tess found and put on the rest of her clothes, scattered willy-nilly about the room though they were. Eli returned and handed her the phone. And her jacket. Tess’s heart nearly stopped when she saw Enrique’s cell number.

      “Everything okay?” she barked when he answered.

      “Just what I was gonna ask you. Since you’re not here.”

      Tess paused. “‘Here’ being…?”

      “The house. Where the hell are you? When you didn’t answer your phone I called your aunt. She’s probably on her way over already.”

      Was there an award for Worst Morning After Ever? ’Cause Tess was at least a shoo-in for the finals. “You’re supposed to have the kids until tonight—”

      “Julia was up half the night, I think she missed you. So I figured I may as well bring ’em back since they were so miserable.”

      “They?”

      “Okay, Micky, maybe not so much. But I’m not gonna drive up there and back twice in one day, am I?”

      “For God’s sake, Enrique—you only see them one weekend a month as it is—”

      “Yeah, I know, I’m disappointed, too. So where are you?”

      “At…a friend’s. Since I thought I had the day to myself.”

      Turning, Tess caught Eli’s frown. “I’ll be home soon,” she muttered, dialing Thea Griego’s number when Eli stomped off.

      And it’s a beautiful day in Bozoland, she thought as Thea picked up, her “Tess? What’s wrong?” delivered in the groggy voice of the mother of a one-year-old still not entirely down with the concept of sleeping through the night.

      “Please tell me I didn’t just wake you up.”

      “For you to do that, I’d’ve had to have been—” Thea yawned “—asleep.” In the background, little Jonny happily squawked. “And you’re calling when the sun’s not even up yet, why?”

      “Omigod, it isn’t, is it?” Tess said, realizing that until that very moment, she hadn’t thought her embarrassment level could spike any higher. She’d been wrong. “I have a huge favor to ask,” she whispered. “First off, I need you to swear to anyone who might ask that I was at your place last night.”

      Silence. “Why? You kill somebody?”

      “Worse,” Tess muttered. “So will you?”

      “Long as it doesn’t involve the word ‘accessory’ in some way, sure, but—”

      “And is there any way you could come pick me up and take me back home?”

      More silence. “Um…pick you up from where?”

      Somehow Tess doubted Thea’d buy her having spent the night by the side of the road. “Eli Garrett’s.”

      “Lord, now I know I’m not awake yet. I could’ve sworn you said—”

      “I did.”

      That got a far-too-gleeful cackle. “This just keeps gettin’ better and better.”

      “Can you pick me up or not?”

      “Do I have to put on makeup?”

      “God, no.”

      “Then I’ll be there in a few. Hang tight, honey.”

      Tess had no sooner shut her phone than she heard behind her, “I’m not good enough to take you home?”

      She turned. And while Eli’s insouciant smile and slouch against the door frame with his hands in his pockets might’ve said Like I give a damn, the sting of hurt in his eyes told another story entirely. What the hell?

      “Oh, right,” Tess said, dropping onto the edge of the embarrassingly rumpled bed to lace up her running shoes. “Like there’d be any way to explain to Enrique why you were bringing me home at the crack of dawn.”

      “He’s there?”

      “Brought the kids back early, yup.” Slapping her СКАЧАТЬ