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He climbed onto the bed. “We have three more hours.”
He wrapped around me in the biggest, sweetest teddy bear hug, and again I marveled that he was both this cuddly boy and the guy who’d screwed me senseless a few minutes ago.
He planted a kiss on my neck, then propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at me. “Why is it a bad breakup?” he asked.
I wrinkled my forehead. “What?”
“Your last boyfriend. You said you’re going through a bad breakup. Why is it bad?”
I hadn’t planned on talking to Daniel about Neil. It wasn’t really information he needed. But now that it was the reason I was pretending I didn’t know him in front of my friends, it seemed like a fair question.
I drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. “The relationship was…abusive.”
His brows drew down. “He hit you?”
I shook my head. “No. He was mean.”
Daniel studied me. I couldn’t interpret the look on his face.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I would never be mean to you.”
The comment hit me right in the heart, it was so earnest.
No. I didn’t think he would ever be mean to me. Daniel couldn’t be mean to anyone, I suspected.
Whoever got him one day was going to be a very lucky girl.
When I didn’t answer, he looked at his watch. “I wasn’t expecting company, so I’m going to have to get creative with dinner,” he said. “I should probably feed you.”
He got up.
“Need any help?”
“Nope. But you can come hang out with me while I cook.”
He put on a shirt, and I followed him downstairs.
He had a pot of coffee on the kitchenette. “Mind if I have some of this?” I asked, already grabbing a mug.
“I can make you a fresh one.”
“No, this is fine,” I said, pouring it. “I got used to old coffee during my residency. Now I kind of like it. Reminds me of the little bit of downtime I used to get.”
He watched me take a sip. “No cream? No sugar?”
“No.”
He shook his head. “How can you drink that?”
“It’s coffee. You’re supposed to taste it. You can’t taste it with cream and sugar in it.”
He looked at me dubiously. “That’s like saying you can’t taste your eggs because you add salt and pepper.” He took my mug from my hand and put it to his mouth. He winced, handing it back to me. “This tastes like a burned tire.”
I laughed.
He looked amused. “I guess this proves strong coffee doesn’t put hair on your chest. Actually, maybe I should get a closer look.” He pulled the front of my dress open with a finger and I laughed, swatting him away.
