“I do, too,” he said.
“We should get some rest,” he said. “Investigating the house now will cast suspicion that we can’t afford.”
“The cop ran your license.” That was tricky. “We’ll have to be even more careful moving forward now that there’s a record of us being here.”
“That was bad luck.”
A shower and sleep sounded like heaven right now. Carys checked the location of the hotel. “We’re not far.”
Blaize walked her to the passenger side and then opened the door. “For what it’s worth, you’re the bravest person I know.”
She highly doubted that. Didn’t the man have a mirror? Talk about bravery. She couldn’t imagine holding your loved one’s hand as they slowly slipped away from you. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.”
“I wasn’t fishing for a compliment.” He hesitated. “I get the sense you’re uncomfortable with being told how great you are. And how beautiful you are.”
She really blushed now.
“As long as you’re around me, I hope you’ll get used to hearing it.”
Blaize wasn’t making it any easiernotto fall for him. He needed to stop before she asked for another kiss—a kiss that was forbidden. Not to mention they’d agreed kissing would be a bad idea.
“We should get going,” she managed to say through a throat suddenly as dry as Texas soil in August. “I need a shower and a bed.”
He hesitated, looked like he was about to say something else, then closed her door and walked around the front of the Jeep wearing the sexiest smirk. He shook his head before claiming the driver’s seat and didn’t say a word to her on the way to the hotel or when they checked in.
The standard room had one bed—king size, a desk, and a comfy-looking chair with a reading lamp positioned behind it. The bed looked more like a cloud and was plenty large enough for the two of them to sleep without touching each other. Blaize could take up two-thirds, and there would still be plenty of room left for her.
“You take the shower first,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“Go ahead. Take your time.”
Carys carried her overnight bag into the bathroom. The bag made her think of home. The feeling someone had been inside her house returned as she set it down on the counter, stripped, and then eased into the shower.
What was up with the feeling and why did she feel off?
Carys almost laughed out loud. The answer came quickly. Everything. Rue turned her life upside down in a heartbeat.
No regrets.
She’d made a promise to herself a long time ago when she first moved away from her father and to college. Whatever mistakes she made from then on belonged to her and no one else. She would no longer have her father to blame if life wasn’t going the way she’d hoped it would. She would no longer have a failsafe to offer a soft landing. And she would no longer have an excuse to be unhappy.
From then on, she’d decided, her mistakes were just going to be part of the tapestry of her life. More importantly, they would behers. And she was okay with that.
Which meant no regrets.
Did the same apply about Blaize? Or could she ask him for a kiss tonight after all?
Chapter Sixteen
Blaize didn’t need the naked image of Carys in the shower with beads of water rolling down her silky skin stamped in his thoughts. It had been a long day. They needed rest. That was probably the reason his emotions took the wheel, defied logic, and refused to stop thinking about her.
The best way to stop thinking about someone was with a good workout. His muscles were stiff from all the sitting on the drive to Austin. Then there’d been driving around Austin. They’d walked a little and run a bit—not nearly enough movement to fulfill his body’s needs.
The water cut off. He shouldered his backpack.
When the bathroom door opened and Carys walked out, he realized how unprepared he was to see her in pajama shorts and a soft cotton T-shirt. The thin material hinted at revealing her full breasts.
