Her gaze moved up to meet his once again. “Gorgeous.”
Leon hadn’t expected such bluntness. But he should have. Carla had been outspoken and honest to the point of insult from the moment they first met.
Which meant she was being honest now too?
Leon didn’t doubt the attraction between the two of them. That had also been apparent when they first met, and that same frisson of awareness zinged between them again every time they were in the same room. Aware of Leon’s interest, most women of his acquaintance would have played hard to get in the belief it would pique his interest more. He should have known Carla wouldn’t even attempt to play those types of games.
He lifted one eyebrow. “Gorgeous enough to share that bed with you tonight? Only share the bed with you,” he clarified as her eyes widened. “I have every intention of staying in this room with you tonight anyway, and I’ve already had enough of sitting on that uncomfortable chair.”
Carla frowned as an image flashed inside her head. The return of her memories? She certainly hoped so. “I remember you were covered in blood earlier…”
“Your blood, yes.”
“There goes the deposit on your wedding outfit!”
“It wasn’t hired,” he drawled.
Carla should have known that. Any more than Matteo’s suit had been hired, or any of the Steele brothers’.
Hiring the wedding regalia was what normal people did for weddings, and this was just another reminder that all these men came from a different financial background than she did. If she had needed one. Which she hadn’t.
“You… Oh God, I don’t remember the shooting at all, but I do remember I was violently ill earlier.” She gave a self-conscious groan. “Please tell me it wasn’t all over you and that’s why you had to take a shower?”
“I took a shower because my daughter told me I needed one,” Leon reassured with a grimace. “But we did have to move to another bedroom.” He’d made sure it was another one of the rooms with a king-size bed rather than two singles.
Carla lifted her hands to cover the blush in her cheeks. “How embarrassing!”
Leon gave another grin. “The doc and I cleaned you up. But as first dates go, this has been pretty memorable.”
“It wasn’t a date,” she defended. “We just happened to be at the same wedding.”
“Anyway, the doc said you were sick because you had a reaction to the morphine he’d given you for the pain. He’s changed it to something oral and less…unacceptable to your system.” The doctor had made the change under threat of having some morphine injected into him somewhere he really wouldn’t like it.
Leon had been too furious at the time to be reasoned with. Carla was already in enough discomfort without adding to it.
So far, the morphine replacement hadn’t caused the same violent physical reaction in Carla, and she didn’t seem to be in too much pain either.
“That’s good.” She was still a little red in the face.
She also hadn’t answered his question. “Do I get to share the bed or not?”
Carla deliberately gave the question some thought. “That depends on whether or not the towel is coming off,” she challenged.
“This towel?” Leon pulled it from about his waist and dropped it onto the carpet.
Oh. My. God.
Carla couldn’t stop staring at a completely naked Leon—and she’d been right, there were no tan lines.
Not only was Leon naked beneath the towel, but his cock was also erect and fully engorged as it jutted up to his navel from a nest of trimmed salt-and-pepper curls.
In response to her?
She really hoped so.
She also hoped that was as big as his cock got, because it had to be at least eight inches long and almost as thick around as her wrist, with a thick and pulsing vein running along its length. Heavy balls hung beneath it.
She might be twenty-five, but her experience with men was still limited. It was comprised of just two lovers.
One brief night had been with a guy when she was eighteen. At the time, she’d thought, as her friends were all doing it, she should punch that pesky V card too. She’d had plenty of time since to regret giving it to a man she hadn’t wanted to see again after that night.
Then five years later, Benny came into her life. He had been light-hearted and fun, and the man she had thought she was going to marry, before he’d totally betrayed what she had considered to be the commitment of their engagement.
Those mistakes aside, neither of those men had a cock anywhere near as long or thick—and beautiful—as Leon’s.
“Carla?” he prompted gruffly, still leaving it to her to decide whether he joined her in bed or not.
Chapter Six
Carla steadily held Leon’s gaze as she turned back the duvet beside her.
An invitation Leon didn’t hesitate to accept as he slid beneath that cover and lay down beside her. Once settled, he lifted up the arm nearest to her. “No sex,” he reiterated. “Tonight, I just want to hold you close and know that you’re safe.”
Carla’s heart was thundering loudly as she scooted across the small distance that separated them and put her head against the silky warmth of his shoulder. Her arm automatically draped itself across the muscled hardness of his abdomen.
“Better.” Leon gave a sigh of satisfaction as he settled back against the pillows with her held securely at his side. “Will you be able to sleep like this?”
Would she?
Leon had stated quite clearly that they weren’t having sex.
The night she lost her virginity had been a single time of clumsy passion which had become even more awkward once the deed was done.
So no cuddles there.
Her ex-fiancé hadn’t been much of a cuddler either.
Benny was more of a “wham-bam, thank-you, ma’am” kind of guy. Except he usually rolled over in the bed and went to sleep after sex, and without saying the thank-you!
Just cuddling in bed with a man was a totally new concept to Carla. Not an
