Читать книгу Her Baby's Hero - Karen Sandler - Страница 8

What had she done?

Clutching the covers to her naked body, Ashley Rand stared at Jason Kerrigan’s stony profile and tried to reason through what had just happened. Five minutes ago she was moaning with passion, now she wanted to shrink inside herself as the awkwardness washed over her.

His eyes fixed on the ceiling, he wouldn’t even look at her. Just as well; she wasn’t sure she could meet his gaze herself. They’d come to his apartment to drown their sorrows with a pizza and a couple beers, not jump into bed. Somehow a soothing neck rub had turned into torrid sex with a man she wasn’t even sure she liked half the time.

What now? Did she get up and get dressed, see if the pizza was still edible? Talk to him, make a joke about what they’d just done together?

She shut her eyes, wishing she could vanish and reappear in the ramshackle house she shared with three other women near the UC Berkeley campus. No chance she’d be able to creep into her bedroom unnoticed by her roommates, even at 2:00 a.m. They’d want all the gory details. But she didn’t understand the insanity of this interlude with Jason herself, never mind being able to muster an explanation for the avid audience of her housemates.

She glanced over at Jason again. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around what she was doing in bed with him.

Her friendship with the prickly, straitlaced twenty-eight-year-old grad student had arisen more through happenstance than common interest. They both tutored at-risk kids at a local high school. When Ashley’s finicky VW had broken down, Jason had offered her a ride. He’d all but refused to let her drive herself after that, his stubbornness so exasperating that it was easier just to go along with him.

Without a glance in her direction, he turned on his side, presenting her with his broad back. Her stomach roiled as he shut her out even further.

It had seemed so innocent a couple of hours ago. She’d been hit hard by the news that one of their students, a promising young man they’d been sure was college-bound, had been arrested for drug trafficking. Jason hadn’t betrayed the least emotion when she’d called him at midnight, but he’d been the one to suggest she come over for pizza and beer.

She couldn’t stand the silence anymore; she had to say something. The mortification was killing her.

She tightened her grip on the covers. “Jason—”

He pushed away from her and slid from the bed. In the glow of the small bedside lamp, she got one heart-stopping glance at his gorgeous backside before he yanked the bathroom door open and disappeared inside.

Anger bubbled within her at his brush-off. She wanted to march in there after him and give him a shake.

Or she could just leave. This might be her only chance to escape without confronting Jason at all. It didn’t seem right to simply ignore what had happened between them, but for once, she was perfectly content to take the coward’s way out.

Jumping from the bed, she scrambled through the room, gathering up her skirt and blouse. She found her pantyhose in the kitchen and her sandals in the living room. Within a few minutes, she was dressed and out the door.

As she drove through streets wet with spring rain, she contemplated her next move. Avoid Jason completely the last few months of school? Make light of their lovemaking, as if it hadn’t been the most mind-blowing pleasure she’d ever experienced? Or pretend it had never happened?

She’d decide tomorrow, when she saw him again. Let him take the lead. Stone-hearted Jason would likely go with option three. Fine. She could deal with that.

Even if it hurt.