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She felt suddenly aware of his gaze, and of the pulse beating in her throat.
‘There were things before that. Like my parents. They had an incredibly passionate relationship and I wasn’t planned.’
Body tensing, she took a shallow breath. It was the first time she’d told anyone that—not even Alicia knew—and it made her feel horribly exposed.
‘I wasn’t either. Apparently my father was astonished when my mother told him.’
He spoke matter-of-factly and, looking up, she felt some of the tightness ease from her shoulders.
‘My dad was astonished too—but not in a good way.’ She dropped her gaze. ‘Me being around changed things—for my dad anyway. He left, and my mum never really got over it. That’s why I was so happy when she and Charlie got together.’
His face stiffened, but it was too late to take it back.
She swallowed. ‘Actually, I wasn’t just happy... I encouraged her.’
She held her breath, expecting to see contempt or confusion in his eyes.
But after a moment he said quietly, ‘For the right reasons.’
‘I suppose...’
His words had made warmth snake across her skin, and for a few quivering seconds she wanted to tell him more. But surely it was better to quit while she was ahead, so instead she shrugged.
‘Anyway, I got on with my life, and you had a good reason for not coming back to me that night.’
He hadn’t told her much, but it was easy to embellish the bare bones he’d given her—the nightmarish hours following that call to his lawyer, his escalating shock and disbelief at each emerging revelation.
‘I don’t know how you dealt with all of it,’ she said quietly. ‘You were so young.’ Just twenty-seven. ‘But you took care of everything...you righted the wrongs.’
‘Not all of them,’ he said softly.
His fingers twitched against her skin. Leaning forward, he caught a handful of her hair and wrapped it around his fingers, using it to draw her closer to him. She felt her insides grow liquid and hot as he stared down into her face, his breath warm against her skin.
‘But I’m planning on making up for lost time.’
‘You are?’ Her voice sounded far away, muffled by the uneven thud of her heartbeat.
‘If you want me to.’
She could feel her body rippling back to life as his dark gaze roamed her face. He was answering her unasked question, offering her a next step. What should she say?
He was talking about sex, and though she wanted to make up for lost time as much as he did, she couldn’t help but be a little nervous. She didn’t need to ask, didn’t want to ask about his previous partners, but it was clear that Basa was sexually experienced—certainly experienced enough to be able to separate his emotions from his libido.
But how did she know she could do the same?
She’d only had sex once, and maybe if it had been just ‘okay’ then it would have been easy to walk away—to treat this as a one-off, her first and last time with Basa. Maybe if it had been just ‘okay’ she would honestly have said that sex was just a physical activity, involving bodies.
But sex with Basa had been astonishing, frantic, miraculous. And, although her one experience hardly qualified her as an expert, she knew already that for her it had been more than just bodies moving in time with one another. There had been tenderness, and with tenderness came vulnerability, and she was already vulnerable enough where Basa was concerned. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to stop herself from making the physical attraction between them more than it really was, and yet...
His skin felt so deliciously warm and smooth, and she couldn’t resist running a hand over his stomach, her fingers tracing the contoured lines of his muscles, her head dizzy with the freedom of being able to reach out and touch him, of not having to hold herself in check.
He sucked in a breath, his hand catching hers.
‘What’s the matter?’ She looked up at him.
‘Nothing.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m trying to play it cool here, but my body’s acting like it belongs to some horny teenager.’
The air between them seemed to thicken, and her pulse quickened at his confession, at his open acknowledgement of her power to arouse him.
