Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [48]
Syneda knew that was an understatement. Thanks to their mother, who was superb in the kitchen, all three Madaris brothers were great cooks. “I just hate for you to go to all that trouble. You’ll be showing up my insufficiencies as a hostess again.”
As soon as the words had left her mouth, Syneda regretted them. They could dredge up memories of their last weekend together, and by the sudden silence in the room it appeared they had.
Clayton captured her eyes with his. “Trust me. You were a good hostess. You took very good care of me that weekend,” he replied huskily. “I’ll have dinner prepared by the time you get there. Don’t work too hard.”
Before Syneda could utter a response, Clayton had turned and walked out of the door.
“Clayton, I’m home.”
Around five hours later, Syneda entered her apartment using the spare key. Her plans to leave work early had been aborted when she’d received another unexpected visitor. This time Larry Morgan.
He had told her in no uncertain terms that he would not agree to give his child up for adoption no matter what John Drayton did to him.
Syneda’s thoughts came to a sudden halt when her nose picked up the aroma of food. She was starving. She’d skipped lunch to finish an important report only to have the completion delayed because of Larry Morgan’s visit. Then, not long after he had left, she’d gotten a call from John Drayton. He had not been pleased with her decision to give his daughter more time to make a final decision. As far as he was concerned, the decision had been made. Therefore, he’d stated, he wanted to be represented by another attorney in the firm. That suited Syneda just fine.
“I was wondering when you’d get here,” Clayton said, coming into the living room. He had changed into a pair of jeans and a white chambray shirt.
Syneda’s mind began reeling as she eyed him from head to toe. He was an incredibly sexy man whether he was dressed in a suit, jeans…or nothing at all, she thought. She noticed he was holding two filled wineglasses. He handed her one of them.
“I thought you could probably use this. I take it you’ve had a bad day.”
Syneda graciously took the drink he offered. “That’s putting it mildly.” She took a sip. “Thanks. Something smells wonderful. What is it?”
Clayton smiled. “It’s a surprise. I just hope you’re hungry.”
Syneda laughed. “Clayton, I could eat a horse about now.”
“Well, dinner is ready when you are. Would you like to take a warm bath to unwind first?”
“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Clayton watched as Syneda rounded the sofa and went into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. He had found incredible hunger raging through him upon the sight of her. He only hoped his plan would work. He didn’t want to push her into anything, but with Syneda, some things had to be forced on her, and accepting a relationship between the two of them was going to be one of them. She was so certain she didn’t want or need the love of a man in her life that she was overlooking the obvious. A man who loved her was already in her life.
Over the past few days, he had done a lot of thinking about what she had told him the last night they had spent together; specifically, the information she had shared about her father. Whether she was willing to admit it to herself or not, the pain of her father’s rejection and abandonment was clouding the way she thought about love.
He knew she had some deep-rooted fears. The first being her fear of ever becoming dependent upon anyone, especially a man. And for that reason he understood her need for more space than normal. She would never agree to a relationship that would be confining.
She was also a private person, and she thought she couldn’t become seriously involved with a person for that reason. She didn’t know that the key to that problem would be for her to become involved with someone with whom her privacy wouldn’t be threatened.
And then there were her biggest fears, rejection and abandonment. It was plain she had decided the best way to avoid the heartache of both