Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Other titles by Danielle Lewis
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
About The Author
ReQUITED
Lost Love Series
Copyright
Requited (Lost Love Series)
Written, Compiled & Edited by: Danielle Lewis
Copyright © 2013 by Danielle Lewis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Other titles by Danielle Lewis (Click title to start reading)
The Cop (Lost Love Series) (Erotic Romance)
A Woman with a Secret (Looking Behind: Part 1) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
What Lies Behind the Smile (Looking Behind: Part 2) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
Learning of Each Other (Looking Behind: Part 3) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
The Hunt (Looking Behind: Part 4) (Sizzling Erotic Thriller)
Chapter 1
From: Clarke James
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2013 2:50 PM
To: Beka Thomas
Subject: Coffee?
Hi Beka,
I am coming to Pittsburgh this weekend for work. Want to grab coffee (or tea, or whatever it is you drink) this Friday?
- Clarke
Beka smiled when she saw the email. It brought back a lot of memories. When she was in college, Clarke was her dream man. She remembered trying to explain how she felt to her sister.
“It’s just so frustrating! Everyone thinks we should be together. Hell, even my boss confided in me once that she secretly hoped we would become a couple.”
“That’s crazy inappropriate,” commented her sister. Even though they were several hundred miles apart, Beka could picture her raised eyebrow perfectly.
“I know,” said Beka. “It was uncomfortable. I can up that though.”
“Really?”
“We were in my room with two of our coworkers, and he and I got to talking about books.”
“Of course,” laughed her sister. Beka had always been a bookworm.
“Anyway, one of them decided to comment that we ‘flow really well’ whatever that means, and the other then followed that up with ‘the chemistry is palpable.’”
“The chemistry is … palpable?”
“That’s what he said,” Beka shrugged. “I mean, who the hell talks like that?”
“Ten bucks says he is taking the GRE soon.”
“You’re probably right,” Beka agreed with a laugh. “Anyway, the point is: everyone can see it. We’re so damn compatible!”
“I know, but he is with someone else, Beka. You’ve got to move on.”
“I know,” sighed Beka. It’s just so frustrating! If only I had realized I liked him sooner, or if only he hadn’t decided to study abroad or maybe if I was thinner or prettier like her…”
“Don’t go there,” her sister warned her. “It wasn’t meant to be. You are wonderful just the way you are. Someday you will meet the right guy, and he will love you for you.”
“I don’t want anyone else,” Beka said sadly.
“Hey, snap out of it! No feeling sorry for yourself! He’s just a guy, and not even a great one. If he was the perfect man, he would have chosen you.”
Beka laughed. “All right. I’ll drop the melodrama. After all, even though he doesn’t love me, I still have a really cool friend.”
“I think that’s a good way to look at it,” declared her sister.
“I love you, Anne. Thanks for letting me rant.”
“What else are sisters for?”
Over the next year, Beka did her best to follow her sister’s advice and move on. She and Clarke were never going to be a couple – that ship had definitely sailed, but they were good friends. In the end, she found she didn’t hate his girlfriend. How could she? Jen made him so very happy.
No guy could compare to Clarke, but Beka found other things to take up her time. Instead of falling in love with him, she made herself fall in love with the rest of her life. She discovered how much she loved her research and even decided to devote her life to academia. By the time they graduated, she realized she had found her own path to happiness.
After college, they sort of lost track of each other. She moved to Pittsburgh for grad school, and he and Jen moved to California where he had gotten into med school. Occasionally he would send an email, but they hadn’t actually spoken in years. It had been a long time since she had actually stopped to think of him. She wondered if he and Jen had gotten married. Probably. She imagined that by now he was probably done with his Residency and was practicing. It would be interesting to see how his life had turned out.
Chapter 2
The truth was, emailing Beka for coffee was a relatively last minute idea. Clarke had been planning to speak at the conference for months, and he remembered just a few days before his flight left that Beka worked at the University there. Now he was deeply regretting sending that email.
There was construction on the highway, and he had found himself arriving in the city four hours later than planned. That had left him only ten minutes to get to the little coffee shop she had suggested. He did not have Beka’s phone number and he was sure she did not have a smart phone, so he could not cancel. Instead he found himself attempting to navigate the city’s ridiculous traffic laws while searching for somewhere to park a full twenty minutes after he had agreed to meet her.
