A REASON FOR MARRIAGE

Simon gave a shrug. “I have no other plans for the rest of the day. Do you?”

“Well…no, not exactly.” She shifted uncomfortably, obviously having no idea how the silk material of the robe once again outlined the fullness of her breasts. “I do have things to do before work in the morning, though.”

“Such as?”

Sara frowned. “How about I take a shower and we talk about this again afterwards?” she said briskly. “I’d really like to freshen up now.”Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

As it was almost twenty-four hours since Simon had last taken a shower, he could perfectly understand Sara’s need to freshen up; he could do with a shave and a shower himself.

“You’ll find a spare toothbrush in the bathroom cabinet.”

Sara raised dark, mocking brows. “Really?”

Simon could almost see the cogs of her imagination turning. “There’s also a spare razor in there-but you really shouldn’t infer anything from that!” he drawled dryly.

Colour flared in her cheeks. “Very funny!”

Simon gave another shrug. “Just in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t!”

Oh, yes, she most definitely had been. And Simon knew it hadn’t been in a good way. “What have I done since we met to give you the idea I make a habit of bringing women home to spend the weekend with me?” He moved up on one elbow to look at her from between narrowed lids.

Nothing since the two of them had met, Sara accepted. His pursuit of her this past week or so had been completely single-minded. But she couldn’t allow herself to forget his reputation of coldness towards a woman once he had decided he no longer wanted them in his life.

“Nothing at all,” she dismissed lightly. “Is this the bathroom over here?” She indicated the closed door on the right of the bedroom.

Simon shook his head. “The dressing room. Where you will find several of my shirts hanging up if you don’t want to put your dress back on.”

Sara tensed at the idea of the intimacy of dressing in one of Simon’s shirts.

“Er-no. I’ll be fine in the dress, thank you.”

Simon continued to look at her for several long seconds before giving an abrupt nod of his head. “In that case, that’s the bathroom over there.” He nodded at the closed door to the left of the room.

Sara avoided meeting that piercing green gaze as she grabbed her dress up from the carpeted floor, where it had been dropped the night before; no doubt she was about to go home in a very crumpled black silk evening dress!

“Thanks.” Her chin was high as she hastily left the bedroom.

Simon remained laying in bed for several minutes longer, listening as Sara turned on the shower. A large part of him-that hard and rampant part of him!- wanted to get out of bed and join her in the shower to make love with her again, but the more cautious part of him warned that Sara needed a few minutes alone, that-incredibly-her embarrassed awkwardness earlier this morning, and again just now, gave every indication that spending the day in bed with him had been completely out of character.

Reading between the lines what Sara hadn’t said last night, Simon could well imagine that her relationship with Bruce hadn’t been what was called ‘a bed of roses’. So much so that Sara had fought shy of becoming intimately involved with anyone since her divorce. Well, as far as he was concerned, he was glad Bruce was no longer a part of her life. She deserved better than whatever he had to offer.

But there was something about the way she acted just now. It didn’t look like regret, but he could feel that she was holding back… Slowly becoming withdrawn and he didn’t like it one bit. He liked Sara… A lot, he acknowledged, and he wanted her to feel the same way about him.

__________

In the shower, Sara had some time to think more clearly. While she had just spent an amazing time with Simon, she couldn’t shake the feeling that was getting carried away, and that was because she was.

Hell, she was already imagining a future with him. How the hell she had gone from swearing off men and wanting to get an IVF to this, was something she couldn’t quite understand, but now all she could think about was that she needed to get back to reality. Life wasn’t a fairy tale, and Simon wasn’t her prince. She had to return home and clear her head.

She felt more than a little awkward when she entered the kitchen half an hour later. Her hair was still damp from the shower and she wore no make-up, although she had accepted Simon’s invitation and borrowed one of his shirts from the dressing room-a cream silk. She felt less conspicuous wearing the shirt over her figure-hugging evening gown like a jacket, the sleeves turned up to just beneath her elbows.

Simon had obviously been busy in her absence. A salad and a selection of cheeses were laid out temptingly on the breakfast bar, and she could see from the dampness of his dark hair and clean-shaven jaw, as he turned to look at her from beneath hooded lids, that he had also taken a shower and freshened up in one of the apartment’s many other bathrooms. He was wearing black denims and a fitted white T-shirt which emphasized both his muscled chest and the natural tan of his skin. Simon looked more edible than the food!

This was not what Sara wanted to feel after deciding earlier on today that she was going to be sophisticated and casual about all this, and not try to make it into something it wasn’t. As far as Simon was concerned, anyway. Sara would have time to sit and decide how she felt about it once she was safely back in her own apartment.

The guarded look in Simon’s expression as he put a basket of freshly baked bread on the breakfast bar before sitting down on one of the stools only served to confirm that Sara needed to act cool as well as sophisticated.

“This all looks delicious!” she complimented him brightly as she sat on the stool opposite him. “I’ll just eat a little something and then I really do have to leave.”

His expression was still guarded. “I thought we could talk first.”