Page 50 of Finding Forever

“Yes. And at least I now know what it’s like to have sex.”

“Whoa now, lass,” he said, holding up a hand. “Let’s not get carried away. I’m honor bound to point out that you donot, in fact, know what it’s like to have sex. Not really. Sure you know the ins and outs of it”—He allowed himself a juvenile little snort at that, which, in turn, made Fern laugh.—“Butrealsex? What that encountershouldhave been? It’s nothing close to what happened between us that night.”

“Well, then…” she murmured, sounding breathless and a little daring, as she held his stare, her eyes running over that chiseled face, those long, spiky lashes, that beautiful mouth with its pillowy, sensuous bottom lip. “How should it have been, Cade?”

He hesitated, a deep red flush staining the line of his cheekbones, as his own gaze raked over her face, then over her body, clad in another awful shapeless blouse and skirt combination. That same piercing gaze lifted to her long, loose hair, and took on a smoky intensity that stole her breath away.

“Hot. Wet. Messy. Wild. Intense. It should have left you wrung out and desperate for more.”

Chapter

Thirteen

Cade watched Fern’s slender throat move as she swallowed and he wondered how the fuck they’d managed to—in such a short time—get so very far down this rabbit hole.

“I’m sorry it was so terrible,” she apologized.

“You should stop doing that,” he told her through gritted teeth and she tilted her head in that appealing quizzical way she had.

“Doing what?”

“Apologizing for shit that’s not your fault.” As she had done just last night. He was about to say as much, when she spoke again.

“Wasn’t it my fault? I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“Precisely,” he agreed, immediately distracted. “I, however,didknow what I was doing. As such, I was the one who should have ensured that it was a better experience for you. For both of us. I’m sorry your first time was so shit.”

“Honestly?” she said, her tone hushed and confiding. “I didn’t know it was shit until you told me it was.”

Her confession startled another laugh out of him. She was so fucking unintentionally cute that he found himself constantly caught off guard by her.

“Fern, you didn’t have an orgasm. Surely that was your first clue?”

“IthoughtI did?” The words emerged on a high note, as if she wasn’t quite sure of it.

“Youhavehad an orgasm before, right?” The question was out before he could think the better of it. He grimaced, not used to speaking without weighing every word carefully.

“Of course. Sort of. Maybe?—?”

The qualifier sent his eyebrows soaring. A pretty pink blush stained her pale skin and she looked uncomfortable with the conversation, but after that, he couldn’t simply drop it. He needed specifics.

“Sort of? How do yousort ofmaybehave an orgasm?”

“I never had much privacy in boarding school. The other girls were very open about their sexuality and spoke frankly about such things. Some of them often experimented with each other. But I was—am— shy about my body and I was reticent to discuss sex, even with my best friend.

“While most of the staff at my school consisted of non-religious teachers, our sex education teacher was an ancient nun. Probably because the school wanted to discourage us from having premarital sex. Sister Mary Patrick wasn’t very forthcoming or approachable. She gave us the requisite sex education classes but her take home was always ‘yes this is how sex goes but you’re not to have anything to do with it until you’re married’.

“After finishing high school, I shared a room with one of the religious sisters on the staff, an older woman. She was very intimidating and stern. Self-exploration was even more difficult after that.”

Cade couldn’t quite wrap his head around that level ofinexperience and naivety. He felt like a fucking asshole who had preyed on someone years younger than him in terms of sexual knowledge.

And now she was pregnant without even knowing what an orgasm felt like. The mere thought of it was appalling and tragic and a terrible waste.

He continued to stare at her bent head, and gradually became aware of the fact that his breathing had slowed down, while his heartbeat was hard and heavy in his chest. His flesh prickled, leaving the hair standing on end along his arms… and that wasn’t the only thing standing on end.

Shit.

His throat went dry as he considered his unwelcome erection.

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