Royal Opposites (12 page)

A waft of cool air brushed across her face. Her eyes flew open and her muscles tensed to fight. She relaxed when she saw it was Tom.

“Let’s get you inside.” He held out a hand to her. “You look like you can use the rest.”

“You saying I look a mess?” She wasn’t sure why she cared.

She just did. Especially after they’d shared the close call of the accident and subsequent escape such a short time ago. Despite the pounding in her head, she longed for him to wrap his arms around her again. She’d never felt so safe and protected before. Even in the midst of danger.

“Of course you look a mess. We both do. But you look like you’re in a great deal of pain, too.”

Despite the bright lights in the parking lot, she looked him over and conceded the point. He did look a mess. But he made messy look good with those broad shoulders, trim waist, and powerful thighs. How had a prince managed to get such a solid physique?

“Joan?” Tom’s voice sounded a bit thick. He cleared his throat drawing her gaze back up to his face. She put her hand in his and allowed him to help her from the car. Under the steady beat of the tap dancing monkeys she could hardly concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. Or at least she blamed them in her mind for her uncharacteristic leaning on Tom for support while he walked her to her room.

She began to rethink her assessment of women who always leaned on men. Perhaps it was less about them being weak and more about them wanting to touch him. Heaven help her, Joan did want to touch Tom. Good thing they would be heading to different rooms in a few moments. She’d read somewhere that good sex was a cure for a headache. Giving the pounding in her head, she was more than willing to give it a whirl. Heck, even without the pounding, she wouldn’t mind giving him a whirl. What the heck was she thinking? It was obvious she was not a well woman.

“Here we are.” Tom stopped in front of a door and slid an old-‐-fashioned metal key in the lock. Grateful to put some distance between them, but also feeling a little abandoned, Joan headed for the other side of the small room before turning to face him again.

“Thank you.” She checked out the meager surrounding then gave him a brief smile. “I can’t imagine this is anywhere close to what you’re used to, but at least it’s clean.”

He surprised her when he stepped in the room, closing and locking the door behind him. He took a look around. “I think it’ll be adequate.”

“What are you doing?”

A puzzled frown creased his eyebrows. “What do you mean?” Joan’s eyes drifted to the queen sized bed which had appeared so inviting moments before, then back to him. Now that he was inside, the room seemed a bit too claustrophobic for her tastes. He dropped the keys on the shiny but scarred table by the door and sank into one of the chairs.

“What are you doing in here? I mean, where’s your room?”

“I only got this one. I didn’t want to be too far away in case you needed me. Head injuries can be tricky, I’ve heard.” He gave her the smile that had been doing funny things to her insides since they met. “Besides, we’re trying to conserve money, remember?”

“Yes, but…” Joan couldn’t think of a single way to articulate her concerns with any semblance of tact, so she blurted, “There’s only one bed.”

“There are no double occupancy rooms here. Usually people who want those types of accommodations book adjoining rooms.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“There aren’t any, Joan.” He didn’t raise his voice to her, but his tone left no question that he now considered the subject closed.

For the first time since they’d met, she had a clear view of his royal upbringing. She wanted to be ticked off, but discovered she was a bit aroused instead. This was not good.

“Look. We’re both adults, right? I don’t know about you, but the last thing on my mind is… What’s the expression? Jumping your bones.”

That cooled her libido quick, fast, and in a hurry. What had she been thinking? Just because she found him attractive didn’t mean he felt the same about her. In fact, he’d never once treated her with anything other than the affection one would bestow upon a little sister or cute puppy. Even when he’d put his hands on her butt he’d been completely impersonal. The night was, indeed, going to be a long one. She summoned a smile.

“You’re right. I’m going to shower.” She headed toward the bathroom then paused. “That is, unless you’d like to go first?”

****

Tom propped his right ankle on his left knee and prayed it was enough to hide the full-‐-grown bulge he was now sporting.

What was she doing to him? First, there was all that talk about being an adult while sharing the bed. Then he hadn’t been able to help, but hope that she’d invite him to join her in the shower.

