“Really?”

Suddenly, his dark, penetrating eyes met hers, and she felt as though he could read her mind.

Claudia wanted to nod her head in confirmation but was too nervous to do so.

"You're not avoiding me?" he asked.

"As soon as we arrived home, you ran upstairs, saying you'd take a shower. It was clear that you didn't want to see me."

Claudia bit her lower lip before saying, "It's not that I didn't want to see you. Yes, I was avoiding you, but it wasn't because I didn't want to see you. I."

She was only able to speak her mind last night because she was under the influence of alcohol. Upon awakening this morning and remembering everything that happened, she could not help but be embarrassed by her behavior. That was the main reason she had been avoiding Bennett.

She was too mortified to admit that, though. She could not believe what she had done last night, and if she brought it up, she might repeat her disgraceful behavior.

She might have had thick skin whenever she was drunk, but she certainly was not in that state right now.

“Why did you stop talking?" Bennett scoffed.

He regarded the coffee table in front of him darkly as he reached up to unfasten his tie. The lights in the room shone down on him, the shadow of his hair obscuring his eyes from view.

From Claudia's perspective, he could not look any more dejected.

"You don't actually love me, do you?" he asked.

Claudia's eyes widened in disbelief. "That's nonsense!"

"Is it really nonsense?”

He cocked his head to the side to study her. The usual warmth in his eyes had been replaced by something more distant.

Claudia felt a sense of injustice, like someone had crushed her heart into pieces. Suddenly, her eyes were gleaming with tears. "Don't you dare say that again, Bennett."

In an effort to hold back her tears, she took a deep breath. “If you say that again, I'll get angry for real."

How could he not have known whether she loved him or not?

If she did not have feelings for him, she would not want to hug and kiss him.

She was not the type to act on her emotions. She did not even do more than hold Anthony's hand and give him a brief kiss when her feelings for him were at their strongest.

With Bennett, however, she began to worry that she was no longer herself because she kept fantasizing about doing intimate things with him.

She might have been drunk last night, but she remembered everything that had happened.

They were married, so it was natural for them to have sex.