made no effort to hide his appreciation of what he was seeing. The thick remnants of sleep gave his voice a husky quality. “Well…well…well…little Jessica McGuire. You’ve certainly grown up since I last saw you.”
“Dylan?” Her mouth fell open as the full shock of his identity hit her. “Dylan Russell? Is that really you?”
“In the flesh.” He peeked beneath the blanket that still covered the lower portion of his body, then shot her a decidedly wicked grin. “And I do mean literally in the flesh.”
The heat of embarrassment spread across Jessica’s face. She prided herself on being a self-sufficient, responsible woman who worked hard and maintained a stable life. Waking up to find a naked man in her bed certainly was not part of that life. She attempted to cover her thinly clad body by holding the rest of her clothes in front of her. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she detected a chuckle coming from his direction. A jab of irritation poked at her followed by disgust. He certainly didn’t seem to have any concerns about his state of undress or the fact that he’d woken up to find a woman in bed with him. It was almost as if he was enjoying her discomfort.
She tried to bring some composure to the moment, but could not quell her annoyance or keep it out of her voice. “You seem to find this situation amusing.”
He laughed—the type of sexy laugh that could immediately heat any woman’s desires while melting her resolve. “Don’t you?”
“No, I don’t find it amusing…or charming or cute. How did you get here? There wasn’t any car outside when I arrived. How did you get in the cabin? The door was locked.”
“All questions easily answered.” He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. “You apparently didn’t try to put your car in the garage, otherwise you would have seen my car.”
“No, I parked as close to the front door as possible so I wouldn’t have to run through the rain between the garage and the cabin. But that doesn’t explain how you got inside.”
“I have a key.”
“A key?” As mature, adult and blasé as she tried to be, she couldn’t hide her surprise or confusion. “Where did you get a key?”
“Justin gave it to me when he said I could use the cabin for a couple of weeks.”
Her tenuous control over the situation began slipping away…assuming she had ever possessed any control over what was happening. Bewilderment replaced confidence as she became less sure of her ground. “Justin offered you the use of our cabin? He didn’t say anything to me about it.”
An uncomfortable shiver washed across her skin. Dylan seemed to be studying her. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe that’s because he thought you were going to be in New York for three weeks.”
“Oh…right.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “New York.” He was correct. New York was exactly where she was supposed to be, not at a mountain cabin on the other side of the country. In fact, it was where she had been until the previous morning when she caught a flight back to Seattle after her work project had been postponed.
She pulled her composure together and reasserted her control. “I suggest we put this conversation on hold for a little while. I need to get dressed and you need to get out of my bed…uh, my bedroom…since it’s obvious that you can’t continue to stay here.”
He eyed her curiously, making no effort to retrieve any clothes. In fact, he snuggled more comfortably into the bed and pulled the blankets up across his chest. “And why not?”
“Why not?” Had she heard him correctly? Was he actually questioning her decision? “I thought that would have been obvious. Because I’m not in New York and you’re in my bed—that’s why not.”
“I took the first bedroom I came to.”
“This one is mine. The other one is Justin’s.”
He adopted a businesslike attitude. “You’re right. We do need to put this conversation on hold for a while—” he flashed her a teasing grin “—at least until I’ve had some coffee.” He started to lean across the bed and grab his jeans from the arm of the chair, then paused as he glanced in her direction. “Would you mind turning your back so I can put on my pants…or do you prefer to just stand there clutching your clothes in front of you?”
“It’s my bedroom…you’re the one who should…I mean…” She saw the expression dart across his face, the one that said he was about to pull back the covers and get out of bed. “I didn’t mean—”
The heat of embarrassment burned across her cheeks. She whirled around and hurried out the door, her clothes clutched tightly against her body. The amused chuckle followed her down the stairs and into the bathroom. She closed out the sound by shutting the bathroom door.
Jessica pulled back the shower curtain, sat on the edge of the bathtub and closed her eyes. She did not know whether to be angry at his intrusion or amused by his audacity. Her annoyance surfaced. He had certainly gone out of his way to embarrass her. And this wasn’t the first time, either. Her thoughts drifted back to the time when she was sixteen years old.
Justin had brought Dylan home with him during a school break. Unlike the previous year when the awkward fifteen-year-old Jessica had developed a huge crush on Dylan and had tried all weekend without success to get his attention, the sixteen-year-old Jessica had basked in his attentiveness. Dylan had played cards with her, talked to her and then asked her if she wanted to go out to lunch. He had even bought her a stuffed bear to add to her collection. Obviously, he liked her very much, hopefully as much as she liked him.
She had dressed in her most sophisticated outfit, put on extra makeup and did her hair up on top of her head, all to show him she was mature enough to date a twenty-year-old college man. But when it came time for lunch, she had been devastated to find that it was not the date she’d thought it would be. It was a group lunch of nearly a dozen people and she was the only one who had dressed up. The worst part was that Dylan had brought a date with him.
She had been humiliated and embarrassed. She had never forgotten the incident, even though, in retrospect, she realized he had done nothing to lead her on and was only being polite in trying to include her with the group. She had heard what she’d wanted to hear rather than what Dylan had actually said or meant, but it had still been an emotionally traumatic incident that she had never forgotten.
But that was ancient history. She was now a mature, intelligent woman of thirty-one, not the type to be easily swayed by a handsome man with thick, dark hair, emerald-green eyes, a dazzling smile…and danger written all over him.
She pursed her lips and wrinkled her brow into a slight scowl. From what her brother had told her of Dylan Russell’s lifestyle, finding a woman in his bed was certainly not an unusual occurrence. Her scowl turned to contemplation. What was Dylan Russell doing there? He was not the type of man who would hide away in an isolated mountain cabin and certainly not without the benefit of feminine companionship. Everything she had ever heard about him said he was a charming rogue, a personable scoundrel who drifted from one quick-buck deal to another and one bed to another, without any roots, commitments or responsibilities.
Her contemplation turned to confusion. He was a globe-trotting playboy who would surely feel more comfortable in a luxury resort with a hot tub and room service. So what was he doing by himself in her cabin? Then another thought struck her. Could he be expecting someone to meet
