Chapter 8

When Red awoke, she didn't know how much time had gone by, but she knew the quilt had slid off her shoulders and she was chilly. The fire had been reduced to embers. The room was nearly completely dark. "Sh*t…Sh*t!"

She yanked on the quilt, got a bit more out from beneath Charlie's prone body, and then began when she heard his voice.

"Um—Daisy? Are you awake?"

She was unsure. "Hmmm yes..."

He rolled over and shifted his weight so they could cover themselves with the blanket while sleeping on the faux fur rug.

"Good. Are you okay?" Charlie inquired. She could sense the trepidation in his voice.

"I'm fine; how about you?"

In response, an arm wrapped around her waist and drew her close against him.

"What do you think?" he said quietly. He was aroused again, hard and eager, she realised.

She kissed him after searching for his face in the darkness. He replied. She discovered that because they'd been so prepared previously, it took a lot less playtime to get both of them ready. Even though she was sore, she knew she'd allow him inside her again when he reached between her legs and began to caress her.

Red was taken aback as he moved onto his back, the quilt still draped over them, and situated her over his rigid erection.

She sank down onto him again, and once more it was easier; there was no discomfort as he entered her, then totally filled her. Nothing except ecstasy, waves and waves of it, as he began to move beneath her and she followed his cadence.

She couldn't see his face in the darkness, but she didn't need to. She'd never forget Charlie or what he'd done for her tonight. He had no idea who she was and had not treated her like a fragile little porcelain doll that should be kept in a closet. He'd treated her — and was still treating her—as though she were a lady. She'd been desperate for this for a long time. It felt so natural.

She moved against him with complete abandon. She was at home with her body as a dancer, but this man matched her move for move. He was an excellent sexual partner. His fingers dug into the sides of her body as he raised his hands to her waist. Finally, they slid lower, so that both his thumbs skimmed the ground and finally touched her in the most sensitive region.

"Come for me," he said quietly. His remarks enraged her even more.

"Come for me; I want to see you come."

He pressed harder, as if he already knew what she wanted and needed. When she arrived, she flung back her head and said, "Yes!"

He then threw her onto her back and hammered into her, seeking his own fulfilment. She clung to him by wrapping her legs around his waist. She didn't believe he could go much further, but he stepped back and looped her legs over his shoulders before continuing to move. She knew she was going deeper with him, and it felt fantastic.

Then he got his release, and she followed him at the same time. And she didn't even feel him pressing down on her once it was all done because she had wrapped her arms around his neck and thought she couldn't possibly leave something this fantastic.

In the morning, she'd tell Charlie the truth.

He shifted his weight away from her, and she nestled up against his massive, warm body. The man appeared to be radiating heat. And when his powerful arm wrapped around her waist and beneath her breasts, tucking himself in behind her like two small spoons in a kitchen drawer, Red fell asleep with a happy grin on her face.

She was going to tell him. After a night like this, she'd be a fool not to.

*****

It took Red a few seconds to realise where she was when she awoke the next morning. Her eyes didn't appear to want to close properly, and her lashes were clumped together with thick mascara.

She rubbed them with her fingers, then blinked them open, her vision blurring as a speck of mascara flaked into one eye. It watered, and she blinked. The first thing she focused on in the early morning winter sunlight streaming in the room window was her mask on the coffee table by the leather couch.

A mask...

The events of the previous night didn't come back to her until she glanced over and saw Charlie asleep, his forearm thrown over his eyes, his chest impressively bare and hard-muscled, sprinkled with dark hair. The puffy down quilt that had been over both of them had migrated down to where it barely covered his hips.

Red blinked, fixed her gaze on Charlie, and remembered... It's all there. In painstaking detail.

Hell!

She blinked once more.

The nuptials. Today. Oh my goodness. "f*ck!"

She needed to flee. She needed to get out of this place before Charlie awoke and began asking her questions about which she had no answers.

Hell! What was she thinking?

She wasn't the kind to throw caution to the wind, at least not sexually. Red had the impression Charlie was not the type of man whose usual friends were as inexperienced as she was.

As she'd always been. Prior to yesterday night. Before Charlie entered her existence.

Red looked around, then went for her red satin underwear. Red knew she couldn't blame Charlie for what had transpired between them as she slid into them and located her bra. He'd always been a gentleman. She'd been the one who'd dared him, then double-dared him later that night, and then...

She bit her lip to keep the moan from escaping, tightened her bra, and grabbed for her boots.

Oh, and there's one more thing. What happened to my clothes?

Out with the other guys in the family room.

She could only pray that they were all asleep.

She was about to stand with her second boot zipped up when Charlie stretched, said something, then turned towards her and softly held her upper arm with his hand.

"Daisy..." he grumbled.

He has no idea what my true name is.

This disturbed her for some reason. She was never going to see him again after Mary's wedding. Red knew she'd never admit to having wild sex with him. But it disturbed her that she'd never hear that sultry, smokey voice call her by her given name. For a split second, she felt terrible about her dishonesty.

"Charlie," she said quietly.

She leaned down and, on a sudden impulse, kissed his cheek, then those lips, those lips that had done such wild, sexy things to her last night.

He smiled such a sweetly satisfied, masculine smile that her heart threatened to turn over in her chest.

"Daisy," he whispered again. "Don't leave yet...."

Then he drifted off to sleep.

Well. This chapter of her life was over. The wedding, the reception, then a quick hop, skip, and jump to the airport, and she'd never see Charlie again.

Red paused, discovering that leaving this man was more difficult than she had anticipated. She was realising that she was just terrible at one-night encounters. She didn't like the next morning. They'd been so close, and now she had to say goodbye.

In the next heartbeat, her sanity returned.

He believes you are a stripper. For God's sake, you were a textbook one-night stand. It's not like Charlie is providing you with the white picket fence, two-car garage and two point five children, though I've never understood that point five when it comes to a child...

She bit her lip as she peered at him, trying to remember his figure, hair, and face.

Those fingers...

She couldn't believe how agitated she felt.

That sound...

That voice in the dark had been otherworldly.

She saw the black hair on his chest and how it thinned down his muscular abs to where...

The man had been amazing in every way.

She was unable to move.

Get started! The sane voice in her brain yelled

Go to him. Tell him and we had something extraordinary here, said another voice, a little fainter and less certain of itself.

Perhaps he doesn't, the first voice argued. And a guy who made love to you like that last night has had plenty of practice. Consider that.

Yeah, there's that. And the fact that I've never done anything this crazy before.

Right. So get out!

But... but...

She was going to jolt Charlie awake with her hand on his shoulder when she recalled Mary.

Damn it! The wedding day... You were spying on her soon-to-be spouse. If the truth comes out, there will be no wedding.

Mary would be the great loser in this situation. She couldn't do that to her closest friend, not with her entire future and happiness on the line.

Red was sparked into action by Mary's thoughts. She rose to her feet as gently as she could and tiptoed out of the room. Standing in the doorway, she gave Charlie one final long glance before closing the door silently behind her and sprinting down the corridor in her red satin knickers and thigh-high boots.