Walk of Shame (26 page)

Too many late nights.
That
was my only thought when the alarm went off that cloudy Tuesday morning. It was
drizzling, and the sound of it hitting the windows was part of this morning's
conspiracy to keep me buried among the fluffy blankets and pillows on my bed. I
was too snuggly to get out and jog, run, or whatever other form of morning
torture awaited me.

I reset my alarm for an hour
later and rolled over. I drifted in and out, for what might have been fifteen
minutes, before there was a knock on my door.

I opened an eye and glared at the
door to the hallway, wondering if it were possible that my eyes could
spontaneously turn into laser beams and zap whoever was on the other side of
it. But then the there was another knock and I realized that it wasn't coming
from the hall door.

I rolled over and smiled. I
smiled because I knew it wasn't Troy coming to bother me. Another knock sounded,
and then whichever guy it was tried the unlocked door. He slid the glass door
open and then brushed the sheer curtain aside. "Emma?"

"You know, you're lucky I
figured it was you," I told Mike as he stepped inside. "If I wasn't
in a gated compound, I'd have bum-rushed you when you opened the door and
flipped you backwards over the railing."

"That's what you get for
leaving your door unlocked."

"But if I'd locked it, I
would have had to get out of bed to let you in."

"Poor baby."

"I know. And this way, I
didn't have to move."

"You're not even going to
ask me how I got up onto the balcony?"

"I know how you did it. You're
Spiderman."

"Oh, come on."

"You climb mountains and
it's a real stone facade out there. Not to mention there's a retaining wall
with flowerbeds out there to help you part of the way. I could scale the wall,
if I wanted to."

"You're getting harder and harder
to impress."

"Running out of
material?"

"I'll think of
something."

I smiled.

"Up," he said.

"No," I responded,
slightly whiney.

"Yes."

"It's all dark and gloomy
out there, and it's so warm and snuggly in here."

"Up."

"Come snuggle with me,"
I offered.

He was thinking about it, hard.

"You know you don't want to
go back out there and run in the gray gloom. You know you want to climb under
here with me. Come on."

"Are you naked under
there?"

"Not with the way Troy
barges in some mornings."

"Damn," he teased, and
took off his sneakers before climbing in with me. "What's in the package
on the dresser?"

I looked over at it. "I
don't know. I didn't even see it sitting there yesterday."

He got up and got it, bringing it
back to bed with him. "I thought maybe you were mailing something out for
work."

"No," I said as I took
hold of it. "It's from Chloe." I frowned as I tore off the brown
paper wrapping. I hadn't been expecting anything from her. I opened the brown
box and looked inside. I'm pretty sure I turned at least three shades of red
before I burst out laughing.

Mike snatched the box out of my
hands, and a small wresting match ensued as I tried to get it back before he
could look inside. I lost. He fended me off as he peered inside to find the
king of all personal vibrators. "Damn," he said. "That's a big
boy."

I flopped backwards onto the
mattress and giggled so hard my sides threatened to hurt.

"Do I want to know why she
sent you a playmate?"

I laughed harder. "Probably
not."

He relaxed back into the bed and
gathered me closer. "I gotta know the story now. You can't laugh like that
and then not tell me."

"I was explaining my
situation to her. I think she figured this would help."

He gave the package a dubious
look. "Is that what the winner is supposed to measure up to? Because, I
gotta tell you, that ain't going to happen with any of us."

That brought out a whole new fit
of giggles. "I told her that certain guys... get me a little... revved up.
And that I can't really... do much of anything about it," I said, trying
not to have my entire face flush with embarrassment.

His face was trying to fight
against a smile. It wasn't working. "Can't you just... take care of it
yourself?"

"Yeah, no. It's not
working."

"You've been single for a
while. Don't you already have one of your own?"

"Sure. But I wasn't going to
bring it in here for production to see."

