Twenty Times Tempted: A Sexy Contemporary Romance Collection

by Petrova, Em

  Suddenly, his cell phone went off.

  Jordana awoke.

  He uttered a curse and dug deep into his pocket to silence it.

  She sat up fast, as if unsure where she was.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice thick with grogginess. “I didn’t mean to wake you like that.”

  “Oh…that’s okay.” She blinked. “How long have you been up? What time is it?”

  “Not long. It’s a little after eight o’clock.” Needing strong coffee and something to dissipate the burning in his gut, he went to pick up the room phone. “I’m calling room service. What would you like?”

  “Coffee, for sure.”

  “Way ahead of you.” The operator picked up and he ordered a carafe of the good stuff, muffins, and fruit, and then hung up. “They’re sending it up.”

  She pushed up from the bed and moved toward the bathroom, covertly avoiding his gaze.

  Drawing his brows together, he sat down on one of the chairs near the window.

  If they hadn’t had sex, then why did he sense discomfort on her part? Well, she did spend the night with a man she barely knew. Maybe she just realized that’d been unwise.

  He heard the faucets turn on and off a few times, and only after a minute or so, she emerged from the bathroom fresh faced, her long hair pulled away, with an expression of shy uncertainty. She reminded him of an innocent princess, one that he, the ogre, had captured and stolen to satiate his loneliness. Last night, she’d seemed much less innocent.

  “Well,” he started as she went to her purse, “I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember some of last night. I feel like I drank a whole bottle of scotch. Straight. Without taking a breath.”

  “You don’t remember anything?”

  “I do,” he rushed in to reassure her. He thought long and hard, then shook his head when, once again, his memory failed at the same spot. “Most of it. The last thing I remember was…our kiss downstairs. What happened after that, I’m reluctant to admit, I can’t recall.” Not the complete truth. He remembered coming up here, unzipping her dress, and the beautiful sight of her breasts, but he didn’t want to embarrass her with that detail. He watched as she went to the mini-fridge and took out two bottled waters, and again, he felt compelled to swear last night was irregular for him. “I want you to know I don’t make a habit of blacking out. Well, not since college. I was in a fraternity, after all.” His attempt to make her smile failed. She handed him the water and moved to stand by the window.

  An uneasiness settled, and he prayed he didn’t say or do anything the night before to upset her. Then again, if he had said or done something inappropriate, why would she have stayed?

  Fingering the delicate material of her dress, she said, “There’s a reason I came back to the party to find you, and it wasn’t just because you asked me out.”

  He shifted in his seat as he twisted the bottled water open. “What do you mean?”

  Folding her arms across her middle, she leaned on the window. “I’m going to try to be as detailed as possible. I can’t even believe the words that are going to come out of my mouth right now, but it’s all true.” She drew in a long breath. “You were roofied.”

  His first reaction was bafflement, mixed with uncomfortable laughter. He gulped down some cold water. Whatever he thought she might say, it wasn’t that. “Are you joking?”

  “No,” she insisted. “Logan, I’ve been trying to tell you this since last night, but then the drug kicked in and you weren’t very lucid after that. I was able to get you up here, but almost as soon as you sat down on the bed, you went unconscious. So I decided to stay here with you so I could explain everything when you woke up.”

  His head still buzzing, he couldn’t grasp it all at once. Though, oddly, the logical part of his brain seized on the explanation he’d been drugged to account for his questionable coma. “Let me get this straight. Something was slipped in my drink? Explains why my memory is hazy and why I passed out for no real reason. But…how do you know this for sure?”

  “Because I heard all about how and why and by whom. It was your date. Your friend, Rebecca.”

  He lowered his brows in immediate disbelief. Rebecca did it? Now that was even harder to fathom. “Jordana, none of this is really making sense to me. What happened last night? Just be honest.”

  “I’m telling you the truth.” She clasped her hands together and bit a corner of her lip as she moved to sit down in the chair across from him. “It all started when I went to use the ladies’ room, after you’d given me the necklace,” she began, finally meeting his eyes.

