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He cleared his throat and made himself turn to face her. “I didn’t correct her at first, and then it seemed too weird to bring it up. I didn’t know what to say.”
“You slept with her and never told her your real name?”
“I wasn’t planning on seeing her at all! And then we…then we agreed that it would be a no-strings-attached thing. That we’d never see each other again, so I told myself it didn’t matter.”
Now she pressed a hand to her forehead. “Oh, no.”
“Yeah.”
“She found out.”
“Yeah.”
Her green eyes widened in dismay. “Oh, Eric. That’s just…terrible.”
“I know. I tried to apologize, to explain. But she was pretty pissed.”
“Pissed?” Tessa echoed. “She probably feels awful!”
“I wish I could go back and change it, but I can’t. At the time, it didn’t seem to matter much.”
“That’s ridiculous. Why didn’t you tell her your name? You must’ve had a reason!”
Yeah, he’d had a reason, but he wasn’t going to tell Tessa about it. The first moment he’d seen Beth Cantrell, he’d wanted her. And that was before he’d realized who she was. The manager of a sex store. The curvy, gorgeous, sophisticated manager of an erotic boutique. She’d been way outside the boundary of his world. And then…she hadn’t been.
She’d liked him. She’d been interested. Part of that interest had been Jamie’s reputation as a man who was willing to play the game. And Eric had thought… Hell, Eric had thought he deserved to have the kind of fun his irresponsible brother had every day of the week.
He’d figured his brother’s reputation was so wicked that one brief encounter wouldn’t matter to anyone. But Jamie now claimed that the majority of his reputation was exaggeration, that he had hardly dated at all in the past few years.
Eric rubbed a hand over the tension in his neck. “I don’t know. Every second I waited seemed to make it more significant. Suddenly, instead of a mix-up, it was a cover-up.”
Tessa put her hands on her hips and glared. “Then you shouldn’t have slept with her.”
“Right.” But that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. Beth Cantrell was a fantasy. His fantasy, anyway.
“By the way, since when do you have one-night stands?”
His face flashed to a blush. “I…”
“Is that why you never seem to date? Because you just pick up strangers all the time?”
“No! Good God, Tessa. You should go…wash your mouth out or something. No, I don’t sleep with strangers all the time. Which should explain why I screwed it up.”
“You need to go talk to her.”
“I already apologized.”
“I know, but she must feel like an idiot, Eric. Because of you.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “It’s not a good idea. We were never supposed to see each other again.”
“Well, that sounds a little over the top. Is she the daughter of your sworn enemy or something?”
Eric managed a smile. “It’s not like that. She’s nice.” Actually, he had no idea if Beth was nice. She’d seemed nice during the few times he’d spoken to her. But what they’d done together hadn’t been nice. It had been wicked.
And really, really nice. His shoulders slumped. “So I should talk to her?”
Tessa shrugged. “All I know is, I’d be feeling pretty freaked out if it were me. She probably thinks you’re a serial killer now.”
