CHAPTER TEN

ANGUISH

Cloe did not understand what she had done to be rejected by him. Her heart ached when they reached the end of the Hill in silence. She doubted it was because he had to work something out, as he had said.

When she climbed through her bedroom window without her parents knowing about her defiance, and only then, when she closed her bedroom window again and sat down in the chair at her computer desk, did she allow herself to cry. The sobs shook her, and she cried until she felt empty.

She lay down hoping to sleep soon, but the thoughts wouldn't let her. She thought he didn't want her because she was a virgin. Who would want to have sex with a woman with no experience at all? How could a night so magical and promising turn so quickly into a disaster?

She thought back to when her parents had picked her up from school, maybe that had been a factor too? Of course it had! That had to be it, her parents had scared her.

Her confirmation came the next morning, when as she sat down to brea