"I did not. You were all over me."
"In your dreams." He gave the paddleball an extra-hard slap. She cocked her head. "If you break a window with that thing, I'm reporting you to my landlord."
He caught the ball, gazed at what he could see of her bottom, and ran his thumb along the curve of the paddle. "The strangest idea just came into my head." The high ceiling fan ruffled his hair. Once again, he slapped the paddle against his palm. "I'd tell you about it, but it'd only make you mad."
Sex hung in the air between them as explosive as the evening's fireworks. Regardless of who had initiated their kiss, something had irrevocably shifted between them, and they both knew it.
So much for playing games. Although nothing was more repugnant to her than becoming another of Ted Beaudine's sexual conquests, the idea of making him one of her sexual conquests was worth pondering. "You can have any woman in this town. Probably in the whole state. Leave me alone."
"Why?"
"What do you mean, why? Because you've treated me like crap ever since I got here."
"Wrong. I was perfectly nice to you at the rehearsal dinner. I didn't start treating you like crap until after Lucy ran off."
"Which wasn't my fault. Admit it."
"I don't want to. I might have to blame myself, and who needs that?"
"You do. Although, to be fair, Lucy should have figured it out before things went so far."
He gave the paddleball a couple of whacks. "What else have you got on your grievance list?"
"You forced me to go work for Birdie Kittle."
He dropped the paddle on the brown chair, as if the temptation to use it was becoming too strong to resist. "It kept you out of jail, didn't it?"
"And you made sure I was paid less than the other maids."
He played dumb. "I don't remember that."
She nursed all the injustices. "That day at the inn, when I was cleaning . . . You stood in the doorway and watched me nearly kill myself trying to turn that mattress."
He grinned. "I have to admit, that was entertaining."
"Then, after lugging your bag of clubs for eighteen holes, you gave me a one-dollar tip."
She shouldn't have brought that up because he still held a grudge. "Three holes you cost me. And don't think I haven't noticed that all my new head covers are missing."
"You were my best friend's fiancé! And if that's not good enough, don't forget that I basically hate you."
He hit her full force with those golden brown eyes. "You basically like me, too. Not your fault. It just happened."
"I'm going to make it un-happen."
His voice turned to smoke. "Now why would you want to do that when we're both more than ready to take the next step? Which I highly recommend we do naked."
She swallowed. "I'm sure you'd like that, but maybe I'm not ready." Coyness wasn't her strong suit, and he looked disappointed in her for making the attempt. She threw up her hands. "Okay, so I'll admit I'm curious. Big deal. We both know what that leads to. Dead cat."
He smiled. "Or one hell of a lot of fun."
She hated that she was seriously thinking about going ahead with this. "I'm not seriously thinking about going ahead with this," she said, "but if I were, I'd have a ton of conditions."
"Such as?"
"This would only be about sex-no cute pet names, no nighttime confidences. No"-she wrinkled her nose at the idea-"friendship."
"We already have a kind of friendship."
"Only in your twisted mind because you can't stand the idea that you're not friends with everybody on the planet."
"I don't see what's wrong with that."
"It's impossible, that's what's wrong with it. If this went any further, you could never tell anybody about us. I mean it. Wynette is the gossip capital of the world, and I have enough trouble on my plate. We'd have to sneak around. In public, you'd need to keep on pretending to hate me."
His eyes narrowed. "I can handle that easy."
"And don't even think of using me to discourage Sunny Skipjack."
"Subject to discussion. That woman scares the hell out of me."
"She doesn't scare you at all. You just don't want to deal with her."
"Is that all?"
"No. I'd need to talk to Lucy first."
That caught him by surprise. "Why would you have to do that?"
"A question that once again proves how little you know me."
He reached in his pocket, pulled out his cell, and tossed it to her. "Go for it."