Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,43

his feelings, but Sarah needed this, she realized. Needed to feel on top of her game again.

She carried her cup to the nearest trash can and scraped off the whipped cream. Then she sat back down across from Burke and sipped the nearly boiling drink.

He took a swallow of his and studied her. “I already guessed vegetarian,” he said. “From the tofu in your salad. But vegan?”

“Yep.” Usually Sarah let people think she was a vegetarian because vegan sounded so extreme. But she didn’t care what Joe thought about it.

“Can I ask why?” he said.

“I wanted to make some changes last year.”

Joe nodded. And cast a look from her face down to her body. “I noticed.”

“Noticed what?” she said.

“When you were in your underwear. Puking. You looked good.”

Sarah couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t usually get that compliment.”

“I’m surprised,” he said. “Because you deserve it.”

Sarah allowed herself a moment of staring into his eyes across the table. Then something in her couldn’t stand the charade anymore. Didn’t want to let another minute go by without saying something true for once.

“Burke, what is all this?” she asked quietly.

To his credit, he didn’t ask, “All what?” He didn’t try to stall or make Sarah uncomfortable by pretending he needed her to restate the question.

“My apology,” he said.

The answer sucked the wind from her lungs. Her lips parted and she forced herself to draw in a few small breaths. She was sure her eyes must have looked shocked and wary and afraid, because Burke reached across the table to cover her hand in his as if she needed the comfort.

She pulled both of her hands into her lap.

“What if I don’t want it?” she managed to choke out.

He never took his eyes off hers. “Then that’s your choice. I’m just doing what I think I should.”

Sarah bolted up from the table and took off across the snow. Her boots squeaked as they pressed footprints into the white. She’d been stupid to let him bring her up there, she realized. So far away from where she could simply take her key away from him and lock him out and not have to speak to him again. Not personally, anyway. They could meet across a deposition table any day, and she would learn how to stop letting it affect her.

The air was cold, and it was thin. They were thousands of feet higher than where they had been in the city, and Sarah began to feel the effects. She had barely eaten that morning, and even less the days before. And she was having a hard time breathing, both because of the altitude and because of Joe.

There was a mound of snow above her, close to one of the buildings. If she could make it that far she could rest. But her legs felt heavy, like she was trying to walk through pudding, and she felt a familiar blackness at the edges of her vision.

Not again.

She turned around to find Joe trailing her. He wasn’t so far away. He stood there looking like a lumberjack, not a lawyer, in his jeans and boots and sweater, slight stubble on his face, so handsome and masculine and concerned.

Sarah shook her head at him, even smiled weakly, acknowledging what she knew was about to happen.

Then her legs folded beneath her and she melted onto the snow.

***

She awoke feeling sweaty and feverish and foolish.

A woman bent over her, shining a small penlight into her eyes.

“Did she hit her head?”

“No,” Joe said, “I don’t think so.”

“Did she lose consciousness?”

“Yes,” he answered, “briefly.”

“It may just be dehydration,” the woman told him. “You said she’s been sick? Vomiting? She’s probably lost a lot of fluids in the last few days, and then coming up here . . . ”

Joe rubbed his hand down his face. “God, Sarah, I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head. She was such an idiot for storming off like that. She should have known her body wasn’t up for it. She hadn’t worked out in days, and she let her nutrition completely fall apart. She had been learning her physical limits all year long—and learning to push them—but this? This was just stupidity.

Sarah started to sit up and felt the room sway a bit. Joe steadied her, one hand on her back, another holding her arm.

“She should be fine,” the woman said. Sarah couldn’t tell if she was a nurse or a doctor. The woman wore heavy canvas pants, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a down vest. It was obviously