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as he tried to hold her.
“Adam, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The words jerked him awake more effectively than a bucket of ice water. He opened his eyes, squinting against the glare of bright overhead lights, and stared into the frowning face of the station manager, Carl.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Carl asked again.
4
“NOTHING.” Adam rolled away from Erica and sat up. “We weren’t doing anything.” He slid his gaze to his bed partner. She was sitting up, too, the covers tucked up under her breasts.
The breasts that had been pressed again his chest seconds ago, so warm and soft…
He swallowed a groan and looked at Carl again. He couldn’t say the sight made him feel any better. His boss was frowning, his bottom lip jutted out.
“Are you sure it was nothing?” Carl directed the question at Erica. “You two looked pretty cozy just now.”
Erica smiled. Except for the heightened flush of her cheeks, she didn’t give away that anything out of the ordinary had happened. How was it someone who had just awakened could look so dazzling? “Don’t be silly, Carl. We’re both still fully clothed, aren’t we?”
He could think of a lot of not-so-innocent things they could do that wouldn’t require them to get undressed, but now wasn’t the time to mention them. And as long as they worked together, there wouldn’t be a time to mention them.
“See that you stay that way,” Carl grumped.
She turned toward Adam and looked at him through lowered lashes. “Adam’s been a perfect gentleman,” she said.
Right. A perfect gentleman with an incredible hard-on.
Carl looked unconvinced, but he didn’t protest. “I came by to give you some good news.”
“What’s that?” Adam asked. Were they going to end this silly stunt before it got out of hand? Not that it was exactly under control at the moment.
“Mattress Max likes what you’re doing so much that he’s pledged to donate ten thousand dollars to the Salvation Army for their shelter.”
“That’s fantastic.” Erica wrapped her arms around her knees and grinned. “That will almost double the money we’ve raised.”
“The money isn’t ours—or rather the Salvation Army’s—yet,” Carl said. “Max won’t pay it unless you stay here the full seventy-five hours. Until Monday at 9:00 a.m.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” She turned to Adam. “We can do it, can’t we?”
“Yeah, sure.” He tried to inject a little more cheerfulness into his voice. “We’re barely getting started here.”
Carl stepped back, and shoved his hands in his pockets. “All right, then. You can announce the offer on the air during your show. It should pump up the excitement a little. We don’t want things to start getting too dull.”
“I’m certainly not bored,” Erica said.
“Me, neither.” He was horny, frustrated, sleep-deprived and aggravated, but he wasn’t bored.
“I’d better go freshen up before the show starts.”
Both men watched as she climbed out of bed and picked up her duffel. “I’ll be right back,” she said.
When she was gone, Carl’s scowl returned. “Don’t forget this place is full of cameras,” he said.
“I know.”
“I don’t want any trouble.”
Adam resented the implication that he was a troublemaker. “You’re the one who came up with this crazy stunt.”
“And you’re the one being paid to do a good job.”
“Don’t worry.” He threw back the covers and sat up on the side of the bed. “I know how to do my job.”
“Good. You’re on in forty-five minutes.”
Forty-five minutes. Right. Forty-five minutes before he climbed back into this bed with Ms. Irresistible. Erica better hurry up and let him have his turn in the shower. He needed it—with the water turned on cold.
Carl left and Adam grabbed the clipboard and pretended to study the morning’s play list. But the song titles scarcely registered. Why had he groped Erica in his sleep? Sure, any breathing, straight man would be attracted to her, but he’d thought he had better self-control than that. After all, he’d been in tougher spots before.
All the years he’d spent avoiding trouble ought to come in handy now. Erica was just a challenge of a different kind.
ERICA COMBED through her freshly washed hair and stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. How was she ever going to go back out there and not let on to everyone how she was feeling?
She couldn’t keep back a grin. Laughing out loud, she hugged herself and did a victory dance around the small room. Yes! Adam might treat her like his little sister in public, but last night—or rather, this morning—had proved his true feelings were anything but brotherly.
If only Carl hadn’t come along and interrupted what could have been a really amazing moment. If they’d been alone and Adam had awakened to find her in his arms, would he have been so quick to pull away?
She opened her duffel and pulled out a KROK T-shirt and a pair of baggy blue boxers. Her smile faded as she studied the outfit she’d intended to throw Naughty Nick off the track. Not exactly come-hither couture.
She slumped onto the toilet and considered her options. If she wanted to build on the attraction Adam had revealed during sleep, she needed something that would catch him off guard again.
Everybody knew that men were visual creatures, turned on by what they saw. She needed to give Adam a real eyeful. Make herself irresistible.
She frowned at the clothing wadded in her hand. Boxers and a T-shirt weren’t going to cut it.
She looked around the bathroom, hoping for inspiration, but short of fashioning a toga out of the bath towel, she didn’t have any ideas.
Time to call for reinforcements. She dug in her bag for her cell phone and punched in a number.
“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line was groggy.
“Tanisha, this is Erica. I need your help.”
“Isn’t it a little early in the morning to sound so desperate?” Tanisha yawned. “I wouldn’t have thought laying around in bed with the Handsome Hawk would be that difficult.”
“Oh, that’s not the problem. Not really.”
“So how is it? Did the two of you get to know each other better when the lights went out?”
She blushed. As far as she was concerned, she and Adam hadn’t gotten to know each other nearly well enough yet. “That’s what I need a little help with.”
“Thanks, but I’m not into threesomes.”
“Very funny. I’m serious here. I thought I was going to be doing this gig with Nick, not Adam. I didn’t exactly come prepared.”
“You want me to bring you a box of condoms or something?”
“Tanisha!” She almost dropped the phone.
“Well, what am I supposed to think when you say you’re not prepared?”
“I meant I don’t have the right clothes. All I brought to wear was flannel pajamas, boxer shorts and T-shirts.”
“Yeah, not exactly clothes that say seduction is on the menu. Fortunately today