I was impressed, but somehow, that job didn’t quite fit him in my mind. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something almostdarkabout this man. Something that made me think he’d have a job with some kind of shady element to it. I couldn’t imagine what that would even be, but he didn’t seem like an ordinary business owner to me.
That darkness intrigued me just as much as it made me wary. I felt a spark between us, but even if this wasn’t obviously a one-time thing, I wouldn’t try to pursue anything further with him. Great chemistry was one thing, but I had a feeling we came from different worlds.
***
When I woke the next morning, it took me a few moments to get my bearings. Instead of being in my bed at home, I was somewhere strange. There was a delicious ache between my thighs I’d not felt in a long while and…
Shit!
It all came flooding back. The man at the bar. The way his smile had unlocked something in me. The drinks I hadn’t planned to have, the laughter that came too easily, the way one reckless decision had tumbled into another until suddenly I wasn’t thinking at all—I was justfeeling.
I shifted carefully, the sheet whispering against my skin, and that was when I saw him.
He was still asleep beside me, one arm flung over the pillow I’d abandoned, dark lashes resting against his cheek. In sleep, he looked younger somehow. Softer. Nothing like the dangerous, magnetic stranger who had pressed me against a wall and made me forget my own name just hours earlier. His breathing was slow and even, peaceful in a way that made my chest tighten unexpectedly.
For a fleeting moment, guilt washed over me. Slipping out like this felt cowardly. Rude, even. Last night hadn’t been a mistake—it had been fun, thrilling, easily the best night I’d had in longer than I cared to admit. There had been a connection there, real enough that I felt it now in the quiet morning light.
But connection didn’t erase reality.
I’d just ended a long, messy relationship. My life was tangled up in complications, responsibilities, emotional loose ends I hadn’t even begun to sort through. I wasn’t the kind of woman who woke up in a stranger’s bed and stayed for coffee, no matter how tempting the idea suddenly seemed.
Maybe if I’d met him at another time. Maybe if I wasn’t still hurting from Alex’s betrayal. But right now, staying would only make things harder. Awkward. Complicated. And I’d had enough of complicated.
So I gathered my clothes quietly, stealing one last look at him before I left. He stirred slightly, murmured something unintelligible, and my heart gave an annoying little twist.
I slipped out the door without waking him, telling myself that leaving was the sensible thing to do.
The only thing to do.
Even if part of me already knew that I wouldn’t forget him anytime soon.