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  senses while I was asleep.”

  “Well, we can’t have that now, can we? Coming to your senses is one kind of coming I don’t want you to experience while you’re with me.”

  At a complete loss for words, she bit her lip to stifle a nervous giggle. After the intimacy they’d shared the night before, she was surprised she felt shy in his presence.

  “You aren’t the only who will be walking funny today,” he said.

  Her gaze darted to his ass. “Are you sore back there?”

  He chuckled. “Nah. You took it real easy on me. I’m just trying to make you blush some more.”

  Owen selected a strawberry from a bowl of fresh fruit and crawled up her body until their noses were inches apart.

  “Taste,” he said, and he rubbed the strawberry over her lower lip. Her mouth watered, but she was pretty sure it was from being so close to him, not the anticipation of food.

  Caitlyn bit into the fruit and got lost in his eyes. Such blue, blue eyes. The dark rims around the irises made them look even more striking. She chewed slowly, her pulse thrumming in her throat. She swallowed, still unable to pull her gaze from his.

  “Taste,” he said, and leaned forward to kiss her.

  His mouth tasted minty. Caitlyn’s practical sense abandoned her once again as he deepened the kiss and reminded her why she’d not only had sex with him, but spent the entire night pressed against his hard, warm body. He drew away slightly, and her eyelids fluttered open. Transfixed, she gazed into his eyes.

  “Do you have a preference?” he asked.

  “Huh?”

  “In taste?”

  “Oh.” Her face grew warm again. “It seems I’ve lost my senses again.”

  “Good.” He fed her another bite of strawberry.

  “And since you asked,” she said around the piece of fruit in her mouth, “I much prefer your taste.”

  He reached for the food cart again and flicked something just under her nose. “Even more than bacon?”

  She laughed and bit into the piece of crisp bacon. “Is there anything that tastes better than bacon?” she said with her mouth full. Her self-consciousness waned a bit with each passing moment. He had an uncanny ability to drive her to distraction in one breath and soothe her in the next.

  He took a bite of bacon and winked at her. “I’m sure there’s something in this bed that’s more appetizing, but bacon hits the spot at the moment.”

  He fed her samples of everything he’d ordered from the menu—which appeared to be every item they offered—and he tasted each as well.

  “So you have a brother,” she said, deciding he might be more open to prying questions on a full stomach. “Do you have other siblings?”

  He shook his head. “Nope, just the one brother. I have dozens of cousins though. What about you? Do you have siblings?”

  A familiar knot formed in her throat. The problem with asking him prying questions was that he was likely to reciprocate. “I had a sister. She died in an accident.”

  “Oh,” he said flatly. “Sorry. Were you close?”

  “Not really,” she admitted. “I’m not sure if that makes it easier or more difficult. I wish I’d spent more time with her.”

  “Regrets can eat you alive.”

  “Regret. Like your band,” she said. “Why the name Sole Regret?”

  “Kelly named the band. There’s always one thing in your life you wish you could undo more than any other. Your sole regret. You know, Kelly is actually a very deep person.”

  “You admire him.”

  “If you start bringing up that little slip involving his name last night, I’m going to toss you out in the hallway. Naked.”

  Little slip? But if he didn’t want to confront his issues with Kellen, she wasn’t going to push him into it. She wasn’t particularly keen on being ousted from Owen’s place of admiration by his friend.

  “You wouldn’t dare,” she said.

  “You sure about that?”

  The ornery twinkle in his eye kicked her heart rate up a notch because she was sure he would dare. Before she could respond, he leapt from the bed and lifted her off the mattress.

  “Wait! What are you doing?” she asked as he started to carry her toward the door.

  “I never back down from a dare. I probably should have mentioned that before you baited me.”

  “Owen, don’t you dare.” She realized she’d used the word again and wrapped her arms around his head. “Owen! Please.”

  “Please, what?”

  “Please don’t toss me into the hallway naked.”

  “What happened to your sense of adventure, Caitlyn?”

  “That’s not adventure, that’s horror.”

