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CHAPTER ONE

Ashley tussled with consciousness for what felt like an eternity She groped at it in that tie fros, a yearning for her dream-lover that she couldn’t slake because, God, she’d been trying forever, but she couldn’t figure out how to get his zipper down and his jeans off

And then the jeans were history—success!—and she was blinking futilely at the elastic band of his underwear, trying to re her own underwear either down or aside

Another ical reht, her lover perched above her on his elbows and her eyes on the condom he held out to her They passed it back and forth a few times, utterly baffled Her frustration reached a fever pitch and held there, back arched, hips lifting, until finally, finally heand the rapture break over his face at the same moment he spoke

“Carmen,” he said, and Ashley woke up “It’s Roman”

It was Ros, inside her head

No It was Ro on the phone from the other side of the room

Ashley squeezed her eyes shut and opened thee She knew this couch It sat in the low cinder-block building that served as Sunnyvale’s office

And the only way she could’ve gotten fro—to this couch—where she most assuredly was noas if Roman had carried her

She’d passed out and woken up having a sex dream about her arch-enemy

How hu

Worse, she kind of wanted to go back to the dream, because she could still feel him That hot, thick slide That ing yes, yes, this

“No,” he said “No, no, no, that’s not going to happen” He paused “I know Right, I know, but the thing is—”

He stopped speaking

He sighed

Ashley sighed, too, as if in echo, and registered her surroundings more completely Ros stretched out on the couch The soft brush of the chenille throw against her cheek, her exposed hip, her calf

He’d carried her in here Spread her out on her side, put a pillow beneath her head, covered her up

How long had she been out?

“Sure Yes I’ve had a ferinkles here, but nothing I can’t handle I’h I’ll have to ride out the storuys once I’ht Bye”

He turned around just as she sat up, which ers to the space between her eyebrows in a futile atte pain in her head

Some creature had crawled into her mouth and died Possibly the very s her good sense

She’d kissed him She’d made him swear an oath, and then he’d unlocked her and she’d kissed him, passed out, and had a desperate, vivid dream about how badly she wanted to have sex with him

Which she kind of did now, even though that was totally cracked, and hoas she supposed to get hi him to Mitzi, Airstrea like her brain was going to explode and dribble out her nose?

She couldn’t handle this She couldn’t even trust herself to stick to the plan while unconscious