Dare to Resist (a Wedding Dare novella) (Entangled Brazen) by Laura Kaye

support that he hadn’t slept. But why?
    Beckstein left carrying a big brown paper bag protectively against his chest. He very specifically reminded her of Gollum. Kady sighed.
    Colton’s phone buzzed and he fished it out of his pocket, making Kady realize she hadn’t grabbed hers off the charger before they’d left. She’d been too damn distracted by Colton. But now he had something else to concentrate on besides his breakfast companion, and that irritated her even more.
    When they were done eating, Kady was done dealing with…whatever this was. She fished a ten-dollar bill out of her wallet, slid it under the edge of her plate, and scooted out of the booth. “I have some work to do,” she said.
    Colton gaped up at her, and his gorgeous face just made her more angry. She didn’t want to find him attractive right now because she was pissed at him. So she didn’t give him time to respond before she turned on her heel, called a thank-you to the waitress, and pushed open the plate-glass door.
    Please, God, let me not run into Beckstein again.
    But as it turned out, she’d prayed for the wrong problem. The minute she laid eyes on the door to their room, she groaned out loud. Colton had the key. Perfect. Some dramatic exit this turned out to be. Maybe George had a spare. She’d made it almost all the way back down to the motel’s office when Colton rounded the corner in front of her. “Key,” he said, holding it up by the plastic tag.
    “Yeah,” she said, “I realized.” She made an about-face on the sidewalk and swore she could feel Colton’s gaze boring into the back of her head.
    At the door, he paused and looked at her. “Breakfast was supposed to be on me.”
    Kady arched a brow. “Really? This is how you want to play this right now? You wanna talk about the bet?” It had been fun and playful and totally a them thing. But that was all over.
    Colton stared down at her, his jaw ticking.
    “Would you please let me in? I’d really like a shower and then I need to do some work.”
    Finally, he relented, and Kady beelined for the bathroom and locked herself in. She dragged out the shower for as long as she possibly could, dread pressing down on her shoulders and making her feel heavy and sluggish. It was going to be a very long day if Colton didn’t snap out of whatever this was.
    Soon, she was dressed in her blouse and skirt again, had put a little makeup on her face, and had blown her hair most of the way dry. At least she felt a little more human now.
    Hand on the doorknob, Kady bolstered herself to deal with whatever was going on with Colton. She walked into the main room and found him sitting on the nearest corner of the bed, head down, elbows braced on his knees. He held something in his hands. A book, it looked like.
    The walls sucked in on Kady and her pulse was an immediate roar in her ears.
    Not just any book. Her book. Her absolute favorite erotic story.
    …
    “Promise me we can talk about this without things getting weird,” Colton said, echoing her words from the day before. He’d spent half the night and all morning debating what the hell he wanted to do—what he should do—and it had left him feeling torn right down the middle. He wanted her, of that he had no doubt. But that didn’t mean he was good for her. By the time she’d woken up this morning, he’d been exhausted and confused and pissed off. He’d just about reached the decision to sit tight and keep his mouth shut when she walked out on him at the diner— and paid for her own breakfast.
    Both of those had stung hard and made him realize he was screwing up with her again. Big-time. And the only way to fix it was to lay it all on the line.
    “You went through my stuff,” she said, her deer-in-the-headlights gaze slowly shifting to outrage. Her cheeks nearly glowed they were so red.
    He shook his head. “I didn’t mean to. I tripped over the strap to your laptop bag last night and it spilled out.” He held the book up