Soft jazz music teased my ears when Nick and I slipped through the revolving doors into the Hilton Hotel. We were the only people in the lobby aside from the bellhop and a tall woman with bright red hair behind the front desk. I followed Nick to the check-in counter, almost hiding behind him in a way. I was way out of my comfort zone. The equivalent of a baseball sent flying out of the park out of my comfort zone.

"Back already?" The redhead piped up with a giant smile.

I raised my eyebrows in Nick's direction but he didn't acknowledge me.

"Kelly." He casually leaned against the counter, letting part of his bangs fall forward with a boyish smile. "I need a little help finding out some very important information."

Kelly inched closer to him, her curiosity peaked. "What's that?" she asked in a flirty tone.

Nick reached into his back pocket to retrieve his wallet. "I think this will help you better understand what I'm needing," he said, opening the black leather card sleeve and revealing something that only she could see.

I stepped forward to catch a glimpse but he slapped his wallet shut as if he didn't want me to see.

Kelly's eyes widened but she maintained her composure, straightening her name tag which listed "manager" beneath her name, and nodding. "I can assure you that everything in this hotel is up to par," she told him. "But I would be happy to assist you."

Nick smiled. "Perfect."

He gestured toward the door which read Employees Only behind her.

"Right this way." She allowed him access behind the front desk but refused to let me pass when I attempted to follow. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. I can't let you back here."

"But-"

"It's company policy," she said sternly.

I didn't care to argue and back away, watching them disappear into some back office. Ten minutes passed and my feet were beginning to cry out in pain from standing in heels too long. I sat down on a cream colored chair in the lobby to relax while I waited. Ten more minutes passed and I'd begun to pace back and forth in front of the elevators. Surely it didn't take that long to rewind a tape.

Finally, Nick and Kelly immerged. He shook her hand and smiled, thanking her for her help. I met him halfway across the lobby and he snaked an arm around my waist, leading me back out to the sidewalk.

"Are you going to tell me what that was all about?" I asked as we stepped out into the chilly night air.

He walked me to the passenger side of his Audi, opening the door for me, expressionless. He didn't say a word until he'd taken his seat behind the wheel and turned the radio on so low I almost couldn't hear it.

"I don't know if this makes things harder or easier, but I wasn't wrong," he sighed, not looking at me. He kept his gaze focused on the BMW parallel parked in front of us, practically staring a hole through it.

He wasn't wrong. I didn't have to ask what he was talking about. I knew. It hadn't been a lie. It hadn't been my imagination. Derek had cheated on me.

"Oh," was all I could manage. I felt tears pricking my eyes, threatening to spill down my face. I refused to cry though, blinking the feeling away. I joined Nick in staring blankly at the BMW. I had no idea how I was supposed to act. I wanted to get mad, hunt Derek down, scream at him for breaking my heart. But I couldn't. I had done the same thing. I couldn't decide if we had every right or no right to be furious with each other.

"How do you feel?" Nick asked softly, still looking straight ahead. He had an elbow resting on the window ledge and his chin resting on his fist.

"I really don't know," I said in almost a whisper. "Hurt."

"You know, this – you and me – it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't cheated first," he said. His eyes finally met mine and in the dim lighting, I could see clear as day the guilt in his expression. "But I keep telling myself that to feel less shitty cause I know I shouldn't get an easy break here either."

If that's how Nick felt, I wondered how Christine might feel. Had she been drunk too? Had Derek just taken advantage of how many drinks she'd had? I wondered if she even cared. What if that hadn't been the first time?

"I didn't want to believe it could be true," I mumbled, tugging my blazer tighter around my body. "At the same time, I'm kind of glad it wasn't just me. That makes me an awful person, doesn't it?"

Nick shook his head, his hair softly moving with the motion. He reached across the console and pulled me closer to him. I breathed in his scent. He smelled like cinnamon with hints of coffee and peppermint. I liked it.

"Carrie, you and I – we were drunk. Common sense was lightyears away. Derek and Christine – they knew damn well what they were doing and they did it anyway. You can't compare the two."

His arm wrapped comfortably around me, his hand giving my shoulder a gentle reassuring squeeze. I nuzzled into his neck, closing my eyes and breathing in more of his sweet scent.

"I just don't know what to do." My words were barely audible.

Nick breathed out, his hand rubbing up and down my arm in a comforting motion. "I'd answer that, but I probably shouldn't." His statement was frank, almost as quiet as mine had been.

"Go ahead."

There was a long pause before he finally spoke. "Honestly, Carrie, you could do so much better than Derek."

"Nick-"

"No. I'm serious," he cut me off. "Any man who would cheat on you like that and then have the audacity to be pissed at you for disappearing – when I know he took advantage of your absence to fucking do it – he doesn't deserve you, Carrie. He could at least own up and admit it."

