AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know I'd be content just to hear that you're happy.”
“I might have been a little down in the dumps lately, but I'm taking steps to remedy that.”
My cheeks heat as the admission slips past my lips. I keep my eyes on my plate so that I don't look at Dylan. The last thing I want is for Mum to realise Dylan is part of my plan.
“You are?” she asks.
“Yes. So you can relax, okay?”
“As long as it doesn't involve you working longer or harder, I'll do my best.”
“It doesn't.”
“This was excellent as usual, thank you, Diana,” Dylan says, carefully putting down his knife and fork on his plate.
Dinner is a much safer subject than the one we were just discussing, and I'm grateful for the change of topic.
“Did you have enough to eat?” Mum asks Dylan. “There's more if you want it.”
“I'm good, thanks.”
“I hope you have enough room left for dessert. I made Claire's favourite.”
“I always have room for dessert,” Dylan says smoothly.
Mum immediately stands and gestures for him to pass her his plate. “I'll be right back.”
As soon as she leaves the room, I give in to the urge to look at the man who rocked my world last night. Without the buffer of my mother sitting with us, my palms begin to sweat again and my heart thumps as our eyes meet across the table.
“I'm thinking about following you home after this,” he says.
I'm all for that. “Okay.”
My voice is more than a little husky in response, and when his pupils dilate right in front of me, the coil of desire pulls tight in my belly. The way he looked at me when he drove us both to ecstasy last night is front and centre in my mind. Slick heat gathers between my thighs as I remember the feel of his body sliding into mine. The need to feel him again – to have him again– is almost enough to make me lunge across the table and start things right now.
“That sounds really good,” I tell him.
It's as if I've dropped a bucket of ice over his head. His expression cools and there seems to be more distance between us than just the depth of the table.
“Claire, I think we need to talk.”
A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach replaces the curl of desire that was there a moment ago.
“You're not going to try and blow me off again, I hope?”
It was supposed to sound like a joke, but I sound as serious as I am. Dylan shifts in his chair as he plays with a scrunched-up serviette. Hurt slices through me, cutting me to the core. Dylan must have slept with more than a hundred women. For all I know, it could be two or three times that many. I really have no idea. What I do know is that I've never seen him wear the same regretful expression with them that he's wearing now after sleeping with me.
Did I fail his stupid test last night? Did I disappoint him in bed? Or is this because he's feeling disloyal to Austin and Mum? Maybe it's a combination of all three.
“I don't think we thought things through very well last night, Claire.”
After he rejected me last night at the bar, I told him I wasn't going to give him the chance to make a fool of me a third time, and yet here I am, feeling more than a little foolish. I'm over it. Over the push-pull dynamic between us, as well as over the easy way he dismisses our desire for one another.
I push my plate away. “I'm done. And I'm not just referring to dinner.”
“We still need to talk about it.”
“Thanks, but I'm only really interested in one thing from you,” I say, smiling coldly as I push my chair back and stand. “And it's not talking.”
