Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down Read Online Free PDF Page A

that?” I demanded, scrambling right back up again.
    “Calling you what?”
    “Miss!”
    “It’s a gesture of respect, which I should point out you’re not doing much to earn right now.” 
    “Do you think I respect myself very much right now?  Here I am throwing myself at you and you can’t even be bothered to take what’s right in front of you.”
    “I’m doing right by us both.  You’ve had a jot too much sauce tonight to think clearly, but you’ll see it on the morrow, yeah?”
    “Oh, I have not!”  I pouted, wrapping my arms around myself.  “This goes way beyond tonight, and it has nothing to do with a few glasses of champagne and you know it.”
    “What should I call you then?”
    “Huh?” I blinked at the question, my alcohol soaked brain tracking slower than usual.  “I don’t know.  How about Anja?  Or luv , or anything else that shows you give a damn about more than a paycheck?”
    “You know I can’t do that.”  His hands tightened into fists, like he wanted to hit something, and I felt the same way.
    “I know that Jake’s nowhere around here.  How would he even know if you and I…”
    “That’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”
    “Fine, just go away then.”  He turned on his heel and I chased after him, smacking into the wall in a mixture of drunkenness and early morning clumsiness.  “No wait… Rob, I’m sorry.”  Tears spilled as the jumble of emotions inside me couldn’t be contained any longer.  “I’m just so…” I shook my head, there were no words for the sense of helplessness and loss that gripped me.  
    His face softened, one hand reaching for my cheek and then dropping as he thought better of it.  “Try an d get some sleep, you’ll be fine come sundown.”
    “No, I won’t be fine.  That’s the whole point.  You can’t just tell a girl you love her and then expect her to forget it.”
    “I never told you I loved you.”
    Okay, so technically that was true, but we’d both already acknowledged it, and he knew it.  “Not to my face, but I heard it.  And even if you hadn’t said the words, when we kissed…  Tell me you didn’t feel the music.”
    “What music?”  He blinked, puzzled by my choice of words.  “What are you going on about now?”
    “When I kissed you on Christmas.  It was… I felt…”  My eyes slid shut, remembering the way his lips had felt on mine, my breathing coming quicker, lips parting.  “… like together we made something new.  And there I was walking around my whole life thinking I knew what music was, but I’d never truly become a part of it before, until I kissed you and we…” 
    His lips crashed against mine, muffling my cry of surprise, but I recovered swiftly, desperation fueling my kiss, knowing it might end at any moment.  His kiss was no less desperate, and the way his hands fisted in my dress as he held me tight told me everything I needed to know.  All too soon, he tore his lips from mine, and I buried my head against his neck as he held me close. 
    “That,” I gasped for breath, feeling his heart beating a fast staccato.  “That is what I felt and I know you feel it too.” 
    Rob held me for long seconds before he pulled back, his eyes heavy with regret.  “Anja… I can’t love you.”
    “But you do,” I replied gravely.  Neither one of us said anything and the silence stretched into minutes, our bodies still close.  I felt it in the pit of my stomach when he looked away and the first thing that came to mind spilled out.  “What if I start to love you back?”
    His gaze snapped back to mine.  “Do you?”
    Did I?  It hadn’t been all that long since I’d even started to think about Rob as more than a friend, and couldn’t deny there was a powerful attraction between us.  But was it love?  More than anything I wanted the opportunity to see where it went, but I couldn’t say the words to him yet.  “I…”
    “Doesn’t matter,” he said, pushing away