His smile turned wicked as he
pulled me closer and buried his face in my neck, teasing my skin as his lips
traveled up and down the length. Then he brushed his lips over my earlobe.
"Do I get you revved up?" he asked.

A breath and a noise of
helplessness escaped me as I took his face in my hands and planted my lips on
his. I held and waited, wanting to see if he'd push me away, still refusing to
take this step with me.

He let out a soft groan, reached
down and took off the artificial leg, letting it get lost in the blankets at
the foot of the bed, wrapped his arms around me, pulling me flush against him,
and took over the kiss.

Oh. My. God.
Sparks, heat,
freaking lava flows are what we had together. My hands wound themselves around
to his back, caressing up and down the length of play in his muscles as he
rolled me under him. My hands, of their own volition, pulled his shirt up and
over his head.

His hands moved up and down my
arms, cupped my face, then ran down my back to cup my rear. I moaned, he
squeezed. His mouth tore away from mine and delved into the neckline of my
t-shirt.

I groaned and rolled him over
onto his back, straddling him just above the hips. I attacked his neck and
chest as his hands rose under my shirt to massage my back. I flicked my tongue
over his nipple a few times and he yanked my shirt up and over my head, tossing
it to the floor.

He scooted me down to straddle
his thighs and sat up, taking one of my nipples into his mouth. My head fell
back and one of his hands cupped my other breast as his other hand reached
around me to gather a fistful of the hair that draped my back.

I moaned with longing and he
pushed me onto my back, settling himself against me.

I wanted him.

"Kick me out of the
room," he said.

"I can't do it, I can't do
it, I can't do it," I chanted under my breath.

"You can't do what?" he
asked in a harsh whisper. "You can't kick me out, or you can't do
this?" he asked as he ground himself against my core through our clothing.

I let out a mournful little
whine. "I can't do this," I whispered.

"So you're kicking me
out?"

"I don't want to do that,
either."

"You're that torn?" he
asked with a grin.

"Yes."

He kissed me on the forehead.
"Good," he said before he reached down, retrieved the artifice, made
quick work of putting it on, and stood to pick up his shirt.

"Good?"

"Yep." He put the shirt
on and tossed Chloe's package onto the bed next to me.

"Mike!"

"What? Now you can think of
me while you use that. Hurry up, before Troy gets here." And then he
freaking winked at me before leaving the room, going downstairs to leave through
the front door.

I contemplated the package for a
moment before letting out a frustrated sigh and shoving it under the bed. I
went to take a cold shower and get my day started.

Troy and an MA were waiting for
me when I came back out of the bathroom.

"Just a head's up,"
Troy said. "There's video footage of Mike walking back up the path as we
approached the cottage."

My eyes flew to his. "Well,
I guess that'll just have to be okay, won't it?"

"I guess so," he said
with a teasing smile. "At least none of the other guys will see footage of
it until the show actually airs."

"Mike and I work out a lot
of mornings. It shouldn't be a big deal."

"Yes, but we don't start
filming until after I start walking to your door. So now the only footage they
have is of Mike leaving your house first thing in the morning, as far as the
viewers are concerned."

"So...?"

"So, it'll come up in the next
series of interview questions, and the viewers can't know you're spending time
with these guys off-camera."

"So don't use the
footage."

He shook his head. "They'll
use it just to stir up controversy."

"They'll know he stole time
with me, even though there's no footage of him actually with me."

"Yes, but what exactly did
you two do with your stolen time? That's what the viewers will be
speculating."

I made a face
and directed my attention to getting ready for my date of the day.

I went over to the main house,
just after lunchtime. "Good afternoon, gentlemen," I said as I
entered the living room.

Smiles lit up all around the
room.

I stepped forward and placed the
bowl I was carrying onto the coffee table. Production had assembled the five of
them and told them I was coming over with a surprise. "There's a twist
this week, guys. Before, I've tried to match a guy up with a date. The problem
is I've ended up pigeonholing everybody. Therefore, today, I have a date in mind,
but I'm leaving it up to the bowl to determine who gets it. Everyone has their
name on a piece of paper. We'll choose one as the winner."

