Pure Temptation & Old Enough to Know Better. Vicki Lewis Thompson

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СКАЧАТЬ genuinely worried.

      “God, no. You were great.”

      “I wondered, because I don’t usually get so…” She paused. “Excited.”

      Man, he loved hearing that. “Really?”

      “Especially the first time I kiss someone. You’re, um, very good at this kissing business. I guess it’s all your practice that gives you such good technique.”

      “That wasn’t technique.” He loved running his fingers through her hair. “That was… I don’t know. You inspired me, I guess.”

      “Oh.” There was a world of self-satisfaction in that tiny syllable.

      He began itching to kiss her again. And he had all the rest of the territory labeled as “making out” to enjoy. Even knowing he wouldn’t have the ultimate experience tonight didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for the next step. “Ready to climb in the back of the truck?”

      “I’ve been thinking. Are you sure you should?”

      He laughed. “I think we dispensed with that a while back. No, I probably shouldn’t, but I will anyway, because it’s still the best solution.”

      “No, I mean, with the way you react when we kiss. I’ll bet you’re not used to just making out with a woman and not finishing the job. You’re liable to get awfully frustrated.”

      He grinned down at her. “So are you. That’s the idea—to build up to the main event, so we’re really ready for it.”

      “I can understand that strategy for me, because of my lack of experience, but I’m afraid I’ll be torturing you. I know from my reading that some men are able to draw out foreplay for a very long time, but I’m sure they extend that time gradually, so their bodies are used to delayed gratification. You wouldn’t be in that category.”

      He sorted through that little speech until he thought he understood. “Are you saying you’re willing to sacrifice yourself for my benefit?”

      “I…yes, I am. We don’t have to stop with just making out if you find that you’re too…uncomfortable.”

      Oh, God. Heaven was within reach and he’d been caught unprepared. He took a deep breath. “Well, as willing as you are to make the supreme sacrifice for me tonight, it won’t be possible. I don’t have birth control with me.”

      She met his declaration with stunned silence. “You don’t?”

      “Of course not. What, you think I carry a supply around with me at all times, just in case I get lucky?”

      “Not even in your wallet?”

      “Not since high school. These days I have a much better idea of what will and won’t happen with a woman, and I plan accordingly.”

      She seemed to be digesting that. “What about in the glove compartment of your truck?” she finally asked.

      “Are you kidding? My mom’s been known to borrow my truck, and she’s also been known to get a speeding ticket now and then. I can imagine how much she’d love finding condoms in the glove compartment when she’s digging for the registration papers.”

      She gazed up at him. “You know, I’m glad to find out you don’t keep some around at all times.”

      “You had me pegged as some sort of sex machine, didn’t you?”

      “Not exactly a machine, but everybody thinks you installed that spongy mat in the back of your truck so you could have fun with your girlfriends.”

      He let out a sigh of exasperation. “I put that mat in the back of the truck when Mom started refinishing antiques, so she could haul them around without damaging the finish on the furniture.”

      “Not for making love?”

      “No.”

      “And so you’ve never—”

      “I didn’t say that. And this discussion’s over.” He swung her up in his arms before she traveled down that road any further. Of course he’d made love in the back of the truck, but he didn’t want to talk about it now.

      “What are you doing?”

      “I’m taking charge and carrying you to the back of the truck. It’s the manly thing to do.” She didn’t resist, so he concluded she had faith in his self-control. He was putting a huge amount of faith in it, himself.

      “Then I guess you don’t want to talk about your love life anymore,” she said.

      “You’ve got that right.” Specifically he didn’t want to talk about or think about any other women he’d been involved with, in the back of his truck or anywhere else. They’d been wrong for him, but he hadn’t realized how wrong until a few moments ago…when he’d kissed Tess.

      CHAPTER SIX

      TESS SAT CROSS-LEGGED on the blanket and waited for Mac to crawl into the bed of the truck and join her. The night was still very warm, but she felt shivery with delight. Maybe it was partly the blanket, reminding her of the tent she’d shared with Mac as kids. They’d hauled comic books and snacks into their hideaway, and there had been nothing sexual about the cozy intimacy of being stretched out beside him in that tent.

      Or maybe there had been, and she had been too innocent to realize it. At any rate, she had a delicious sensation now that reminded her of that intimacy, only magnified a hundred times. They were alone, closed off from the world, and ready, in a sense, to play.

      “The sky’s so clear,” Mac said as he crawled up beside her. “Let’s lie on our backs and look at the stars, like we used to.”

      “And not do anything?” She was hungrier for him than she cared to admit.

      He gave her a swift kiss on the mouth. “I’ll tell you my dream.”

      “Oh, all right.” She pulled the skirt of her dress down underneath her as she settled back on the blanket and looked upward. “Big Dipper, Little Dipper, North Star,” she said automatically as she searched them out.

      Mac lay down beside her, his arm touching hers, his thigh against hers. “Orion’s Belt, and the Seven Sisters,” he added.

      “And?”

      “And nothing. That’s all I ever learned.”

      “Still? I thought you took an astronomy class.”

      “I learned things for the test and then forgot it. I only remember what we figured out from that kid’s book you had on the constellations.”

      “Slacker.”

      “Yeah.”

      Tess felt as if they could still be seven and nine, lying on their backs in the cool grass of the park on a summer’s night. Tess’s brothers would be racing around playing tag, and the grown-ups would СКАЧАТЬ