Finally he made it to the coffee shop. If he was being honest with himself, he almost hoped she had already given up on him. Looking around, he did not see her sitting anywhere. Then, in the back corner, he spotted her reading while drinking her tea. She was wearing a floor-length purple skirt, and her hair was still long, flowing in golden waves down her back. She was just as he remembered her, except somehow more so. He couldn’t really explain it, but just by looking at her, he could tell that she had grown into the woman she was meant to be.
She did not look up when he entered, or when he walked over to her table. He smiled. She still loved her books.
“Hi Beka,” he said as he approached. She looked up and smiled warmly at the sight of him.
“Clarke!” she stood to hug him. “How was your flight?”
“Actually I drove. I live near our dear old Alma Mater now,” he told her, wrapping his arms around her. He was surprised by how good it felt to hold her, even briefly. He smiled down at her as she pulled away. “I’m sorry I’m late. I hit a lot of traffic.”
“It’s perfectly all right,” she told him. “I knew it had to be something like that. Why don’t you get some coffee, and I will finish my chapter?”
As he stood in line to order, he realized he was still smiling. His regret over sending the email was gone. In fact, he was glad he had sent it. It suddenly occurred to him that he had missed her. He had never really thought about it over the last few years, but the truth was, she had been a big part of his life for a long time. Now that he was here, he was glad he had come. It was good to see her again.
They spent the next hour talking. She was happy to hear about all o
f his medical research, and even though she knew very little about his field, she was willing to learn. It was refreshing to have someone to talk to about his work. Jen never really cared. She tried to listen, but at the end of the day, it bored her. In retrospect, he realized as he sat there explaining his conference piece to Beka, that should have been a warning sign.
In return, she told him about the classes she taught and told him some stories about her interactions with students. Talking to Beka was so easy. His face felt a bit sore, and he realized that he hadn’t smiled this much in a very long time. They ended up sitting together in that little coffee shop for hours.
“I know this is last minute, but do you have dinner plans?” he asked.
“I do actually,” she said, sounding genuinely regretful. “This was lovely though. I’m glad you let me know you were in town. I haven’t talked so much in quite a while.”
“Me either,” he confessed. He surprised himself by asking, “Before I leave town, could I see you again?”
“I’d like that,” she said. He didn’t really understand it, but those words made him feel so warm inside. Somehow he knew it would have cut deep had she said no.
“Actually,” she continued. “I’m free tomorrow evening after class. We could grab something to eat.”
“That sounds great. What time?” he asked.
“I’ll meet you at 6:00,” she decided. “I know a place with great burgers. I’ll text you the address.”
Chapter 3
“I don’t know what to do,” said Beka holding her head in her hands.
“It will be okay,” Anne promised her. “I mean, the guy is only in town for a few days, right?”
“He’s driving back home on Sunday evening after he presents.”
“All right, so it’s just a weekend, and you might not even see him again.” Beka glanced guiltily over at her sister.
“What did you do?” asked Anne.
“I sort of said we could have dinner together tomorrow,” Beka said, biting her lip.
“Why on earth would you do that?” demanded Anne.
“I don’t know. He asked, I said yes. It just felt right.” Beka sighed and lay back against the couch. “This is ridiculous. I am a grown woman. I shouldn’t be mooning over some guy like a teenager. I thought it was gone, you know?”
“Gone?” asked Anne. “What’s gone?”
“All that stupid stuff - the attraction, the racing heartbeat, the daydreaming about what he’s doing right now. I thought I got rid of it.”
“Your uterus?” asked Anne. “Sorry to break it to you, Sweetheart, but you’re stuck with it.”
“I know,” Beka groaned. “But it is most inconvenient!” She and Anne both laughed.
“Seriously though,” said Anne. “You’ll get through this.”
“I know,” sighed Beka. “I just did not expect it all to come flooding back the moment I saw him. Next time I will be more prepared for it. I just have to keep reminding myself that he’s married and just a guy I knew for a little while a long time ago.”
“Exactly. And in a week he will be out of your life forever.”
Chapter 4
For reasons he could not understand, Clarke found himself pacing restlessly around his hotel room. He could not get his mind off of Beka and her mysterious plans. What was she doing tonight? Who was she meeting? He shook his head, trying to get those thoughts out of his head. Why did he care? It certainly wasn’t his business who she spent her time with. She was just someone he knew a long time ago.
In fact, now that he thought about it, he hardly knew anything about her life. She had told him about her work, and they had reminisced about the past. Other than that, he knew nothing. Was she married? Did she have kids? Was she seeing someone? She could be in bed with some gorgeous, athletic, genius guy right now.
