The Secrets Between Them by Nikki Benjamin

Author:Nikki Benjamin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2005-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Hannah wasn’t sure if she was more embarrassed or angered by the way her exchange with Evan had concluded earlier that evening. She only knew that she couldn’t stop thinking about it, and the longer she replayed the scene in her mind, the longer she went without sleep.

He had initiated all that had happened between them—beginning to end. She now realized that he had followed her into the kitchen intentionally, not, as she’d originally thought, because he’d lacked anything else better to do.

He had meant to broach the subject of her irrational response to a very minor accident all along. And more than likely, he’d only waited until Will was tucked into bed because he had known, quite rightly, that there were some things about her husband and her marriage that she would never discuss in front of her son.

Listening to the incessant rain drum against her bedroom windows, Hannah wondered if she should have told Evan the little she had, regardless of whether Will had been present. Too late now, of course—she couldn’t take back the admissions she’d made.

She had thought earlier that she owed Evan some explanation of her behavior. Her fearfulness toward him, as well as Will’s, had been completely undeserved, not to mention truly unfair. He had been upset by it, and justifiably so. He had given her no cause to be afraid of him in the ten days they had lived and worked together, and he’d had a right to be reassured of that fact by her.

But had she said too much by way of explanation? Had she revealed more about Stewart and her marriage than had been absolutely necessary under the circumstances? Had she given him too large a glimpse at the anguish she’d suffered before Stewart finally died? And, in doing so, had she stirred such pity in Evan Graham that he had deemed it necessary to kiss away her tears as if she were a child?

As yet another hot flush suffused Hannah’s face she tossed aside her bedcovers, slipped out of her bed and paced to a window that looked out into darkness. She pressed her forehead to the cold glass and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping without much hope to negate the memory of how Evan had taken her in his arms and kissed her almost senseless.

She was sure that at first he’d only meant to comfort her. But then she had clung to him, had opened her mouth to him so eagerly that he’d finally had to pull away from her as if extricating himself from a clinging vine.

Stunned as she had been his kiss, she had been even more stunned by her response to it. She hadn’t thought sexual desire would ever be a part of her repertoire of emotions again. Not after the awful nights she’d spent silently submitting to Stewart’s harsh, often hurtful demands.

But Stewart had been a tender, considerate lover once. Evidently her need for that kind of closeness, that kind of gentle, caring intimacy with a man hadn’t died completely.

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