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“Is there a reason?” I ask, pulling back and catching my breath.
“A reason for what?”
“Why you’ve never done anything like this before?”
She blushes slightly and lets out a sigh, releasing my hair. “There are two.”
“Oh? What are they?”
“First, I’ve never met anyone I wanted to do anything with,” she says, looking right into my eyes.
I smile and kiss the tip of her nose. “And second?”
“Timing… or time, I suppose.”
“Time?”
“Yes. Not having enough of it.” She moves her hands, letting them rest on my shoulders. “College is where most people get their first experience of sex and relationships, isn’t it? Those who don’t marry their high school sweethearts, anyway.” She smiles up at me, and I have to smile back. I love her easy acceptance of my past. It makes things so much simpler between us, which has got to be good, considering how difficult Sabrina can be.
“Probably… although it obviously didn’t work out that way for you,” I say, and she shakes her head.
“No. My father died during my first semester, and even though he had life insurance, they took a while to pay out because he’d died at work, and there were all kinds of complications to do with that.” She waves her hand, like she’s dismissing those difficulties, although they must have been hard at the time.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t want to give up my studies, so I got a part-time job to help my mom. It was only supposed to be until the insurance money came through, but I enjoyed it, so I kept on doing it all the way through college.”
“Where did you work?” I ask, and she smiles.
“You won’t believe this, but I got a job in a bookstore.”
I laugh, throwing my head back. “We have even more in common than I thought.”
“We do,” she says, her smile widening.
“And you enjoyed working there?”
“I loved it. I was surrounded by books, and it let me broaden my horizons. That’s where I first developed a taste for…” She stops talking, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
“A taste for what?”
“Nothing.”
“No. You were gonna tell me what you developed a taste for… and we said no secrets, remember?”
She looks into my eyes. “Okay. If you must know, it’s where I developed a taste for romance novels.”
“You like romance novels?” I say with a smile.
“Yes. I started off with historical ones, and… and progressed from there.”
“I see. And what’s your favorite genre now?”
“I’ve tried all sorts, but at the moment, I’m reading one about a cowboy.”
“A Cowboy? Even though that’s about as far removed from your life as you can get?”
“None of them are realistic, Tanner. I don’t know any disreputable dukes, or ruthless billionaires, either… and my knowledge of playboy CEOs is pretty limited. Life isn’t anything like it is between the covers of a romance novel.”