He heard a snap and looked down to see that he had actually snapped the cheap hotel pen he was fiddling with in two.
I want her. The thought struck him like a lightning bolt. That’s why he cared so much. He wanted to be that man in her bed. He sat down heavily. When on earth had that happened? For years he had hardly ever thought about Beka, and now he suddenly felt possessive of her.
It was ridiculous. After all this was Beka. Perhaps it was just a post-divorce early midlife crisis attraction. That had to be it. He had not thought about any other woman since Jen left. Maybe that’s just what he needed, a meaningless weeklong fling.
The more he thought about, the more sense it made. He was a long way from home, so he knew that he and Beka would not be running into each other all the time. Another advantage was that he knew her. Clarke had never really been the type to jump into bed with a complete stranger. Yes, he decided. Beka would be the perfect rebound hookup.
Chapter 5
Dinner with Clarke went surprisingly well. Beka had felt butterflies in her stomach as she saw Clarke approach the little diner, but as the evening wore on they fell into a comfortable rhythm.
He was different now that they were older. Age had mellowed him a bit, and he was less reserved than she remembered. He also had some grey in his hair now. Even so, he still had the same effect he had on her when they were young. Just the sight of him caused her blood to feel warmer in her veins.
After they had finished eating, he suggested they go out for dessert, so she took him to an adorable little frozen yogurt place just down the road from her apartment. Talking with him was so easy that she could tell if she wasn’t careful she would fall right back into love with him again. It was time to take drastic measures.
“So how’s Jen?” she asked.
“We’re not together anymore,” he replied. Beka almost choked. Her heart started beating twice as fast.
“I’m sorry. I always thought you two would end up getting married.”
“We did,” he said. “It turned out to be a bad idea.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered frankly. Beka silently continued eating her yogurt and waited for him to decide. Finally he began to speak.
“I think it started falling apart when I graduated,” he said. “We talked about it, and we realized that the only way we could stay together was if she followed me to med school. We didn’t want to break up, so she moved to California with me.”
“Was she unhappy?” asked Beka.
“Not with California,” said Clarke. “She loved it there eventually. It took time though. I wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that she was so far from all of her friends and family. She moved for me, and then I was so busy with school that I couldn’t be there for her.” He fell silent for a few moments.
“But you got married?” Beka prodded.
“I guess I thought I could fix our relationship by marrying her,” he said with a shrug. “It was stupid. The wedding just made things worse. Then we had Connor ”
“I’m sorry, what?” interrupted Beka. “You have a son? How have you not mentioned that before?”
“Haven’t I?” he asked, sounding surprised. “I guess we were too busy talking about the past. Would you like to see him?” Before she could even answer, he was already pulling out his wallet. “Here,” he said, handing the picture. Connor was adorable. He appeared to be about three years old.
“He’s really cute, Clarke,” she said, smiling at the picture. “What’s he like?” Over the next few hours, Clarke told her all about his life. She learned about his failed marriage, the day Jen abandoned their family, and his decision to move back to the East Coast. She got the impression that Clarke had wanted to talk with someone about everything for a long time, so she listened attentively. It was good to know she could be there for him.
Chapter 6
They talked for hours. In fact, Clarke and Beka talked until the frozen yogurt shop closed. Clarke gallantly offered to walk Beka back to her apartment, and she accepted his offer. After all, the apartment was not far. When they got there, however, she wasn�
��t sure she was ready to say goodbye.
“Would you like to come in?” she offered. “You know I’m a tea drinker, but I think I have some coffee somewhere.”
“Tea would be fine,” he assured her. Once they got inside her apartment, Beka suddenly felt nervous. Had she made a mistake by inviting him up here?
“So I might be completely misreading this situation, and if I am, then I am very sorry,” Clarke said suddenly. Confused, she turned to face him, and as she did, he caught her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. Immediately her knees weakened. As he kissed her, every other than the feel of his lips on hers flew right out of her head.
After the kiss, he pulled back a bit to look at her and gauge her reaction. He looked at her questioningly for a moment, but she could not respond. Somehow she seemed to have forgotten every single word in the English language.
Since she couldn’t tell him about how the kiss made her feel, she decided to show him by kissing him back. She kissed him with all the passion and longing that she had felt for him in college and that he had reawakened in her now. Dimly, a more cautious part of her brain recognized that she was being impulsive and perhaps irresponsible, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to be with him.
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