Page 29 of Lush Curves

“What?” Talia looked alert; she knew there was far more to this story than a simple ‘Hot young doctor turned Annie down’. Not after his impassioned claiming of her, not after growling that she was his princess, not after declaring that he was the man that she’d been waiting for.Noman would throw it all down like that, then run screaming if the object of his passion responded. “But what?”

“Well… he wants to wait.”

“He – what? Why would he want that?Why?”

Annie visibly squirmed, grabbed a towering stack of dirty plates off the closest table, shot off to the kitchen. It was a pathetic and cowardly displacement activity designed to buy her some time – which she knew was ultimately both useless and futile. Talia wasn’t going to let this go, not for anything, and sure enough, Annie heard Talia’s footsteps right behind her.

Talia’s heart was in the right place, Annie knew, and Talia was concerned, Annie also knew… but despite the kindness and worry, Annie found that she needed a few extra seconds to pull herself together before succumbing to her best friend’s relentless demands for information.

Not that Sam had said or done anythingbad, not at all. Quite the opposite, in fact, and it was the fact that he’d been so amazing, so sweet, so sexy, that had floored her. Confused her. Made her go all shy and unsure, made her feel almost virginal… though it had been a laughable number of year since she’d been a shy, blushing virgin.

Almost thirty years, actually. Just a few years less than Sam has been on earth.

Jesus Christ. I must beinsaneto actually think that this can happen between us, that it canbeanything.

But even as she had the thought, Annie remembered what had happened on Friday night… and she felt that traitorous, treacherous hope rise in her chest again.

Sam had driven her home, and the whole time that they were chatting about nothing very much, she was wondering if he’d kiss her, if she’d kiss him; wondering what theactual hellshe’ddoif he kissed her, if helikedit if she kissed him.

She had vaccinated wildly between wanting to throw herself out of the moving vehicle, just to get away from the man and the way that he made her feel, because she hadn’t felt things like this in years and years, and surely atherage, her heart couldn’t take it, literallyandfiguratively… and then all she had wanted was to throw herself at Sam, full-throttle and full-on, and beg him to fuck her until she couldn’t walk, heart attack be damned.

He’d pulled up in front of her awful, rundown, tiny house across the street from a vacant lot that was well-known as a drug-dealing locale, and she’d undone her seatbelt before he’d even turned off the engine. Annie had one hand on the door opener, one hand clutching her cheap purse in her lap. She’d stared at the floor, summoning the words to thank him for a lovely evening, and she’d felt Sam looking over at her. Not saying a word, not moving. Just staring at her, making her the focus of his whole attention, his whole focus, his whole world.

Thatwas when she’d snapped.

Annie had turned to face him, seen the hunger in his eyes that she had known was rampant and alive in her own. And she’dthrownherself at him;launchedherself across the front seat and into his personal space. No shame, no fear, no second thoughts. She’d justgonefor it, because she just didn’t care about tomorrow anymore… all she had wanted was this moment.

And God help her, but Sam had framed her face between his large, strong hands and he’d kissed her. Kissed her hard, and deep, and long. Kissed her so that she’d lost her breath and bearings – and her goddamnedmind.

“Sam,” she’d whispered against his mouth, her hands holding his coat tightly. “Come inside?”

As she’d heard those words, she’d blushed deeply.Come insidesounded likecum inside… me. And I mean right now. And it sounded that way because that’s exactly what she’d meant when she’d said it.

He’d known it, too; he’d heard her real, true meaning. Sam had gazed down at her, silent and serious, those brown eyes seeing things that she’d worked so, so damnhardto hide for so, so damnlong. But Annie had never been able to hide anything from Sam – not from the beginning, and sure as hell not with her face in his hands, her heart in his hands.

And that heart had stopped dead in her chest when he’d slowly shaken his head, his eyes still holding hers, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders.

“No,” Sam had said quietly. “No, princess… I won’t come inside.”

“Oh.” Horrified, humiliated, heartbroken, she’d scrambled for the tiniest, slimmest shred of dignity, and she’d failed miserably. “Oh… right. Of course not. Stupid of me.” She’d managed to locate the door handle, almost wrenched the door of its hinges opening it up. “Well – goodnight.”

She’d tried to extract herself from his personal space, get to the car door and get thefuckinto the house, where she’d pour a quadruple whisky and berate her stupidity for… oh… maybe ten years. Probably longer, if she were being honest. She’d maybe never leave the fucking houseagain, actually. She’d order her groceries online and she’d collect welfare for the first time in her whole damn life and she’d watch TV for ten hours at a stretch. Not such a bad life when she really thought about it, andfarbetter than running the risk of running into Doctor Sam Frickin’ Innis evereveragain.

But she hadn’t gotten far into this plan to torpedo her life: Sam had followed her across the front seat, grabbed her upper body, spun her around to face him again. She’d dropped her eyes, but not before he’d seen the sparkle of tears in them.

Right away, his face had softened even more. “Hey…”

“It’s fine, Sam.” She’d opted for briskness, because it was either that or wail in devastation. “I get it.”

“No. No, youdon’tget it.”

“You don’t want to have sex with me,” she’d said, deciding to just throw all caution to the wind and humiliate herself all the way, because why the actual hell not? “And I can’t even blame you, ‘cause you’d be fuckingcrazyto want a woman old enough to have given birth to you. I mean, what’snotto get?”

“Stop it,” he had commanded, his voice deep and dark again. With a sinking feeling, Annie had realized that she loved this voice, loved this side of him, and she’d slammed down hard on the regret that she’d never see it again after the next twenty seconds. “Stopit, Annie, and I mean right now. Everything that you just said is wrong.”

“Why stop?” she’d said with false bravado, aching for him to justsayit, if it’s how he felt, because God knows, she had needed to hear it and believe it, had needed it like she needed air. “How am I wrong?”

“Seriously?” he’d grated out. “After everything I told you tonight, youseriouslythink that I don’t want to come inside?”

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