Back in the Bedroom by Jill Shalvis Page B

to the phone, as if Eddie could hear him.
    “I’m just glad you were there. She’s one of my favorite employees.”
    If that wasn’t a load of crap. They both knew damn well that as long as the employees were female, they were all Eddie’s favorites.
    “Call me. You know my cell.”
    Reilly closed his eyes. He meant to drift off, he’d long ago taught himself to clear his mind and sleep at will.
    Only today his mind wouldn’t clear and sleep evaded him.
    Instead, he pictured mossy wet eyes and lips that tasted like heaven—when they were kissing him, that is, and not talking.

6
    T ESSA WENT HOME to her little apartment, trying not to think. She didn’t want to remember facing those burglars and she didn’t want to remember meeting Reilly. And she really didn’t want to remember what she’d done with him, because to have lusted like that so quickly, so…fiery, was just damn uncomfortable in the light of day.
    Being just outside downtown Los Angeles, she had a lovely view of the city line, complete with smog to the south and the Angeles Crest Mountains to the north.
    She parked beneath the carport and felt smug about getting a covered spot—normally she was forced to park in the blazing hot sun. But normally she wasn’t coming home at ten in the morning on a Saturday either.
    She got out of her VW but instead of seeing her place, she saw Eddie’s. She remembered how Reilly had looked standing outside the house, his dark hair gleaming beneath the sunrise, his face not giving away much of anything. He’d stood there with easy confidence and a relaxed air, even though she knew damn well he wasn’t relaxed.
    They hadn’t said goodbye.
    Her building was red brick with white trim, and being mid-spring, the small yard was out in full bloom. Since her sister, Carolyn, who was in charge of the landscaping for the place, hadn’t yet mowed, Tessa sank in up to her ankles as she crossed the small lawn to her front door. Two-B, home sweet home, where there were no nasty-tempered burglars, no guns, no small gray cots and no tall, dark and wildly magnificent strangers who kissed so well she lost brain cells every time she thought about it.
    She sighed and fished through her purse for her keys. Everything seemed so normal here, so quiet, it was hard to believe what the last twenty-four hours had held.
    Her sister popped out of apartment One-B so fast Tessa dropped her keys.
    “So did you forget my phone number?” Carolyn asked very politely, tossing back her long, dark-blond hair.
    Oh boy, the queen of the Delacantro household was ticked. “No, I didn’t forget your phone number.”
    Eyes that matched her own flashed at her and Tessa sighed. Carolyn thought of Tessa as her little chick, and she really hated it when her little chick didn’t toe the line. “Then maybe you got swept off your feet by a wild hunk of a man who held you prisoner all night long,” she suggested. “Maybe that’s why you didn’t call me to join you at your boss’s fancy house.”
    A half-hysterical laugh bubbled out of Tessa. “You know, that’s just close enough to the truth to be scary. Except—” She opened her apartment door, not surprised when her sister followed her inside.
    Her sister always came in uninvited, ate her ice cream uninvited, felt obligated to tell Tessa she was wrong on a regular basis uninvited…and Tessa loved her anyway.
    She tossed her purse and keys into the wicker basket on the floor where she put everything she didn’t want to lose, sank to her couch, and sighed in pleasure. God, it felt like it’d been a year since she’d been home.
    “Except…what?” her sister asked.
    “Well, while he was a rather wild hunk, he didn’t hold me prisoner all night long. Four other guys did that.”
    Carolyn laughed.
    Tessa didn’t.
    And slowly Carolyn’s smile faded. She eyed Tessa’s sundress, a bit dusty from her crawl through Eddie’s attic. “You wore that yesterday.”
    “Yep.”
    “You never repeat