Carolina turned to him. “I’m so tired. I should probably head upstairs.”
“You probably should. From the looks of all those bags, you have a lot of wrapping to do.”
She laughed. “Yes, there’s that, too.”
“You had a good day?”
“It was great. I don’t get to spend a lot of time with my mom, so spending the day catching up with her was fun.”
“Good.”
“How was your day? What time did you get in?”
“A little before lunch. And my day was fine. I got to kick back with Gray and your dad. We played some pool and watched television. It was nice to relax, especially after a long stretch of games. Plus I got to catch up with Gray.”
“I’m glad you had that time together.”
“Speaking of your brother . . .”
She frowned. “What about Gray?”
“He doesn’t know about you and me. At least I haven’t said anything to him.”
“Well, he hasn’t heard about it from me. That would be . . . complicated.”
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking.”
“And really, what is there to tell? It’s not like we’re dating or anything. We’re just—”
He gave her a look. “Just what? Fucking?”
Her gaze shot to the stairs. “Drew.”
“I could take you out, you know. If you’d let me.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have time for a relationship.”
He let out a short laugh. “Isn’t that what we’re having? A relationship?”
“No. We’re doing exactly as you said.” She paused, then whispered—“Fucking.”
“Okay. Call it what you want. I just don’t want to complicate things by letting Gray know we’re doing whatever it is we’re doing.”
She nodded. “I agree. So you should probably keep your distance while you’re here.”
He didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. “So you want me to just hang out with Gray and ignore you.”
He could tell she didn’t like it anymore than he did, which made him feel at least a little better.
“I guess that’s probably a good idea.”
He stood. “Done.”
“Where are you going?”
“To bed. I’m tired.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“You want me to help you upstairs with your bags?”
“No. I’ve got them.” She got up, grabbed her boots and shoved them under her arm, then started wrangling all the shopping bags.
No way was she going to make it in one trip.
He grabbed the majority of them.
“Lead the way. I’ll follow.”
“All right.” She headed up the stairs, Drew a couple steps behind, which gave him a stellar view of her butt encased in those very tight jeans.
Ignore her, huh? Yeah, like that was going to be possible if she kept wearing jeans that looked like they’d been sewn on her ass. His dick twitched just thinking about the other night when he’d had her bent over, his cock sliding in and out of her hot, wet *.
And then he went fully hard.
Shit. He swallowed and counted the number of steps up to the second floor, hoping his erection would be gone by then.
No such luck, because Carolina had a natural sway to her hips that made him groan.
She gave him a look over her shoulder. “Are you okay back there?”
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth.
“It’s just down the hall here.” She’d dropped her voice to a whisper, no doubt not to disturb anyone.
She opened the door to her room and flipped on the lights. It was spacious, with a big bed he could already imagine seeing her naked on.
Which wasn’t helping his pounding dick. He needed to erase those thoughts.
He laid the bags down. “Nice room. Has this one always been yours?”
“Yes. And thanks. Is your room okay?”
“It’s fine. I don’t need much, and my room here is plenty big enough.”
“I’m glad. Which one did they put you in?”
He leaned against the wall. “Why? Thinking of paying me a midnight visit?”
She rushed over and pulled him inside, then shut the door. “Why don’t you broadcast to the entire family? I thought we agreed we were going to be discreet?”
“Yeah, well, that was before you walked ahead of me up the stairs. He palmed his dick through his jeans, and Carolina’s gaze went right there, which only made him rub his erection more.
“Drew.” Her tone was a warning, but she looked torn herself.
“I can’t help it, Lina. You make me hard.”
She shuddered out a breath. “We can’t do this.”
But she didn’t back away, and she didn’t open the door for him to leave.
“Okay. We can’t do this.”
He waited. And she came closer.
“Drew.”
He slid his fingers in her hair. “Yeah.”