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“What?”

Ander met hergaze. “You terrified me,” he repeated mildly. “I’d never been with a virginbefore. I could tell from the beginning that you were smart, generous andcompassionate, and obviously I knew you were beautiful. I was stressed thatwhole week about ruining your first experience with sex.”

“You were not!”Lori stared at him breathlessly. “You were as cool as a cucumber.”

“You know bynow I’m a good actor. I’m not sure why it mattered so much to me, since I’dnever put much significance in sex before. But something about it being yourfirst time—your entrusting me with that kind of responsibility—really hit me.It got to me.”

“Oh.”

They looked ateach other for a minute. Then Lori said in close to a whisper, “I’m glad myfirst time was with you.”

Her only timeswere with Ander. He was the only man she’d ever had sex with. At present, shehad no desire to have sex with anyone but him.

She tried notto think much about it, since she wasn’t sure what to do with that knowledge.Things would change eventually, in one way or another, and she was trying tojust let them play out without obsessing. It was the only way she could handlethe turmoil of her emotions.

Then Andersurprised her, since he wasn’t often given to confessions of this kind. Hesaid, “Me too.”

A wave ofemotion rose up in her chest, so powerfully she couldn’t contain it. It floodedher, consumed her, overwhelmed her.

And she did theonly thing she could think of to do.

Stretching upand leaning forward, she pressed her lips against Ander’s mouth. After amoment, his softened, then opened beneath hers. Her tongue slipped out to tracealong the line of his lips softly, sending tiny pulses of pleasure all the wayto her fingertips.

She pulledback, flushing warmly and panting a little.

“What’s goingon?” Ander asked thickly, suddenly frozen on the sofa beside her.

“I don’t know,”she admitted, squirming a little in both embarrassment and lingering pleasure.“I just wanted to kiss you. Sorry.”

Ander didn’tanswer with words. He just stared at her for a moment until she saw somethinghot ignite in his eyes. Then he took her face in his hands and kissed her.

Lori whimperedin surprise and rising feeling. As Ander’s lips and tongue waged a passionateassault, her arms twined around his neck and her entire body pulsed withsensation.

One of Ander’shands curved around the back of her head and the other slid down to strokealong her spine. Shivers followed in the wake of his touch. She whimpered againand brushed her fingers along the smooth curve of his scalp, adjusting on thesofa so she could press her body against him more fully.

She was hot andbreathless when she finally pulled out of the embrace. Ander looked flushedtoo, and his chest rose and fell rapidly with his breathing.

“Wow,” shegasped. “That was...that was good.”

Ander let outof huff of dazed laughter. “Yeah.” Then he turned always observant eyes to scanher face. “Do you think you might want to do it again?”

She knew whathe was asking. What he’d wanted to ask for the last three months. He’d justbeen waiting for the right time.

Lori couldn’ttell him anything but the truth. “Yeah. Definitely.” A thrill of joy ranthrough her when she saw the brief blaze of relief in his eyes. “I mean, itwould be a shame not to. We’re really good at that.”

Ander reachedout again to cup her face. “There are other things we’re good at,” he said,just a little diffidently.

Lori gulped.There were other things they were good at. Things they were good at together.So many other things they could look forward to in the days and weeks to come,fading off like a fuzzy trail into the future.

But thingsdidn’t always have to be complicated, and not everything had to happen at once.

So she smiledup him, reaching out to pull him down into another kiss. “Yeah. That’s true.But let’s just stick with kissing...for now.”

Twelve

Lori’s head was alreadyspinning, and she hadn’t done anything more than kiss Ander.

They’d gone todinner and the symphony earlier that evening, and she’d offered Ander a drinkwhen he’d walked her up to her apartment.

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