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“In Texas, he’s more of a religious figure.” Instead of taking her back inside, he tucked her close and began to move. They danced between an old Fairlane and a Toyota, and her hair smelled like peaches.
As their boots shuffled in the gravel of the parking lot, he couldn’t resist slipping his hand under the hem of her vest and resting it in the small of her back. He felt the bumps of her spine, the softness of her skin. She shivered, reminding him that she needed a man so badly she was in danger of falling for the first smooth-talking bastard to come along.
The idea upset the hell out of him. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he liked Gracie, and he sure as hell didn’t want her stripping down for somebody who wouldn’t treat her with care. What if she gave herself to one of those sons of bitches who was too damned selfish to make sure she was protected? Or some oversexed jerk who rode her too rough and ruined her pleasure in sex forever? There were a million disasters waiting out there for a desperate woman like Gracie.
He’d been playing hide-and-seek with the truth too long, and he knew the moment of reckoning had finally come. If he wanted to keep facing himself in the mirror every morning, he had to set aside his misgivings about mercy fucking and do what needed to be done. She was his friend, dammit, and he never turned his back on his friends. That left him with no choice. The only way he could be certain the job got done right was to take charge of Gracie’s initiation himself.
For the first time all evening, his black mood lifted. He felt smug, even a little self-righteous, the same way he felt when he’d written out a five-figure check to a good charity. More than sex was involved here. As a decent human being, he had a responsibility to protect this woman from the pitfalls of her own ignorance. Without giving himself any more time to consider the complications that were certain to arise, he plunged right in.
“Gracie, we’ve been avoiding the topic for the past few weeks, but I think we need to clear the air. That night you were drunk you said some things.”
He felt her stiffen beneath his palm. “I’d appreciate it if we could both forget about that night.”
“That’s hard to do. You came on kind of strong.”
“As you said, I was inebriated.”
He’d said she was drunk, but this wasn’t the best time to correct her. “Liquor sometimes has a way of bringing out the truth, and since it’s just the two of us here, we don’t have to tell lies to each other.” He slipped his hand an inch higher on her spine and rubbed one of the bumps with his index finger. “The way I look at it, you’re pretty much a sexual powder keg waiting to blow up, which is understandable considering the fact that you’ve denied yourself one of life’s sweetest pleasures.”
“I didn’t deny myself. The opportunity simply never came along.”
“From what I saw inside, the opportunity could come along at any minute. Those boys are only human, and, the fact is, you were flaunting yourself.”
‘’I wasn’t!”
“All right. Let’s just say you were doing some heavy-duty flirting.”
“I was flirting? Really?”
Her eyes widened with delight, and he realized he’d made a tactical mistake. With her typical unpredictability, she hadn’t taken his comment for the criticism he’d intended it to be. Before she got so caught up with the notion of herself as a Southern belle that she forgot to pay attention to what he was saying, he hurried on. “The point is, I think it’s about time we put our heads together, so to speak, and came up with a plan that’ll be mutually beneficial.”
The song came to an end. He reluctantly withdrew his hand from beneath her vest and let her go. Leaning back against the side of the Fairlane, he crossed his arms over his chest.
“The way I see it, we each have a problem. You’re long overdue for some tutoring in the sexual arts, but since we’re supposed to be engaged, you can’t get your tutoring from just anybody. I, on the other hand, am used to having a regular sex life, but since I’m officially an engaged man and this is a small town, I can’t just call up my old girlfriends and make arrangements, if you get my point.”
Gracie was nibbling her bottom lip to beat the band. “Yes, I, uh— Well, it’s certainly a problem.”
“But it doesn’t have to be.”
Her chest began to rise and fall as if she’d just run a long distance. “I suppose not.”
“We’re both consenting adults, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t help each other out here.”
“Help each other?” she said, her voice faint.
“Sure. I could give you the tutoring you need, and you could keep me off the streets. I think it’ll work out just fine.”
She licked her lips nervously. “Yes, it’s—uh—very logical.”
“And practical.”
“That, too.”
He heard the barest trace of disappointment shade her response, and he knew enough about women’s need for romance to understand the time had-come for some fancy footwork. “Now the thing of it is, sex isn’t much fun if the two partners are only looking at it as some kind of convenience.”
She was nibbling again. “No, that wouldn’t be fun at all.”
“So if we decide we’re going to go ahead with this, we’d have to put all that out of our minds from the start and do it right.”
