oversized sundress had shifted off the shoulder. He smelled of citrus and pine.
And it was such a seductive scentâand yet, when she went to the grocery store, oranges didnât make her blush and in the woods outside her house, the conifers didnât make her body feel something like hunger but a whole lot warmer.
âI made a mistake,â she said. âItâs justâ¦itâs justâ¦itâs justâ¦â
âItâs just what?â he asked, turning her around. His arms felt so natural around her waist that she didnât protest, although she buried her head lowinto his chest so that she didnât have to look him in the eye. His heartbeat was strong and calming. âTalk to me, Stacy. Whatâs going on?â
âI just want one chance,â she said, bursting at the seams with a secret that had never been shared. âJust one chance. Thatâs all Iâm looking for.â
âOne chance at what?â
âAt everything.â
âEverything?â
âSex.â
âWe call it making love,â he said gently. âAnd it hasnât happened for you before? No, donât turn away. Tell me.â
Her head drooped to her chest. He brought her chin up with the palm of his hand.
She stretched her neck to the right. His hand guided her back to his inquisitive stare.
She jerked her head to the left.
He leaned close.
He smiled that charming smile, a little indulgently. It took a lot of self-discipline to resist him.
He wasnât giving up.
âNo, never. Never, never, never, never,â she admitted. âAll right? Never. And itâs not going to happen if it doesnât happen now.â
âTwenty-eight isnâtââ
She put her hand on his soft, full lower lip.
âDonât say it. Twenty-eight is too old to be a virgin.â
His gray eyes widened.
âA virgin?â
She jerked her hand back as if she had touched a red-hot stove.
Chapter Eight
âItâs okay to be a virgin,â he said.
âItâs not when youâre my age.â
âNo, itâs fine. Itâs justâ¦different. Itâs kind of sweet.â
âAdam, youâre being nice.â
âNo, really.â
He guided her to the porch swing, his arm tensing only once when she tried to wriggle out of his embrace.
âSit. And tell me the whole sorry story.â
âIâm an old maid.â
âYou didnât start off life that way.â
âNo, I thought my life would be different, thatâs true. I thought Iâd be married by now. A few kids. But a month ago, I woke up and realizedâI forgot to get married. I forgot to have kids.â
âYou didnât forget.â
âNo, other things got in the way.â
They sat in silence for several minutes.
âCome on, itâs okay. Tell me how this happened. How did your life go in such a direction?â
âAll right, but stop me when you get bored.â
âI never get bored.â
âMy father ran a landscaping company that did all the yard work and gardening for the resorts in the next county. He saved up enough to send me to the University of Wisconsin. I was half-way through my freshman year when I got the call from my sister. My father had had a series of strokes. He needed around-the-clock care. I was the natural choice.â
She caught his look.
âMy sister Marion had just started married life, and then, later, she got pregnant. She couldnât have handled more. And a nursing homeânone of us could bear the thought. He had been our mother and father since our own mother died. We loveâwe loved him so much. When I came home we thought it would be a few months. Just until he got better.â
âAnd it turned into eight years.â
âEight years that ended just last month.â
âIâm sorry he died.â
âDonât be. At the end, he was so dependent it made him
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