A little bit stunned, she sank down on the side of the bed. “Hank?”
A worried frown creasing his brow, he knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his. “Second thoughts?”
“Not exactly. How do you live like this?” She gave an all-encompassing wave around the impersonal room.
Following the sweeping gesture, he stared around blankly. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s so…sterile.”
Shadows crossed his eyes, but he merely shrugged. “I guess I’ve never paid much attention to it.”
“Don’t you have any pictures of your parents? An ex-girlfriend? Something?”
He grinned at that. “You’d actually be happy to find a photograph of an ex-girlfriend by my bed?”
She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair, then touched his beard. “I actually think I might prefer it to this.”
“Why?”
“This doesn’t tell me anything about you. I feel as though I could be in the room of a complete stranger or even a totally impersonal hotel.”
“You already know all you need to know about me.” He drew her hand to his chest. “You know what’s in here.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. How can I really know what’s in your heart without understanding you? You told me about your mother and father, but there’s more to growing up than that. Tell me about you, Hank. What were you like when you were a little boy? What subjects did you like in school? Did you always want to be an engineer?”
He touched a finger to her lips, then trailed it down along her jaw, finally moving to her breast, where he drew slow, deliberate circles around the already erect tip. Ann felt the effect of that lazy touch all the way down to her toes. As a distraction it was very effective, but she had no intention of letting him win out this time. In the long run, they’d both lose if she did. She seized his hand and held it, pressing her lips to the scarred knuckles.
“Talk to me,” she pleaded.
“Now, Annie?” His voice was low, incredulous and threadbare with desire.
“Now,” she said firmly, plumping up the pillows at the head of the bed and settling herself there. It was a deliberate attempt to put some distance between them without removing them entirely from the seductive atmosphere. This was a time-out, not an ending.
“I thought I was the one who was supposed to be on the couch for a session like this,” he said with an edge in his voice.
She ignored the tone and patted the place beside her. “Join me.”
He studied her intently. “You’re really going to insist on this, aren’t you?”
She nodded placidly, comfortable in the role of inquisitor as she hadn’t been in the role of seductress. “I think I am.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. She could see the debate raging inside him before he finally shrugged, kicked off his tennis shoes and settled himself beside her. “Okay, doc. It’s the strangest sort of foreplay I’ve ever seen, but what do you want to know?” he asked, then peered at her closely. “I hope it’s not too much, because I’m not sure how long I can stand being this close to you in this bed without touching you.”
“Think of it this way,” she said sweetly. “It’ll put some of the spontaneity back into the afternoon.”
He groaned at that and tugged her down until she was lying flat beneath him, laughing. As she recognized the look in his eyes, though, the laughter suddenly died, along with her need for immediate answers. Never before had she seen such naked longing, such open loneliness and need. How was it possible that a man who’d filled his life with so many companions could seem so desperately alone? Why had he chosen her to banish the loneliness? Could she do it with her inexperienced touches? She knew only that she had to try, that she had to share with him some small measure of the joy he had brought into her life these past few weeks. If this was all they had between them, just this moment, it would be special, it would last them forever.
She smoothed the hair off his forehead. “I do want you to make love to me, Hank.” She made the admission on a sigh. “Now.”
“Are you sure this time?”
She nodded. “Very sure. The talk can wait.”
His mouth came down on hers then, stealing the last of her declaration. The last of her doubts fled on a wave of pure sensation as his hands began to slide over her, stroking, exploring. With fingers that actually seemed to shake, he pushed her T-shirt up to expose her breasts to the tender mercies of his lips, his beard a gentle, but oh-so-seductive irritant across the sensitive flesh.
“Don’t be afraid, Annie love,” he whispered, when she trembled at the intensity of the feelings sweeping through her.
“This isn’t something I do every day,” she managed to say.
“Neither have I lately,” he said with wry humor.
“But you’ve had so much more experience, what if…”
He touched a finger to her lips. “Annie, this is our first time together. Ours. No matter what’s happened in the past, we’ve never been together like this before. I’m every bit as nervous as you are. I want it to be perfect for you and I won’t know how if you won’t tell me. So, you see, we’re in the same boat.”
Not quite, she thought as his expert touches robbed her of further arguments. Hank made love with astonishing gentleness. He taught her the way to tease and madden. His caresses were slow, provocative follow-ups to the adoration in his eyes. And, as if to prove his point that there were no comparisons being made, he told her again and again of all the things that made her special.
“I love
