That kind of pissed her off since she'd already figured things out for herself. She didn't need him coming up here and wrecking her already boring weekend with this drama. He didn't want her? That was fine with her. He could tell her and then go on his merry way and she'd work him out of her system starting tonight.

"Let me carry that for you, Joe," Alex said smoothly as he picked up her bag and gestured towards the elevator. He either didn't notice that Nathan was standing next to her or was cocky enough to have already dismissed Nathan, probably the latter.

"No need. I've got it," Eric said coldly as he grabbed the bag away from Alex.

"Who the hell are you?" Alex demanded, crossing his large arms over his chest as he tried to glare up at Eric.

"Her boyfriend, ass**le, so move along," Eric said, shocking the hell out of her.

Alex turned accusing eyes on her. "You didn't say anything about a boyfriend."

She opened her mouth to inform the man that he'd never asked. Hell, he never let her get a word in edgewise. Not that she would have claimed Eric was her boyfriend when he'd made it more than obvious that there would never be anything more between them. But before she could say anything Nathan smoothly stepped in.

"She doesn't talk about him because she's ashamed of him."

Joe couldn't help but nod in agreement. "It's true. I am."

Eric snorted at that as he gave her hand a gentle tug towards the elevator. She couldn't help but feel a little awkward when Nathan and a pouting Alex joined them and Eric still didn't let her hand go. She dared a glance at Nathan to see how he was taking all of this only to catch the man grinning hugely.

She didn't know what was going on, but right then she didn't care. As soon as she got into her room she was taking a hot soothing bath and then she was going out. Whatever brought Eric and Nathan up here could damn well wait until tomorrow, she decided as the elevator doors slid open and Alex practically stomped off.

Biting back a few choice words, she pulled her hand away from Eric, grabbed her bag and followed the signs to her room, hoping the guys got the hint and left her alone. So when they followed her into her room she couldn't exactly say she was really all that surprised.

"Get out," she said, not bothering to look at them as she tossed her bag on one of the double beds and began to dig out the things she'd need for a bath.

"No can do," Nathan said, walking past her to drop down on the other bed.

She turned her glare on Eric who was glaring right back at her like she'd somehow pissed him off. She wasn't the one who gave him the brush off after the most incredible night of her life. No, that was all him. Did he really think that she'd be happy to have him come all the way up here to give her the bad news? Was she receiving special treatment because of their friendship? Knowing him, probably.

"You didn't have to come up here to do this. I got the hint this morning," she stressed, hoping he'd get the hint and get out of here. She really didn't want to talk about this in front of Nathan if she could help it.

"Yeah, I saw," he said tightly. "Who was the ass**le?"

When she could only frown he added, "The ass**le sniffing around you downstairs."

"Just a whacker from class," she said, sighing. "Now that you know that, both of you can get the hell out of my room."

Eric stubbornly shook his head. "Sorry, like Nathan said we can't do that."

"And why's that?" she asked, grabbing her things and headed for the bathroom, hoping they would be gone by the time she was done.

"Because there are no other hotel rooms available. Looks like we're sharing."

********

"You know, you were right," Nathan mused as he lounged back on the bed. "You really suck at this."

Eric flipped him off before following Joe into the bathroom. When she tried slamming the door in his face he shoved it open enough so that he could step inside. Then he shut and locked the door behind him.

"Get out," Joe said, sounding pissed when she sure as hell didn't have the right to.

The entire ride up here he'd been a nervous wreck, but an excited nervous wreck. He couldn't wait to see her and tell her that he wanted to give this a shot and of course Nathan tagged along to watch the whole thing. Nosey bastard, but he was glad that the man came along. At least having him around would give him an ally, something he sorely needed at the moment.

"No, you and I need to talk," he said, expecting her to yell at him or throw something at him like most of his ex-girlfriends would have done, but instead she gestured for him to get on with it.

"I got the message loud and clear this morning, Eric. There really was no need for you to come all the way up here," she said, turning her back on him to start a bath.

"I'm sorry about that," Eric said, at a loss for words to make up for hurting her.

"It's fine," she said, shrugging it off the same way she began to shrug out of her clothes.

It was a bit distracting and he wished she wouldn't do it, but he kept his mouth shut about it. The last thing he needed was to really piss her off. He needed to fix this and quickly.

"I love you, Joe," he told her, wishing like hell that he knew what to say to convince her to give him a chance.

She sighed as she settled into the bubble filled bathtub. "I know," she said softly. "I love you too, Eric, which is why I'm not going to push you into anything that you don't want. I'd rather be your friend than lose you," she said, sounding miserable.