  Jordana disclosed the whole tale with extraordinary detail. He would’ve had a hard time believing her if her facts weren’t so specific. Rebecca. Pregnant with Ben’s baby. Desperate. Aiming for his wealth and generosity and security for her future. Logan sat in pensive silence, putting the pieces together, searching for something he could deem false or misconstrued.

  He knew instantly she meant Ben Oliver, a college friend. He’d lost a fortune as an investor, was deep in financial debt, but too proud to let go of the lifestyle he’d been able to afford for years. Up until a few weeks ago, no one knew how bad it was. He got caught up in drugs, sank into a depression, and hid it all like a pro. Obviously, Rebecca had also been duped, or else she might have taken more precaution during their affair.

  To further validate her story, Jordana had also mentioned Carla, the wife of a family friend who’d passed away last year. She couldn’t possibly have known about how he’d helped the widow unless she was in his inner circle. Only his close friends were aware, Rebecca included.

  “You heard all this,” he said, allowing the information to sink in, staving off any immediate reaction, “decided to do something about it, and sought me out. Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

  “I wanted to tell you everything on the spot, but there was no time! I knew she had already put the drug in your drink by the time I found you. I was trying to distract you because I knew once she saw it was working, she’d get you up here, and it would be too late.” She sighed. “When I finally did get you alone, you were dizzy and barely able to stand on your feet. So we came to your room, you passed out, and…here we are.”

  It was a lot to take in. And even though he didn’t want to accept Rebecca would deceive him so grievously, he concluded Jordana had no reason to manufacture such a story. As soon as he could, he would talk to Rebecca. Just the thought she’d done this worsened his migraine.

  Forcing an immediate reaction aside, he studied the woman across from him and how she fidgeted, as if she were on a witness stand. “Jordana, I don’t know what to say to all this. But,” he added as her eyes rounded in fear he thought she made it up, “I’m inclined to believe you. In fact, there are a few things Rebecca has said and done the past few weeks that finally make sense. I was wondering why she was acting a little strange around me.” Like avoiding martinis, which she used to sip on the regular when they went out, and instead opting for juice. Getting nauseous at anything resembling seafood when she never used to, and how she claimed on several occasions that she hadn’t been touched in months and needed to get laid. Now it clicked.

  “Also,” Jordana said, “sounded like she tried her plan before, but she didn’t think it’d be so hard to get a…a womanizer into bed.” He burst out laughing, and she eyed him with a small smile. “You’re taking this pretty well considering what I just told you.”

  “Maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet. Or maybe I’m in shock a woman who said she couldn’t intimidate a basket full of kittens came to my rescue.” He cocked his head. “Why did you help me? You hardly know me.”

  Her eyes widened with incredulity as if the answer were obvious. “Logan, she was going to use you for your money to take care of some other man’s baby! She didn’t even hesitate with her plan to trick you into thinking you were going to be a father. Turn your life inside out so hers would be easier to deal with… With no concern whatsoever for the re
al father’s right to know. It was altogether wrong, and I couldn’t stand by and let her do it. That’s why.”

  Her sweet conviction on his behalf both amused and amazed him. A person like Jordana didn’t come along every day. How fortunate she’d crossed his path.

  Tricked by a supposed friend; saved by a practical stranger.

  Funny how life threw these conflicting curves at a man.

  Even though he was taken aback by Rebecca’s ballsy agenda and admittedly could’ve fallen for it, he wasn’t that shocked. She wasn’t the first woman who’d vied to corner him for his money, though she was the first one to be secretly pregnant with a friend’s child.

  And people wondered why he was so disillusioned.

  Even though Jordana had done him a big favor by saving him, disappointment curdled that she’d sought him out for that singular purpose. She’d said she wanted to see him, but that was an excuse. Clever girl. The way she kissed him, though… Yeah, that wasn’t just a ploy. The attraction was mutual, real. He remembered that very clearly.

  A fast and hard knock at the door surprised them both.

  He pushed up from his seat and smiled down at her. “How about that coffee?”

