Chapter 11 #2
Shara visibly flinched and then nodded, conceding the match point to Daniela.
“How perceptive of you, Miss Moreau. I do love Caleb. Indiscretions aside, he’s a wonderful man in every way that matters.
He’s also great with my twelve-year-old son, who positively worships him.
I’m idealistic enough to believe that someday, when he’s finished sowing his wild oats in an attempt to exorcise his demons, Caleb will be ready for a serious commitment.
And when that day comes, Miss Moreau,” she said with absolute certainty, “you’d better believe I’m the one he’ll come running to, not one of his thirsty, simpering students. ”
Daniela could feel the blood rushing through her veins, pounding in her ears. Mustering a smile etched in steel, she said, “In that case, I guess I’d better enjoy him while I can. And I trust you won’t hold it against me when it’s grading time?”
Shara’s expression hardened with contempt.
Without waiting for her response, Daniela turned on her heel and strode out of the classroom.
She fumed all the way to the library, where she retreated to a table in a remote corner of the reading room and hoped she wouldn’t run into any of her classmates. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk, or to play the role of overstressed law student.
Her emotions were in turmoil, and she needed time alone to sort through them and regain her equilibrium.
It shouldn’t have stunned her to learn of Caleb’s exploits with his students.
As Shara Adler had told her, and as she herself had witnessed firsthand, Caleb didn’t lack for opportunities to indulge his sexual needs.
He was a gorgeous, virile man who was constantly ogled, admired and—apparently—propositioned by women.
Experience had taught Daniela that few men could resist that kind of temptation.
Certainly not the losers she’d dated in college, or the one on whom she’d wasted two good years of her life, only to discover he had a fiancée waiting for him in Dallas.
After that disaster, Daniela had thrown herself into work like never before, climbing her way through the ranks at the large accounting firm where she’d worked since graduating college.
She hadn’t exactly lived like a nun, though.
On the few occasions when she surfaced from calculating balance sheets and escrow accounts, she’d sought male companionship, someone with whom to explore a new restaurant, attend the symphony or enjoy courtside seats at a Spurs game.
Although she’d always told herself otherwise, in the back of her mind lingered the secret hope that she was one candlelight dinner away from meeting Mr. Right.
That hope grew dimmer and dimmer with each passing year, after each outing with attractive, intelligent men who failed to interest her on any meaningful level.
Her sexual encounters ran the gamut from disappointing to satisfactory; nothing had ever come close to being the stuff of fantasies.
Frankly, her double sonic vibrator delivered better orgasms than most guys she’d slept with, and her own fingers were pretty damn effective, too.
After one too many dates that went nowhere, she’d finally declared a moratorium on dating, which required too much effort for the nonexistent return-on-investment.
Now, at the age of twenty-seven, she’d all but resigned herself to the idea that she would never find her soul mate—if such a person even existed.
She’d filled her life with other, more important things, like taking care of her mother and helping her brothers establish the detective agency.
She didn’t have time to do much more than daydream about Prince Charming.
She daydreamed about them antiquing on a lazy Sunday afternoon, taking a romantic drive through the Hill Country and stopping for a picnic somewhere along the way.
She daydreamed about them traveling the world together, slow dancing on a moonlit beach, walking hand in hand in the rain.
Most of all, she daydreamed about being kissed.
Such a simple yet powerful thing that very few men—at least in her experience—had taken the time to master.
Caleb Thorne is probably an amazing kisser. The thought immediately conjured up a memory of his firm, sexy lips glistening wetly after he’d sampled her ice cream.
Daniela scowled, even as she crossed her legs under the table.
She wondered how many eager female students Caleb had kissed, caressed, then taken home to seduce.
And how many times had he and Shara made love?
If Daniela was foolish enough to sleep with Caleb, would she become just another notch on his bedpost?
Was he heartless enough to take from her without giving anything of himself in return?
He’d obviously done a serious number on Shara Adler, who’d heretofore struck Daniela as a smart, savvy, no-nonsense woman who would never be reduced to waiting on the sidelines for a man to finish sowing his wild oats.
Daniela frowned.
Somehow she’d thought Caleb Thorne was different from all the other men she’d encountered in her life. And although she knew it shouldn’t matter that he wasn’t, it did.
Mattered more than it should have.