Page 71 of Planned Seduction
Yeah, and risk hearing him say she was right, he was better off with his freedom? She’d rather stick toothpicks in her eyes.
Amy opened Miranda’s file and a notebook and proceeded to make detailed notes of the case as she read.
The patient, Annie Brauer, a journalist with one of the local newspapers, had made contact with the clinic, requesting details about artificial insemination using donor sperm. Maggie had seen her and her partner for the first time about three months ago and made thorough notes about their meeting.
Annie and her partner…
Amy gaped at the sheet in her hand, sure she’d misread vital information. She shook her head, snapped her jaw closed, and reread Annie’s partner’s name. Then she went over each detail of the case with meticulous care, reading the file from cover to cover. When she finished, she leaned back in her chair and spluttered in disbelief.
Miranda would have to pass the case on to Olivia. Amy couldn’t do the counseling.
It was unethical to get involved in cases where she knew the patients personally. Annie Brauer’s long-term partner was a pediatric oncologist at Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs Hospital. Her name was Leona Ramsey.
Amy left work, bewildered.
Daniel’s married admirer was a lesbian and thus not interested in men. Not even hot, sexy, and devilishly handsome men like Daniel.
He’d concocted a whole convoluted plan to throw Leona off his back when she was never on his back in the first place. No woman planning to start a family with her female lover would seduce a man. Sure, it was almost every straight man’s fantasy to seduce or be seduced by a lesbian—and hopefully her girlfriend as well—but that’s all it was. A fantasy.
So what the hell was Daniel thinking? Why had he insisted Amy kiss him when there was really no reason? According to the notes in the file, their relationship wasn’t secret. Friends and colleagues were well aware of their orientation. Leona and Lexi were friends and colleagues, so Lexi would know about Annie. If Lexi knew, it stood to reason Daniel did, too.
So why had he insinuated Leona was married to a man?
He’d concocted a whole scheme to get rid of Leona, using Amy as the decoy.
Everything had changed the night Daniel kissed her. That first kiss had set off a tidal wave of reactions. And need. And lust. And sex. All it had taken was one kiss, and Amy was hooked. She’d no longer just wanted to be friends. She’d wanted to be her best friend’s lover, and she’d wanted it bad.
What if Daniel did know Leona was gay? What if he’d made the whole story up? And what if Leona was in on the conspiracy?
Leona must have been privy to his plans all along. She might have even enjoyed playing the seductive doctor.
Amy had fallen for the whole ploy. She’d instinctively come to Daniel’s rescue, kissed him right back when he’d kissed her. He must have known she’d never kiss him under any other circumstances, so he’d planned the whole damned thing.
Bloody hell.
She tapped her nails on her steering wheel in irritation. Why hadn’t he come right out and told her how he felt? Why hadn’t he just kissed her?
Because she’d never have taken him seriously. She would have stopped him before he ever got the chance to start. She’d have been too amused or too perplexed, or even too damn afraid to let him finish, and she’d have fiercely protected their friendship, refusing to allow any other factors to interfere.
So he’d sneakily insinuated their romance into her life, edging it in so she would think it had crept up on her and taken place naturally. He’d made sure his feelings and the changes in their relationship posed no threat to her.
Yet nothing had occurred naturally. All the changes had transpired from Daniel’s backhanded planning.
“Not okay, Tanner. Not okay on any level.”
A wave of anger and exhaustion made her shake.
She was suffering from information overload. What was needed was a caffeine infusion. She headed for her favorite coffee shop in Coogee, refusing to think about Daniel until she was halfway through her extra-large, double-strength latte.
Then she calmly set her anger aside in favor of analytical objectivity. What was it Maggie had suggested? Daniel could be more of a victim than she was in this whole breakup debacle. He might really love her.
Impossible.
Or maybe not?
Now that she knew the truth about Leona and suspected the truth about her and Daniel’s incredible first kiss, Maggie’s theory didn’t seem so ludicrous. What if it was true? What if he’d loved her from the start and hadn’t known what to do about it?
So he’d set her up.