  She smiled and followed him into the living room, taking a seat on the sofa.

  When he opened the door, it wasn’t room service. It was his best friend, Neil, well-slept and alert—complete opposite to what Logan felt.

  The attorney raked his gaze over him, lifting a brow. “Savant, holy hell, I’ve been downstairs waiting for you for over an hour. Did you sleep in your tux? You look like you did. My God, man, where was this after party I missed?” Neil strolled in without invitation and stopped. “Well. Hello.”

  Jordana rose from the sofa. “Um, morning.”

  Logan checked the need to groan. “Come on in,” he drawled. “I overslept.” He gestured to her as he closed the door. “Jordana, meet my friend, Neil Caenon.”

  “Nice to meet you,” she said in a soft, friendly voice.

  “Pleasure,” Neil greeted in return, tone heavy with innuendo. He cast a glance back to Logan. “I was wondering what happened to you.” Before Logan could say anything, Neil cut him off. “Anyway, I covered for you last night, but everyone is expecting you for brunch. No excuses.”

  “I’ll try to make it. I have a meeting at eleven.”

  Neil glanced between Jordana and Logan with a knowing smile. Jordana cast her green-gold eyes to the floor, as if she had anything to be ashamed about, and Logan scowled at his friend’s untimely interruption.

  Another knock on the door.

  Neil took it upon himself to answer. “Room service. Nice.”

  The young female pushed the cart into the room, the smell of coffee drifting through the air. “Good morning, Mr. Savant.”

  “You are way too cute to be working in room service,” Neil said, the blatant flirt. He grabbed a muffin. “But I’m not Savant. That guy is right behind me.”

  Logan smiled at her apologetically and motioned for the server to wait as he went to talk to Jordana, who looked ready to bolt. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I want to continue our conversation—”

  The hotel phone rang. He made a frustrated sound.

  “It’s all right,” Jordana said, picking up her purse. “I’ve told you everything.”

  The phone continued to ring loudly and obnoxiously.

  “Want me to get that?” Neil called.

  “No,” he replied with the sharpness of a man with a migraine, marching to the phone. It could be his client. He picked up the receiver. “This is Savant.”

  “Why aren’t you answering your cell phone?” It was Miranda, a close friend of his and Neil’s. How come everyone was so concerned about his absence? Oh, wait. It wasn’t concern; it was nosiness.

  “Does it matter? I’m answering this phone.”

  Coyly shooing off Neil’s flirtation, the room service girl handed Logan the bill as Miranda went off in his ear about the gossip he missed last night, as if he gave a damn.

  “That’s Miranda on the phone?” Neil asked, picking on his muffin. “Tell her I’m going to kill her husband for outbidding me on that round of golf with the PGA pro. He doesn’t even like the sport, and neither does she. You know she’s just getting revenge for that time I knocked over the chocolate fountain on their carpet. Total accident.”

  Distracted, Logan used his shoulder to hold the receiver as he took the bill, added gratuity, and scribbled the shorthand version of his signature. He mouthed “thank you” to the girl and she smiled. He held the receiver away from his ear, Miranda’s shrill voice echoing in the room. Neil winked at the server as she shuffled out. Tamping down his annoyance, Logan covered the receiver. “Neil, do you mind?”

  “Mind what?”

  “Can you—” Suddenly, he realized they were the only ones in the room now. “Jordana?” He craned his head to glance in the bedroom, but he didn’t see her.

  “Your lady friend left.”

  “What?” Logan took a step but was halted by the phone cord. Miranda was still talking, not bothering to ask if he was listening. “Where did she go?”

  Neil shrugged. “She excused herself and walked out. You were busy signing the bill.”

  Logan controlled the urge to throw down the phone. “Miranda, I’ll see you at brunch.”

  He dashed into the hallway, looking right, then left.

  Gone. Just like that. Disappointed, he went back into the room.

  “Did you get her number?” Neil asked, picking up a mug.

  Logan glowered, temples throbbing. “No. She has mine, though. I gave her my card last night. And it’s not what you think.”

