Elysium by Thea Landen

Author:Thea Landen [Landen, Thea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A 1Night Stand Story
Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Published: 2015-02-11T05:00:00+00:00

April

Tick…tick…tick….

Who still used an analog alarm clock?

I’d have been lying if I claimed only the constant movement of the second hand kept me awake. When I’d left Bridgeport that afternoon, I hadn’t expected to wind up in the bed of a man I’d known for mere hours. I couldn’t imagine what kind of woman he must have thought I was.

Which was fair, because I didn’t know what kind of woman I was, either.

Chaotic thoughts jumbled in my head, like they belonged to so many different people trapped inside one body. I wanted to be the doting, faithful wife, yet I no longer had a husband to be faithful to. Playing the role of the grieving widow for two years had trapped me in that character. Part of me wanted to feel sexy and confident. Had I ever been those things, or was I simply idealizing the past again?

Tick…tick…tick….

I wondered about the late hour. So many opportunities for me to get back in the car and drive home had passed, and the possibility continued to loom. Instead, I’d chosen to stay in that strange bed with the blankets pulled up to my chin and clothing scattered around the room. A respectable distance of about a foot stretched between my body and Drew’s. As if that somehow downplayed the fact that we’d had sex.

Tick…tick….

Enough moonlight trickled in through the window to let me see the clock on the nightstand. I snuck a peek in that direction. Surprisingly, Drew stared up at the ceiling, also awake. He caught me looking and swiveled his face toward me. “Can’t sleep?”

I shook my head.

“Me neither.” He started to say something else, but closed his mouth. Glancing away, he picked at the edge of the sheet, twisting the ivory fabric in his fingers. “I hope you don’t think I do this with every client,” he eventually said. “I assure you, you’re the first one to ever come back here.”

I smiled in the darkness. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t thinking poorly of you.”

He turned big puppy-dog eyes back to me and returned the smile. “Good, I’m glad.”

“And here I was concerned about what you thought of me.”

His brow furrowed and then returned to its relaxed state. “I knew you were special from the very beginning. That hasn’t changed.”

From any other guy I might have written it off as a cheap line with ulterior motives, but from him, I believed it. In a way, he did know me, though we’d only met face-to-face that day. While I hadn’t learned all the details of his life, I liked what I’d seen and heard so far.

Despite a burgeoning fondness for Drew, shreds of guilt lingered over me. I’d made a vow to my husband on our wedding day. Logic told me nothing I’d ever done had broken that vow. I wish I trusted in logic.

A lengthy silence passed. “I’m sorry.” I sighed. “I know I’m being kind of weird, and I shouldn’t be. I’m simply trying to sort things out.”

“It’s okay.” He rolled onto his side, tucking one arm beneath his pillow.

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