"Naturally."
His neutral tone was getting to her. "You didn't leave a note."
"Why would I have?"
"Um, because that would have been polite?"
"I wasn't aware that there was an etiquette for one-night stands."
All the air whooshed out of Annette's lungs like she'd been sucker punched. "What do you mean?" she forced out.
Okay, he'd said it was just sex before it even started, but did that mean he couldn't treat her with common decency? Is this how men and women who had one-night stands treated each other?
If it was, she was glad she'd been celibate. Annette didn't like it. At all.
She'd had enough of being treated like an afterthought that didn't matter by her family.
"We weren't starting something last night, Annette. If anything, we were finally finishing it."
"Last night was closure for you?" she asked through suddenly dry lips, envious if it was true.
She'd wanted to give him closure if she could, but she'd also wanted it for herself and the way she'd woken up this morning thinking about a future with him was proof she, at least, hadn't gotten it.
"Sì."Which was an admission that he'd needed closure.
That was something, what she wasn't sure, but something.
"A one-night stand," she reiterated.
"Sì."
"I've never had one," she mused mostly to herself.
He made an odd sound. "Now you have."
"Carlo…" Her voice trailed off. She didn't know what she wanted to say to him.
"If that is all?" But he didn't sound as unmoved as he had earlier.
It was almost like he needed to get off to the phone.
"You left me breakfast." Why had he done that?
"It seemed the polite thing to do."
Ah, manners. Carlo had impeccable ones. And apparently, he knew what was called for these situations. Unlike her. "So, there is an etiquette for one-night-stands, only I didn't know."
"We had great sex last night, Annette. I wouldn't mind repeating the experience, but that is all it was."
"You wouldn't mind repeating the…" Oh, the arrogant so-and-so!
She'd blast him, but the truth was, Annette couldn't be entirely sure that if he asked, she'd say no. She'd walked into this hotel room with both eyes open.
But then they'd started kissing and touching and nothing about that had been emotionless. "It wasn't just physical pleasure, for either of us." He could acknowledge it, or not.
The truth was the truth.
"Perhaps not. We do share a past."