“Just curious,” he said. “I mean, you’re not the only one who’s allowed to ask questions like that. Just because you’re the Princess of Sex doesn’t mean I’m not interested in what makes you tick.”
“I am not the Princess of Sex,” Rachel said indignantly.
“Oh, all right,” Dec replied. “The Queen of Sex. Or is it the Empress of Sex?”
“I know what you’re doing,” she said. “You’re baiting me. Well, it won’t work.”
“You’re the one who is always talking about how we should be honest with each other. I want to know how you feel when you come. What do you think about?”
Rachel stared out the car window. “I’m not going to answer that question. I don’t think you really want to know anyway.”
Dec glanced over his shoulder then quickly switched lanes, before pulling up on the shoulder of the freeway. He stopped the car, then turned to her. “I want to know. I want to know everything about you.”
Rachel glanced out the rear window, then looked at him. “What are you doing? Someone is going to come crashing into us. This is a freeway. You can’t just pull over for no reason.”
“I have a pretty good reason,” Dec said. “And I want an answer to my question. Or we’ll sit here forever.”
“You are such a…oh, you’re just so…” She cursed in frustration. “All right, you want to know what I was thinking? I was thinking you were the only man who’d ever taken the time to tend to my needs first. And everything you did, every sensation you made me feel, was something I wasn’t going to forget. It was like you just opened a door and I stepped through and now, nothing will ever be the same again.”
Dec let out a tightly held breath. “Holy shit,” he murmured. Her answer took him by complete surprise. He expected that she’d tell him she felt good, all warm and gooey inside, that when she came she felt the heavens part and the angels sing. But then, he should have known Rachel would be completely and utterly honest with him.
“Holy shit?” she shouted. “That’s all you have to say? I just bared my soul to you.”
“I-I’m sorry,” Dec said. “I didn’t really mean that. I’m just…stunned.”
“What? You’re stunned that you were so good that I’m going to compare every other man to you? Or you’re stunned that I told you how I felt?”
“No,” he said, desperate to have her understand. “I’m stunned no other man has ever made you feel that way, Rachel. You’re a beautiful, smart, sexy woman and if no other man has appreciated you, then you’ve been hanging around with the wrong kind of men.”
She blinked, as if his reply took her by complete surprise. “Oh,” she murmured.
“Oh?” he said in a soft, teasing tone. “Is that all you have to say?”
She smiled reluctantly, a pretty blush turning her cheeks pink. “No. That was a very nice thing you said. And I know you’re not like other men I’ve known. I knew that from the start.”
“From the minute you got me with the pepper spray?”
“No. After that. When you came out of the bathroom with that towel hanging around your neck. When I saw your eyes.”
Dec sat back in his seat. “See there? That wasn’t so bad.” He put the car back into gear and glanced over his shoulder, then pulled back out onto the highway.
They drove for a while in silence, both of them still contemplating what had just been said. “So, here’s how I see things,” Dec finally ventured. “We’d be lying to ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge the attraction between us. And though things may have begun in an…unconventional manner, there’s no reason why we can’t just take a few steps back. So, I propose we go out on a date.”
“Don’t you think we’re a little bit past that?” Rachel asked.
“No, I don’t. I think it’s important we spend some time together, in public, where we can’t possibly try to seduce each other, which is what goes on when we’re alone.”
“And when do you propose we have this date?” Rachel asked.
“How about tonight?”
She shook her head and for a moment, Dec thought she was going to discard the idea outright. “No, that’s too soon. If a man asks a woman out, she should get at least four days notice. Any less than that and she’ll look too eager, any more than that and he’ll look too eager.”
“I suspect this is one of those rules you dispense on your radio show?” Dec asked.
“It’s a good guideline,” she said. “That, and never, ever have sex on the first date.” Rachel sent him a smug smile.
“All right. It’s Wednesday. That means we can go out on Saturday night.”
“I work on Saturday night. My shift starts at ten and ends at one a.m. I have to be at the station by nine- thirty.”
“That will give us plenty of time for an early movie and dinner,” Dec said. “Perfect. I’ll pick you up at your place.” He paused. “I don’t know where you live. Where do you live?”
Rachel giggled. “I’ll show you, since you’ll be taking me home.” She relaxed back into the soft leather seat of his BMW. “It’s going to be nice to get back home. I miss sleeping in my own bed. And having my things around me.”
From that moment on, the mood in the car changed. Whatever had been bothering Rachel before had been alleviated and she was her usual candid and witty self. They talked about the date they’d have and he made suggestions for the restaurant while she gave him dating dos and don’ts. In the end, they decided he’d pick the restaurant and she’d pick the movie.
Dec was truly looking forward to spending an evening with Rachel, just talking and enjoying her company, without seduction on his mind. Sure, he’d be thinking about how nice it would be to kiss her or touch her or undress her, but there wouldn’t be any possibility of that while they were out in public. And, according to Rachel’s rules, not on the first date anyway.
So it would be a simple date, a chance for them to get to know each other a little better, to spend some time talking and laughing, time for him to confirm what he already knew-that Rachel was the most intriguing woman he’d ever met. He’d be satisfied to see where things went from there.
When they turned off the interstate and headed into Providence, Dec was sure things were back on the right track again. He tried to keep himself from pulling the car over to the curb and kissing her, just to make sure. From now on, he’d take more care to make sure Rachel wasn’t pressured to feel something she didn’t.
Hell, this was new to him as well. He’d always had women waiting in line, willing to do what it took to spend a night in his bed. But in retrospect, Dec realized it hadn’t made him really want a woman in a very long time-at least not in the same way he wanted Rachel.
She gave him directions to her house and he steered through the city. Strangely enough, every direction she gave put him on the same route as the one he took from his downtown office to his house in Colonial Hill. To his surprise, they turned down a street just three blocks from his house and Rachel pointed to a pretty two-story colonial surrounded by tall trees.
“That’s it,” she said. “The white one with the dark blue shutters.”
“I can’t believe this,” Dec muttered, as he pulled in the driveway. “You live here?”
She nodded. “This is the house that sex bought. I used to have an apartment close to the university, but I got this a few years ago when I took the radio job.”
“I live three blocks away from here,” Dec said. “I run past this house almost every morning. I didn’t know you lived here.”
“And I didn’t know you lived there,” she said. “How come I never saw you around the neighborhood?”
“I run early in the morning. I usually spend my weekends with my family in Bonnett Harbor. Maybe we just weren’t meant to meet until now.”
“Maybe not,” she said with a playful grin.
He jumped out of the car and jogged around to Rachel’s door, then politely opened it for her. She got out and stretched her arms over her head. “It’s good to be home,” she said. “I’m going to take a shower in my own bathroom and lay on my own sofa and read my own books. It’s going to be strange though.”
“How is that?” Dec asked as he fetched her bags from the trunk of the BMW.
“I can relax. I don’t always have to be looking over my shoulder. I can go places and do things again. Maybe I’ll go to the grocery store. Or for a walk. Or just go out for a drive.”
Dec followed her around to the side door of the house, waiting while she found her keys in her purse and unlocked the door. They entered a large kitchen, beautifully decorated with pale cabinets and a granite-covered
