“You’re so fucking hot. Do you know that?”
She didn’t flinch under his scrutiny, already more confident than she’d been earlier. She was a quick study and so sexy he didn’t want to think about morning coming.
The only coming he cared about was her, over and over again. With some of his own thrown in for good measure.
“Honestly?”
“Yeah, honestly. I’m barely out of you before I want in again.”
“Feeling’s mutual.” She ducked her head so that her hair curtained her cheek. “I feel guilty,” she admitted.
“About what?” He wouldn’t acknowledge the most likely source of her guilt. The hell he would. “Enjoying sex? You Catholic or something?”
“Or something. Presbyterian, though I haven’t been to church in years. But no, I meant I feel kind of guilty that it’s so good with you. Because maybe I wasn’t giving my all in my marriage.” She held up a hand when he started to argue. “I know I could’ve been all over him and it wouldn’t have kept Lon from leaving if he wanted to.”
“What if you wanted him to leave? Doesn’t that count?”
“Speaking of sexy, your growl is very much so.” She gave him a smile as she sifted through the mat of dark hair on his chest. “Our love life sort of went into a slow decline and I tried not to notice it wasn’t the way it should be. I figured sex wasn’t a big deal in the scheme of things. Not worth divorcing over.”
“Wars have been fought over less.”
“True. But I loved him. Or I did once, back when he loved me too. Or I thought he did.”
“And the sex always sucked?” Jeff shook his head and snatched her wineglass to take a long drink. “Man, women put up with a lot.”
“No. In the early years, it was good. But he got bored with me, I think. We got bored.”
“So instead of completely sucking, it was just crappy.” He lifted an eyebrow as she laughed. “Am I wrong?”
“How was I supposed to know how sex could be? I didn’t have many lovers to compare with and my girlfriends usually didn’t share the down-and-dirty details. As long as I came, I figured it was good enough.”
“Talk to my sister. She even tells our mom how many times she got it the night before.”
Karyn grinned and took b
ack her glass of wine, refilling it from the bottle between them. Their snack also consisted of a bowl of fat green grapes and wedges of some kind of smelly cheese he’d never tried before. Watching her eat it definitely stirred his lust, if not his appetite.
“So your sister.”
“Yeah, Daisy.” Better to talk about her than Karyn’s ex. “She’s kind of a wild child. Reforming.”
“Sleeping with a married man doesn’t sound like a step forward.”
He heard no censure in her tone. “I agree. Though I may need to reform as well. Since my unblemished record’s now fucked too.”
She didn’t smile. “You wondered why I felt guilty. There’s a good reason. I shouldn’t have drawn you into my mess, even unintentionally.”
“I’m not a child. And I wasn’t drawn. I came willingly.” He grinned at her quirked lips. “Very willingly, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“I haven’t.”
“Nothing to feel guilty about. You’re separated.” His voice hardened. “He’s with another woman, the latest in a long list apparently. As for me, I’ll do some volunteer work and that’ll even up my karmic debt. Especially since volunteering would probably drive me batty in under a week.”
“Why’s that?” She picked up a grape and peeled it with one short fingernail. “Not a fan of giving of yourself?”
“Not particularly. I’m also not a fan of people. Books are much less trouble.”
“Yet you charged into a complicated situation to save your sister.” She licked the fruit with the tip of her tongue and all thoughts of volunteer work and karmic debt disappeared.