So her best friend should be a little less amused and a little more empathetic, but whatever, she was there. Daisy closed the door, slid her arm through Gloria’s and pulled her close. Gloria held on tight, appreciating the simple comfort of having a best friend when she needed one.
“How’s the cowboy?”
Some best friend. “How’d you know?”
Daisy’s eyes twinkled. “The way you two were dirty dancing out there tonight? Uh, yeah, doesn’t take a genius.”
Gloria dropped to the big white couch in the sitting area of the suite. Weird how she’d been there only twelve hours earlier, in this exact place, laughing and toasting, never imagining she’d be back. The cowboy never even entering her mind. Well, that wasn’t quite true. He’d been annoying the hell out of her all day. Contradicting her, teasing her by calling her darlin’ and Red and other offensive pet names. He was the kind of macho man she despised and avoided.
Until tonight.
Daisy sat next to her and Gloria realized they were dressed exactly the same, both sporting the too-big hotel robes, but Daisy’s feet were bare, and her toes painted a pretty pink that matched the icing on the cupcakes that had served as Daisy’s wedding cake. Focusing on Daisy’s toes seemed like the only way to not focus on what just happened.
“Tell me...” Daisy said, patting Gloria’s knee. “Is the big cowboy...big all over?”
“Daisy!”
This time Daisy didn’t even bother covering up her laugh. “Honestly, Glo. What’s the problem?”
“I did not mean to sleep with him.”
“Hmm.” Daisy tilted her head to one side. “Kind of looked like you did.”
“I don’t like him.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I’ve disliked him from the moment I met him. Remember what a jerk he was at your fund-raiser last year?”
“Of course I remember the fund-raiser. I don’t remember him being a jerk. I thought he was sort of—”
“No.” Gloria held up a finger to stop Daisy. “He’s an ass. He may be Jamie’s cousin, but he’s an ass.”
Daisy’s brows drew together. “So, why’d you sleep with him?”
“I don’t know.” Gloria dropped her head to her hands. All she knew was that every time she thought of him she felt as if she was in a tiny, constricted space where there wasn’t enough air and she couldn’t move and she couldn’t breathe and she needed to get out of there as fast as she could.
They sat there for a few minutes, Daisy rubbing slow, comforting circles on Gloria’s back. “So,” she said eventually. “The sex was bad, huh?”
Gloria didn’t answer at first. “Well...”
Daisy’s hand stopped moving. “Does that mean the sex was good?”
“No. It was not good.” Gloria lifted her head to meet her friend’s gaze.
Liar!
Gloria’s body—the lower bits—quivered indecently at the thought of the sex. Dillon was certainly adept between the sheets. God, the man had owned her body yet took the time to give her pleasure, as well—more than once. It was too much. The way he made her feel so beautiful and desirable and good. The way he’d murmured wicked things in her ear...
“Glo?”
“Hmm?”
“How come you’re smiling?”
She wasn’t smiling. Absolutely not.
“You’re panting, too.”
The bedroom door opened and Daisy’s husband, Jamie, emerged, hair tousled, eyes squinty with sleep. “Wife, of less than twenty-four hours...what are you doing out here?” He rubbed his eyes. “Oh. Hi, Gloria.”
Gloria covered her face and moaned. It was one thing to be mortified in front of your best friend, quite another in front of her nearly naked new husband.
“Hon,” Daisy said sweetly. “Go put on some clothes.”
“I am wearing clothes.”
“Umm...you’re wearing underwear and they really don’t do a good job of covering up your husbandly junk.”
Mortification did not even begin to describe Gloria’s current situation. This was a mess, a royal-flipping mess, and if there was one thing she loathed above all else, it was a mess. Gloria pressed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets so hard that stars burst behind her closed lids. So much better than the alternative.
It wasn’t until she heard the bedroom door close that Gloria took her hands from her face and fell back against the couch again. “I’m sorry, Daisy. I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
“You’re obviously upset so why don’t you stay. You can sleep here on the couch.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. And if you need to borrow some clothes tomorrow morning, that’s totally fine.”
“I don’t mean to be crashing your honeymoon.”
“Oh, you’re not. We’ve already...” Daisy wiggled her brows “...honeymooned. Twice.”
“God.”
“Plus, we’re leaving for Maui tomorrow, so there’ll be plenty of...” Daisy made an obscene gesture that involved hip thrusts and pounding her fist against her hand.
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Lots of sex.”
“Lots of sex,” Daisy confirmed with the biggest grin ever.
Gloria sighed. Daisy was happy and Gloria was happy for Daisy. But she was a little bit sad for herself at the same time. Things were going to be different from now on. She was going to miss Daisy and the thought made her feel incredibly lonely.
Still not a good reason to sleep with someone, particularly one who just happened to evoke the panic attacks that you thought you’d licked a long time ago.
“Besides, you’d have done the same for me.” Daisy gave her a big hug. “But, what I don’t understand is, why not just go back to your room? Ask him to leave. It’s your room.”
Gazing directly into her best friend’s eyes, she said, “Because, around that man, I don’t trust myself to not make the same mistake all over again.”
* * *
DILLON HADN’T SLEPT so well in a long time. Nothing like a warm feminine form to wake up to after a night of hotter-than-hell sex. He reached for the feminine form in question, with a mind to wake her up properly, a little repeat of last night’s performance, but there was no one there. The bed was cold.
Huh.
He sat up, scratching an itchy spot on his jaw. Light peeked in around the drapes, revealing clothes strewn all over the floor: one sexy, black high-heeled shoe lying on the dresser, the other caught in the ice bucket. He grinned, remembering how he’d asked her to leave them on. Nothing hotter than a woman in lingerie and heels. Then he’d taken them off and chucked them over his shoulder.
Goddamn, the little redhead was a firecracker.
Now. Where was she?
Dillon pushed himself out of bed, groaning, his lower back stiffening up like it always did. Too many bulls, too many rides. He stretched side to side to work out the stiffness.
“Gloria?”
No answer.
Maybe she was in