"What way?" If Jenny had been looking at Cage's face, she would have read the hungry expression there.
She closed her eyes briefly, as though to get a hold of herself and carefully choose her words. Cage studied the path her tongue took as it wet her lower lip before she continued.
"Lusty, a trifle wild, sensual." She laughed lightly. "I don't know how to describe him."
"Rough? Too rough?"
"No, I didn't mean to imply that."
"Tender?"
"Yes. Through it all, he was extremely gentle, but … passionate."
"Were you afraid when he slipped your nightgown off?" Her eyes swung up to his inquiringly and Cage cursed himself for a careless damn fool. "You were wearing a nightgown, weren't you?"
For the last few minutes his soft, sand-raspy voice had been inducing a trance, and like someone who is hypnotized, she had responded to it. But his last question snapped her out of her stupor. "I shouldn't be talking to you about this, Cage."
"Why not?"
"It's embarrassing," she cried softly. "Besides, it's not fair to Hal. Why do you want to know about that night?"
"Because I'm curious."
"That's sick!"
"Not sick, Jenny, normal." He leaned over her, forcing her against the corner cushions of the sofa. He braced one hand on the back cushion, the other on the armrest, and trapped her in the triangle his arms formed. "I want to know what you think about making love."
"Why?" she asked on a near sob.
He lowered his head until his words fell as soft, emphatic puffs of air against her lips. "Because I want to make love to you. You've resisted me at every turn. I want to know what made you step out of yourself that night. What made you live only for the moment? What did your lover do that made you shed those inhibitions and lift the restrictions you normally impose on yourself? What made you purely carnal? In short, Jenny, what turned you on?"
In spite of herself, she was aroused by his demanding tone and the hard strength of his body as it stretched across hers. Her chest was rising and falling with accelerated breathing. Her eyes were incapable of leaving the magnetic field of his.
"Was it the setting that broke through your reserve?" he asked. "Did he set such a romantic scene you couldn't restrain yourself?"
She shook her head and heard herself answer. "It happened in my room."
"God knows that wasn't sexy."
"It was dark."
Cage reached above and behind her, almost covering her, and switched off the lamp on the end table. She hadn't noticed until now that he had turned off the lights in the kitchen and dining alcove as they left them. They were plunged into darkness, save for the incandescent glow of the candles. They cast long, wavering shadows on the walls and highlighted the rugged planes of his face. "Like that?"
"No. Totally dark. I couldn't see anything."
"Nothing?" His strong fingers delved in her hair and held her head steady, forcing her eyes to do battle with his.
"No."
"You couldn't see your lover's face?"
"No."
"Didn't you want to?"
"Yes, yes, yes," she moaned and tried to turn her head away. He wouldn't let her.
"Then this is better. Look at your lover's face this time, Jenny. For godsake look at all of me."