Read The Dark Proposal (The Claire McCormick Trilogy) for Free Online Page A

father died when I was twelve, and my mother died a few years back. I was an only child.”
    “What about Australia? Why do you go there?”
    “Like I said, I have family and friends there. A few cousins and former classmates. I go to Sydney to see them every summer.”
    From there, Claire and Daniel spent time getting to know each other on a personal level. While last week they had discussed their viewpoints of the world, they now talked about their worlds. She told him about her two roommates, how they met and how they struggle to make ends meet. She also told him about her family, growing up in a small New Jersey town, and why she never wanted to go back to such a quiet place. He told her mostly about going to school in England and studying for a semester in Paris. He also talked about his friends that live in New York, particularly a couple who live a few blocks from him in TriBeCa, and a trio who live in Brooklyn. “They’re typical starving artists,” he explained with a laugh. “They work odd jobs by day, and by night they either paint, do pottery or do their rock band. But they’re good people; they’re fun to be with.”
    By 9:30 PM, the two were stuffed from their French dinners and wine. Claire was not tipsy from the wine; she felt drunk with excitement over how the date was going. There were no awkward silences and everything flowed together like a river. She couldn’t remember a date going this well before, not even with her previous boyfriends.  
    As Daniel ordered the check, he leaned forward and said, “It’s been a great night. Do you want to go anywhere else after this?”
    “I’d love to. Anywhere would be okay with me.”
    “Do you want to go to my place? It’s about several blocks from here, if that’s all right with you.”
    “Oh no. That’s not a problem at all. I wouldn’t mind.”
    “Okay.” He smiled faintly. She saw no trace of demands, no smugness that he knew what could likely happen. He appeared to be quite gentlemanly.
    Claire excused herself to the bathroom where she fixed her hair and applied lip gloss. She felt so weak in the knees, but at the same time, she was on fire. It made her realize Monica and Samantha had the right mindset all along. What was wrong with bending her rules after a night like this?
    When she came back out, Daniel was signing his name on the receipt. She waited and when he stood up, he looked at her in the eyes and took her hand.  
    They walked out of the restaurant into the crowd that had reduced compared to earlier. Claire expected the both of them to walk directly to his apartment, but when they were a few feet out of the crowd, Daniel stopped and turned to her. “We can’t start this way.”
    She frowned, but then she realized what was happening. Daniel leaned in and placed his soft lips against hers, and she responded. They stood there kissing in front of the French restaurant on a warm, breezy late summer night in New York. It was surreal, and she again wondered what she did to deserve such a beautiful, sexy moment.
    The kiss must have lasted a minute, maybe three minutes. Either way, it was the most delightful kiss she ever received. When they pulled away from each other, there was a smile in her eyes. For Daniel, there was a look of deep satisfaction.  
    They arrived at his apartment about fifteen minutes later. His place was in a simple building of only five stories, his being on the third. He told her he didn’t exactly know his neighbors because everyone kept to themselves in the building.  
    When he opened the door to his home, she expected the place to be fully decorated with fine paintings, state of the art media and expensive furniture. But no, everything was quite simple. His place was a two bedroom with a kitchen one couldn’t eat in, a dining room, a living room, and a full bathroom. Nothing too exciting, except for the second bedroom, which had stacks of books and folders piled on a desk and the floor around it. Claire