I pulled back from him, turning in the leather seat to get a better look at him. Despite the obvious anger in his tone, he still appeared fairly calm.

"That's not entirely fair. I should at least own up and admit it too," I sighed. "How could I have been so reckless? I should've-"

"Carrie, people make mistakes. I get that adultery is like the number one line you don't cross, but you were in a vulnerable state when you witnessed him make the first move. I don't think we would've done anything, had he not cheated first," Nick reminded me.

"I'm not going to be immature about it and argue about who started it. It happened. I'm not proud of it. I've got to take responsibility for it."

"I don't think you understand the extent of Derek's infidelity," he said.

I cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"The manager let me run through the tapes. When I pointed out to her what I'd been looking for, she told me she sees them come in a lot. Apparently he has a regular suite. She put it on a flash drive if you want to-"

"So last night wasn't the first time?" I could feel all the air rush from my lungs as the realization hit me. If what Kelly had told him was true, Derek had been cheating on me for a while.

Nick nodded, pain in his eyes.

"God, I feel so stupid." I started to cry, wiping at my cheeks with the back of my hand and the sleeve of my jacket.

He leaned over the console, gently moving my hand from my face and rubbing his thumb softly over my dampened skin. "It's going to be alright," he soothed.

But it wasn't. How could it? Derek was a cheater. I was a cheater. How do you fix something this fucked up? I couldn't see a happy ending anywhere.

I didn't have the energy to disagree and settled for a hardly noticeable shake of my hand. Nick's thumb continued to stroke my cheek long after the tears had ceased and was now giving me goosebumps. It was so quiet in the car I could hear his breathing. Slow and steady. Soft and comforting. His gaze stayed fixed on me, making sure I was okay. This was something Derek had never done.

"I guess I should take you back to the restaurant now," Nick broke the silence, turning his lights on to leave the parking spot. We'd left my SUV at the restaurant.

It was late, going on eleven-thirty, and I knew I should've been headed hour an hour ago. Derek might be waiting up. I checked my phone but no one had tried to contact me. Maybe he'd decided to call it a night early.

Despite common sense waving its flag, Nick's hand holding mine on the console was tugging at my judgment. Part of me didn't want to go home yet. Although I'd just found out a huge shocker about my fiancé and should've been bawling or enraged, my mind had wandered to a relaxing fantasy of going back to Nick's and just hanging out, getting to know him better. If someone had told me a few hours ago that I'd be growing fond of Nick Granger, I'd have called them an idiot, but somehow between eight and eleven, we'd managed to go from one-night stand status to borderline friendship. It almost sounded like a fiction storyline when I thought it over. Things like this just didn't happen in the real world.

Still, I chose to defy my better judgment. "Nick?"

He glanced at me quickly, trying to stay focused on the traffic. "Hm?"

I studied the way his hand wrapped around mine, our fingers perfectly laced. Again, his thumb caressed my skin, rubbing over the back of my hand as he drove.

"What if we don't call it a night just yet?" I suggested.

He didn't look at me but I could faintly make out the inquisitive expression painting his face. "What do you have in mind?"

"What if we go to your place?" I said. "Hang out." I added 'hang out' so he wouldn't get the wrong idea.

Amusement curved his lips into a cute smile that quickly became a sexy smirk. "If that's what you want to do," he shrugged. "But what about your car?"

"I'll worry about it later."

A simple nod signaled his agreement and he veered right to take an exit in route to his place.

The moonlight shined on the hood of his car creating a bright glow. He rolled the windows down and a refreshing rush of cool spring air raced through the car. I stole glances at Nick, admiring the way he relaxed in the seat and the way his shirt flowed over his body. I wanted to drool over the way the wind whipped his hair around. He looked younger, less hardened, more carefree. It made me happy.

Pretty soon we pulled into the familiar driveway. This morning I couldn't wait to get away from this house and now I was excited to be back.

"I'll race you to the house," Nick dared with a cheesy grin. He hopped out of the car before I had a chance to unbuckle my seatbelt.

I hurriedly chased after him but he'd already made it to the door.

"That's not fair!" I laughed.

He smirked, opening the door and motioning for me to enter first. "Who said I played fair?"

The house looked the same as it had that morning. I followed Nick into the kitchen where he sat two sodas on the breakfast table and we sat down to talk. Only this time it was a good talk, a fun talk. We weren't weighing the options of how to work out the kinks in my relationship like we had at dinner. Now we were talking about anything but that, and I loved it.

"So what made you want to become an attorney?" I asked him. He knew the reason behind my choice in profession, but I had yet to know his.

He raked his fingers through his windswept hair, brushing it back. Something about that was too sexy.

He shrugged, glancing around the room. "Shoot, I don't know. I guess I just like a challenge."

