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As silly as itsounded, she couldn’t help but feel a little proud of herself.

Ander jerkedhis head to the side and froze abruptly, the tension transforming on his face.He took a few ragged breaths and pushed against her a few final times.

He pulled outbefore she could fully process the alterations of his body—the softeningmuscles and relaxing tension. He carefully secured the condom as he slid hiscock free, and the move made an embarrassing sucking sound and rubbed her rawinner walls painfully.

“Are you allright?” he asked, rolling over to swing his legs over the side of the bed. Hiseyes scanned her closely.

“Yeah,” shesaid honestly, “A little sore, but it was really good. Thank you.”

He gave her alittle smile. “I’m going to take care of this, if that’s all right.”

At heraffirmation, he picked up the vibrator and went into the bathroom to dispose ofthe condom. She heard water in the sink and figured he was cleaning up thevibrator while he was there.

Lori pulleddown her chemise and stretched her stiff legs. Then she had a private giggleover her successful devirgining.

She knew itwould have been better had she had an emotional connection with the man. Sheknew there was something missing in doing it the way she had. The sex had beengood, but she knew it wasn’t a lie that sex was better with someone you loved.She wrote romance novels. As silly or high-blown as some of them were, romancewriters at least understood the importance of love.

She’d done thison her own terms, though and the heavy weight of anxiety that had always beenpart of her thoughts on sex had now completely dissipated.

Ander returnedto the room with a wet washcloth, which he used to gently clean between herlegs. When she’d thanked him and he’d returned the washcloth to the bathroom,she invited him back to bed.

She had himuntil midnight, and she intended to take advantage of it. He stretched outbeside her, rolling on his side and propping his head up on one bent arm. Hewas completely naked, and he was showing the long lines and rippling muscles ofhis body to their best advantage.

Lori stared athim in admiration for a minute until she realized he was posing for her. Asalways, the act was very subtle, sophisticated—nothing crude or gaudy about it.But he knew what he was doing. Women must leer at him all the time.

Because shewanted to talk to him and not get distracted, she leaned over and grabbed hisboxers off the floor and tossed them over to him.

“Did you havequestions for me?” he asked, pulling on his boxers. “Did you think it wentwell?”

“Yes. It wentvery well. Thanks so much being careful and taking your time. I can’t imagineit going better.”

Ander’s eyesnarrowed as he studied her face. “There’s something you want to ask me.”

There was. Afoolish, nagging question at the very back of her mind.

“Ask me.”

So Lori blurtedit out, “Do you think I’ll be any good at it? I mean, I seemed to mess up alot. And there was the stupid thing with the hand. If I don’t have you thereguiding me through every step, do you think I’ll be any good at it?”

To her relief, Anderdidn’t brush the question off. He paused as he considered it, and then he mether eyes soberly. “I don’t think any of that reflects your sexual capacities.You were nervous at first. And, even when you got over that, you were still alittle self-conscious, I think.” He slanted her a look, as if checking herexpression. Maybe to make sure she wasn’t offended. “When people areself-conscious, they tend to fall into a defined role, something that will makethem feel safe. You took on the role of learner, which might be why you keptwanting directions. But once you’re past that, you’re going to be just fine.”

She let out abreath, oddly comforted by his matter-of-fact answer. He hadn’t been flatteringher or trying to delude her into believing she was some sort of sex goddess.He’d told her his honest opinions.

Rubbing herbelly absently, she thought about his words. She thought about them for a longtime. The she finally said, “You know, I think you’re right about thatself-consciousness thing. I never thought about it before, but that is whatpeople do. How did you get so smart?”

Ander cocked aneyebrow at her. “My job provides me with a wide variety of experiences withhuman nature.”

She snorted. “Iguess so.” Still thinking about Ander’s comments, she put a few more piecestogether in her mind. She mused, “You know, I think maybe I intuitively knewthat about self-conscious people even before you mentioned it. In one of mybooks, I had the heroine feel really self-conscious about her appearance. And shealways acted—” Lori broke off, noticing a distinct expression of curiosity on Ander’sface.

For some obviousreasons, she wasn’t planning to tell Ander about her bestselling alternateidentity. She used a penname for a reason, and she was very careful aboutkeeping her private life private—especially something like this.

“You’re awriter?” he asked. He appeared genuinely interested.

“Yeah,” sheadmitted, figuring it was all right as long as he didn’t know her penname. “Iwrite novels. Romance novels.” She snickered. “Pretty funny, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know.I don’t think one needs vast experience with sex to write a love scene in aromance novel.”

“Hey,” shesaid, immediately bristling at any apparent slam on her genre. “Don’t be snideabout romance novels. Some of them are silly, but there are novels in everygenre that are silly.”

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