25 - Joanna

25

Joanna

A noise woke me.

I was in bed, being spooned by a strong, masculine body. That was nice, although the pounding headache I had was not nice. I sighed and cuddled back into his body, savoring the protective warmth. His hard-on pressed against my ass, even warmer than the rest of him.

"You feel good, Theo," I murmured.

Suddenly, there was a bright light and a scrape of metal as someone threw back the curtains on the window. Groaning, I shielded my eyes and blinked rapidly to see who was disturbing my sleep.

"Rise and shine!" Danicka said cheerfully.

Danicka. Landon's mom. She was here, in the bedroom . She had caught Theo and me together.

"It's not what you think," I said, leaping out of bed and barely catching my balance. My head really hurt. "We weren't doing anything!"

She gave me a funny look. "I don't care what you and my son do in private, dear."

"Mom? What are you doing here?"

I turned and stared with horror as the man in bed with me revealed himself as Landon. My fake boyfriend whose very real erection was nestled against my ass just moments before. That erection was still obvious through his boxers, which he seemed to realize based on my wide-eyed stare. He grabbed a pillow and covered himself.

"What are you doing in here?" he repeated.

"We paid for the suites," Danicka replied simply. "I have extra keys to every room here. And a good thing, since you two lovebirds slept through the wake-up call! Our flight leaves in four hours, and I'm sure you both need to go home and pack."

"Pack? I don't need to pack," I said.

Danicka gave me a confused look. "Of course you need to pack. Unless you ran home and did that after the reception last night, but I think you were a little too lush for that."

"What are you talking about, Mom?" Landon demanded.

"Just get up and come to breakfast. It's impossible to talk to you before you've had coffee." Danicka left without another word.

I looked at Landon. His eyes had been gazing down at my midsection, but snapped back up to my face. That's when I realized I was wearing underwear and a T-shirt. And not just any underwear: the thong from last night.

"For fuck's sake," I muttered, pulling the sheets up to cover myself. "Can you give me a little privacy so I can change?"

"Please don't yell," Landon muttered, touching his temple with one hand while holding the pillow over his crotch with the other. "It feels like someone is stabbing me in the brain with a butter knife."

I pointed at the bathroom. "Go."

He turned and tossed the pillow aside, then went into the bathroom. But not before I got a nice long look at the way his boxers hugged his chiseled ass. He also had that wonderful V-shaped back, his broad shoulders thick with muscle.

As soon as I was alone, I stared at the beds in the room. There were two of them, just like I had confirmed when checking in yesterday, but the bed on the right was totally untouched.

Did we…?

I took mental stock of my body. I was a little sore, but that was probably from Theo. And when I pulled back the bedsheets, I couldn't see any stains.

Whew. We didn't have sex.

But for a few weird seconds, it didn't bother me that we might have.

I glanced at the bedside table. My phone had a huge crack in the bottom corner. Not enough to make it unusable, but enough to be annoying.

Thanks a lot, drunk Joanna.

After getting dressed, Landon and I left the room to meet everyone for breakfast in the dining room. We walked in silence until we got off the elevator on the ground floor.

"Last night," Landon said slowly. "Did we…"

"We did not," I said carefully. "I don't remember what happened last night, but I'm fairly certain you and I didn't do anything."

He nodded. "I'm pretty sure we…" Landon trailed off as we passed a man sleeping on one of the couches in the lobby. "We went back to the room and passed out. But the details are fuzzy."

"Why did you sleep in the same bed as me? We got two beds for a reason!"

" You slept in the same bed as me ," he insisted. "I was already in bed. You came out of the bathroom and threw yourself face-down onto the bed next to me. You refused to move."

"Why didn't you switch beds?"

"Because I was already comfy!" he snapped back. "Besides, I was drunk. I barely remember any of this."

"I haven't been that drunk in a very long time," I said with a groan. "I need coffee, aspirin, and pancakes. In whatever order I can find them."

"What about Teddy?" Landon asked.

A jolt of panic ran through my body. "What about Teddy?" Landon couldn't know that we'd slept together, could he? What if Austin had told him? I felt my entire plan circling the drain.

"You thought I was him in bed this morning," Landon revealed. "You said, and I quote, you feel good, Theo ."

I felt a moment of relief, but then a new kind of panic. "Are you sure I said that? I don't remember saying that."

Landon gave me a sideways glance. "You're normally a good liar, Joanna. Which is why I know you're lying right now."

My brain wasn't working. I couldn't think of what to say. Stupid alcohol!

"Landon…" I began.

He stopped and blocked my path just outside the dining room. "Listen. It's not a big deal."

I gave a start. "It's not?"

"You were drunk and had a sex dream about the Best Man. It's fine. He's a good looking guy."

"That's… exactly what happened. Yes. I had a sex dream about him." It wasn't exactly a lie. I'd had numerous sexy dreams about Theo.

Was that a flash of jealousy in Landon's almond eyes? If so, it was gone in a second, replaced by a smile. "As long as you kept up appearances during the reception, I don't care what you muttered in your sleep."

I laughed nervously. I still didn't remember much from last night after I took my heels off to dance.

Everyone who had stayed overnight was in the dining room eating breakfast. There were a few smiles as we walked inside, and Bradyn raised a hand in greeting toward his brother. The hostess showed us to our table, and I immediately grabbed a plate and went to the buffet. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage. Everything looked so good .

My plate was piled high with food when Marisa intercepted me on the way back to my table. "I just heard the good news! I'm so happy, Joanna! We're going to spend the week getting to know each other."

"We're going to do what now?" I asked.

"Silly goose! You're coming to the honeymoon with the entire family. When Bradyn's mom told me, I almost dropped my orange juice."

"The honeymoon…" Oh my God. What had Danicka done? "Marisa, I'm so sorry, but I can't go on the honeymoon with all of you. I can't take off work."

"Oh." Marisa searched my face as if I were joking. "Okay. I'll let her know."

I returned to my table and told Landon, "Your wonderful mother told everyone that I'm going on the honeymoon. That's why she mentioned going home to pack a bag."

Landon groaned. "She does this sometimes. Making a decision for someone without their input, and then challenging them to say no."

"Jamaica actually sounds amazing, but I have work tomorrow. I have so much paperwork to process for this case we're working on." I glanced at my phone. "I actually have a bunch of voicemails from my boss. He probably wants me to go into the office today. Ugh. What if I agreed to it last night?"

"It's fine. We'll tell her you can't go. She'll understand."

Before I could bite down on my first piece of bacon, Danicka appeared next to our table. "Joanna! What's this I hear about you not going on the honeymoon after all?"

I gave her my best apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry, but I was a little inebriated last night. I may have made promises that sober Joanna can't keep. As much as I would love to go, I can't take off work."

Danicka only laughed. "Oh, honey. You quit your job last night!"

"I think I would remember if I…" I trailed off and glanced at Landon. He was frowning.

Wait a minute. Did I…? I glanced at the unopened voicemails on my phone.

"It was the highlight of the wedding!" Danicka said. "Go talk to the guitar player about it. It was his idea."

I sat up a little straighter in my chair. "It was whose idea?"

"Marisa's friend. From Texas. I think his name is Austin."