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I hear his subtext. Keeping our focus on something besides our sexy-as-fuck coworker will be the real problem.
“What do you think happened between Kate and her ex?” he asks.
“It’s none of our business. Drop it.”
“I won’t unless she asks me to, point-blank.” He shrugs. “I can’t.”
Shaking my head, I sigh. When Josh gets a notion into his head, there’s no dissuading him. “Goddamn it.”
“C’mon,” he coaxes. “What’s your best guess?”
As much as I’ve tried to avoid wondering, I’m admittedly curious. “Honestly? I have no idea.”
“She doesn’t seem like the type to cheat.”
“She’s not.” My gut tells me that.
“She’s clearly not a drinker.”
I shake my head. “That wasn’t the problem.”
Josh sighs as he starts to unpack his suitcase. “There’s nothing obvious.”
“Except the fact he hurt her.”
“Yes. That’s abundantly clear.”
And Josh sounds pissed. I am, too. I don’t know what happened or what role Kate played, but I wouldn’t mind meeting Derrick in a dark alley and giving him some payback for whatever pain he caused her.
I slip into the bathroom to put on a pair of shorts and brush my teeth. Hopefully, when I emerge again, Josh will find a new subject.
The second I reenter the room, he squashes that hope. “Unless she opens up to us, we can only speculate.”
“Seriously, dude. It’s not smart for us to get involved with her personally. We work together and this project is important.”
Josh rolls his eyes at me. “You can’t tell me that if she knocked on our door right now and either wanted to confide in you or fuck you that you wouldn’t be all over her.”
Damn him for being right. “I don’t see either of those things happening, so forget it.”
“Maybe she married too young? She’s midtwenties and already divorced, so maybe—”
Suddenly, there’s a knock on our door. I frown at Josh. He looks back at me with a shrug and heads across the room. I really hope it’s the hotel sucking up for their snafu by sending room service or some similar explanation.
Instead, Josh yanks the door open and steps back almost instantly, frowning. “Come in. What’s wrong?”
The concern in his voice tells me it’s Kate.
Fuck.
Seconds later, she scurries inside, wearing a too-short, soft gray cotton nightgown that hugs her curves. Sheer lace trims the V-neck and plays peekaboo with her cleavage—clearly not infringed by a bra. And holy shit, she’s wrapped her arms around her middle as if she’s trying to protect herself while clutching her purse in her fist. Does she have any idea she’s pushing up the swells of her tits?
Then I realize she’s afraid and shaking.
I swallow down my lust and cross the room to her. “What happened?”
She jerks toward me with a gasp. Then her stare wanders from my face to my bare chest and glues itself to my pecs before she whips her gaze away. “You’ll laugh.”
“We won’t,” Josh assures, dropping a solicitous hand to the small of her back. “Tell us.”