"And I'd rather have you, Joe. I'm in love with you and I want to be with you, Joe," he said, praying that she gave him a chance. He'd already f**ked up so badly and didn't know what he'd do if she told him to f**k off.

He went to the tub and got on his knees and barely resisted the urge to take her in his arms. "I know I don't have the best track record for dating, but you have to know that I would never treat you that way."

"How can you be so sure?" she murmured, drawing her knees up and hugging them to her chest.

"Because they weren't you, Joe. I didn't want them the way that I want you and I sure as hell didn't love them. I love you, Joe, and I want to be with you," he said, unable to resist the urge to skim his fingers over her delicate jaw.

When she didn't say anything for a minute he shifted nervously, racking his brain for a way to get out of his hole he'd dug himself into. Just when he decided to go ask Nathan since the man knew what the hell he was doing when it came to dating, Joe let out a long drawn out sigh.

"I'm willing to give this a chance, but you should probably know that if you treat me like crap then I'll have no choice but to kick your ass."

He nodded solemnly even as his lips tipped up into a smile. "That's a fair warning."

"I thought so," she agreed even as she reached for him. Not that she had to since he was already moving to pull her into his arms. He leaned in to kiss her when the banging on the door started.

"I'm hungry!" Nathan bitched.

"So? Go get something and leave us the hell alone!" Eric snapped, moving in to kiss Joe's sweet lips.

"You promised to buy me a steak dinner if I came up here with you," Nathan pointed out.

"I lied!"

He ignored the gasp of shocked outrage and closed the distance between them and nearly groaned at the taste of her.

"You lying bastard!"

"You know you're buying me a steak dinner, don't you?" Joe whispered against his lips.

He couldn't help but chuckle against her lips. "I knew you were a little gold digger."

Chapter 24

"I want to go home and go to bed," Joe said, knowing she was whining, but couldn't help it. After an eight hour class and a two hour drive she wanted nothing more than to go home and go to bed.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the only reason she was tired. Since Eric gave her the shock of a lifetime on Friday they'd been inseparable once again. That is when she wasn't stuck in class. They went for walks, talked, went out to eat, went dancing, and cuddled and whispered most of the night while Nathan snored a few feet away. They hadn't had a chance to make love since they decided to give this relationship a chance and she fully planned on rectifying that just as soon as she found a way to get out of this and get some sleep.

"Can't," Eric said, reaching back and grabbing her hand when she tried to make her escape. "Mom called a family dinner."

"But I'm not hungry. I'm tired. Can't she call a family nap instead?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

Eric simply chuckled as he threw his arm around her and herded her towards the door. She waited for Nathan to open the front door before she tried to pull away again, but Eric simply tightened his hold around her and pulled her into the house.

She loved Alice, she really did, but she was so damn tired. She hadn't slept much during their twenty-four hour shift on Wednesday and got even less sleep during the next night when they came together and even less during the weekend. It was a struggle just to stay awake at the moment. All she wanted to do was sleep.

"This is too perfect," Nathan said, chuckling softly as he stepped into the kitchen in front of them.

Biting back a yawn, Joe followed him into the kitchen wondering what was so amusing when she saw it, or rather her. Sitting at the table chatting with Alice was a twenty-something bleach blond woman wearing an eye catching blouse that sadly didn't have much cle**age to fill it out and a calculating expression that landed on Eric.

Why hadn't she realized this was why Alice called a family dinner? Because she'd been too exhausted to think straight. Well, it looked like Alice was making another attempt to fix Eric up and she suddenly found herself very much awake and ready to be entertained. Was it wrong to start a relationship by screwing him over?

She didn't think so.

Just because they were free to be with each other and didn't have to hold anything back shouldn't mean that they couldn't have a little fun and judging by the look the woman was sending Eric she was going to have a lot of fun.

"Amber, this is my son Nathan and my Joe," she said, gesturing towards her and she didn't miss the look of dismissal the woman gave her before it shifted right back to Eric, "and my son Eric that I was telling you about."

Joe didn't even bother hiding her grin as she ducked out from beneath Eric's arm and avoided his mad grab. "It's nice to meet you, Amber," she said sweetly as she sent Eric an evil little grin and eyebrow wiggle.

"Very nice to meet you, Amber," Nathan seconded, sending her a wink.

This really was going to be so much fun, she decided as she took a seat next to Alice and gave the older woman a kiss on the cheek. She wasn't too surprised when Eric tried to yank Nathan out of the way so that he could sit next to her, but Nathan was fast. He had his butt in the seat next to hers and his arm draped over the back of her chair in seconds.