PeakExperience by Rachel Kenley Read Free Book Online Page B

thinking to take the covers with her, and turned to
stare at the half-naked man sitting next to her. She heard him wrong. “What did
you call me?”
    “Thumbelina,” Daniel repeated.
    Lena grabbed at the sheets to cover herself more and was
almost doused in the hot coffee Daniel was holding out to her. “Why did you
call me that? No one calls me that except my parents and a few people at the…”
    “Summer camp they used to run,” he finished for her.
    She looked at him warily, trying to place him beyond the
night before. One-night stands were supposed to be fun, over quickly and
enjoyed with relative strangers. Not that she had a lot of experience with
them, but this was too much familiarity. “Who are you and how do you know my
nickname?”

Chapter Four
     
    He smiled and Lena saw something familiar in the look. “I am
Daniel Royer, which you know from last night, but when I was at Crane Hill Camp
you and everyone else called me Danny.”
    Her mind flipped through a catalog of images from past
summers until she arrived at a memory of a quiet boy who hung around her the
year she spent at Crane Hill after her marriage and career as an artist ended.
The boy she remembered was shy, wore glasses and was only an inch to two taller
than she, all long limbs waiting for a growth spurt. “Oh no, you can’t be.” Her
grip on the sheet tightened.
    “I assure you I can be and I am.”
    “But that would make you…” Her un-caffeinated brain couldn’t
do math this early.
    “Twenty-eight. I’m twenty-eight.”
    “Dear Lord.” Her head fell into her hand. She thought she
deserved points for not hiding under the covers entirely. All she wanted was a
quick fling and she got a hot artist twelve years younger than her who knew her
years before. I’ll bet this never happens to Michelle when she meets a new
guy. How could she be so foolish? Even the characters in her mother’s
children’s books knew rash actions had terrible consequences and there was no
escaping them.
    She remembered something. “That’s how you knew my last name
at the gallery. I didn’t tell you.” As her humiliation waned, her anger grew.
    “No, you didn’t. I slipped. I hoped you didn’t notice.”
    “I didn’t. I blamed it on the alcohol. I thought I told you
and then forgot.” At least her memory wasn’t going, although it was a small
consolation, since memories of last night were all too vivid. A blush started
as she recalled what they shared together, how she allowed herself to get
carried away.
    “Is there a problem?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts
and trying again to hand her the coffee. She moved farther away, nearly falling
out of bed in her haste to create some distance between them.
    “A problem? Oh no, of course not.” She hoped her sarcasm was
obvious. “Silly me thought for once I enjoyed a meaningless night of great sex,
and instead I’m sitting here naked with a man I not only know but someone I
could have babysat for.”
    “I’m glad you thought the sex was great since I didn’t want
it to be meaningless. If it’s any consolation I don’t need a babysitter and you
look beautiful naked. I could do a whole series of pictures of you in sunbeams
and moonbeams.”
    “Look, Danny…”
    “It’s Daniel.”
    “Daniel. Why didn’t you tell me who you were last night?”
    “Probably because I didn’t want you to look at me the way
you are now. Once I was certain you didn’t recognize me, or my name, I wanted
you to keep seeing the man, not the kid. I wasn’t expecting us to go to bed
together. Getting coffee would have been fine, until you asked me to kiss you.
Then I didn’t want to stop. You didn’t either.” He leaned forward to touch her.
She pulled back.
    “You’re wearing contacts,” she said stupidly, trying to keep
the conversation away from sex.
    “Yes, and I’m taller than I was at fifteen. Are you okay?”
    “I need to find my clothes and go.”
    “I can see you’re finding this is