Deciding that there was no point in hiding in her bathroom any longer, she closed her eyes, shook her head and prayed that he left without giving her that look that told her exactly what he thought about her. Knowing that it was better to just get this over with, she opened the door, stepped into her room and opened her mouth to thank him and give him the excuse that he needed to leave when she realized that she had more than two hundred pounds of muscle passed out on her bed.

Two hundred pounds of male muscle was on her bed, which she could honestly say was a first. That fact that he was large and muscular wasn’t really the big deal, but the fact that he was male, because at twenty-eight years old, she was very unhappily a virgin. It was something that she’d definitely never expected to happen to her and the one thing that she would give anything to change.

Regrettably, there weren’t a lot of men knocking down her door, begging to relieve her of her virginity. It wasn’t as though she’d never had a boyfriend, because she had. In middle school she’d started going steady with Patrick, a nerdy kid obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons and all things geek-like. They’d gone steady until their junior year of high school at which point he’d let her know that he really didn’t like her that way.

They’d hugged, kissed a few times and once or twice he’d held her hand over the years, but he was never outwardly affectionate to her or really acted like they were anything more than friends. At the time she’d told herself that he wasn’t really into girls yet and would rather spend Friday night playing Nintendo than taking her to a movie.

That’s what she told herself at least.

Reality hit her two days after he dumped her when she’d grudgingly allowed her grandfather to talk her into getting out of the house and seeing a movie. Apparently, Brenda, her best friend at the time, had the same talk with Patrick and had convinced him to take her to the movies where Necie discovered along with half the town that Patrick was very much into girls.

He just hadn’t been into her.

After that she’d dated men, who were nice, polite and just couldn’t force themselves to be interested in her. Not that she was really interested in them, because she really hadn’t been. They’d just been guys that she’d thought were nice, polite and would never treat her badly by cheating on her or ditching her so that they could go to a comic book convention.

They’d also been the kind of men who really weren’t interested in her, never tried anything with her and with every rejection made her feel like the most unwanted woman in the world. She’d never been in love with any of them, so they’d never had the chance to break her heart, but their rejection had still hurt each and every single time. It was nothing like the way Duncan hurt her when he ignored her or gave her that exasperated look of his that let her know exactly what he thought of her, which wasn’t very much.

Now she had the man that hated her, and that she wished that she could hate back, lying on her bed, curled up on his side, hugging one of her pillows. She wished that she could say that he looked so peaceful and boyish in his sleep, but he didn’t. He actually looked like he was in quite a bit of pain and that he was on the verge of waking up, crankier than ever before and taking his bad mood out on her with his glares and indifference.

It really wasn’t something that she wanted to stick around for.

So, with a sigh and a grumpy little mumble, because she really wasn’t looking forward to sleeping in her old room on that old twin bed that creaked whenever she so much as breathed, she walked to her door, opened it, nearly swore, cleared her throat uncomfortably, nodded at the large man that she loved more than anything sitting at the table, sipping his coffee as he narrowed his eyes on her. “Well, have a goodnight then,” she said absently with an awkward nod, stepped back, shut the door and locked it with a pained groan, because she knew there was no escape for her now.

Chapter 5

Friday, November 27

“Umm, I kind of need to get up,” he heard the little pain in the ass say, but he was too Goddamn comfortable to care.

“No,” he simply said, tightening his hold around the surprisingly comfortable woman and brought her closer, taking in her buttercream frosting and cookie scent as he snuggled her, loving the way that her large, warm bosom nestled his arm just right as he held her.

“I really have to go,” she said, giving his arm a little shove as she tried to wiggle her way to freedom, but he wasn’t ready to let her go yet.

So, with a little sigh of pleasure and a kiss to the top of her surprisingly soft hair, he mumbled, “Go to sleep, sweetheart,” seconds before he felt himself return to the most peaceful sleep of his life.

*-*-*-*

Okay, this was definitely awkward, she thought as she once against tried to wiggle her way to freedom, but apparently all those drills they had him run at the Fire Station had really paid off, because she couldn’t move an inch.

That was a problem.

For many reasons, one of them being the large man moving around in the kitchen, making coffee, who was no doubt waiting for her to leave her room so that he could spend the rest of the day tormenting her. The second reason of course being that she really wasn’t sure what to say or how to act around him anymore. Not that she ever really had, she reluctantly admitted to herself. He clearly had no idea whose bed he’d fallen asleep in last night and she really didn’t feel like being there when he figured it out.

Taking a deep breath, and admittedly sucking in her gut that one too many cupcakes and brownies may have contributed to, she slowly, oh so slowly started to wiggle her way out of…

Oh, my God! Did...did he just growl?

Yes, apparently he did, she realized, trying not to panic as his obscenely large arm tightened around her, holding her hostage and making her realize that there was a very good chance that he was going to keep her right where she was until he felt like waking up and letting her go.

That really just wasn’t going to work for her.