Free Wicked Secrets by Anne Marsh

and only exception.
    She eyed her side of the bed. The sheets were probably cooling down, just the way she liked, and the pillow was punched down.
No
. See, that was what was wrong with this picture. She didn’t have a
side of the bed
. She wasn’t staying. He’d offered a place for the night. Nothing more.
    It had to be her naked state making her think about hopping onto the bed and waking Tag up with a hand beneath the sheets. Morning sex was even better than good-night sex.
Stop it
. She needed her clothes. Before she could second-guess herself and get back in bed, she padded out into the hallway to recon where her stuff had ended up.
    After all, since her luggage was currently headed to Mexico, she couldn’t afford to lose the clothes she’d arrived with. Discovery Island didn’t seem like the kind of place to have a Walmart. Fortunately, her clothes were exactly where she remembered parting company with them. More or less. They’d dropped her borrowed T-shirt on the living room floor, while her bikini bottoms were on the kitchen floor. Oh, boy. She had no idea how that had happened, although she had some mighty fine memories of Tag pressing her up against the wall and then working his way down... Yeah. He was the best cure ever for insomnia.
    She took stock. Her assets at the moment consisted of a cell phone, a pair of shorts, a hoodie, two flip-flops, a T-shirt and twenty bucks. If she’d been former Spec Ops, she probably could have constructed an airplane out of the lot and flown back to the cruise ship. Since she wasn’t, however, she’d need to come up with an alternative plan. For instance, she could phone her brothers and one of them would be here in half a day.
    No. No how, no way.
    She wasn’t ten, and calling her family wasn’t an option. Not only would she never live it down, she didn’t
need
to. She had this situation under control.
As long as you stay out of Tag’s bed
, a little voice whispered.
Because you don’t have any control around
that
man.
Decision made, she bent over and grabbed the top.
    “Do it again.” Tag said, low and rough, from the shadows behind her.
    * * *
    M IA   BENT   OVER   and naked in his living room was an excellent way to wake up. Far better than waking up alone and lined up on the left side of his bed, as if his head had been making room for her while he slept. And she’d stood him up. Whatever her reasons for abandoning the bedroom, the sound of his voice had her going all rigid. She turned around and there it was...the Mia glare he knew so well. Yeah, he was in trouble again, but it wasn’t his fault she was all long legs and sun-kissed skin. Beneath the prickly exterior, she was real pretty, and what he’d seen when she reached down for her top ranked right up there in the category of world’s sexiest sights. Her butt was all sweet curves and lower...
    “So that’s a no?” A man could hope.
    “You shouldn’t sneak up on me.” She yanked the T-shirt over her head. Since she still had yesterday’s swimsuit in her hands, she was naked underneath. Possibilities tempted him. He had the day off, and she’d already missed the boat. Literally. They could go back to bed together. He could think of plenty of things to do to pass the time until she was ready to figure out a game plan.
    Was she blushing? He inspected her face more closely. Sure enough, a pink flush painted her cheeks.
    “Are you embarrassed?” Imagining his take-charge master sergeant—emphasis on
master
—being self-conscious was a stretch, even if he did have an excellent imagination.
    “I have a million things to do.” The way she eyed his body—the
lower
half of his body—had him wondering what exactly was on her mental itinerary. Last night had been fantastic. She probably did have things to do, however. Things completely unrelated to his taking her back to bed. Mia always seemed to have a plan. She’d certainly organized yesterday’s bridal group with frightening