  “Not from my end,” he said. He lowered her to her feet near the door, and she backed up against the cool surface in case he got the bright idea to open it and try to push her through.

  His gaze shifted over her body, and she flushed, fighting the urge to cover herself. He really did seem to like what he saw.

  “Now that I think about it,” he said, “I wouldn’t want anyone else to see you naked; I’d like to keep this gorgeous view all to myself. I could look at you all day.”

  “Likewise.”

  A loud song blared from the far side of the room. Owen’s face lit up with a wide smile. “My brother!”

  He dashed across the room and reached for his phone. His ring tone was some loud song. Probably a Sole Regret one.

  “Chad!” Owen greeted his caller with the biggest grin Caitlyn had ever witnessed. “What’s up, bro?”

  Caitlyn shuffled into the bathroom. She could use a potty break and a shower. And she would hate to intrude upon something as sacred as a conversation with his brother. She was, after all, just Owen’s current one-night stand.

  Chapter Nine

  Owen’s favorite older brother—his only one—smiled a greeting on the phone’s screen. Chad looked a little dirty and a lot weary. Owen would never get used to him with a buzz cut. When he pictured Chad in his head, he was still the seventeen-year-old in his letterman jacket. The same blue eyes, but lots more thick, curly hair.

  “Let me guess,” Chad said. “You’re bored, stuck in a cushy hotel room until tonight when you have to put up with thousands of girls—who all think you’re hot for some unfathomable reason—screaming your name at the top of their lungs.”

  “Wrong,” Owen said.

  “Don’t have a show tonight?”

  “We perform in Houston tonight.”

  “Hotel not cushy enough?”

  “No, it’s one of the cushiest.”

  “Then why am I wrong? I know how predictable you are.”

  “I’m not bored.”

  “Is Kellen there with you?” Chad tilted his head as if he could see more of the room surrounding Owen.

  “Nope. I brought a woman home last night. Well, not home exactly. Back to my room. She’s in the shower now.” He could hear the water running.

  “You spent the night with a woman? What happened to your lame rule about not sleeping with the women you sleep with?”

  “I made a concession for Josie. She’s just so lonely with you overseas.”

  Chad’s nostrils flared and his blue eyes narrowed dangerously. “Not funny, assmunch. First, I know Josie would never cheat on me, especially not with a twerp like you. Second, I talked to her ten minutes ago. And third, you can’t keep a straight face when you lie. But I’m still going to hit you really hard the next time I see you, so consider wearing a mouth guard.”

  “Any idea when that will be?”

  “Can you keep a secret?” he asked.

  “Probably not.”

  “Well then, I’ll just say sooner than we thought.” Chad smiled.

  “How soon?”

  “I’m not telling you because you’ll ruin the surprise for everyone.”

  “Six weeks?” Owen said hopefully.

  “I’m not telling you.”

  “I can keep a secret.
”

  “Yeah, like the time I told you not to tell Josephine Tulane that I had a crush on her.”

  “And now she wants to marry you, so that worked out horribly, didn’t it?”

  Chad grinned. “I told you because you’re predictable and I knew you couldn’t keep a secret.”

  Owen had always wondered if Chad had told him about his feeling for Josie so he would break the ice. Josie had been the new girl in Owen’s senior class and Chad had already graduated, so Mr. Love-at-First-Sight didn’t have the opportunity to interact with Josie much. “You suck.”

  “So who’s the woman in your shower?”

  “Some hot chick I picked up at a sex club.”

  “You’re still going to those things?”

  “Maybe I’ll stop. If Caitlyn turns out to be someone special to me.”

  “For your sake, I hope she does. Sex with a woman you love is amazing.”

  “Better than sex with two women who take turns blowing you?”

  Chad closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and laughed. “You’ll have to tell me, little brother. I’ve never had two women take turns blowing me.”

  “It pretty much rocks.”

  “So are you going to get me a backstage pass to one of your shows when I come home?”

  “That depends,” Owen said.

  “On what?”

  “Our current tour ends in September. Should I reserve a pass for you before then?” Owen hoped his brother would fall for his attempt to milk him for information.

