“Morning, Erica.” He cut his eyes to the station manager. “Didn’t Carl tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Carl coughed. “Nick was in a car accident on the way home from the Pepsi Center last night. He’s going to be all right, but he’ll be out of commission for a while, so Adam is filling in.”
She turned to Adam again. For the first time she noticed that below the KROK T-shirt, he was wearing blue plaid pajama bottoms. A warm glow settled over her and she couldn’t hold back a smile. “That’s great! I mean, that’s really nice of you.”
“In the bed, both of you,” Carl said. “We’re almost ready to go live.”
They each turned back the covers and settled awkwardly on either side of the bed, careful not to touch. “You ready?” Adam asked.
She took a deep breath, immediately aware of the scent of his aftershave and the underlying aroma of him. Her stomach fluttered. “I guess so.” No way was she going to screw up this time. “Are you?”
Worry lines fanned out from his eyes, but he nodded. “I guess so. It’s been a while, but I think I remember how.”
She gasped. Wow, get the man in bed and he turned into a completely different person. “It’s been a while?”
“Yeah, I used to do a morning show in Carmel, but that was years ago. I hope my mouth still works in the morning.”
“Oh. Oh, I’m sure it will.” She pulled the covers up a little more, hoping he’d been too busy setting up the equipment to notice her grinning. It was all she could do not to pump her fist and shout out “Yes!” She couldn’t believe she was here. In bed. With Adam Hawkins.
She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he settled his earphones into place and adjusted the microphone. What had Bonnie said about taking advantage of every opportunity? Well here was a golden one to let Adam know exactly what she thought of him.
A lot could happen in three days, couldn’t it?
3
“THIS IS THE HAWK coming to you live from a king-size bed in the middle of Mattress Max’s Furniture Gallery.” Adam tried to get comfortable in the big bed, despite the distraction of the woman beside him. He nodded to her, her cue to get ready for her morning show debut. “With me is the ever-effervescent Erica.”
“Good morning, everyone.” Erica smiled into the mic, living up to the nickname he’d just saddled her with. Did she always look this good at a little after six in the morning? And since when had flannel been so sexy?
“We know you were expecting Naughty Nick,” she continued. “But unfortunately, he couldn’t be with us this morning.”
“Just as well,” Adam said. “I’m not into threesomes myself.” Aaargh. Where had that come from? This was not the time for sexual wordplay. “Seriously, folks, Nick was injured last night in a traffic accident on the way home from the Pepsi Center concert. The last report we had he’d just come out of surgery and was doing well. We wish him a speedy recovery.”
“That’s right, Nick. Get well soon.” Erica’s eyes lit with mischief. “Meanwhile, I’m going to do my best to make do with the Hawk here.”
“Make do? Woman, that is harsh. I’m wounded.” Was she really disappointed to be spending the next three days with him instead of Nick?
She laughed and sat cross-legged in the bed, her knee brushing his. “I don’t know. Are you really an early-morning kind of guy?”
You’d think in a king-size bed they could avoid contact. He moved over a little. “Every man is an early morning kind of guy. Didn’t you know that?” There he went with the double entendres again. Was it his years in rock radio, or merely the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about sex around her?
“And I thought Nick was going to be a handful.”
And just what did she think her hands were going to be full of? He dropped his voice to a seductive rumble. “Don’t think you’re up to spending three days in bed with me?”
The look she sent him made his temperature climb. “The question ought to be, is the Hawk ready to spend three days in bed with me?”
No. Yes. Would he really last three days? Considering the heat they’d generated in less than ten minutes he was liable to self-combust long before their seventy-five hour deadline was met.
He adjusted the microphone on his headset. “That sounded like a challenge to me, folks. Did it to you? Come on down to the Furniture Gallery and place your bets.”
“I think you mean make your donations.”
“You use your terminology, I’ll stick to mine.”
“However you put it, the bottom line is we’re here raising money for the Salvation Army’s new homeless shelter,” she said. “Stop by and add your cash or check to our collection bin. And while you’re at it, add your get-well wishes to the giant card we’ve posted for Nick.”
“For those of you still lazing around in your beds, here’s a little rock and roll to get you going.”
As the music started, Erica ripped off her headset and leaned back against the pillows. “How’d I do?” she asked.
“You sound like a pro.” And she looked almost too tempting, half-reclining in the bed, her hair spread out on the pillow behind her. He swallowed hard and looked away, attempting to focus on the few Furniture Gallery employees who’d started to gather. “I still can’t believe Carl agreed to this. How can anybody spend three days in a bed?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe under the right circumstances. With the right person.”
There was a definite seductive purr in her voice. Was he the right person she wouldn’t mind in her bed?
“We get to take breaks,” she said. “I mean, you can get up and walk around.”
“Right. To go to the john. I guess I ought to be grateful for that.”
She stretched her arms over her head, a movement that brought her breasts into sharper focus against the flannel. “Well, I’m going to find a way to have a good time with this. I mean, how many people get paid to basically have fun in bed?”
There his mind went again, reading more into her words than she probably meant. He could certainly think of a few ways to have fun with her in bed…. He tried looking away again, but his gaze insisted on wandering back to her. She was unbuttoning her top now. “What are you doing?” he asked, alarmed.
“It’s a lot warmer in here than I thought.” She stripped off the shirt and tossed it aside, revealing a red tank top underneath.
Only when his vision blurred did he realize he’d stopped breathing. He turned his back to her. “Can we get some coffee over here? And some ice water.” If all else failed, he could dump the water in his lap.
“That was Maroon 5 with ‘This Love,’” she said, right on cue. “If you’re on your way into work this morning, stop by and say hi. The Hawk and I are broadcasting from Mattress Max’s Furniture Gallery at East Six and Wadsworth.”
“If you bring us a donation this morning, we’ve got free T-shirts and CDs to give away.” Adam checked his clipboard and saw that it was time for a plug for Mattress Max. “And while you’re here, try out Max’s own line of Therapedic bedding—the most comfortable mattress you’ll find anywhere.”
“This one certainly is comfortable.” Erica bounced up and down and grinned at him.
He couldn’t help but notice that the mattress wasn’t the only thing bouncing, and almost forgot his lines. The engineer hissed in his earphones, reminding him to avoid the broadcasting sin of dead air.