Jill Shalvis - Get a Clue

"Roll 'em up."

Spoken like a man who'd probably never given his appearance a single thought. And why should he-she'd seen him naked. He had nothing to hide, not a damn thing.

"Hurry up," he said, and for a split beat his gaze dropped, running over her body. Specifically, her nipples, which could surely cut glass. "You're turning blue." He straightened and took a step toward her, maybe even to do it for her, and suddenly hurrying seemed like a good idea. She pulled the sweatshirt over her head; then, with her arms still up, she paused. Holy smoke, the inside of his sweatshirt smelled good, like… like rough-and-tumble man. She stood there and inhaled some more, thinking they ought to bottle this smell-

"You okay in there?"

She yanked the sweatshirt into place. "Fine. Just got stuck for a minute."

"Uh-huh." His expression said he knew exactly what she'd been doing, but he sat on the floor without a word and pulled on socks, then running shoes, making her realize she wasn't the only one freezing.

And yet he'd seen to her comfort first. That did something she hadn't expected-it tugged at her.

Whoa. Stop the lust train. Had she already forgotten? No more men. Not even tall, built, bossy ones with an oddly thoughtful nature. Especially not even tall, built, bossy ones with an oddly thoughtful nature!

His hair, fawnlike with its myriad colors, stuck straight up in spots. Probably because she'd gotten him out of the shower and he hadn't had time to so much as comb it. His shoulders were still bare, and wide enough to withstand a lot, she'd bet.

He covered them up with a T-shirt he pulled from the bag, and then added a thick black sweater that looked deliriously soft and warm. "Better," he sighed, then leveled his eyes on her. The firelight gleamed over his chiseled features, reflecting in his eyes. There was so much intensity there. And heat. Looking at her like that, he seemed impossibly handsome, and far too sexy for her own fragile frame of mind.

"Change your pants," he said, and turning his back, jammed his hands in his pockets. "Hustle."

His sexiness forgotten, she shook her head even though he couldn't see her. "I'm not going to change right here."

"You're going to go somewhere else to do it? Into the dark house and maybe an even darker bathroom? You with your phobia of the dark?"

Damn. Good point. "Okay, but don't peek."

"Because you didn't peek at me?"

Did he always have to be right? "What about Dante?"

With a long-suffering sigh, Cooper moved around the couch to the huge double doors that led to the hallway and foyer. Shutting them, he turned back to face her, waggling his finger in a circle as if to say, Go ahead.

Brcanne crossed her arms tighter over herself and shifted her weight from one frozen foot to the other. "Why can't you be on the other side of the door?"

"So you can lock me out and away from the flames? Don't think so."

Another good point.

"You're stalling, Princess."

Princess? She'd show him princess! If she could move without trembling like a baby, that is. Since she couldn't, she just stood there in a rare moment of indecision, feeling oddly close to tears.

"Just do it," he said, sounding tired. "This place is supposed to be some sort of exclusive hideaway, famed for its privacy." Pushing away from the doors, he came close again, but then turned and faced the fire, holding out his hands to the flames. "Plus, I don't think Dante's exactly eager to have us demanding to know what the hell happened, booking two guests at the same time. He's probably in hiding."

Maybe. Another shiver shook her body. Her jaw was sore from all the chattering her teeth were doing inside her head, and she felt so weary she could have curled up into a tiny ball in front of the fire and slept for the rest of the week.

"You done yet?"

"No."

"Jesus. Just do it, would you?"

She reached for the zipper on her jeans. "You always this patient?"

"It's a special gift."

"Betcha it gets you a lot of women."

"Yeah, they're beating down my door."

In direct conflict with those confident, cocky words, he hunched his shoulders, stretching the sweater taut across the muscles there as he stared into the fire.

She didn't have the time, nor could she spare the energy, to wonder about him, but she did. "Are you married?"

A rather harsh laugh escaped him. "No."

"Committed?"

"No."

With or without the attitude, she imagined he did have women beating down his door. It was all that disheveled hair calling to a woman's fingertips, that come-sin-with-me expression, those drown-in-me blue eyes.

And then there was the rest of him, which would have a weaker woman begging him for a distraction from this cold.

But she wasn't weak, and she had enough problems at the moment. She didn't need to be courting more. Hitching his oversized sweatshirt up to her chin to see, she reached for the zipper on her jeans, trying like hell not to inhale the delicious scent of the soft material again. Eyeing him carefully, she began to peel the wet jeans off her hips, not an easy chore because they'd practically iced themselves to her skin. She had to do the shimmy shake, and finally, finally got them to her knees, stopping to adjust her wayward panties.

Cooper turned around.

"Hey!" she squealed, crossing her hands over her tiny scrap of white satin-worn for the rat bastard Dean.

Cooper ran his gaze from her undoubtedly wild hair to his own sweatshirt stuffed up to her chin, exposing her belly button piercing and the panties that hadn't been meant to cover much, and didn't. "I figured fair's fair," he said very softly.

Literally caught with her pants down, Breanne stood frozen to the spot, unable to move or even breathe. In that horrible beat of time she became painfully aware of how she must look, sweatshirt high, pants at her knees, her barely there bikini bottoms askance…

Cooper's deep blue eyes sparked, flamed, and the oddest thing happened to her. In spite of everything, a little ball of heat swirled low in her belly.

She had to be delirious. From the cold. From exhaustion. From her life sucking big-time. Awkwardly she hopped again, trying to pull her jeans back up, but they weren't going anywhere. Then she made one too many hops and caught her boot heel on the hem of the jeans. Waving her arms wildly, she struggled for balance.

Cooper merely stepped forward and caught her.

Fine. He could help her and she could die of mortification later.

But he didn't help. He put a hand to the middle of her chest and gave her a little push, making her fall gracelessly to the couch. Once again, the pink vibrator hit the floor and rolled to a stop at his feet.

They both stared at it for one beat before Breanne tried to bounce back up.

“Stay ," he commanded.

Oh, no. Hell, no. She scissored her legs, meaning to kick him, either in the chin or the nads, she didn't care; she was going to take him down. Now.

But he just laughed low in his throat, and then again when she struggled to karate-chop him with her legs caught together by her own jeans. Laughed, as he crouched beside her, a big hand on either of her thighs and said, "Give in, Princess."