Unexpected by Lori Foster

again.
    Ray could hear Eli’s strained reassurances. Deciding that she’d gotten into enough mischief for the night, she started down the hall. Just as she reached her room, she heard the front door close. She stepped inside and quietly closed her door, leaning back against it. Eli’s footsteps sounded softly on the carpeting, then stopped outside her door. Ray held her breath.
    â€œGood night, Ray,” she heard him whisper, his tone laced with amusement. Then he went on to his room.
    Ray turned out the light and crawled into her bed. She curled into a ball on her side and tucked her hands beneath her cheek. Her thoughts were jumbled and confused. She wasn’t certain what to make of her feelings because it had been so long since she’d felt anything like them. She was appalled that this could happen, that she would let it happen, but she had.
    For the first time in a very long time, she was interested in a man. She actually felt desire.
    What rotten timing.

Chapter Three
    E li was already up and dressed when Ray came into the kitchen the next morning. It was early, only six o’clock, and the sun had just begun to rise. Ray yawned as she sauntered in and casually seated herself at the table.
    She still wore that damned provocative shirt, but now she had on loose matching shorts, too.
    It didn’t help.
    The army green, mannish getup should have looked ridiculous. It didn’t. With her trim healthy body, a burlap sack would be sexy.
    â€œCoffee?” His voice emerged as a low rumble. He’d awakened with thoughts of Ray on his mind, which had caused his morning erection to linger. Now, with her here in the flesh looking sleepy and tender, his dominant male instincts surged.
    â€œYeah, that’d be terrific.” She yawned again. Assuming he’d serve her, assuming he could ignore the provocative way she dressed, she lounged back in her chair.
    Her legs were sleek with muscles, smooth and straight. Her shoulders were toned, proud. She showed a lot of skin and all of it looked creamy enough to kiss. When she’d first appeared last night, he’d been hit with such a wave of lust it had almost staggered him.
    Throughout the long night, his thoughts had centered on her, and when he had managed to sleep, he’d dreamed of her. Restlessness had driven him from his bed nearly an hour ago.
    He handed Ray the coffee, then settled himself across from her. Unwilling to alarm her or put her on guard, he tried to be casual, too, but damn, he’d never known a woman so completely comfortable in her own skin.
    Her short, midnight hair stuck out at very odd angles, and her eyes were alert but puffy from sleep, the lids heavy. Her cheeks were flushed, one of them bearing a small crease from her pillow. She obviously hadn’t suffered the same distractions he had.
    He propped his head up on an elbow and smiled at her. “You don’t look like you could take on a rescue right now.”
    Sipping the hot coffee, she peeked at him over the rim of the cup and shrugged. “It isn’t necessary that I do any rescuing right now, is it?”
    â€œAnd when it is necessary?” he asked, doing his best to keep his gaze on her face rather than the sleep-warmed skin of her upper breasts, revealed by the low neck of the undershirt.
    She paused in the middle of a drink, then gulped down a good portion before plunking the mug onto the tabletop. “What’s the matter, Eli, getting cold feet? Your fiancée convince you I wasn’t right for the job?”
    Her comment gave him the perfect opportunity to clear up at least one misunderstanding. She’d run off to bed last night, taking away his chance then. Which was maybe a good thing, because the way he’d felt last night, he’d have ended up kissing her before she reached her room, and Ray being Ray, she might have crippled him for it.
    â€œContrary to what Jane might say, she’s not my fiancée. She