“How are you feeling?”
“Not as bad as I apparently should feel,” I answered.
“I wondered how drunk you were.” He ran the back of his hand over my cheek causing me to blush. “Do you remember everything?”
“I remember you taking me back to your office for dancing with a guy. I remember taking shots after that.” I looked into his eyes. “It's all pretty fuzzy from there.”
“Are you serious?” He looked angry. “How much did you drink?”
“An amount that I'll never drink again.”
“I like that answer.” He carefully pulled my head into his chest and held me against him. “Let's go back to bed. We've only been asleep for a few hours.”
“Did we....” I couldn't ask the question.
“No, you fell asleep in my arms when I was carrying you up the steps. I put you to bed right after we came inside.”
“And changed my clothes?” I questioned.
“Yeah.”
“And nothing happened?” I asked again.
“No, nothing happened.” He pulled back and looked me in the eye. “Except one thing.”
“And what was that?” I was surprised I wasn't lighting up the room with the red glow from my cheeks.
“I saw your tattoo.” He chuckled and ran his hand down my side, over the ink.
“That's not fair.”
“Why's that?” I could feel his chest rumble each time he laughed.
“I still haven't seen yours yet.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. “So, it's not fair.”
“I guess we'll need to fix that sometime soon.”
“So you just took care of me all night?” I asked.
“Someone had to.” He laughed now, and we began to make our way back to his room. “Now let's sleep please. I'm too old for these crazy college hours.”
“How old are you?” I asked because I realized I had no clue.
“I'm twenty-six.”
“Oh yeah, you are an old man,” I teased. “I'll be sure and let you keep up with me from now on.”
“Trust me baby.” He pulled me into his arms. “Soon enough, you'll be the one trying to keep up.”
When I woke again, the bed was empty. I looked around the room and could see the sun peeking in from behind the dark blinds. The large bed took up most of the room, and the pillows smelled like leather and Luke. I needed to bottle that up so I could spray it every day.
Lifting my phone from the nightstand, I saw that is was past 2:00PM. Shit, I had slept most of the day. I placed my feet on the floor again and thankfully I felt steady. My head had cleared and most of the night was slowly starting to come back to me.
Luke had stopped me when we were leaving the bar and wanted to take me home. I talked to his sister. Had she said that he liked me? And then we came here.
“Hey.” He was standing in the doorway.
“Hey.” I turned to look at him.
“You feeling any better?” he asked as he came and knelt before me.
“Yeah, I was just wondering where my clothes were.” I let out a shy smile.
“I put them on the chair right here.” He pointed behind me, and I saw my clothes folded in a neat pile.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” I was tired of trying to analyze this.
“What do you mean?” Confusion swept over his handsome features.
“I mean just that.” I looked down at my hands. “Why are you being so nice to me now? You hardly know me.”
He slowly lifted his hand and pushed my hair behind my shoulder. “Look at me.”
I hesitated but lifted my eyes to meet his gaze once he ran his knuckles down my cheek.
“When you charged into that argument between me and Mel, I was furious. No one has ever stood up to me like that, especially a girl. Then you sat there that night as if nothing had happened. Then you came back again with your advertising gig. Every time I saw you, I knew I'd met my match.”
“So, you like me?” I was still confused. “Because sometimes you act like you hate the sight of me.”
“Yes, baby. I like you.” He let out a small laugh. “I'm kind of hoping you'll give me a chance to convince you to like me back.”
“Well, you'll have to be nicer to me if you want that to happen.” I laughed and ran my hands down his biceps. “No more tough guy act.”
“My tough guy act was lost the first time you walked into my bar.” He leaned his forehead against mine.
“Good.” I traced the tribal tattoo art that was painted around his forearm.
He sucked in his breath when I ran my fingertips across his wrist. I looked up to see his pupils were dilated, and he was watching my mouth. Without warning, his lips came crashing into mine, and his hand wrapped around the back of my neck.