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No. No. And definitely no. Simon refused to stick around to hear another word on the subject.
He bent down and kissed her cheek. “As fascinating as all this is, I’m going to collect Hannah and Sarah and take them home. Don’t stay out too late.”
Sarah and his father were leaving the dance floor about the same time he neared Hannah.
“Are you two ready to go?”
“Absolutely,” Hannah said, putting her hands in the small of her back. “My back is killing me. Simon, are you all right?”
“What happened to our mother?” He glanced ove
r his shoulder in time to see his father dip her into a romantic kiss. “She used to be so proper, so formal.”
Hannah chuckled. “What are you talking about? Mom’s never been all that reserved. She just likes to appear that way in public. And these days she’s more likely to let her hair down around her stuffy friends. I think the cancer made her realize that every day brings both challenges and joys. She told me that the day she stopped fighting what she couldn’t control was the moment a whole range of possibilities and new experiences opened up for her.”
Simon considered his sister’s words on the way home. Once there, he abandoned his passengers just inside the front door and raced up the stairs two at a time. If the girls were startled at his hasty departure, they gave no sign. Simon eased open the bedroom door, his heart pounding. The last of the fire sent a faint flickering light to bathe Caroline’s sleeping face.
Disappointment blended with awe as he stripped out of his clothes a second time that night. He watched her sleep, comparing tonight to the first time he’d seen her. One hand reached across the empty side of the bed as if searching for him. She liked to hog the bed. For some reason that intrigued him.
As calm as she appeared during the day, restlessness haunted her at night. Would her nocturnal rambling knock him out of bed? He couldn’t wait to find out.
Simon slipped on his pajama bottoms and slid beneath the covers. As if aware of his presence, Caroline cuddled against his side, her fingers splayed over his heart, her cheek resting on his shoulder. Simon covered her hand with his, pressing her palm against the steady beat of his heart, and closed his eyes. He inhaled her scent, letting his breath find the rhythm of hers. At once, his mind stopped racing and peace settled over him.
* * *
Simon opened his eyes and discovered Caroline staring at him. Her gray-green gaze toured his features, lingering on his mouth.
“Good morning,” she said, her tone neutral. “You snore.”
No one had ever told him that before. “I do not.”
Even, white teeth flashed. “No you don’t. I was just trying to figure out why you’ve been avoiding sleeping in the same bed with me.”
“Wasn’t what happened between us last night a good enough reason?”
“What, to avoid me? If you recall I had to seduce you.”
If that’s what had happened, why couldn’t he shake the worry that with their vastly different experience levels, he should have acted more responsibly? “Yes, well, about that. I told my mother you’d had too much to drink.” He paused and searched her expression. “Did you?”
“Did I have too much to drink?” She arched her eyebrows at him. One bare arm slipped free of the covers. “What do you think?”
“I don’t want to think I took advantage of you.”
“Then you didn’t.”
That was a lawyer’s non-answer if he’d ever heard one. “But did I?”
“Does it matter? What’s done is done.”
Her offhandedness annoyed him. It wasn’t done, not by a long shot. He gritted his teeth. “Need I remind you I was the first man you’d ever been with?”
She rolled her eyes. “I wanted you, and I thought you wanted me.” Her cheeks grew pink as his gaze continued to bore into hers. “Something tells me you don’t grill all your women friends this way.”
“None of my women friends have been virgins.” He exhaled harshly and tempered his tone. “Why did you do it, Caroline? Why did you make me your first?”
She rotated on the mattress, putting her back to him, avoiding the question. She tossed her reply at him over her shoulder. “Why do you keep asking me?”
Simon slid a hand over the warm silk nightgown she wore and flattened his palm against her stomach, pulling her back against his body. She held her shoulders stiff, but bent her legs and allowed him to spoon their bodies. Once he had her backside snug against his aroused groin, he lifted his hand to the side of her neck and moved aside her hair so he could kiss his way along her shoulder. Despite her continued annoyance with him, she tipped her head to give him better access to her skin.