  “It’s not what everyone thinks?” Neil teased. “You come to the gala with Rebecca, who was acting extra clingy, giving you do-me eyes all night. Then you spend an insane amount of money on a necklace you can’t use. You vanish before the party had really gotten started, and I had to bang down your door the next morning.” He gave a one-shoulder shrug before going to sip his coffee. “Sleeping in with them isn’t really your M.O.”

  Deciding not to mention how dead-on Neil was about Rebecca acting clingy—he seriously hadn’t paid any attention, had he?—he chose to give his friend a little information before he booted him. “I gave away the necklace,” Logan said, pouring his own cup. “To the woman who just left. And I didn’t sleep with her, except in the strictly literal sense. Not that it’s any of your business. Turns out there were all kinds of things I missed last night.”

  “What?” Incredulity filled Neil’s voice. “You didn’t have sex with her? No wonder she looked so…put together.” He chuckled. “What did happen? I’m curious as hell to know how she earned a diamond necklace.”

  Leave it to Neil to focus on sex, or as it turned out, the lack thereof. Logan dragged a hand down his face, unsure he could answer that question without more time to think and recharge. “I’ll tell you about it later. Now get the hell out of my room so I can shower and shave and staple my brain together.”

  “Man, this is a rare sight. You all discombobulated.”

  “Neil,” he warned.

  “I’m going, I’m going.” He took his coffee with him, and Logan closed the door behind his friend.

  All he had was her first name.

  Damn his memory. Damn the side effects of whatever he’d ingested. Damn Rebecca.

  Somehow, he’d find Jordana.

  He couldn’t believe she just skipped out without so much as a see-you-later.

  Usually, he thought with a smirk, he was the one who made that move.

  ***

  Days after the gala, Logan was still wrapping his mind around the whole ordeal. Especially since it involved someone he’d once thought of as a good friend. On most occasions, he’d keep his personal business to himself, but this time, he felt the need to share it with the one man he trusted implicitly. Neil. Whose opinion he valued, even if he could make light of things at times.

  They wer
e at his house playing pool in the library when Logan shared the details.

  Neil lined up his cue stick. “Shit, Savant. That’s one hell of a story. Hard to believe Rebecca would sink so low.”

  “Hard to believe, but it’s true. Jordana had no reason to make it up. She knew personal things about Ben and me she couldn’t have known otherwise. How Ben and I went to college together, how I helped Carla after her husband died, things like that.”

  Neil shook his head. “Rebecca was too close to getting away with it, too.” He took a gulp of ice water and set it on the sidebar. “I mean…damn. Drugging you so she could claim you knocked her up? Pretty desperate. Didn’t she realize you would’ve insisted on a paternity test?”

  “Probably hoped I wouldn’t question it. She’d been complaining her love life was in a bit of a dry spell lately. I figure now, she wanted to make sure I’d think no one had touched her but me.” He sighed heavily, staring at the table, determining his next move.

  “Even if you did believe the baby was yours, I would’ve insisted on a test.”

  “I know. Maybe she thought of a way around that, too. Who knows? She’d go this far, why not go further?”

  Neil huffed. “Good thing you’ll never know. Women.” They took a couple turns for their game before he asked, “Talked to Rebecca yet?”

  “Got that over with Sunday night.” It’d been one of the most uncomfortable conversations of his adult life, but it made him realize how blind he’d been.

  “And?” Neil prompted.

  “She knew why I was there the second she looked me in the eye. When I told her Jordana heard every word of her conversation in the restroom, Rebecca caved, started crying, claiming her mother had fed her the idea. Her story was, she didn’t want to be single with a baby and thought it was in her and the child’s best interest to find someone responsible, since Ben is in a bit of a hole right now. In the end, I just felt sorry for her.”

  Her tears hadn’t done much for Logan; when he was young, he’d seen his mother shed so many false ones to manipulate his father. However, Rebecca sounded genuinely stricken with remorse that she’d actually gone through with her plan. Desperate times, extreme measures. Little did she know she would’ve been better off telling him about the baby; he would’ve done everything in his power to help her.