“Apparently,” he said, “the talent had a family emergency, so the shoot is canceled today. I’m working from home.”

Anna draped an arm around him.

“Weird how that worked out.”

He pulled her close. Her body was so soft and smooth and supple. He felt like he could touch her like this forever.

He also knew he might never get to touch her like this again, which made him appreciate it all the more.

“I’m . . . exhausted,” she said.

He let out a bark of laughter.

“You and me both. Luckily, neither of us has to go to work today, so we can go back to sleep.”

She burrowed her head into his chest. He rested his palm on her hip. God, did he love the way her skin felt against his. He moved his hand over just a few inches and cupped her ass. Well. That felt even better.

She lifted her head and pulled him down to kiss her. They kissed lazily, like they had all the time in the world. Like this was a slow, rainy Sunday morning, and all they had in front of them was a long brunch and an afternoon nap. She slid her leg up his body and wrapped it around him.

“Not so tired anymore, hmmm?” he asked. He moved his hand in between them so he could flick her nipple with his thumb.

“Mmmm, no, I’m still sleepy.” She reached down and put her hand around his cock. “So can you do me a favor and fuck me right quick so I can go back to sleep?”

He laughed out loud, and she grinned.

“Happy to oblige.”

They both fell back asleep soon afterward, and he didn’t wake up again until his phone buzzed from the floor. Damn it, he’d meant to turn it on silent.

He leaned down to grab it—his brother, his fourth text since last night. Ben grinned and dropped his phone back on the floor, then turned to Anna’s side of the bed. She was wide awake, wrapped in a towel, her phone in her hand.

“Oh, you’re up. You’ve been up. You should have woken me.”

She waved that away.

“You needed the rest—you’re the one who did all of the driving yesterday, remember? And our postdrive activities were”—her eyes danced at him—“athletic.”

Oh, thank goodness this morning wasn’t going to be weird and awkward. He’d worried about that when he’d seen her already showered—that she didn’t even want to talk to him enough to wake him up. That would have made the drive home supremely bad.

“They were indeed,” he said. He got up and made his way to the bathroom. “Are you hungry? Because I just realized I’m starving. It’s been a long time since that In-N-Out.”

Anna picked up the room service menu and waved it at him.

“I’ll call. What’s your room service breakfast of choice?”

“Pancakes, bacon, coffee,” he said. “I’m a simple man with simple breakfast tastes, Anna.”

She picked up the phone.

“I respect that.”

As he got out of the shower, he heard her open the door to room service. When he came out of the bathroom, he kept the towel around his waist, in case the room service guy was still there, but it was just Anna and the food in the room.

“You take long showers,” she said.

He picked up a piece of bacon. Excellent; it wasn’t that flabby, badly cooked room service bacon, but the good, crispy kind.

“I do. My brother used to get so mad at me for it when we were kids. I started taking longer showers first just to be a dick to him, because I was a little asshole, and then I guess I got used to them. I do all my best thinking in there.”

She cut her sausage link in half and popped it into her mouth.

“What good thinking did you do this morning?”

He sat down on the bed next to her and poured syrup on his pancakes.

“I think we need to get you some clothes.”

She shot him a perplexed look.

“That’s not at all what I was expecting you to say.”

He took a bite of his pancakes, then gestured to the clothes littering the floor of the room.

“You wore that outfit for, what, twenty hours yesterday? Do you really want to put it on today, for another seven-hour drive back north?”

“Well, not really, but . . .”

He kept talking.

“And God forbid anyone recognizes you today. Do you want to be in day-old clothes if that happens? I’m sure you have some makeup in that enormous bag of yours, and you can figure out your hair, but after that deer-in-the-headlights look you gave me at In-N-Out yesterday, I don’t think you want to deal with people recognizing you today looking like this.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Are you saying there’s something wrong with my hair?”

He leaned forward and kissed her lips. She had a smile on her face as she kissed him back.

“Your hair is incredibly hot this morning, but you probably don’t want a stranger taking pictures of you looking quite so sexy at a rest stop along Highway 5.”

She bit his lip softly, then pulled back.

“You have a point. For both the hair and the clothes. But how are we going to accomplish the latter? I can’t try on anything, and I don’t even know what stores they have here.”

He ate some more pancakes before answering.

“Leave it to me. You don’t have to look like a movie star, just not . . .” He couldn’t figure out a way to end that sentence in a polite way.

“Like a scrub? I get it.” She looked at him for a long moment. She was measuring him up, he could tell. “Okay, fine. Sure, why not? This will be an adventure, at least.”

He put the last piece of bacon into his mouth and stood up.

“Excellent.” He pulled his jeans on, and then his T-shirt and winced. “Don’t worry, I’ll find something for myself, too. I’ll be back soon.”

When he was safely in the car, he scrolled through his phone. He’d talked a good game in there, but he needed some help with this. Luckily, he knew exactly the right person.

“Hello?”

“Maddie! Oh, thank God. I need you.”

There was a pause.

“What do you need, Ben?” his brother’s girlfriend said in that long-suffering way older sisters always did. Granted, he didn’t have an older sister, or any sister at all, but he could imagine.

Well. He might be wrong about that last part. He’d worry about that later.