The tears are running down my cheeks, and I sniff.
"But my father was a very patient man, unlike me." Daniel reaches out his hand and wipes away my tears gently. "He tried very hard to earn my trust, taught me a lot, gave me a job, a home, and a sense of family. He was everything to me."
Daniel moves closer and presses his lips to mine in a gentle, barely perceptible kiss. I feel the salt of my tears on my mouth, but Daniel swallows them, licking my upper lips and then the lower. He cups my face in his palms, "Don't cry, Savi. I hate to see you like this."
And then he presses his lips to mine again.
Savi...That's the first time he’s called me that, notbaby, orSavannah, orlittle lamb.
Just like that, I became Savi for him.
Chapter Thirteen
Savannah
It's been a week since that night at Daniel's hotel. We haven't spoken to each other since then. I saw him a couple of times in the school corridors, but he didn't even nod in my direction.
I knew it would be like that when I agreed to have a one-night stand with a man who hates commitments. I knew we couldn't see each other again, not even just to talk. I prepared myself for this but I’m still not really ready.
I miss him. That night...it awakened something deep in my soul, something I've never seen before, something I never knew I needed.
I never experienced that with Liam, no matter how much I tried to convince myself that I loved him. With Daniel...it's all different. It was as if someone poured gasoline on a fire. I wanted him so much I didn't care about the rules, opinions, people.
And after our conversation in bed, I not only want him physically but also emotionally. I want to talk to him, to know him, to feel again what I felt that night when he hugged me.
He let me stay for the night. I didn't ask him to. I was ready to leave, but even after we had sex again, he didn't let me go. He pressed his body to mine and hugged me so tightly as if he was afraid I might disappear.
And then the morning happened. He was hard when I woke up, but he simply kissed my forehead and pulled away, without even trying to have sex with me once again. He told me nothing. He simply called his driver, and I went back home.
I told my parents that I'd spent the night with Sky, and I felt shitty that I had to lie to them. I simply couldn't let them know how incredibly happy, fulfilled, and at the same time devastated I was.
Today is the first time I’ll have his class after we spent the night together.
"Here you are. I thought something happened to you," says Liam when I enter the classroom. "I called like three thousand times. Why haven't you picked up the phone?"
The bell rings, and Daniel enters the room, seeing me talking to Liam. The lecture begins, and Liam is forced to take a seat without waiting for my answer.
Daniel speaks, but I can't force myself to look at him, pretending that I’m taking notes on my laptop.
In a couple of minutes, I receive a note from Liam.
?Why are you not talking to me? I missed you.
?I quickly write 'Because we're not together anymore, stop calling me'and pass the note back to the sender.
It takes him a couple of minutes before I receive another note.
Will you ever forgive me?
To be honest, I already forgave him. I was so mad at him that I thought I would never get over it, but the moment I met Daniel, everything changed. I am not mad at Liam anymore because I don't care about him. I don't even think about him any longer. All I think about is how unfair life is. Why the hell did I have to fall in love with a man who doesn't love me back?
I writeMaybein response simply to stop this conversation, but the second I start to pass the note back, a big hand grabs mine, taking the message away from me.
When I raise my eyes up, I see Daniel is standing in front of my desk.
"Liam, you've got detention for distracting my students during lecture," he says with a low, cold voice.
I shudder.