“Are we having trouble communicating?” she asked.
“Well, there are things I want to say to you. But I find my tongue getting all twisted up,” he said.
She’d had similar feelings. Now she whispered, “You do?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t continue, and she desperately wanted to find out what he meant. “Like what can’t you say in person?”
“I’d like to kiss you again. I thought about that a lot while I was away. But if I did, I’d worry that you wouldn’t let me share this house with you. And I want to stay here with you—very much.”
Her throat was almost too constricted to speak, but she managed one syllable. “Why?”
“Because I’m worried about you. But we both know that’s only part of it. I want to get to know you better. Only things haven’t worked out for me very well since my wife dumped me. That’s made me hesitant about relationships.”
“Oh,” she answered, her voice softening, thinking that must be really difficult for him to say. No wonder he was using the telephone instead of speaking face to face.
“We started off on the wrong foot,” he said. “I was focused on my job.”
“You’re supposed to be focused on your job,” she said, finding herself defending him. “I told you, I don’t hold it against you.”
“What about the kiss?”
“I liked the kiss,” she whispered, because one thing she knew, being dishonest now would be a disaster.
“I’m not the kind of guy who pushes women into stuff they’re not ready for.”
“Good.”
“But I can’t stop fantasizing about what I’d like to do with you.”
Her breath caught. “What?”
“You know, don’t you?”
“Tell me.”
“If I do, will you get angry about it?
“No. I want to know,” she murmured.
She heard him drag in a breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. If you want to know, I’d like to come in there and take your clothes off. I want to lay you on the bed, naked. I want to look at you, then kiss you and touch you and make you as hot as I am now.”
“Oh!”
“Am I turning you on by saying stuff like that?” he asked.