"You haven't chosen the two
getting one-on-ones this week?" Mike asked, incredulous.

"And have people make
assumptions as to why I've chosen certain ones to be first in getting a second
one-on-one? No, I'm leaving it up to chance." I didn't mention that in
terms of stolen time combined with actual dating time, only one of them
deserved a one-on-one.

"Well, can you at least tell
us where you're going, since who's going is a surprise to us all?" Jared
asked.

"Sure," I answered.
"We're going to Crafted. It's like Etsy, but in real life. All kinds of
crafters have set up stands with their wares. It's totally a me kind of thing
to do. I create with words, and I enjoy seeing other's creations just as
much."

"Sound's cool," Stephen
said.

"All right," Phillip
said as he clapped his hands together. "Let's pick it and see who gets the
easy, casual-dress date. Because I'm sure the rest of us will be tortured for
the rest of the week."

I laughed and gestured at the
bowl. "Who wants to do the honors?"

Liam looked around at the others
before reaching out to pull the name. He unfolded the paper, sighed, and said,
"Stephen."

"Oh, yeah," Stephen
said. He looked over to me, "I'm ready to go now."

I nodded and turned to leave the
room, but Stephen stopped me. "On second thought, give me a moment to talk
to someone in production." He took off through the sliding glass doors and
headed for the trailers.

"Well, hell," I said as
I stared after him.

"What's the matter?"
Liam asked.

"I think I just lost control
of this date."

"I'd cut him some
slack," Phillip said.

"Yeah," Jared agreed.
"He just found out this morning that he's the only one who's never gotten
any stolen time."

"Oh, jeez," I said.

"Yeah," Mike said.
"He spotted me coming through the brush on the path and stormed into the
kitchen to tell the others."

"Oh, my God," I said
with a chuckle.

"That's when I said that
Jared and I stole an evening," Phillip said. "And then Liam mentioned
trips to the hot tub. And Mike told us about the movie."

I smiled. "Trevor liked to
steal midnight swims before Liam started showing up."

"Now he's pissed that he's
been following the rules this whole time," Jared said with a smart-assed
smile.

"He's the one that got extra
one-on-one time early on when I snuck over to this pool. Did he figure that I
was the only one allowed to make up their own rules?" I asked.

"I think so," Jared
answered.

"I'm not going to get to go
to the craft place, am I?"

"I'm sure that if you don't,
you'll find a way to steal another date this week," Phillip said with a
wink. "You'll go one way or another."

"All right," Stephen
said as he breezed back into the room, "let's go see your craft store,
then there's been a change in our dinner plans." He took my hand and led
me out of the house.

"It's not just a craft store,"
I said as we approached the car door.

"Whatever you say." He
opened the door and gestured for me to get in.

I waited until he'd shut my door,
walked around to the other side, and got in before saying anything else.
"Is this your take-charge side?"

His smile was rueful. "I
wouldn't want you to think I didn't have one. Something like that might only
get me invited for 'one more go around'."

"Are you going to disagree
that we started out strong, but then we've fizzled in the last couple
weeks?"

"Well, no, but if I would
have known I was the only one following the rules, we could have been simmering
behind the scenes."

"You're not the only one who
was following the rules. You're just the only one left who was." I stopped
talking when he tossed me a look. I think he and I were both wondering, again,
what the hell it said about me that I was slowly narrowing my choices down to rule-breakers
only.

"At any rate, we'll go see
the crafters and talk about other people's expressions of creativity, if that
gets you all excited." He flashed me a wicked grin. "But afterwards,
I'm going to show you what gets me all excited."

I burst out in laughter. "I
can't wait to see this," I said, and meant it.

The crafts were amazing, and if
I'd had a full-sized home to decorate, I would have walked away having
purchased a few pieces. But, as it was every time I visited a place like this,
I had to settle for looking and not touching.