After The Christmas Party…. Janice Lynn

really.” She wasn’t funny. She hadn’t been since…since Chase had broken her heart and she’d withdrawn into her shell, trying to protect her tender inside.

      Why had she done that? Why had she let him steal so much from her? Why was she still letting him steal so much of her life? For goodness’ sake, she had moved to a beach town because she’d assumed the locals wouldn’t put so much emphasis on a holiday associated with snow. Pathetic.

      “Fine, I’ll sing with you, but just to warn you, I’m an even better singer than I am dancer and we both know how I excel at that.” She stepped on his toes, hard, to prove her point.

      “My ears can hardly wait.” He grinned down at her. “Like I said, fun girl.”

       CHAPTER THREE

      TRINITY’S HEAD HURT. Not just a little. Her mouth felt as if something had crawled inside and died. Her stomach warned she might just upchuck.

      She rarely ever got full-blown, miserable sick, but this morning she just felt bleh. Thank goodness she wasn’t scheduled to go into work today, just to take call. Maybe she’d get lucky and her phone wouldn’t ring.

      Digging deeper beneath her covers, she groaned and snuggled up next to the warm body beside her.

       Warm body? Hello. There wasn’t supposed to be a warm body in her bed!

      “Good morning, sleeping beauty,” an unexpected voice broke into her haze.

      An unexpected and very male voice.

      A voice she immediately recognized, even though she’d only met him the night before. Why was he rambling on about sleeping beauty being a princess and her looking like one? Right. Because, like all fairy princesses, her hair and make-up remained perfect while she slept. Not.

      She twisted to look at him. “Riley.”

      “You were expecting someone else?” A lazy brow rose beneath sleep-tousled hair and he looked way too sexy for first thing in the morning. Apparently fairy princes really did remain perfect while sleeping.

      She was in bed. Her bed. Between the covers. With Riley. Her heart pounded against her ribcage. Not good. She scooted away from his warmth until she reached a cold spot on the sheet. Too bad half her butt was now hanging off the edge of the bed.

      “I wasn’t expecting anyone.” Her words came out half-croak, half-cry.

      Pulling the covers tighter around her, she tried to register the fact that she was in bed with Dr. Riley Williams. Even more confusing, she tried to remember how she’d gotten there. How he’d gotten there.

      “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here.”

      He shouldn’t. She barely knew him. She didn’t do one-nighters. Not ever. She didn’t do anything. Not before or after Chase.

      At her accusing tone, Riley’s grin slipped. “You asked me to stay.”

      That threw her. “I did?”

      “You did.” His confident tone and coolly assessing blue gaze brooked no denial.

      She’d asked him to stay. They were in her bed. Although her black dress was gone, as were her hose, she still wore her panties. But no bra.

      In bed with a sexy cardiologist with nothing on but her granny panties. Awesome.

      She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and asked the twenty-million dollar question that kept echoing through her throbbing head.

      “What did we do?” She sounded accusatory again, but she wasn’t able to control the rising panic within her.

      What had she done? She’d finally broken away from the chains that had bound her to Memphis, had moved to Pensacola to make a fresh start, and she’d ended up in bed with the first man she’d stood under mistletoe with? How could she?

      Christmas.

      It was the blasted holiday that wreaked havoc in her life. Always had. Always would. She really should go to some remote location every December and not come home until well after New Year. If only.

      Riley had the nerve to look offended. “You don’t remember last night? Our coming here? What we did after we got here?”

      “If I remembered, would I be asking?” Really, she’d thought him smarter than that. Or maybe she was just cranky because a thousand things were running through her mind and not one of them good. “Did we have sex?” she demanded, while her throat still worked because, seriously, the tissue threatened to swell shut any moment.

      From where Riley lay next to her, he stared, not saying anything at first, just watching, making her wish she could pull the covers over her head, making her wish her stomach didn’t churn.

      “I can assure you—” confidence and perhaps annoyance oozed from his words “—that had we had sex, you’d not only remember, you’d have woken up with a smile on your face and not that look of horror.”

      Face aflame, relief flooded her, as did curiosity because sex up to that point in her life hadn’t been that memorable. There had just been Chase but, still, she had been practically engaged to the man. Sadly, she had never woken up with a smile on her face. Quite the opposite. So maybe Riley thought she’d remember if they’d had sex, but maybe she wouldn’t have remembered. Maybe she just hadn’t been impressed and had blocked the experience from her mind.

      “You’re saying we didn’t, um, you know?”

      Cool amusement at her lack of ability to say the actual words shone in his eyes. “We didn’t have sexual intercourse last night, if that’s what you are attempting to ask.”

      No sexual intercourse. His tone mocked her question but, come on, they were in bed and she was only in her skivvies. Which meant that they had done something, right? The way he was looking at her said they’d done something. But what?

      Letting her gaze run over his face, his lips, the strong line of his jaw, his throat, his bare shoulders, his chest, his…She gulped. Had she touched him? Kissed him? Run her fingers over those broad shoulders? Those washboard abs? Had she seen him naked? Face afire, she glanced back up, met his gaze, and winced. He so knew what she was thinking and he liked it.

      An inferno burned her cheeks.

      “Riley, I…” She pulled the covers even tighter around her, holding on in case the material got a sudden urge to slip below her neck and put her chest and abs on display for his inspection. No washboard anywhere in sight at her midsection. More like a laundry basket. Taking a deep breath, she tried to pull her thoughts together and away from their bodies. “I don’t do this.”

      “This?” His face was unreadable, his eyes dark. She didn’t like the look and found herself wishing things were different. That she was different. That she could have woken up in bed with him and not freaked out but reveled in a night full of passion. That she really had woken up with a smile. That she could have been good enough that he could have woken up with a smile. That instead of lashing out at him with accusatory questions she could have teased him awake with kisses and had a morning full of passion.

      A morning she’d remember always.

      A morning he’d always remember.

      A morning that would leave them both exhausted and smiling.

      But that wasn’t her. She was a woman who disliked Christmas, disliked men, was terrible at sex, and although she’d come to Pensacola to forget her past, she could only handle confronting one hang-up at a time. She seriously had her work cut out for her even with that.

      “What is it that you don’t do?” Riley prompted when she failed to elaborate.

      Everything. She sighed, took a deep breath and went for broke.

      “Wake