THE MISCONCEPTION Digital Edition, 2011 Original Edition, 2002 EXCERPT “All I want to do,” she said as she put the key card in the door and the button flashed green, “is get this over with.” He followed her into the room, beginning to think they were speaking a different language. If his suspicion that she didn’t like to eat in front of others was correct, maybe she intended to gobble her food. He pulled the door closed while he tried to think of something to say that would put her at ease. All he could come up with was a banality about the perceived quality of the hotel food. “I’m sure it will be good.” Her eyebrows furrowed, and the corners of her sexy mouth turned down. She still hadn’t smiled at him, he noted. “I’m sure you think so.” She disappeared into the bathroom, and he sank onto the mattress of a mahogany four-poster bed, a little surprised she’d reserved a room with a king-sized bed. She seemed very controlled, not at all the sort of woman who’d spread out in bed. He’d have thought she’d occupy one, very small corner of it.

Rhea couldn’t be hurting financially if she could afford to stay in a joint like this.

A sharp rap on the door drew him to his feet, and he crossed the expensively decorated room, expecting a maid who’d forgotten to put fluffy, oversized towels in the bathroom.

Instead, a muscular young man stood in the hallway carrying his luggage. “I’ll just put these bags inside for you, sir,” he said, shouldering past Jax into the room.
           
The young man deposited the bags and then looked at Jax expectantly, no doubt waiting to be tipped. But why should he tip him for making a mistake?
           
“I didn’t tell you to bring those bags up here,” Jax said.
           
The young man shifted uncomfortably. “No, sir, you didn’t. I believe I saw the lady tell the valet to have the bags brought to your room, sir.”
           
“It’s not my—”
           
The bathroom door banged open to reveal Marietta, interrupting what Jax had been about to say. She obviously hadn’t been inside the bathroom primping for their date. Her blonde-brown hair was still in the loose bun, and she’d washed off what little makeup she’d been wearing. Her dress was wrinkled, and her skin even paler than before.
           
“Oh, good,” she said when she saw the bell boy. “Your bags are here.”
           
She crossed the room, picked up her purse, withdrew a bill and handed it to the bell boy, who beat a hasty retreat out the door. He shut it, leaving them alone in the room.
           
Jax thought for a minute, but nothing he came up with made sense. She was standing six feet from him, as though carefully trying to keep her distance, which further confused the matter.
           
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” he said slowly. “You told the bell staff to have my bags brought up to your room?”
           
“That’s correct.” Her words were bold, but she twisted one hand with the other, a sure sign of nerves.
           
“Why?”
           
“For heaven’s sake.” The tempo of her hand twist reached double time. A muscle in her jaw twitched. “How do you expect to do it if we’re in separate rooms?”
           
Jax stared at her, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Are you talking about sex?”
           
She put her hands on her hips, and the sack cloth bunched up against her body in a way that gave him his first glimpse of the shape underneath.
           
“Of course I am,” she hissed under her breath.
           
Everything inside his body went still, even the blood rushing through his veins.

“We can’t very well have sex if we’re in separate rooms,” she said.

“You want to have sex with me?” His voice cracked, parts of his body leaped to attention, his mind whirled.
           
“Why on earth,” she began, staring at the ceiling instead of him, “did you think I was taking you up to a hotel room?”
           
He’d thought they were going to have lunch. Jax had met his share of women on the make, and this wasn’t the way the drill went. They smiled at him. They made eye contact. They found excuses to touch him. They moved in ways to get him to notice them. True, Rhea hadn’t called off the blind date when she’d seen him, but she hadn’t done any of those things.
           
“Why would you want to sleep with me when you don’t even seem to like me?”
           
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She threw up her hands. “What’s liking you got to do with it?”