  “Yeah, you probably should.”

  “A couple of months before then?”

  “Probably.”

  “Yes! Are you just returning on leave or—”

  “Don’t you watch the news? They’re starting to pull troops out of here.”

  “No, I don’t watch the news. It’s too depressing.”

  “Still living in your insular world. I’d think with as much as you travel around, you’d be a more well-rounded individual.”

  “Screw you.”

  Chad chuckled.

  “I had dinner with Mom and Dad night before last and neither of them said anything about the possibility of you coming home soon.”

  “I don’t want anyone to know. I want to show up unannounced and surprise them. So you keep your big mouth shut, got it?”

  “Yeah. But I am going to tell Kelly.”

  Chad rolled his eyes. “That’s a given. At least he can keep a secret. Unlike you.”

  The bathroom door opened and a puff of steam preceded the sexiest woman ever to wear a hotel towel.

  “What are you looking at?” Chad asked. “Pick your jaw up off the floor, bro.”

  Owen switched cameras to the one on the back of his phone to give Chad a glimpse of what he was looking at and then switched back.

  “Well, I see why you’re not bored.” Chad laughed. “I’ve got to go. I’m over my time limit already. Promise you won’t say anything to the folks back home.”

  “I promise.”

  “Take care of yourself, Owen.”

  “Stay safe, Sergeant Mitchell.”

  Chad saluted with two fingers. The screen went dark. Damn, those calls always went fast.

  Caitlyn crossed the room to sit on the arm of the sofa next to him. She propped one foot on the coffee table, and her towel shifted enough that the delights between her legs were barely concealed.

  “Is your brother well?”

  Owen grinned. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but they’re sending him home soon.” He really couldn’t keep a secret.

  “That’s great,” she said. A smile widened across her face and her eyes lit up. “You must be excited. And relieved.”

  “I won’t be completely relieved until he’s home safe in his own bed, but yeah, it’s the best news I’ve heard in months.”

  “I came out here with the intention of showing you my underdeveloped gag reflex, but I know for sure I can’t top your brother’s good news, so I guess…”

  She started to rise from the sofa arm, but he grabbed her and tugged her onto his lap before she could get away.

  “How come you haven’t mentioned this limited gag reflex before? And please, God, is it what I think it is?”

  She smiled coyly. “A lady can’t reveal all her secrets in a single night.”

  “Which is why you’ll be staying with me tonight as well.”

  “I will?”

  “But just in case I do something to fuck this up before tonight, you’d better show me what you mean.”

  “On one condition,” she said.

  He was pretty sure that no matter what condition she made, he’d agree to it.

  “Name it.”

  “Take out the barbell in your piercing. I wouldn’t want it to get stuck in my throat.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t think that’ll happen, but if you’re concerned, I’ll take it out.”

  She squirmed off his lap, pushed the coffee table away from the sofa, and knelt on the floor before him. Her hands gripped his thighs just above his knees and tugged his legs apart. Then Caitlyn blessed him with the most devious smile he’d ever seen. His heart suddenly thudded a rapid beat Heat and lust flooded his groin. Oh God, he was about to have the treat of his life.

  Her hands slid up his thighs to his hips and then moved to unfasten the button of his jeans. She didn’t take her eyes off his while she unbuttoned his pants and slowly lowered the zipper.

  He’d gone for a workout in the hotel’s gym while she’d been sleeping that morning, so his muscles were still tight. He appreciated every crunch he’d forced himself to do when her hands slid up his belly, bumping up over the six-pack he worked so hard to maintain. His chest, shoulders, and arms were treated to the same exploratory touch of her warm, soft hands.

  “You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever touched,” she said.

  “Thanks,” he said lamely.

  “But what is really amazing about you is that your soul is even more beautiful than all these tight muscles and bronze skin.” She grinned. “And that’s saying something.”

  She lowered her head and kissed his belly. His muscles clenched involuntarily, and his cock began to rise with interest.

  “You’re beau—”

  Her hand shot up and covered his mouth. “No talking. It’s your turn to be flattered.”