Page 50 of The Image of You

She lifted them, giggling at the little key chain that had a camera on it. I showed her how it worked as a flashlight if she needed extra light to see the keyholes. I was thrilled when she slipped it into her purse after grazing my cheek with her lips. I handed her another T-shirt, apologizing for the threadbare condition. I winked when I told her I’d been too busy to wash the other one since she’d bought me too many damned sheets to wash.

We moved around, quietly comfortable with each other. She nibbled at the toast I made her, talking about some of the happenings in the ER the night before, making me laugh with her imitations of a groaner who, it seemed, never stopped.

“All for a splinter.” She shook her head and snickered. “You’d think we were cutting off his arm.”

She smirked at me over her shoulder as she walked away. “He was worse than you.”

I laughed at her teasing. I was an awful patient—I knew that, but it had gotten me her. Well worth it, I’d say.

She paused by the side of the bed and turned to me.

My breath caught in my throat. Standing there in the morning sun, she was an incredible vision. The light behind her highlighted the curves beneath my shirt, the thin material showing the faint outline of her nipples straining against the fabric. As she lifted her arms, gathering her hair into a ponytail, the shirt rose, exposing her hips. Tiny straps sat low across the bones and a red triangle nestled between her legs—small, lacy scraps of material that passed as underwear.

A hiss escaped my mouth, and my cock hardened at the sight of her sensual beauty.

She froze as I pushed off the stool and stalked toward her. I stood in front of her, so close our chests were touching, her nipples hardening into pebbles as I pressed nearer. “You’re so sexy,” I murmured. “Standing here in the light, in my clothes, beside my bed.” I ran my fingers up her bare thigh. “I want you, Ally.”

Her breath began to come out in small gasps as I edged my fingers higher, barely brushing the lace I had seen. “I’ve never seen anything sexier than you are, right here, right now.”

“You think I’m sexy?”

“Maddeningly so.” I wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her to me, letting her feel what she did to me. Her eyes widened, and she tightened her fist on the material of my shirt.

“I’m not a virgin,” she blurted out.

I laughed low in my throat. “I’d hardly expect you to be.” I rubbed my nose along hers affectionately. “I’m not either,” I murmured, dragging my lips across her cheek to her ear.

“I don’t have a lot of experience, though.”

“We can work on that.” I tugged on her soft lobe, smiling as she moaned. “You just have to tell me what you like. Show me how to please you.”

“That’s the problem, Adam.”

I leaned back, frowning. “I don’t understand.”

She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “When I say I don’t have a lot of experience, I mean with any of it. I can’t tell you what pleases me because…”

She paused. “I don’t know what pleases me.”

CHAPTER NINE

“What are you saying, Ally?”

She shrugged, looking shy. “How can I tell you what I like when I don’t know? I’ve only had two short relationships, and I only had sex with one of them.”

I blinked. This beautiful, sexy woman had only had sex with one man?

“Impossible,” I breathed.

Her cheeks flushed. Not the soft blush I was used to seeing on her cheeks when I would tease her or kiss her unexpectedly. This was the color of embarrassment—Ally’s embarrassment.

“You know how sheltered my teens were. I didn’t have a real boyfriend until I was at university.”

“That’s not a big deal, a lot of people start late.”

“Did you?”

I shifted uncomfortably. “No, I didn’t. Trust me, if I could, I’d go back and change some of my behavior, but I can’t.” I ran my hand along the back of my neck. “Besides, we aren’t discussing me. We were talking about you.”