Judging by his tone of voice, I was sure there was more to the story, but it didn't sound like he wanted to elaborate. I decided not to press.

We'd been discussing everything from our political views – which was a surprisingly civil conversation – to our childhoods, to how crazy some of our neighbors were. It had only taken a minute for him to make me smile, and since we'd sat down, I hadn't stopped.

"Can I ask you something?" Nick began. "What made you want to come home with me tonight?"

A nervous feeling seeped into my stomach and I set my drink down, focusing all my attention on trying to read his eyes. I wondered if he thought less of me for this. Our conversation had taken a one-eighty and I suddenly felt like a criminal in an interrogation room.

"I..." I breathed in deeply, thinking over how to respond. I was afraid my answer might complicate everything more. "I'm having a nice time tonight, aside from the unpleasant news. I like spending time with you, Nick."

It was the truth. I'd begun to enjoy his company. When he was making me laugh, I'd forgotten about the controversy hanging over our heads and allowed myself to dive into happiness, to smile, to ignore the impending struggles. It occurred to me Nick Granger wasn't your average one-night stand. He was so much more than that, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I was glad. I wanted him to be more than that.

"I should get you back," he said, standing up.

My mood fell at the sound of his words. I knew I should go, but I didn't want to. At least not yet.

Nick lead me to the entryway where I'd laid my blazer. He held the garment up for me to slip over my arms, another thing Derek had never done. It was sweet. Chivalry was definitely not dead.

"You make this difficult, you know?" he chuckled, retrieving his keys.

"Pardon?"

"Taking you back," he clarified. "It's hard to end the night when I'm enjoying it this much."

I was surprised by his words but kept my composure, though it was hard to do when he flashed me that knee-weakening grin. I didn't want this night to end either. We'd been having a great time and I was loving getting to know him. He'd turned out to be a pretty interesting person. I was even willing to look passed the fact that he was a Brewers fan.

I watched him pick through his ring for the house key. His hands were steady. I remembered what they'd felt like on my hips. His collar hung lazily around his neck. My fingertips itched to unbutton the rest of his shirt. His bangs fell forward like a curtain, hiding half of his face. I longed to run my fingers through his hair.

"So don't," I said in almost a whisper.

His motions halted and he looked up from his keys. "What?"

"Ask me to stay." I was testing the waters, unsure of where this was leading.

Nick's eyes narrowed and he straightened his posture. He studied me almost long enough to make it awkward. The air held a thick cloud of tension between us. Though we'd been having a mostly lighthearted conversation all night, I had noticed the way he eyed my body and ran the tip of his tongue over his lower lip while he listened to me. The action had sent a chill up my spine and caused me to stutter mid-sentence. But he wasn't the only one silently seducing. Surely he'd been aware of how often I glanced at his chest, and maybe a little lower. No doubt he'd watched the way I bit my lip when he spoke.

I wanted him to notice.

Nick took a step toward me, his eyes locked on mine in a heated stare. He reached out, touching my upper arm. Another step. He backed me up until my back was flush against the wall. He placed his hands on either side of my body, towering over me in the sexiest way. I could feel the heat radiating from his chest and suddenly became very aware of how close his half unbuttoned shirt was to my own chest. I wanted to touch it, run my fingertips over the buttons. Hell, I wanted to rip the rest of the buttons off. But I stayed still as a statue, watching, waiting.

"I'm afraid if I do that," he began huskily, resting his forehead against mine, still staring deeply into my eyes. "You'll end up in my shirt again, come morning."

My breath caught in my throat. I couldn't speak. He was unraveling my self control one word at a time.

"But then... I doubt you'd be complaining."

The statement rolled off his tongue, caressing my ears like velvet. I gasped at the pressure of his hips against my own.

Before either of us could make the next move, my better judgment sent up its red flag reminding me of the previous night and dangling it in front of my conscience that I'd regret tonight as well if I didn't put a stop to everything right now.

I stayed still. Didn't speak, barely breathed. I couldn't take my eyes off his. Those deep, rich chocolate orbs were stunning on their own, never mind the gorgeous man they belonged to. I spotted tiny flecks of gold and green sprinkled in. The longer we looked at each other, the more exposed I felt.

Maybe I would regret it in the morning. Maybe it would complicate everything more. Maybe Nick would be a two-night stand and I'd never see him again. I tossed my cares aside. I'd felt like hell before, but after hearing that Derek had been cheating on me for who knows how long... I didn't feel so bad anymore. Yes, I'd have to own up to my actions, but so would he, and he didn't appear willing to admit to anything any time soon.

Two could play at that game.

"Stay, Carrie," Nick muttered against my lips.

Our eyelids fluttered closed at the onset of the first kiss. He tasted sweet, like sugar. His scent was intoxicating. His lips were like satin, deliciously sinful.

He pulled back to look at me. "Stay the night."