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Are you really going to do this? Really? For real? A voice inside her kept insisting. With Jack?
Jack, the man she’d lusted after since before she’d even known what lust was. Even when she’d first laid eyes on him, when he was seventeen and her brother’s best friend at Belmont Hill High School, he’d been all man. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, stubble-lined jaw, and a deep, rough voice that sent shivers down her spine. He’d ignited all of her pre-teen fantasies then, and her adult ones now.
Still, he’d always seen her as an innocent little girl.
But today, that was going to change.
Yes. All-in. No backing out now, she reminded herself as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and straightened her spine, knowing the dress showed off her curvy figure to prime advantage. Every man she’d passed on her way to the Plaza had stopped to stare, drool, or catcall her as she’d hurried down the sidewalk. But Jack Bennett?
He wanted her to cover up.
She wished, just once, that those hypnotizing blue eyes of his would drift down to her cleavage. But no, he wasn’t the slightest bit rattled. Not like she was. She was so nervous that when she lifted her water to her lips, the ice cubes clinked in the glass.
His voice was classic, cool Jack Bennett. “Oh, yeah? What do you need, Evie?”
“Eva,” she insisted. “Nobody’s called me Evie in years.”
“Sorry. Eva,” he said slowly, smiling benevolently, making it clear he was humoring her. “Better?”
“Don’t patronize me, Jack,” she said, frowning. “I’m serious.”
With a beleaguered sigh, he laced his hands in front of him. “All right. Go.”
She took a deep breath, and blurted out: “I need you to teach me some things. Personal things.”
He stared blankly, and for a moment Eva wasn’t sure he’d heard her. He brought his coffee cup to his lips and sipped before setting it down again. “Teach you what exactly?”
She kept her posture straight, even as her fingers began to twist the cloth napkin in her lap. “You know I loved Antonio and Daddy more than anything in the world, Jack, but they barely allowed me to have a life.”
“They sheltered you,” Jack supplied, proving he at least partly understood where she was coming from.
"They smothered me," she corrected. "It was a lovable, sweet smothering, but it left me unprepared in so many ways. Now, for the first time in my life, I’m alone, on my own, and hopelessly lost when it comes to…” She felt the blush creeping across her cheeks. Jesus, she couldn’t even bring herself to say the word.
Sex. Sex. Sex. Just say it, Eva!
Woodenly, she erupted with, “Certain things.”
He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “All right,” he said simply, to her surprise.
“You mean...”
“Well. You never expressed much of an interest in real estate. I’d assumed Eva’s Organics was doing well, so I didn’t think you would want to dip your toe into our business. But your father would be pleased and I’d be happy to—”
“No, no,” she cut him off, frustration spiking her pulse.
Boldly, she moved her leg forward so that her calf brushed against his under the table. Instantly, her skin began to tingle and her nipples pulled tighter, while the contact clearly had zilch, zero, no effect at all on Jack.
“No,” she repeated, summoning every last bit of coraggio she possessed. “I want you to teach me everything I need to know about…sex.”
He stared back at her—one beat, two. Three—while her heart crawled into her throat.
Oh, God, she’d ruined everything. He was going to tell her she was insane. Instead, he put his coffee cup down, missing the saucer entirely and sloshing coffee on his hand. He choked a little, pulled at the collar of his shirt like it was too tight. For once, unbelievably, she’d caught him off-guard.
But when he spoke, his voice was as calm as always. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“Jack. I’m twenty-six and I’ve done very little,” she said, blushing harder as embarrassing snippets from her pitiful sex life flickered through her mind. “I could barely keep a boyfriend. Antonio was always scaring them away. “
“I remember,” Jack murmured. “But you can’t seriously be saying you want me to...” His eyes dropped to her breasts, lingering on the place where her dress gave way to skin. He shifted his focus a second later, but she’d seen the flash of heat in his gaze.