Despite the fact he still had several thousand miles left to travel before he could break his vow of celibacy, it’d have been pretty darn tempting.

“Ladies, first.” He nodded toward the bathroom and prayed she’d leave. Fast. Instead, she stood there, studying him. He had no idea what she was thinking while she looked at him with those soulful brown eyes of hers. He didn’t think she was aware of his uncomfortable state because her eyes stayed on his face. He smiled.

She smiled back, but it morphed into a bit of a grimace reminding him how much pain she had to be in.

“I’ll save you some hot water,” she said at last then stepped into the bathroom. That was so not going to be a problem.

“Okay,” he agreed, smile still very much in place although he felt like it would shatter his face at any moment. He let it fall away when the door closed behind her and heaved a sigh of relief.

Hoping for a little slack in his khakis, he stood and wandered over to the mirror above a solid dresser. One look in the glass made him cringe. No wonder Joan was worried about sharing a bed with him. His appearance was quite ghastly. His hair stood at odd angles all over his scalp. There was more than one smudge of dirt on his face. His shirt no longer had all of its buttons much less remained tucked in his pants. He looked down at them. The knees were grass stained and dirty. It wasn’t the best outfit in which to conduct a successful seduction. Good thing that was the farthest thing from his mind.

He spun away from the mirror and thought about his interaction with the woman on duty at the front desk. She hadn’t even blinked at his appearance. Was this the type of establishment that saw dirt-‐-streaked people like him every day? The thought brought him up short. Sure they had a shower, but neither of them had any clothes to change into. Running around the tiny room naked was not an option. Not if he expected to make it through this ordeal and still be celibate and Joan still had the option to return to her life.

Tom heard the water turn on in the bathroom. Unbidden, the visual of a naked Joan stepping beneath the spray planted itself in his mind. He recalled the feel of her glorious backside in his hands and groaned. This was not going to work. Tom grabbed the car key and room key from the table where he’d dropped them.

Not trusting himself to look back, he scrambled out the door.

Chapter Eleven

Joan felt a thousand times better after she washed all the dirt and grime from her aching body. She still wasn’t quite back to herself since she kept finding new achy spots, but at least the roar in her head had slowed to a gentle hum that she could live with.

She shut off the water and dried herself with one of the tiny towels which had no hope of ever wrapping around her. Hotel towels never did. She always shrugged it off and got dressed straightaway.

Her hands froze at the thought. Get dressed? She whirled to look at the tattered remains of the dress she’d worn for the past two days. She didn’t have anything to wear. Not a single stitch of clothing. Even her underwear had managed to get grass stains on it. She didn’t want to think what view she might have been giving Tom when that happened. She could put her bra back on, but wasn’t all that eager to since those shards of glass had fallen out.

She’d been careful to sweep them up with toilet paper, but didn’t want to risk shaking the garment out then cutting her foot or something later.

Still, she was left in a pretty dire predicament. Tom was right outside, waiting to get in the bathroom. She had nothing to wear while they traded places. She was sure he’d find himself with the same predicament. Although she couldn’t imagine a man that good-‐-looking being self-‐-conscious of his body. If anything, he’d be a show-‐-off. Given her already inappropriate attraction to the man, she could see that state of affairs would be everything except good.

Joan considered the door. She had to go out there sometime.

The sheet. She’d ask him to hand it to her. It had to be large enough for her to wear for the night. In the morning, later this morning, she’d figure out something else. For right now, her headache was coming back and all she wanted to do was sleep.

Joan held the towel in front of her and cracked open the door. “Tom.”

She waited for him to answer in the silent room. When there was nothing, she opened the door a little farther and peeked out.

She half expected to find him asleep on the bed. She didn’t expect the room to be empty. Her eyes went to the table where he’d dropped the keys earlier. Both the sets for the car and room were gone. She didn’t have the energy to panic. Her shoulders slumped and tears threatened to well up in her eyes. He’d left her. After all those speeches about honor and seeing her through this mess, he’d snuck out on her. The rat.

