Читать книгу A Scandalous Affair - Donna Hill, Donna Hill - Страница 16

Simone couldn’t sleep. She was sure if she did, she’d dream things she didn’t want to see. Samantha and Chad.

On more than one occasion during the course of the evening, she’d been halfway to her car en route to Blue Light. After all, she’d been invited. So what if she turned up without a date? That’s the thought that stopped her in her tracks. She’d look like a fool. She’d look desperate. She’d look like she was spying. And if she went she’d be all those things.

She turned off the television with the remote and the room was enveloped in near darkness, except for the pale light from the sprinkling of stars and the half moon that gleamed outside her window.

She turned on her side. The digital clock stared back at her. One o’clock. Did he take her home? Did she let him stay?

“This is crazy,” she mumbled into the room. She was making herself nuts. Whatever was going to be would be and there wasn’t a damned thing she could do about it. She’d had her chance. She had it the night at her parents’ house. She had it that afternoon in his office. She chose not to take it.

She could have told him how she felt. She could have told Samantha long ago about her and Chad, even if it was about only that one night. That one glorious night. They’d always shared everything. And this one thing she’d kept to herself would come between them. If she let it.

Slowly, she sat up. She’d never been one to back away from anything, to pretend things were as they were not. She always confronted her issues head-on. Her father said that was one of her best virtues and key assets. But now, she felt lost—trapped really—between what was in her heart and what was in her head. Reason never wins out when it goes against the unbridled power of the heart. However, she knew that Samantha wanted to pursue a relationship with Chad. To tell her now about their past could ruin whatever chance their relationship may have. And for what? For a man who may or may not still care.

Leave it alone, her conscience whispered. Let it go. She knew in her heart it was the right thing to do. But could she?

Samantha knew it was late, nearly two o’clock by the time she settled down for bed. But she was too excited to sleep. Over and over again she relived that first kiss. And though she was no novice in the artifices of men and women, tonight was completely new, truly “the first time.”

She wanted to call Simone, try to explain to her how glorious she felt, how alive. For so long, her work, her causes, had been what brought a smile to her face, and prompted her heart to race.

Men, so few and far between, had been mere distractions, not additions to her life. And none could leap the high bar she’d stuck in their path until now.