Page 14 of One Weekend in Perth

It was hot.So hot.

That was Clara’s first thought when she slipped from sleep to awareness. Why was she so hot when she could hear the hum of the air conditioner?

Air conditioner?

She never slept with her air conditioner on all night. Had she forgotten to turn it off?

Slowly everything else began to seep into her consciousness. The sheets beneath her cheek were scratchier than she was used to. There was also a heavy weight across her leg. Something she hadn’t woken up to in months since her cat, Scooter, had passed away. Her heart clenched in grief at the loss of her fluffy fur baby. Maybe it was time to get a new one.

Focus!

Her mind yelled at her, and Clara paid attention to it. She tried to force her eyes open so that she could find out where the heck she was. Why she was hot. And why there was a dead weight across her legs.

A hairy dead weight.

That was all she needed, and her eyes popped open. The heavy, dark green curtains covering the windows were the first things she saw, and it all began to make sense. She was in a hotel room. The room she’d booked for Ben’s wedding.

Ben!

He was in her room. In her bed. Holding her as if his life depended on it. Sometime during the night, he’d migrated over to her side of the bed, because she was still on her side, where she fell asleep.

For so long she’d wanted this. To wake up in Ben’s arms, but not in these circumstances. She’d wanted it to be because they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other and had finally followed through on what she’d known for a long time—she wanted Ben in more ways than just friendship.

Behind her Ben’s whole body tensed; he was awake and aware of where he was and what he was doing.

She fully expected him to jerk away and apologize profusely for what he’d done. Instead the opposite happened. All the tenseness left his body and he buried his head in her hair.

“Morning,” he mumbled.

What was going on here? Why wasn’t he freaking out about how close they were?

At one point last night she thought for sure he was going to kiss her, but he’d pulled back, and then Reed had arrived and the moment was lost.

“Morning to you, too.” Clara didn’t know what else to say.

Are you okay?

Do you regret being here with me?

Do you want to kiss me?

Do you want to make love to me?

Clara slammed the brakes on the road her mind was traveling down. Nothing good would come from asking any of those questions.

Her heart thudded in her chest. Could he feel it? His hand rested low on her belly. If he moved it in any direction, she wouldn’t mind.

Stop it, Clara!

Being this close to Ben was frying her brain and she couldn’t allow that to happen. Just because she finally accepted that she wanted more from Ben didn’t mean he wanted the same thing.

After this was all over, she’d have to think long and hard if she could continue with her friendship with Ben. It would cut deep and would take months, maybe even years, to get over him not being in her life, if she decided that she was the way she wanted to go.

It wouldn’t be long before Ben found another woman to love. Really love this time, not what he admitted he thought he had with Fern but hadn’t. It was paralyzing to see him get engaged once, twice she wouldn’t recover from.

It would be better to cut the ties immediately, yet she couldn’t. She was here with Ben and he needed her. She would see him through his disappointment and then she’d move on. Maybe she’d look for a job which required a total relocation from Perth. Maybe that's what they needed. A clean break in a different location to get over the loss of Ben in her life.

“I don’t know what’s going on in your mind, Clarabelle, but you are so tense I’m worried you’re going to snap.” Ben’s sleep-laden voice trickled down her spine, and she took a deep breath, savoring the sound of it.

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