Summer of Love by Marie Ferrarella (easy to read books for adults list .TXT) 📕

‘All in all, I’d say that was a good night’s work, wouldn’t you?’

Daniel’s voice echoed with satisfaction and nothing else. If he’d experienced even a fraction of the anguish she had felt earlier then it certainly wasn’t apparent, Emma thought sickly as she murmured her agreement. Maybe they had never discussed having children but in her mind the two were linked—when you loved someone, you wanted to have a child with them. It proved beyond any doubt that Daniel’s feelings for her hadn’t been what he had claimed. Although she should have felt glad that she was rid of him, oddly enough it hurt to have yet more proof of the way he had lied to her.

Daniel knew that he would remember that night for a long time to come. Seeing little Thomas make his appearance in the world had touched him in a way he had not expected it to. All he’d been able to think about was how wonderful it would have been if he’d been watching his own child—his and Emma’s son—being born.

He glanced at her as they reached the outskirts of the town but she wasn’t looking at him. Her eyes were closed, although he didn’t think she was asleep. Had she been moved by tonight’s events, wondered how it would have been if it had been their child? He doubted it. Emma had made her feelings perfectly clear when she had told him that she was glad they had parted. She certainly wasn’t wasting her time by thinking about what might have been!

A feeling of dejection swept over him as he drew up in front of the house. He’d known it would be difficult to see Emma again when he had agreed to run the practice, but he had never imagined that he would feel this wretched. The only way he could hope to get through the coming weeks was to forget what had happened in the past and focus on what was happening at the present moment. And the one thing that was crystal clear was that Emma had moved on.

Daniel followed her into the house and headed straight for the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea in the probably vain hope that it would give him a much-needed boost. He hadn’t expected Emma to join him and looked round in surprise when he heard her follow him into the room. ‘Would you like a drink as well?’

‘Please. I don’t know if it’s the excitement of what happened tonight or the fact that all that travelling has upset my body clock, but I’m too wide awake to sleep.’ She tossed her coat over a chair and went to the cupboard. ‘I wonder if there’s any hot chocolate. Ah, yes, there it is.’

She stood on tiptoe to try and reach the jar of drinking chocolate but it was just out of her grasp. Daniel crossed the room and lifted it down off the shelf. ‘Here you go, shorty,’ he said without thinking.

‘I’m not short, just tidily packaged,’ she retorted, as she’d done so many times when he had teased her about her height.

Daniel felt the blood rush to his head. He remembered only too well what came next, how he would apologise for the supposed slight with a kiss. His eyes flew to Emma’s face and his blood pressure zoomed several more notches up the scale when he saw that she too remembered what had used to happen. Whether it was that or the fact that his emotions were already in turmoil he didn’t know but all of a sudden he found himself bending towards her until he was close enough to feel the moistness of her breath cloud on his lips.

‘Emma.’

He wasn’t sure if he actually spoke her name out loud or not. He was beyond hearing by that point, beyond everything including reason. What did it matter if he had just resolved to forget about the past? It wasn’t a sin if he changed his mind, was it? All he wanted was to feel her lips under his once more, taste their sweetness, savour their warmth and softness. One kiss was all he asked for, just one kiss to stave off the pain that was gnawing away at his heart. Surely it wasn’t wrong to allow himself this one brief moment of pleasure?

His head dipped until merely a millimetre separated them. Daniel could feel the heat of her skin now, smell the scent of the soap she’d used. Memories crowded his mind but he no longer needed to recall the past when he had a chance to create a whole new delicious present.

His mouth touched hers and the shock of the contact almost brought him to his knees. He could feel the blood rushing through his veins like liquid fire, feel the heat that invaded every cell in his body, and groaned. His hands lifted as he went to draw her closer so that he could feel the soft curves of her body moulding themselves against the hardness of his, but he never got the chance. With a tiny cry of alarm, Emma pushed him away and ran from the room.

Daniel leant back against the worktop, needing its support as all the strength suddenly drained from his body. He desperately wanted to go after her but he knew it would be the wrong thing to do. Maybe he could persuade her to let him kiss her again—possibly even do more than kiss her—but it wouldn’t be fair. Perhaps there was still some vestige of attraction between them, but it didn’t alter the fact that he could so easily ruin her life even now. Emma needed to focus on her job now more than ever or she could end up losing everything she had worked so hard for. Nothing was worth that risk, certainly not his own selfish desires.

Emma slammed the bedroom door, scarcely able to believe