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As she stared at the empty pillow, a dark shadow began to creep across her heart. For it was an experience that could never recur again. Their extraordinary night together was formed out of pretense. She knew it going into it, but her emotions were intoxicated with elation and she reacted without any thought. It was clear she had abused her gratitude toward Daniel. She closed her eyes and felt a horrible sensation sweep over her. What had she done?
She heard a sound coming from the outside of her bedroom and knew she couldn’t lie around in bed all day waiting for him to leave. She had to get up and face him. If she were lucky, maybe he wouldn’t have read anything into what happened last night.
With reluctance, she crawled out of bed and slid on her robe before she headed for the kitchen. The smell of frying bacon assaulted her senses first. Daniel was standing in front of the stove fully dressed and cooking bacon and scrambled eggs. A ridiculously happy lurch caught her off guard at the sight of him.
He glanced up, saw her and smiled. “Good morning. Hope you’re hungry?”
Actually, she was. Her stomach felt like she had done a day’s worth of exercise. She remembered what it was she had done that caused the sudden feel of hunger and hurriedly thrust thoughts of their love-making aside. “Yes, thank you.”
His eyes slanted to her suspiciously at the lack of spirit in her voice before filling a plate of food and placing it in front of her. He turned back to the stove and began shutting off the burners.
Sonya frowned at the single place setting. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I’ve already eaten.” He ran his hands under the tap water and gave them a good wash to rid of the grease from the bacon. “I have to get going, my beeper went off earlier. The overnight batch failed. I’m expected down at the Institute.”
She nodded vaguely and stared down at her food. “All right.”
He headed toward the front entrance but stopped as he drew parallel to her, halting long enough to drop a kiss on her lips. Sonya instinctively drew back.
Daniel paused and frowned. “Is something wrong?”
She gave a huge sigh and got to her feet. “Daniel, about last night. We need to talk.”
His eyes never left her face. Then he began to nod his head slow and arched a brow as if contemplating her words. “I know what yo
u mean.”
Baffled, she looked at him. “You do?”
A silver set of eyes, close enough to be considered grey, held hers with intensity long enough to cause Sonya to fidget with discomfort. At last he turned on his heel and headed for the exit. Perplexed, she followed him.
“Last night was terrific, it really was,” he said as he gathered his leather jacket from her sofa. She hadn’t even noticed it there. The tux was missing as well. She assumed he had already been to his apartment that morning. The nagging realization that he could so easily slip out of her bed to rush over to his apartment to shower and get dressed, tugged on a nerve. “But,”
Sonya’s two well-shaped brows came together. “But?”
“We obviously have a problem.” He confirmed.
“Yes, I agree.” She admitted and wondered what he perceived the problem to be. “And it’s not you. I just want you to know that.”
“Oh, I know that.” Daniel looked relaxed as he slid his shoes on at the entrance.
She stared at him perturbed and thought a little compassion and understanding was in order. Last night was, after all, unforgettable. “So you agree, this is all my fault. I should never have taken advantage of you last night.”
“It’s definitely your fault.” He agreed, then grinned all at once as he reached for the door handle. “You’re in love with me.”
He shot her a wink then disappeared behind the door. Sonya sat there staring with an open mouth at the spot he vanished from. Was he out of his mind? Collecting herself, she ran toward the door and swung it open.
She had been right. Daniel had read too much into what had happened. Except instead of thinking he had fallen head over heels in love with her, he believed she had fallen in love with him!
He was a decent guy who didn’t believe in shameless sex outside of the marriage vows. Of course he would believe that love came with sex. She should have known he would have come to that conclusion. She just hadn’t imagined he would have thought it was she that had fallen in love.
She had to fix him straight as soon as possible. This was not good. No, not good at all. Peering down the corridor, she saw him head for the elevators. “Daniel, wait.”
He stopped and looked back. “Yes?”
Still in her robe, she ran after him. “You don’t honestly believe that, do you?”
He shrugged as if the subject already bored him and turned back to the elevators once more.