Joan squared her shoulders. She didn’t need him. Joan’d be fine on her own. But first, she had to get some sleep. The room must be paid up for the night. The thought, made her slam the door open. He’d taken all her money, too. It wasn’t hard to find the energy to be ticked. Calling him a rat was an insult to rats. She stalked over to the bed and ripped the sheet off with much more force than necessary.

Joan engaged in a tiny battle with the linen when it didn’t want to release the corners of the mattress. At last, she won. But felt no satisfaction. Joan wrapped it around herself and sat on the edge of the bed determined not to let the angry tears slide down her cheeks. It wouldn’t do her any good. Sleep now. Work out the problems of the world later.

She considered gathering her laundry up off the bathroom floor for a brief moment. What was the purpose? It wasn’t like Joan had to be neat for anyone else. On that thought, she turned off the light in the main room and climbed beneath the comforter. Once curled up on her favorite side to sleep, Joan found a good sized lump on her head. No wonder she had a headache, Joan thought with a wince when her fingers probed the tender spot. The thing felt huge. But there was nothing that could be done about it right this moment. Joan rolled to her other side and faced the door.

Her heart leapt into her throat when she heard scraping on the other side. Had someone gotten the wrong room? Before she even had time to complete the thought, much less do anything about it, the door swung open and Tom stepped inside with his arms full of packages. He hadn’t left her after all. Joan tried to fight back the relief. He’d still scared her half to death. Not to mention made her realize how much she’d come to depend on him. That wasn’t good.

He flipped on the light then saw her sit up in the bed and froze. “I didn’t think you’d be finished this soon.”

“I promised to leave you some hot water.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” He brought the bags over and dropped them on the bed. “I realized we needed some clothes.” He gave her a sheepish look then unpacked a bag. “I know I couldn’t have done as well as you, but I think I got everything we need for under one hundred dollars.”

Joan smiled at him. “I’m sure you did great.”

The smile that lit Tom’s face at her approval made her heart thump wildly in her chest. And now she was back to her original problem. Of course now she was naked. Joan was beginning to think his abandoning her might have been the lesser of two evils.

He reached inside the bag and handed her a bottle of water and some aspirin. She almost melted at the thoughtfulness. Joan accepted the offering with a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

She poured the white pills in her hand, but only stared at them while the events of the last couple of days replayed in her head. Tom seemed to be a blur of activity while he unpacked the bags and put the items away. She watched him open a package of boxer briefs and felt the unreasonable urge to cry. He gave her a brief wink, and then ducked in the bathroom with his toiletries.

How could she have thought such mean things about him when he’d been nothing but wonderful to her?

The first tear streaked down her face. She wanted to brush it away, but her limbs felt far too heavy. The aspirin sat forgotten in her hand and the bottle of water was cold against her thigh, but she couldn’t bring herself to do anything about it. So she sat. Staring and hurting. The car’s wild jolt over the embankment played over and over again in her mind. Each time it ended with a different

‘what if’ outcome. The one that disturbed her most was the ‘what if’ Tom had died when they crashed.

Granted, he didn’t look any the worse for wear, but she’d noted his torn clothes. If his shower was going like hers had, she’d be willing to bet he was finding all sort of scrapes and bruises he hadn’t been aware of. What would she have done if his injuries had been more serious? Although she preferred her status of an independent woman, she wasn’t stupid. It hadn’t escaped her attention that he’d been the one to get them out of there. If not for him, they’d be dead.

This brought her full circle to her original fear. What if he left her? Not that she could blame him. After all, he was just sticking around for her. She had no doubt he could walk into the nearest police station any time he felt like it and be well taken care of. He wouldn’t even see the inside of a cell. Not with him being royalty. The sole thing stopping him from doing just that was her.

The moment he no longer had her holding him back, he could get to safety. She had no doubt the guards had anything other than death in mind for them. They couldn’t. Not if they worked for some ruthless man who’d made it very clear it was either the guards or her and Tom. Even though it would be tough to deal with Tom walking out on her, it would be so much worse if he got killed.