Page 8 of Can't Win 'Em All
Little memories flashed as I rubbed my eyes to swipe away the morning crusties. My false eyelashes were coming off, which meant I hadn’t taken the time to remove my makeup the night before. That was just great. My facialist was going to give me hell when she saw me in a few hours. I’d thought ahead and booked that appointment. The only thing worse than feeling thirty-five after a night of drinking was looking it.
I remembered laughing. There had been a lot of laughing during the walk. Who had I been laughing with, though? I remembered losing a shoe at some point and somebody had carried me. Somebody big … and strong. The laugh that kept whipping through my mind was familiar. Since I wasn’t firing on all cylinders, however, I had trouble putting a face with the laugh.
That meant I had to steel myself and open my eyes again. The light would hurt but not knowing who I was in bed with—did I need to call security?—was something I couldn’t handle. It took two full seconds for my vision to clear enough for me to register the big presence in the bed. My heartbeat picked up a notch when I recognized him.
Apparently, I didn’t have to call security. They were already here.
“Rex.” His name was a strangled gasp as I took in his shirtless form. He was on his back, one hand thrown over his head, his chest rising and falling as he happily snored away. I’d seen him shirtless before of course—he liked to flex when he was down at the pool on his days off—but it was somehow different seeing him shirtless in my bed.
He had eight abs. I’d seen that in movies of course—who hadn’t?—but seeing them in my bed was something I had trouble wrapping my head around. His skin was a pretty olive color, only a few moles offsetting the smoothness. When I got to the bicep thrown over his head, I had to marvel at his definition even though he wasn’t flexing. Then I realized he had no hair in his armpit.
“Do you shave your armpits?” I asked before thinking.
He hadn’t woken when I gasped his name. I’d spoken the question so loudly, his eyes snapped open, however. “What?” There was a fuzziness to his expression as he regarded me. He acted as if he were still dreaming because he smiled, the real world a distant memory.
I waited for the realization to slowly dawn on him. When he rocketed to a sitting position, he almost jostled me right off the bed.
“Hey!” I glared at him as I clutched the sheet to my chest. I didn’t have to look to know that I was naked. That was my normal way of sleeping. The abnormal part of this morning was the fact that he was in my bed.
“Sorry!” Rex grabbed my shoulders to stabilize me, his gaze searching. “Um…” His tongue split his lips. “Just out of curiosity, did we…?” He didn’t finish out the question.
“Are you kidding me?” He had to be joking.
“I’m just checking.” Panic had his nostrils flaring.
My heart continued to threaten to beat out of my chest. All I could think was that we’d made a terrible mistake. Obviously, Rex was right there with me.
“Ruby,” he said after a few seconds of unmitigated terror.
“Yes, Rex.” My tone was steadier than I anticipated. One of us had to hold it together. It obviously wasn’t going to be Rex.
“What happened?” he asked.
He sounded so frightened that my stance softened. He didn’t remember it. I barely remembered it. Only flashes and shreds of memories had managed to push through the hangover fog. That was probably for the best.
Except, well, those flashes and shreds involved a lot of panting … and tongues … and way too much groaning. How was I ever going to get those noises out of my head?
Wait…I was supposed to be focusing on something else, right?
I forced myself to be calm as I regarded him. “I believe you insisted on walking me home last night,” I started.
“The others wanted to stay,” he replied dully. The fog in his mind was clearly starting to lift. “We were drunk.”
“You were definitely drunk,” I agreed.
That earned a smirk. “I’m pretty sure we were drunk together.” His hand landed on my bare back. He finally seemed to realize I was naked because he jerked his hand away as if he’d been scorched. “Crap.”
Under different circumstances, I might have laughed. If Rex was a family friend who I wasn’t tangentially related to, this would’ve been funny. The fact that his sister was married to my brother made things exponentially more difficult, however.
“This is … unbelievable,” I muttered, dropping my face to the top of my knees, which I was holding in front of me under the covers.
“It really is,” Rex agreed. “I just saw your butt crack.”
Unconvinced he’d said what I thought he’d said, I slid my eyes to him. “What?”
“You’re not wearing underwear.”
It almost sounded as if he was accusing me. “Um … neither are you.”
