He had to stop thinking about this. No matter how beautiful Anna was, or how fun she was to talk to, or how much he enjoyed her company, or how much he was attracted to her, he needed to forget she would be in this room with him tonight. One, they were working together—he never got mixed up with people he worked with; two, she was a fucking famous actress and the whole world probably hit on her and he didn’t want to be the whole world plus one; three, he didn’t want her to think he’d driven her down here expecting some sort of payment. And those were only the first three of the probably twenty-five or so reasons he needed to not even look at Anna again until they were back in the car together tomorrow.

Anna came bursting out of the bathroom.

“Ben!” She had a huge smile on her face. He stood up and smiled back at her.

“Anna!” he said in the same tone of voice, and she laughed.

“My dad is okay! It finally just hit me.” She closed her eyes for a second and let out a long sigh, and the smile on her face widened. “He’s really okay.”

Somehow, it felt natural for Ben to open his arms, and Anna walked right into them.

“He’s really okay,” Ben said. She hugged him fiercely, and then laughed out loud.

“I was so worried. My God, I was so worried on the drive down here. And you know I’m going to worry about him forever, but he walked out of the hospital on his own, and I could tell from the look on my mom’s face that he really is fine.” She leaned her head against Ben’s chest. “I’m so thrilled and relieved and . . . just everything.

“My God, what a drug relief is,” she said. She smiled up at him, that heightened, glassy look in her eyes that told him if he hadn’t already known that she was so tired she was almost drunk. Then her smile changed. Softened. And she looked at him like . . .

No. Oh no. He knew that look. He knew it well.

That was a kiss me look if he’d ever seen one. And he’d seen them a whole hell of a lot.

But he couldn’t kiss her. Hadn’t he just detailed the many reasons why?

He realized his arms were still around her. He tried to take a step back, but just ended up backing them both up against the wall. He tried to let her go, he really did, but somehow, he couldn’t.

Then she let go of him. He pushed away the jolt of disappointment he felt and tried to be relieved. Good, okay, good, that’s what he needed, for her to stop this. She would let go and get under the covers and he would get under the covers of his own bed and attempt to fall asleep with her just a few feet away and then they would drive home tomorrow and never speak of this.

Then she took hold of his face with both of her hands, pulled it down to hers, and kissed him.

Seven

He couldn’t think, couldn’t move; all he could do was kiss her. He hadn’t let himself imagine this moment, but it was somehow even better than he could have dreamed of. Her lips were so warm, so soft; her body felt so good against his. My God, how did she smell this incredible after seven hours in a car? He couldn’t get enough. He pulled her hard against him as they kissed, and he could feel her smile as he ran his hands up and down from her waist to her hips. He threw everything into that kiss; all the times he’d wanted to kiss her, to touch her, and had stopped himself, he poured all of those feelings into this moment.

They dove into each other, not talking, barely moving, except when she pressed him harder against the wall, when he gripped her ass, and then when he moved a hand up under her hoodie, under her shirt, to feel the soft, smooth skin there. Suddenly, Ben realized what he was doing and pulled away with a groan.

“Anna. Anna, we can’t.”

She hadn’t stepped away; she was still right up against him, looking at him with those soft eyes and plump lips.

“Why can’t we?”

He looked at her blankly, all of his reasoning from when she was in the bathroom gone.

“You’re . . . you.” She laughed at him, and he realized how ridiculous that sounded. “I mean . . . You know what I mean. Plus, we work together.”

Anna reached for his belt.

“Only for a little while longer. That doesn’t count, really.”

He was already so hard, after just a few moments of kissing her, it was embarrassing. And now she was unbuckling his belt? No, he couldn’t think straight like this.

He stepped to the side, and her hands dropped.

“Anna, my God, I want this, I’m sure you can tell exactly how much I want this. I’ve wanted this since the first moment I saw you, but you’ve had such a long, emotional day, and I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret.”

She pulled him back to her.

“I won’t regret this.” And then they were kissing again, and it was, oh God, even better than before. He bit her lip, and she laughed and then sucked his bottom lip in between hers, and her warm, luscious body pressed against his, and it felt like all he’d ever wanted in life.

Oh shit. Wait. He remembered that other reason.

It took everything he had, but he pulled away.

“Anna. Wait, hold on.” She stopped and looked at him.

“I don’t want you to think that you have to do this, that you owe me this for driving you here today. I know you felt guilty about that, but I swear, you don’t owe me anything, you don’t have—”

Anna put her hand over his mouth.

“First of all, you seem too smart about women to think I’m, what, acting here, and that I don’t really want this.” He raised his eyebrows at her, and she tilted her head. “Okay, good point, I am an actor, and a very good one, but I promise, this is not the kind of acting I would ever do, not one-on-one. Two, when I was trying to pay you back for this in the car, I was offering basketball tickets, not me! Three: Will you please just shut the fuck up and take your clothes off?”

Ben knew when he’d lost. Or, as the case may be, won.

He dropped his jeans to the floor and threw his T-shirt across the room.

“Happy now?” he asked.

She looked him up and down and smiled.

“Oh yes.”

 

* * *

 

—

Ben’s body was just as good as Anna had been imagining. Granted, he didn’t look like one of the guys from Magic Mike XXL, and she didn’t expect him to—he hadn’t actually been a backup dancer for years. But he was still lean and athletic-looking and his chest was a gorgeous caramel brown. The man worked full-time, more than full-time, she’d seen it; how did he have this good a body? She had no idea, but she sure as hell enjoyed it.